United States Secretary of State

“ The appointment being, under the constitution, to be made by the president personally, the delivery of the deed of appointment, if necessary to its completion, must be made by the president also. It is not necessary, that the livery should be made personally to the grantee of the office. It never is so made. The law would seem to contemplate, that it should be made to the secretary of state, since it directs the secretary to affix the seal to the commission, after it shall have been signed by the president. ”

“ The Secretary must be supreme, and he should have as his official advisers a body of line officers who should themselves have the power to pass upon and coordinate all the work and all the proposals of the several bureaus. ”

“ That the Secretary for the Department of Foreign Affairs correspond with the Governors or Presidents of all, or any of the United States, affording them such information from his department as may be useful to their States or to the United States, stating complaints that may have been urged against the government of any of the said States, or the subjects thereof, by the subjects of foreign powers, so that justice may be done agreeably to the laws of such state, or the charge proved to be groundless, and the honor of the government vindicated. ”

“ I think indeed that under all circumstances the best policy for this Government is to treat this man with the greatest possible consideration. If he has the power to do us harm, we must put him in such a position that he will not wish to do it; and if he has not, our treatment of him will have a tendency to draw the United States nearer to us than she is at present. We must, at least, pretend to take the American Secretary of State at his word. ”

“ It is desirable that as little power as possible should be left to the President or the Secretary of the Treasury over those institutions, which, being thus freed from Executive influence, and without a common head to direct their operations, would have neither the temptation nor the ability to interfere in the political conflicts of the country. ”

“ The pace of world events doesn’t pause to allow the United States Government to change from one secretary of state to another, but it’s because of your dedication and professionalism that this department has continued to meet its mission for the American people. ”

“ It is but an act of justice to declare that the officers in charge of the several executive bureaus, all under the immediate eye and supervision of the Secretary of War, performed their respective duties with ability, energy, and efficiency. They have reaped less of the glory of the war, not having been personally exposed to its perils in battle, than their companions in arms ”

“ Should you perform your duties as Secretary of State to the satisfaction of the country during the present Presidential term, and should I perform my duties in the same manner as minister to England, we ought both to be content to retire and leave the field to younger men. President Pierce is a young man, and should his administration prove to be advantageous to the country and honorable to himself, as I trust it will, there is no good reason why he should not be renominated and re-elected for a second term. ”

“ As Secretary of State he had little or nothing to do, which was partly the cause of his activity in military matters; but as Secretary of War he was obliged to undertake a task beyond the powers of any man.
During an entire month after the appearance of the British in the Patuxent, the United States government performed few or none of its functions. The war on the frontiers was conducted without orders from Washington. Every energy of the government was concentrated on its own immediate dangers, as though Washington were a beleaguered fortress. ”

“ In Baltimore as in Washington the same perplexity exists about a Secretary of State. No one is spoken of, and it would almost seem that people do not realize your resignation. Must it be so? You know that in England we have abandoned the precedent of the minister’s retiring on a change of measures. Such, if I remember right, was the course of Earl Grey, he withstood even the majorities against the Reform Bill, and continued at the helm. ”

“ For instance, the conservation of national resources is spread among eight agencies in five departments. They suffer from conflict and overlap. There is no proper development and adherence to broad national policies and no central point where the searchlight of public opinion may concentrate itself. These functions should be grouped under the direction of some such official as an assistant secretary of conservation. The particular department or cabinet officer under which such a group should be placed is of secondary importance to the need of concentration. ”

“ The secretary has, however, a smaller range of action than a finance minister in European countries, for, as he is excluded from Congress, he has nothing directly to do with the imposition of taxes, and very little with the appropriations for government expenditure.
The department of the interior is less important than in France or Italy, since the principal functions which there belong to it lie, in the United States, within the field of state powers. ”

“ The Secretary is authorized and directed to cooperate with other departments or agencies of the Federal Government, States, and State agencies and institutions, counties, municipalities, business or other organizations, corporations, associations, universities, scientific societies, and individuals, upon such terms and conditions as he may prescribe. ”

“ These politico-geographical divisions and the detail from the diplomatic or consular service to the Department of a number of men, who bring to the study of complicated problems in different parts of the world practical knowledge recently gained on the spot, clearly is of the greatest advantage to the Secretary of State in foreseeing conditions likely to arise and in conducting the great variety of correspondence and negotiation. ”

“ Secretary, whether it is not better, in your opinion, that the Congress of the United States should prescribe the duties of executive officers, so that they can act in pursuance of law, rather than the executive officer should be acting on his own notions of what is best? ”

“ It was pointed out that President Roosevelt had indicated his Secretary
of War as the best man to carry out the policy inaugurated by the
administration of subduing and controlling influential law-breakers. The
chief officer of the government has vested in himself powers of wide
range--the appointment of the judiciary, the superintendence of the
administration of the business affairs of the nation, the guidance of
our international affairs. ”

“ On the other hand, the Secretary of State is always a member of the party that has prevailed in the last election, and is usually the member of the party, next to the President himself, highest in its confidence. ”

“ Economy and sound business policy require that all existing independent bureaus and commissions should be placed under the jurisdiction of appropriate executive departments. It is unwise from every standpoint, and results only in mischief, to have any executive work done save by the purely executive bodies, under the control of the President; and each such executive body should be under the immediate supervision of a Cabinet Minister. ”

“ If it should appear by actual experience that the heads of departments in fact have not time to perform the additional duty imposed on them by this bill, the force in their offices should be increased or the duties devolving on them personally should be diminished. An undersecretary should be appointed to whom could be confided that routine of administration which requires only order and accuracy. ”

“ In the case of the judges, they must be appointed for life, or during good behavior. He had no idea, that it could ever enter into the heart of any man living, that all officers appointed under the constitution were to have a perpetuity in office. The judges themselves would not have had this right, if it had not been expressly given by the constitution, but would be removable in like manner with ambassadors, other public ministers, and consuls. He took it, therefore, in the present case, that the President and the Senate would have the power of removing the Secretary of Foreign Affairs. ”