[Sidenote: The title of "President."]
In signing or vetoing bills passed by Congress the president shares in
legislation, and is virtually a third house. In his other capacities
he is the chief executive officer of the Federal Union; and inasmuch
as he appoints the other great executive officers, he is really the
head of the executive department, not--like the governor of a state--a
mere member of it. His title of "President" is probably an inheritance
from the presidents of the Continental Congress. In Franklin's plan
of union, in 1754, the head of the executive department was called
"Governor General," but that title had an unpleasant sound to American
ears. Our great-grandfathers liked "president" better, somewhat as the
Romans, in the eighth century of their city, preferred "imperator" to
"rex." Then, as it served to distinguish widely between the head of
the Union and the heads of the states, it soon fell into disuse in the
state governments, and thus "president" has come to be a much grander
title than "governor," just as "emperor" has come to be a grander
title than "king." [11]
[Footnote 11: See above p. 163.]
[Sidenote: The electoral college.]
There was no question which perplexed the Federal Convention more than
the question as to the best method of electing the president. There
was a general distrust of popular election for an office so exalted.
At one time the Convention decided to have the president elected by
Congress, but there was a grave objection to this; it would be likely
to destroy his independence, and make him the tool of Congress.
Finally the device of an electoral college was adopted. Each state
is entitled to a number of electors equal to the number of its
representatives in Congress, _plus_ two, the number of its
senators. Thus to-day Delaware, with 1 representative, has 3 electors;
Missouri, with 14 representatives, has 16 electors; New York, with
34 representatives, has 36 electors. No federal senator or
representative, or any person holding civil office under the United
States, can serve as an elector. Each state may appoint or choose its
electors in such manner as it sees fit; at first they were more often
than otherwise chosen by the legislatures, now they are always elected
by the people. The day of election must be the same in all the states.
By an act of Congress passed in 1792 it is required to be within 34 days
preceding the first Wednesday in December. A subsequent act in 1845
appointed the Tuesday following the first Monday in November as election
day.
By the act of 1792 the electors chosen in each state are required to
assemble on the first Wednesday in December at some place in the state
which is designated by the legislature. Before this date the governor of
the state must cause a certified list of the names of the electors to be
made out in triplicate and delivered to the electors. Having met
together they vote for president and vice-president, make out a sealed
certificate of their vote in triplicate, and attach to each copy a copy
of the certified list of their names. One copy must be delivered by a
messenger to the president of the Senate at the federal capital before
the first Wednesday in January; the second is sent to the same officer
through the mail; the third is to be deposited with the federal judge of
the district in which the electors meet. If by the first Wednesday in
January the certificate has not been received at the federal capital,
the secretary of state is to send a messenger to the district judge and
obtain the copy deposited with him. The interval of a month was allowed
to get the returns in, for those were not the days of railroad and
telegraph. The messengers were allowed twenty-five cents a mile, and
were subject to a fine of a thousand dollars for neglect of duty. On the
second Wednesday in February, Congress is required to be in session, and
the votes received are counted and the result declared.[12]
[Footnote 12: See note on p. 278.]
[Sidenote: The twelfth amendment (1804).]
At first the electoral votes did not state whether the candidates named
in them were candidates for the presidency or for the vice-presidency.
Each elector simply wrote down two names, only one of which could be the
name of a citizen of his own state. In the official count the candidate
who had the largest number of votes, provided they were a majority of
the whole number, was declared president, and the candidate who had the
next to the largest number was declared vice-president. The natural
result of this was seen in the first contested election in 1796, which
made Adams president, and his antagonist vice-president. In the next
election in 1800 it gave to Jefferson and his colleague Burr exactly the
same number of votes. In such a case the House of Representatives must
elect, and such intrigues followed for the purpose of defeating
Jefferson that the country was brought to the verge of civil war. It
thus became necessary to change the method. By the twelfth amendment to
the constitution, declared in force in 1804, the present method was
adopted. The electors make separate ballots for president and for
vice-president. In the official count the votes for president are first
inspected. If no candidate has a majority, then the House of
Representatives must immediately choose the president from the three
names highest on the list. In this choice the house votes by states,
each state having one vote; a quorum for this purpose must consist of at
least one member from two thirds of the states, and a majority of all
the states is necessary for a choice. Then if no candidate for the
vice-presidency has a majority, the Senate makes its choice from the two
names highest on the list; a quorum for the purpose consists of two
thirds of the whole number of senators, and a majority of the whole
number is necessary to a choice. Since this amendment was made there has
been one instance of an election of the president by the House of
Representatives,--that of John Quincy Adams in 1825; and there has been
one instance of an election of the vice-president by the Senate,--that
of Richard Mentor Johnson in 1837.
