Minister of the Interior

“ He appoints and dismisses ministers at will, issues ordinances with the force of law, and exercises far-reaching control over the processes of legislation. Upon the failure of the chambers to vote supplies which are held to be essential, he may even collect and expend revenues for a year on no authority apart from his own. For purposes of administrative supervision there are ministers of War, Finance, Justice, Foreign Affairs, the Interior, and Education, and the ministers collectively comprise a Gesammt-Ministerium, or ministry of state. Measures of the crown are countersigned by a minister ”

“ And the Secretary of State, after calling the attention of the Department to this subject, has inquired whether he may be justified in saying to the British minister that this Department will be prepared to recommend to Congress any legislation on this subject at the approaching session, and also to ask, in case any legislation will be recommended, that, if there be no objections, he may be informed of the provisions which Congress will be asked to enact into a law. ”

“ The ministers represent departments for finance, foreign affairs, colonies, justice, the interior, science and arts, war, railways, posts and telegraphs, agriculture, public works, and industry and labour. The minister for war is generally a soldier, the others are civilians. Ministers may be members of either chamber and enjoy the privilege of being allowed to speak in both. Sometimes one minister will hold several portfolios at the same time, but such cases are rare.
The kingdom is divided into nine provinces which are subdivided into 342 cantons and 2623 communes. ”

“ A Council of Ministers has been constituted by the Emperor, Ministers being appointed for Justice, Finance, Commerce, War, Foreign Affairs, Posts and Telegraphs, Interior, and a sort of Lord Privy Seal. The most important Minister is the Minister of War. ”

“ The measure of praise you have been kind enough to award to me for my administration of the Interior Department is—I say this without any affectation of modesty—perhaps too generous. I know better than any body else that my administration has not been perfect. The Interior Department is not only the most difficult, it is also the most dangerous, department of the Government. ”

“ The attention of Congress is invited to the report of the Secretary of the Interior and to the legislation asked for by him. The domestic interests of the people are more intimately connected with this Department than with either of the other Departments of Government. Its duties have been added to from time to time until they have become so onerous that without the most perfect system and order it will be impossible for any Secretary of the Interior to keep trace of all official transactions having his sanction and done in his name, and for which he is held personally responsible. ”

“ To insure a faithful performance of their duties by agents, and to secure uniformity in enforcing the Government policy throughout the various agencies, I would suggest that authority be conferred upon the Secretary of the Interior to appoint inspectors, when necessity requires, whose duty it shall be to visit the several tribes and agencies at stated intervals, and report concerning the fidelity and capacity of the agents and the condition of the tribes under their charge ”

“ The Department of the Interior comprises such a variety and magnitude of interests, extending over such an expanse of territory, that its care or supervision must entail great labor and responsibility. ”

“ There was an editorial today in The New York Times that, I think, pointed out that the Interior Department too often has been seen as an appendage of commercial interests as opposed to a place where the values and interests of the American people are served. ”

“ But might it not be supposed that a man so profoundly in earnest as you are, would at least then have spared no trouble and lost no opportunity to make his views heard by those immediately in charge of this business? You know that the Interior Department was open to you and you did not fail to avail yourself of your opportunities. Indeed you were seen in the Interior Department during the time that this agitation was going on and while you were taking in it an active and conspicuous part. ”

“ It is remarkable that with every new president, the entire leadership of the government of America changes. And with a department as large and as complex as the Department of the Interior, it is important that there be as seamless as a transition as possible. ”

“ With this admission, then, it would seem that the chief of the Interior Department is, in your opinion, on the whole a good public officer who only occasionally, when he takes it into his head to oppress an Indian tribe, will plot or connive at the assassination of men who stand in his way. ”

“ The Secretary of Interior has charge of matters pertaining to the internal welfare of the nation, as public lands, care of national parks, the giving of patents for inventions, Indian affairs, education, etc. ”

“ Under the pressure, however, of custom and of parliamentary control, they have been reduced to essentially a common style of organization and a common mode of administrative procedure. In virtually every instance the department is presided over by a single responsible minister, assisted as a rule by one or more parliamentary under-secretaries and, more remotely, by a greater or lesser body of non-political officials who carry on the actual work of the department and whose tenure is not affected by the political fortunes of their chiefs. ”

