Home Secretary

“ Your influence is so great, if you will but say one word on his behalf the Home Secretary—the King himself—will listen to you, will respond to you as to no other man in the world. They will grant a reprieve, and then, whenever the truth does come out, his innocence will be established—he will be set free. Sir Robert, I implore you. ”

“ The Home Secretary was seated in his room awaiting the arrival of the Deputation:—
"Well, I suppose I was right to allow them to interview me," he murmured. "The submerged Tenth have not the franchise to-day. Ah! but they may have it to-morrow!" ”

“ A hard-worked Secretary of State, whose time, night and day, is crowded with every kind of duty, correspondence, and labor, in the House of Commons or in the Home Office, has to consider a vast number of petitions, complaints, and miscarriages of justice, or too severe sentences, any one [150] of which might require hours and sometimes days to investigate. He is assisted by several officers, but, strange to say, it is no part of their qualifications (or that of the Home Secretary himself) , that they should be familiar with the criminal law or the prosecution or defense of prisoners. ”

“ The present Home Secretary is evidently determined to keep his department in order, and may doubtless be depended upon for making Home tolerable to a poor woman, in as far as he can, by warranting her such protection as a cat-o'-nine-tails can afford against the ferocity of a brutal husband. ”

“ The Home Secretary is, in fact, a politician, who has little time to spare for the consideration of criminal cases, and furthermore must see to it that his conduct does not injure his party. Thus he is often deterred from interfering with verdicts and sentences by sheer timidity. ”

“ You must believe that the authorities are quite willing to help in any good work, more than willing, and I am sure I speak for the Home Secretary as well as for myself; but it is for you to give us some reason for acting—a reason that could be avowed and defended. ”

“ In my judgment, at no period in our history have we seen the hospitalities and ceremonies of the White House more handsomely dispensed, or displayed with greater republican simplicity than at the present time. If my observation be correct, no invidious or improper distinction seems to be made in the circle of visitors. There is no imposing movement or extra formality exhibited when a Secretary or some other high officer of Government presents himself. The quiet and unheralded citizen receives a polite and cordial salutation, as well as the haughty millionnaire, or some proud minister of state. ”

“ Johnny Russell was quite a nervous, modest person, compared with Gr-nd-lph. I should really like to see my old friend in my old chair.
The post, of course, has its attractions. It is no small thing to be principal Secretary of State, with a seat in the Cabinet, and an adequate salary. But, to tell the truth, dear Toby, the Home Secretary lives too near the People to have an uninterruptedly pleasant time. He is too close to, and too frequently under, the public eye. It is like working in a glass hive. ”

“ In the mean time, at this distance from Parliament Street, I get the advantage of perspective in regarding the office of Home Secretary. Down here it seems odd enough that it should be so much hankered after by men of various temperaments. H-nry J-m-s wanted it at the time H-rc-rt secured it. It had a strange fascination for L-we, and I am disclosing no secret when I mention that my old friend and patron, Gr-nd-lph, fancies it would suit him down to the ground. ”

“ In bringing in the Health of Towns Bill in 1848, Lord Morpeth, then Home Secretary, gracefully disclaims his own share in the work, and alludes to my grandfather, amongst others, when saying,—
"Several persons of very great accomplishment, and, what is more to the purpose, of most ardent benevolence, both in and out of this House, have taken great pains, in a way which does them infinite credit, to inform and excite the public mind on this subject ”

“ These include Secretaries Fish, Belknap, Cox, and Postmaster-General Cresswell. The receptions held at the magnificent mansion of the Secretary of State have been simply a continuation of those elegant entertainments for which his distant home was celebrated when he was a citizen in private life. Only a man of great wealth can afford to be an American “Premier.” All the foreign legations are gathered around his liberal American hearth, and is it not most consoling to our national pride to remember that it is broad and generous in every sense of the word? ”

“ There is hereby established the President's Committee on Equal Opportunity in Housing which shall be composed of the Secretary of the Treasury; the Secretary of Defense; the Attorney General; the Secretary of Agriculture; the Housing and Home Finance Administrator; the Administrator of Veterans Affairs; the Chairman of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board; a member of the staff of the Executive Office of the President, and such other members as the President shall from time to time appoint from the public. ”

“ A future-most-fair young girl;
An ever-discreet
We too seldom meet
This queen-among-queens young girl.
Anonymous.
A somewhat similar American parody will be found on page 128.
The Home Secretary’s Song.
“It is announced this morning that ‘the Home Secretary will address a meeting of his constituents in the Birmingham Town Hall on Monday next. On Tuesday he will open the new premises of the Aston Conservative Club, and on Wednesday attend ward meetings in the division he represents.’ The following song has, we understand, been expressly written for the Minister’s use on this occasion.” ”

“ The Home Secretaryship is a singularly distasteful office to an intelligent man, but it has at least the merit of putting one in a position to be occasionally useful to one's friends."
I smiled. His lordship's cynical outlook on human nature and on the privileges of Cabinet rank amused me intensely. He was evidently prepared for some request on my part in return for the favour I had done him, and I wondered what Northcote would have asked if he had been in my place. ”

“ But the system now proposed, while thus allowing the frequent bringing in of new and capable men from public life at home, requires that a large proportion of each grade above that of secretary, save a very small number of diplomatic agents, commissioners, and the like, shall be appointed from those thoroughly trained for the service, and that all secretaries, without exception, shall be thoroughly trained and fitted. ”