[Sidenote: The electoral commission (1877).]
One serious difficulty was not yet foreseen and provided for--that of
deciding between two conflicting returns sent in by two hostile sets of
electors in the same state, each list being certified by one of two
rival governors claiming authority in the same state. Such a case
occurred in 1877, when Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina were the
scene of struggles between rival governments. Ballots for Tilden and
ballots for Hayes were sent in at the same time from these states, and
in the absence of any recognized means of determining which ballots to
count, the two parties in Congress submitted the result to arbitration.
An "electoral commission" was created for the occasion, composed of five
senators, five representatives, and five judges of the supreme court;
and this body decided what votes were to be counted. It was a clumsy
expedient, but infinitely preferable to civil war. The question of
conflicting returns has at length been set at rest by the act of 1887,
which provides that no electoral votes can be rejected in counting
except by the concurrent action of the two houses of Congress.
[Sidenote: Presidential succession.]
The devolution of the presidential office in case of the president's
death has also been made the subject of legislative change and
amendment. The office of vice-president was created chiefly for the
purpose of meeting such an emergency. Upon the accession of the
vice-president to the presidency, the Senate would proceed to elect its
own president _pro tempore_. An act of 1791 provided that in case of the
death, resignation or disability of both president and vice-president,
the succession should devolve first upon the president _pro tempore_ of
the Senate and then upon the speaker of the House of Representatives,
until the disability should be removed or a new election be held. But
supposing a newly elected president to die and be succeeded by the
vice-president before the assembling of the newly elected Congress; then
there would be no president _pro tempore_ of the Senate and no speaker
of the House of Representatives, and thus the death of one person might
cause the presidency to lapse. Moreover the presiding officers of the
two houses of Congress might be members of the party defeated in the
last presidential election; indeed, this is often the case. Sound policy
and fair dealing require that a victorious party shall not be turned out
because of the death of the president and vice-president. Accordingly an
act of 1886 provided that in such an event the succession should devolve
upon the members of the cabinet in the following order: secretary of
state, secretary of the treasury, secretary of war, attorney-general,
postmaster-general, secretary of the navy, secretary of the interior.
This would seem to be ample provision against a lapse.
[Sidenote: Original purpose of the electoral college not fulfilled.]
To return to the electoral college: it was devised as a safeguard
against popular excitement. It was supposed that the electors in their
December meeting would calmly discuss the merits of the ablest men in
the country and make an intelligent selection for the presidency. The
electors were to use their own judgment, and it was not necessary
that all the electors chosen in one state should vote for the same
candidate. The people on election day were not supposed to be voting
for a president but for presidential electors. This theory was never
realized. The two elections of Washington, in 1788 and 1792, were
unanimous. In the second contested election, that of 1800, the
electors simply registered the result of the popular vote, and it has
been so ever since. Immediately after the popular election, a whole
month before the meeting of the electoral college, we know who is to
be the next president. There is no law to prevent an elector from
voting for a different pair of candidates from those at the head of
the party ticket, but the custom has become as binding as a statute.
The elector is chosen to vote for specified candidates, and he must do
so.
[Sidenote: Electors formerly chosen in many states by districts; now
usually on a general ticket.]
