THE EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS.

CHAPTER I.

THE PRESIDENT.

1. By the Constitution of the United States, the powers of the Federal Government are divided into three great branches the Legislative, the Executive, and the Judicial. Each of these, as constituted, exercises by authority of that instrument well-defined, separate, and independent functions, which are not to be limited or encroached upon in any sense by the other. It is the province of the Legislative branch to enact the laws, of the Executive branch to carry them into effect, and of the Judicial department to construe and apply the same, within the limits of its jurisdiction, to controversies as they may arise, whether between individuals, between them and the United States, or between the several States.

In accordance with this supreme law of the land, the executive power is vested in the President. The political qualification for the office is, that he shall be a natural-born citizen of, and shall have been a resident for fourteen years within, the United States; also, that he shall have attained the age of thirty-five years. (Art. II, §§ 1, 2.)

2. According to the same instrument, he is the Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States. and of the militia of the several States when called into the actual service of the United States. (Id., § 2.)

3. He may require the opinion in writing of the principal officers in each of the executive departments upon any

subject relating to the duties of their respective offices. (Id.)

4. He is invested with power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment. (Id.)

5. He has power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties, provided two-thirds of the Senators present concur; and he is required to nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate to appoint, ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United States whose appointments are not otherwise provided for in the Constitution, and which shall be established by law. This last provision, as to other officers not provided for in the Constitution, is, however, subject to the power of Congress to vest the appointment of such inferior officers as it may think proper in the President alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of departments. He has power to fill all vacancies that may happen during the recess of the Senate, by granting commissions to expire at the end of the next session thereof. (Id.)

6. He is required from time to time to give to Congress information of the state of the Union, and to recommend for its consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient. He may on extraordinary occasions. convene both Houses, or either of them; and in case of disagreement between them with respect to the time of adjournment, he may adjourn them to such time as he shall think proper. (Id., § 3.)

7. He is empowered to receive ambassadors and other public ministers. (Id.)

8. He is required to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, and to commission all the officers of the United States. (Id.)

9. Every bill which shall have passed the House and the Senate, before it becomes a law, as likewise every order, resolution, or vote [except on a question of adjournment] requiring the concurrence of both Houses, must be presented to the President. If he approves it, he is required to sign the same; but if the contrary, to return it, with his objections, to the House in which it originated, to become a law on being repassed by two-thirds of each House. If the President shall fail to return the bill, order, &c., within ten days, Sundays excepted, it becomes a law, the same as if he had signed it, unless its return is prevented by the adjournment of Congress. (Art. I, § 2.)

10. The President is authorized by act of Congress to appoint, as his official household, a private secretary, an assistant secretary, two executive clerks, a steward, and a messenger.

11. Whenever Congress is about to convene, and from the prevalence of contagious sickness, or the existence of other circumstances, it would, in the opinion of the President, be hazardous to the lives or health of the members to meet at the seat of government, he is authorized, by proclamation, to convene that body at such other place as he shall judge proper. (R. S., § 34.)

12. In any case of the death, resignation, absence, or sickness of a head of a department or of the head of a bureau, or of any officer thereof whose appointment is not vested in the head of a department, except in the case of the death, resignation, absence, or sickness of the AttorneyGeneral, the President may authorize and direct the head of any other department, or any officer in either department whose appointment is vested in the President by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to perform the duties of the vacant office; but a vacancy occurring through death or resignation may not be filled for a longer period than ten

days. And no temporary appointment, designation, or assignment shall be made otherwise than as so provided, except during a recess of the Senate. (R. S., §§ 177, 178, 179, 181.)

13. The President is authorized, during a recess of the Senate, to suspend any of the civil officers appointed by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, except judges of United States courts, until the end of the next session of the Senate, and to designate some suitable person, subject to be removed by the designation of another, to perform the duties of the suspended officer. Within thirty days after the commencement of each session of the Senate, except for any office which he deems should not be filled, the President is required to nominate persons to fill all vacancies existing at the meeting of the Senate, whether temporarily filled or not, and also in the place of officers suspended; and if the Senate refuse to advise and consent to an appointment in the place of any suspended officer, then the President is required to nominate another person as soon as practicable to the same session for the office. (R. S., § 1768.)

14. The President may, under certain circumstances, discharge poor debtors under imprisonment on execution for debt due the United States. (R. S., § 3472.)

15. He may regulate and increase the sums for which official bonds are given by customs officers, receivers and registers of the Land Office, and disbursing officers under the direction of the War and Navy Departments. (R. S., § 3639.)

16. He may, in case of war between the United States and any foreign Power, and after making proclamation, apprehend, restrain, secure, and remove alien enemies, and regulate the conduct to be observed by the United States towards such persons. (R. S., § 4067.)

17. He may employ United States armed vessels to suppress piracy and to protect the merchant marine of the United States from piratical aggressions, and he may also prescribe regulations to this end. (R. S., § 4293.)

18. He may employ the land and naval forces, or the militia, to compel the departure of any foreign vessel from the United States, when by the laws of nations or treaties with the United States such vessel should not remain. (R. S., § 5288.)

19. In case of insurrection in any State against the gov ernment thereof, the President, on application of the Legislature of such State, or of the Executive when the Legislature cannot be convened, is empowered to call forth such of the militia of any other State as he may deem sufficient to suppress such insurrection; or he may employ such portion of the land or naval force as he may think necessary for the purpose. He may likewise call out the militia of any State or employ the land and naval forces to suppress rebellion against the United States, when the ordinary course of judicial proceedings is in his judgment impracticable. And he is invested by law with the power to originate and take rigorous measures, as specified, to this end. (R. S., §§ 5298, 5299, &c.)

20.

21. He is authorized to employ any armed vessel of the United States to suppress the slave trade carried on by citizens or residents of the United States in American vessels, and to make regulations and arrangements for the safekeeping, support, and delivery outside the United States of negroes, mulattoes, or persons of color captured from vessels so engaged. (R. S., §§ 5557, 5561, 5566, 5567, 5568, 5569.)

22. The foregoing are the more important, general, and specific powers and duties of the President as laid down in