“ Adams thought proper to devote himself to them, devolved upon his lady the entire task of making his house an agreeable resort to the multitudes of visitors who crowd to the capital on errands of business, or curiosity, or pleasure, from the various sections of the United States during the winter season. A large diplomatic corps from foreign countries, who feel themselves in more immediate relations with the Secretary of State, and a distinguished set of public men, not then divided by party lines in the manner which usually prevails, rendered the society of that time, and Mrs. ”

“ I have already made you a great man; for as you know by this time, the office of Secretary to my legation is great enough in all conscience. Some men have a stomach for office like a cormorant, which is a serious scourge to the nation. Pray, sir, if you have a turn that way, get rid of it before another moon."
"By my honor, general, I've no such craving; for I was content enough before I saw you to live a poor critic, and never thought of being a Secretary. ”

“ Every one must feel after the result of that division that he has been adopted as the leader of the House, and that the House places the fullest confidence in him. ... He may govern the country for many years, with all the strength which must be possessed by a gentleman who governs not by Parliamentary tactics, but by the mere force of genius, and by being at one with the sentiments of the country. ... I do not hesitate to say that the present Chief Secretary is the most powerful Minister that this colony has seen since we have had Constitutional Government. ”

“ The bareness of the huge room was gone entirely—concealed by flags and bunting, which hung in brilliant festoons from the galleries and the roof. Myriads of variegated lights flashed back the glitter of epaulet and the gleam of white shoulders, with, here and there, the black of the civilian looking 129 strangely incongruous amid the throng that danced itself into a very kaleidoscope of color.
The Secretary was a very ordinary man, who had a place in the Cabinet as a reward for political deeds done, and to be done. He represented a State machine, nothing more. ”

“ I know that you will not accept anything under the present government, but a private situation you can raise no objection to; the more so as, so far from leaving your family, you will be more in a position to protect them. I am in want of a secretary, and I wish you to accept that office, to live entirely in my house, and to receive a handsome salary for your services, which will not, I trust, be too heavy. You will be near to your family here in the cottage, and be able to protect them and assist them ”

“ The President ought not to usurp the power of his appointment, which ought, after serious discussion by the Council, to be made by the Society at large.
Besides the three Secretaries, there is an Assistant Secretary, and recently another has been added, who may perhaps be called a Subassistant Secretary. All these places furnish patronage to the President. ”

“ As a chief force in the House, he holds that important body in the hollow of his hand; and, while he cannot be its choice, he can control its choice. He controls it for Statesman Adams, on the underground understanding that he, Statesman Clay, shall sit at Statesman Adams' right hand as Secretary of State. Statesman Clay hopes to run presidentially another day, and thinks to make his calling and election sure while head of the Cabinet of Statesman Adams. ”

“ A letter from myself to the President of the National Assembly of France, in answer to his to Congress on the death of Dr. Franklin. Let it be understood, that Congress can only correspond through the executive, whose organ in the case of foreign nations is the Secretary of State. The President of the United States being co-ordinate with Congress, cannot personally be their scribe. ”

“ I do not deny that I would be as much pleased to accept the station of Secretary of State from yourself as from any man living. I entertain a strong conviction that under the controlling direction of your wisdom, prudence and firmness, I might be useful to you in conducting the Department of State, and I know from your established character, so far as it is given to mortals to know anything, that our social and personal intercourse would be of the most friendly and agreeable character. ”

“ But the President himself says that 'upon him has been devolved, by the constitution, and the suffrages of the American people, the duty of superintending the operation of the executive departments of the government, and seeing that the laws are faithfully executed.' If there existed any such double source of executive power, it has been seen that the treasury department is not an executive department; but that, in all that concerns the public treasury, the Secretary is the agent or representative of Congress, acting in obedience to their will, and maintaining a direct intercourse with them. ”

“ For the Secretary of State, too, is a bird of passage as they are, passing through the Colonial Office on his way to other departments, or holding the seals as part of an administration whose tenure of office grows every year more precarious, which exists only upon popular sentiment, and cannot, and does not try to look forward beyond at furthest the next session of Parliament. ”

“ Or you may start light-heartedly from the Refreshment Department of the House of Commons and find yourself suddenly in the bowels of the House of Lords, probably in the very passage to the Lord Chancellor's Secretary's Room.
Still, there is no other way for Private Secretaries to take exercise and at the same time avoid their Members without actually leaving the building, so risks of that sort have to be faced.
While the Private Secretary is playing hide-and-seek in the passages and purlieus his Member waits for him in the Secretaries' Room. ”

“ Apart from his state duties, the private secretary is an all-important personage in the vice-regal household, for not only is he the medium between the public and the presence, but more important still, in his charge are all the invitation lists, and he alone can read the cabalistic signs that bar out certain families. ”

“ The Secretary is not merely a minister for foreign affairs, but is the guardian of the seals of state, the medium through whom the laws are promulgated, the depositary of the government archives, and the first assistant of the Chief Executive. Tradition has conferred upon him a dignity next to that of President, the law making him second in the order of succession to the presidency by vacancy of the office, while it has become the custom for the President to invite him to participate in the performance of his duties rather as a colleague and associate than as an adviser and servant. ”

“ Working out of the White House Office of the Domestic Policy Counsel is an employee who will be focused on health care issues and AIDS. There will be one person in the Public Liaison office also, who has, among their duties, outreach and liaison; as well as in the Domestic Policy Council, somebody who will be also focused on policies and can help advance the cause of civil rights and racial unity. ”

“ In the city of Washington, one may see representatives of all the principal nations of the earth living there as ambassadors, for the purpose of promoting friendly commercial and political relationships. The secretary of state is the representative of our government through whose office the great work of the foreign service is directly carried on, and upon him devolves therefore the great affairs of state relationships with other countries. ”