On the other hand, it was not until long after 1800 that all the
electoral votes of the same state were necessarily given to the same
pair of candidates. It was customary in many states to choose the
electors by districts. A state entitled to ten electors would choose
eight of them in its eight congressional districts, and there were
various ways of choosing the other two. In some of the districts one
party would have a majority, in others the other, and so the electoral
vote of the state would be divided between two pairs of candidates.
After 1830 it became customary to choose the electors upon a general
ticket, and thus the electoral vote became solid in each state.[13]
[Footnote 13: In 1860 the vote of New Jersey was divided between Lincoln
and Douglas, but that was because the names of three of
the seven Douglas electors were upon two different tickets, and
thus got a majority of votes while the other four fell short. In
1892 the state of Michigan chose its electors by districts.]
[Sidenote: Minority presidents.]
[Sidenote: Advantages of the electoral system.]
This system, of course, increases the chances of electing presidents who
have received a minority of the popular vote. A candidate may carry one
state by an immense majority and thus gain 6 or 8 electoral votes; he
may come within a few hundred of carrying another state and thus lose 36
electoral votes. Or a small third party may divert some thousands of
votes from the principal candidate without affecting the electoral vote
of the state. Since Washington's second term we have had twenty-three
contested elections,[14] and in nine of these the elected president has
failed to receive a majority of the popular vote; Adams in 1824 (elected
by the House of Representatives), Polk in 1844, Taylor in 1848, Buchanan
in 1856, Lincoln in 1860, Hayes in 1876, Garfield in 1880, Cleveland in
1884, Harrison in 1888. This has suggested more or less vague
speculation as to the advisableness of changing the method of electing
the president. It has been suggested that it would be well to abolish
the electoral college, and resort to a direct popular vote, without
reference to state lines. Such a method would be open to one serious
objection. In a closely contested election on the present method the
result may remain doubtful for three or four days, while a narrow
majority of a few hundred votes in some great state is being ascertained
by careful counting. It was so in 1884. This period of doubt is sure to
be a period of intense and dangerous excitement. In an election without
reference to states, the result would more often be doubtful, and it
would be sometimes necessary to count every vote in every little
out-of-the-way corner of the country before the question could be
settled. The occasions for dispute would be multiplied a hundred fold,
with most demoralizing effect. Our present method is doubtless clumsy,
but the solidity of the electoral colleges is a safeguard, and as all
parties understand the system it is in the long run as fair for one as
for another.
[Footnote 14: All have been contested, except Monroe's re-election in
1820, when there was no opposing candidate.]
[Sidenote: Nomination of candidates by congressional caucus
(1800-24).]
The Constitution says nothing about the method of nominating candidates
for the presidency, neither has it been made the subject of legislation.
It has been determined by convenience. It was not necessary to nominate
Washington, and the candidacies of Adams and Jefferson were also matters
of general understanding. In 1800 the Republican and Federalist members
of Congress respectively held secret meetings or caucuses, chiefly for
the purpose of agreeing upon candidates for the vice-presidency and
making some plans for the canvass. It became customary to nominate
candidates in such congressional caucuses, but there was much hostile
comment upon the system as undemocratic. Sometimes the "favourite son"
of a state was nominated by the legislature, but as the means of travel
improved, the nominating convention came to be preferred. In 1824 there
were four candidates for the presidency,--Adams, Jackson, Clay, and
Crawford. Adams was nominated by the legislatures of most of the New
England states; Clay by the legislature of Kentucky, followed by the
legislatures of Missouri, Ohio, Illinois, and Louisiana; Crawford by the
legislature of Virginia; and Jackson by a mass convention of the people
of Blount County in Tennessee, followed by local conventions in many
other states. The congressional caucus met and nominated Crawford, but
this endorsement did not help him,[15] and this method was no longer
tried. In 1832 for the first time the candidates were all nominated in
national conventions.
[Footnote 15: Stanwood, _History of Presidential Elections_, pp.
80-83.]
[Sidenote: Nomination conventions.]
[Sidenote: The "primary."]
These conventions, as fully developed, are representative bodies
chosen for the specific purpose of nominating candidates and making
those declarations of principle and policy known as "platforms." Each
state is allowed twice as many delegates as it has electoral votes.