“ Ministers, being public men, are, of course, as Mr. Macdonald means to point out, exposed to the criticism, frequently so absurd, that eminence entails. I recently examined the bye-laws of a literary association in Ross-shire, of which the president is a sheep-farmer, and the secretary, a postman. It is a rule of this association that no minister is ever to be president, the reason assigned being that ministers would try to elevate the natives too hurriedly. ”

“ I hold that the continuous efficiency of State departments can only be maintained when they are controlled in respect of policy, not by the casual politician whom the fluctuations of popular emotion places at their head, but by the class or industry the State institution was created to serve. A department of State can conceivably be preserved from stagnation by a minister of strong will, who has a more profound knowledge of the problems connected with his department than even his permanent officials. ”

“ If the Government will not make over the whole of the provincial administration to a popular Ministry responsible to a popular Assembly, let them at least, entrust to them such departments, as Education, Sanitation, Local Self-government, Police, etc. ”

“ I do not, or have not desired to be committed on Cabinet appointments until the issue was reached. But it is perhaps proper to say that, if elected, it has for a long time been my wish to invite you to take a place in the Cabinet. I think it would be fortunate for the country, and especially so for myself, if you are one of the members of the Cabinet. I am not likely to change that opinion. The Interior Department is my preference for you. ”

“ The duties of this council are confined chiefly to a salutary vigilance over the constitution and laws, and to the convocation of extraordinary sessions of the national legislature, either in conjunction with the president or by its sole act. The cabinet consists of a minister of foreign and domestic affairs; a minister of justice; a minister of finance; a minister of war and marine, each of whom receive an annual salary of six thousand dollars.
Each state government is independent within its local jurisdiction, and, like the federal government has, executive, legislative and judicial powers. ”

“ Each member of the Executive Cabinet shall serve as the head of a department or agency of the World Administration or Integrative Complex, and in this capacity shall be designated as Minister of the particular department or agency. ”

“ If the supreme council once begins to encroach upon the executive fields of government by interferings with the conduct of work in the separate Ministries, by advising as to appointments to be made under the rank of Minister of State, or in any other way taking part in the executive functions of government, it will thereby at once lessen the efficiency and increase the difficulties of every Minister. ”

“ To every branch of local administration which affects the general interest there should be a corresponding central organ, either a minister, or some specially appointed functionary under him, even if that functionary does no more than collect information from all quarters, and bring the experience acquired in one locality to the knowledge of another where it is wanted. ”

“ Most Cabinet Ministers in charge of considerable departments are men of superior ability; I have heard an eminent living statesman of long experience say that in his time he only knew one instance to the contrary. And there is the best protection that it shall be so. A considerable Cabinet Minister has to defend his department in the face of mankind ”

“ He will without doubt make an excellent Secretary of the Interior. The South has no better representative man, and I believe his appointment will, in a little while, be satisfactory to the whole country. ”

“ If two-thirds of the members of the chambers so request, projected treaties of alliance must be laid before Congress, and the appointment and suspension of public officials may be effected only on proposal of the ministers. Every act of the President must be countersigned by at least one minister, and every minister is responsible politically and legally for all acts which he countersigns or executes. One member of the ministerial group, designated by the President, exercises the functions of premier. ”

“ There is no doubt that the present control of the Department of the Interior is vigorous and honest, that many abuses have been corrected, and that the old Indian system is managed as well as it can be. ”

“ The offices of daijō daijin, sadaijin, udaijin, sangi, and ministers of departments were abolished, and in their stead were created ministers of state for home affairs, foreign affairs, finance, war, the navy, education, justice, agriculture and commerce, and communications, these ministers constituting a cabinet under the leadership of the minister president and the presidency of the emperor himself. ”

“ General Grant had in his Cabinet at one time five men from the States east of the Alleghany mountains, a fact which was scarcely remembered at that time, and the only censure passed upon the Cabinet was that the men composing it were in some instances not the right kind of persons. Believe me, if your Secretary of the Interior is good, nobody will ask where he comes from a week after his appointment. If he turns out badly, it will not be taken as an excuse that he was selected for geographical reasons. ”

“ The military authorities have called upon the Interior Department to take them off their hands, and it is intended to transport them to the Yakama Reservation, and to put them under the charge of Mr. Wilbur, the most successful agent in the service. ”