directing influence upon legislation. The position of the president is not at all like that of the prime minister; it is more like that of the English sovereign, though the latter has not nearly so much power as the president; and the American cabinet in some respects resembles the English privy council, though it cannot make ordinances. state. The secretary of state ranks first among our cabinet officers. He is often called our prime minister or "premier," but there could not be a more absurd use of language. In order to make an American personage corresponding to the English prime minister we must first go to the House of Representatives, take its committee of ways and means and its The secrecommittee on appropriations, and unite them tary of into one committee of finance; then we must take the chairman of this committee, give him the power of dissolving the House and ordering a new election, and make him master of all the executive departments, while at the same time we strip from the president all real control over the administration. This exalted finance-chairman would be much like the First Lord of the Treasury, commonly called the prime minister. This illustration shows how wide the divergence has become between our system and that of Great Britain. Our secretary of state is our minister of foreign affairs, and is the only officer who is authorized to communicate with other governments in the name of the president. He is at the head of the diplomatic and consular service, issuing the instructions to our ministers abroad, and he takes a leading part in the negotiation of treaties. To these ministerial duties he adds some that are more characteristic of his title of secretary. He keeps the national archives, and superintends the publication of laws, treaties, and proclamations; and he is the keeper of the great seal of the United States. Diplomatic Our foreign relations are cared for in foreign countries by two distinct classes of officials: ministers and consuls. The former represent the United States government in a diplomatic capacity; the latter have nothing to do with diplomacy or politics, but look after our commercial interests in foreign and consular Countries. Consuls exercise a protective service. care over seamen, and perform various duties for Americans abroad. They can take testimony and administer estates. In some non-Christian countries, such as China, Japan, and Turkey, they have jurisdiction over criminal cases in which Americans are concerned. Formerly our ministers abroad were of only three grades: (1) "envoys extraordinary and ministers plenipotentiary;" (2) (2) "ministers resident;' (3) chargés d'affaires. The first two are accredited by the president to the head of government of the countries to which they are sent; the third are accredited by the secretary of state to the minister of foreign affairs in the countries to which they are sent. We still retain these grades, which correspond to the lower grades of the diplomatic service in European countries. Until lately we had no highest grade answering to that of "ambassador," perhaps because when our diplomatic service was organized the United States did not yet rank among first-rate powers, and could not expect to receive ambassadors. Great powers, like France and Germany, send ambassadors to each other, and envoys to inferior powers, like Denmark or Greece or Guatemala. When we send envoys to the great powers, we rank ourselves along with inferior powers; and diplomatic etiquette as a rule obliges the great powers to send to us the same grade of minister that we send to them. There were found to be some practical inconveniences about this, so that in 1892 the highest grade was adopted and our ministers to Great Britain and France were made ambassadors. The secre treasury. The cabinet officer second in rank and in some respects first in importance is the secretary of the treasury. He conducts the financial business of the government, superintends the collection of revenue, and gives warrants for the payment of tary of the moneys from the treasury. He also superintends the coinage, the national banks, the customhouses, the coast-survey and lighthouse system, the marine hospitals, and life-saving service. He sends reports to Congress, and suggests such measures as seem good to him. Since the Civil War his most weighty business has been the management of the national debt. He is aided by two assistant secretaries, six auditors, a register, a comptroller, a solicitor, a director of the mint, commissioner of internal revenue, chiefs of the bureau of statistics and bureau of engraving and printing, etc. The business of the treasury department is enormous, and no part of our government has been more faithfully administered. Since 1789 the treasury has disbursed more than seven billions of dollars without one serious defalcation. No man directly interested in trade or commerce can be appointed secretary of the treasury, and the department has almost always been managed by "men of small incomes bred either to politics or the legal profession." 2 1 Many of these details concerning the executive departments are admirably summarized, and with more fullness than comports with the design of the present work, in Thorpe's Government of the People of the United States, pp. 183–193. 2 Schouler, Hist. of the U. S., vol. i. p. 95. The war and navy departments need no special description here. The former is divided into ten and the latter into eight bureaus. The naval department, among many duties, has charge of the naval observatory at Washington and publishes the nautical almanac. War and navy. The department of the interior conducts a vast and various business, as is shown by the designations of its eight bureaus, which deal with public Interior. lands, Indian affairs, pensions, patents, education (chiefly in the way of gathering statistics and reporting upon school affairs), agriculture, public documents, and the census. In 1889 the bureau of agriculture was organized as a separate department. The weather bureau forms a branch of the department of agriculture. The departments of the postmaster-general and attorney-general need no special description. Postmastergeneral and attorneygeneral. The latter was organized in 1870 into the department of justice. The attorney-general is the president's legal adviser, and represents the United States in all law-suits to which the United States is a party. He is aided by a solicitor-gen eral and other subordinate offices. QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT. 1. Speak (1) of the president's share in legislation, (2) of his relation to the executive department, and (3) of the origin of his title. 2. The electoral college: a. The method of electing the president a perplexing ques tion. b. The constitution of the electoral college, with illustrations. c. Qualifications for serving as an elector. d. The method of choosing electors. e. The time of choosing electors. f. When and where the electors vote. g. The number and disposition of the certificates of their h. The declaration of the result. 3. What was the method of voting in the electoral college before 1804? Illustrate the working of this method in 1796 and 1800. b. The duty of the House if no candidate for the presidency receives a majority of the electoral votes. c. The duty of the Senate if no candidate for the vice-presidency receives a majority of the electoral votes. d. Illustrations of the working of this amendment in 1825 and 1837. 5. The electoral commission of 1877: a. A difficulty not foreseen. b. Conflicting returns in 1877. c. The plan of arbitration adopted. 6. The presidential succession :a. The office of vice-president. b. The act of 1791. c. The possibility of a lapse of the presidency. d. The possibility of an unfair political overthrow. e. The act of 1886. 7. Compare the original purpose of the electoral college with the fulfillment of that purpose. 8. Explain the transition from a divided electoral vote in a state to a solid electoral vote. 9. Show how a minority of the people may elect a president. Who have been elected by minorities? 10. What is the advantage of the electoral system over a direct popular vote? II. Methods of nominating candidates for the presidency and vice-presidency before 1832 : a. The absence of constitutional and legislative requirements. b. Presidents not nominated. c. Nominations by congressional caucuses. d. Nominations by state legislatures. e. Nominations by local conventions. 12. Nominations by national conventions in 1832 and since :~ a. The nature of a national convention. b. The platform. c. The number of delegates from a state, and their elec tion. |