The delegates are chosen by local conventions in their several
states, viz., two for each congressional district by the party
convention of that district, and four for the whole state (called
delegates-at-large) by the state convention. As each convention is
composed of delegates from primaries, it is the composition of the
primaries which determines that of the local conventions, and it is
the composition of the local conventions which determines that of the
national.[16] The "primary" is the smallest nominating convention. It
stands in somewhat the same relation to the national convention as the
relation of a township or ward to the whole United States. A primary
is a little caucus of all the voters of one party who live within the
bounds of the township or ward. It differs in composition from the
town-meeting in that all its members belong to one party. It has two
duties: one is to nominate candidates for the local offices of the
township or ward; the other is to choose delegates to the county or
district convention. The primary, as its name indicates, is a primary
and not a representative assembly. The party voters in a township or
ward are usually not too numerous to meet together, and all ought to
attend such meetings, though in practice too many people stay away. By
the representative system, through various grades of convention, the
wishes and character of these countless little primaries are at
length expressed in the wishes and character of the national party
convention, and candidates for the presidency and vice-presidency are
nominated.
[Footnote 16: Bryce, _American Commonwealth_, vol. ii. p. 145; see
also p. 52.]
[Sidenote: Qualifications for the presidency.]
The qualifications for the two offices are of course the same.
Foreign-born citizens are not eligible, though this restriction did
not include such as were citizens of the United States at the time
when the Constitution was adopted. The candidate must have reached the
age of thirty-five, and must have been fourteen years a resident of
the United States.
[Sidenote: The term of office]
The president's term of office is four years. The Constitution says
nothing about his re-election, and there is no written law to prevent
his being re-elected a dozen times. But Washington, after serving two
terms, refused to accept the office a third time. Jefferson in 1808
was "earnestly besought by many and influential bodies of citizens to
become a candidate for a third term;" [17] and had he consented there
is scarcely a doubt that he would have been elected. His refusal
established a custom which has never been infringed, though there were
persons in 1876 and again in 1880 who wished to secure a third term
for Grant.
[Footnote 17: Morse's _Jefferson_, p. 318.]
[Sidenote: Powers and duties of the President]
The president is commander-in-chief of the military and naval forces
of the United States, and of the militia of the several states when
actually engaged in the service of the United States; and he has the
royal prerogative of granting reprieves and pardons for offences
against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.[18]
[Footnote 18: See above, p. 221.]
He can make treaties with foreign powers, but they must be confirmed
by a two thirds vote of the Senate. He appoints ministers to foreign
countries, consuls, and the greater federal officers, such as the
heads of executive departments and judges of the Supreme Court, and
all these appointments are subject to confirmation by the Senate. He
also appoints a vast number of inferior officers, such as postmasters
and revenue collectors, without the participation of the Senate. When
vacancies occur during the recess of the Senate, he may fill them by
granting commissions to expire at the end of the next session. He
commissions all federal officers. He receives foreign ministers. He
may summon either or both houses of Congress to an extra session, and
if the two houses disagree with regard to the time of adjournment, he
may adjourn them to such time as he thinks best, but of course not
beyond the day fixed for the beginning of the next regular session.
[Sidenote: The President's message.]
The president must from time to time make a report to Congress on the
state of affairs in the country and suggest such a line of policy or
such special measures as may seem good to him. This report has taken
the form of an annual written message. Washington and Adams began
their administrations by addressing Congress in a speech, to which
Congress replied; but it suited the opposite party to discover in this
an imitation of the British practice of opening Parliament with
a speech from the sovereign. It was accordingly stigmatized as
"monarchical," and Jefferson (though without formally alleging any
such reason) set the example, which has been followed ever since,
of addressing Congress in a written message.[19] Besides this annual
message, the president may at any time send in a special message
relating to matters which in his opinion require immediate attention.
[Footnote 19: Jefferson, moreover, was a powerful writer and a poor
speaker.]
The effectiveness of a president's message depends of course on the
character of the president and the general features of the political
situation. That separation between the executive and legislative
departments, which is one of the most distinctive features of civil
government in the United States, tends to prevent the development of
leadership. An English prime minister's policy, so long as he remains
in office, must be that of the House of Commons; power and responsibility
are concentrated. An able president may virtually direct the policy of
his party in Congress, but he often has a majority against him in one
house and sometimes in both at once. Thus in dividing power we divide
and weaken responsibility. To this point I have already alluded as
illustrated in our state governments.[20]
[Footnote 20: The English method, however, would probably not work
well in this country, and might prove to be a source of great and
complicated dangers. See above, p. 169.]
[Sidenote: Executive departments]
[Sidenote: The cabinet]
The Constitution made no specific provisions for the creation of
executive departments, but left the matter to Congress. At the
beginning of Washington's administration three secretaryships were
created,--those of state, treasury, and war; and an attorney-general
was appointed. Afterward the department of the navy was separated
from that of war, the postmaster-general was made a member of the
administration, and as lately as 1849 the department of the interior
was organized. The heads of these departments are the president's
advisers, but they have as a body no recognized legal existence or
authority. They hold their meetings in a room at the president's
executive mansion, the White House, but no record is kept of their
proceedings and the president is not bound to heed their advice. This
body has always been called the "Cabinet," after the English usage. It
is like the English cabinet in being composed of heads of executive
departments and in being, as a body, unknown to the law; in other
respects the difference is very great. The English cabinet is the
executive committee of the House of Commons, and exercises a guiding
and 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.
[Sidenote: The secretary of 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 committee on appropriations, and unite them 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.
[Sidenote: Diplomatic and consular service.]
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 countries. Consuls exercise a protective 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) "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.
[Sidenote: The secretary of the 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 moneys from the treasury. He
also superintends the coinage, the national banks, the custom-houses,
the coast-survey and lighthouse system, the marine hospitals, and
life-saving service.[21] 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." [22]
[Footnote 21: 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.]
[Footnote 22: Schouler, _Hist. of the U.S._, vol. i. p. 95.]
[Sidenote: War and navy.]
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.
[Sidenote: Interior.]
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 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.
[Sidenote: Postmaster-general and attorney-general.]
The departments of the postmaster-general and attorney-general need
no special description. 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-general 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 question.
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.
4. The amendment of 1804:--
a. The ballots of the electors.
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?
11. 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 election.
d. The relation of the "primaries" to district, state, and
national conventions.
e. The nature of the primary.
f. Its two duties.
g. The duty of the voter to attend the primaries.
13. The presidency:--
a. Qualifications for the office.
b. The term of office.
14. Powers and duties of the president:--
a. As a commander-in-chief.
b. In respect to reprieves and pardons.
c. In respect to treaties with foreign powers.
d. In respect to the appointment of federal officers.
e. In respect to summoning and adjourning Congress.
f. In respect to reporting the state of affairs in the country
to Congress.
15. The president's message:--
a. The course of Washington and Adams.
b. The example of Jefferson.
c. The effectiveness of the message.
d. Power and responsibility in the English system.
e. Power and
responsibility in the American system.
16. Executive departments:--
a. The departments under Washington.
b. Later additions to the departments.
c. The "Cabinet."
d. The resemblance between the English cabinet and our own.
e. The difference between the English cabinet and our own.
17. The secretary of state:--
a. Is he a prime minister?
b. What would be necessary to make an American personage
correspond to an English prime minister?
c. What are the ministerial duties of the secretary of state?
d. What other duties has he more characteristic of his title?
18. Our diplomatic and consular service:--
a. The distinction between ministers and consuls.
b. Three grades of ministers.
c. The persons to whom the three grades are accredited.
d. The grade of ambassador.
19. The secretary of the treasury:--
a. His rank and importance.
b. His various duties.
c. His chief assistants.
d. The administration of the treasury department since 1789.
20. The duties of the remaining cabinet officers:--
a. Of the secretary of war.
b. Of the secretary of the navy.
c. Of the secretary of the interior.
d. Of the postmaster-general.
e. Of the attorney-general.