Federal office

“ The District Courts are held in judicial districts, and the Court of Claims, at Washington.
The Executive Department executes the laws, and consists of the President, aided by the heads of departments with their under-officials. Attached to this branch of the government are the Departments of State, Treasury, War, Navy, Post-Office, Justice, and Interior. The seven officials who head these departments constitute the cabinet, a name given to the body of men whom the President appoints as his executive officers and advisers. ”

“ That the members of the first branch of the national legislature ought to be elected by the people of the several states, for the term of three years; to receive fixed stipends, by which they may be compensated for the devotion of their time to public service, to be paid out of the national treasury; to be ineligible to any office established by a particular state, or under the authority of the United States, except those particularly belonging to the functions of the first branch, during the term of service, and under the national government, for the space of one year after its expiration. ”

“ The one hundred and nine years which have passed since that masterful hour in history have witnessed the addition of thirty-two States to our federal Union, and of seventy millions to our population. And yet, with but few amendments, our great organic law as fully meets the requirements of a self-governing people to-day as when it came from the hands of its framers. The builders of the Constitution wisely ordained the Presidential office a co-ordinate department of the Government. ”

“ It will be time enough to determine the question when the President shall remove an officer in this way, I conceive it can properly be brought before that tribunal; the officer will have a right to a mandamus to be restored to his office; and the judges would determine whether the President exercised a constitutional authority or not.
Some gentlemen think the Constitution takes no notice of this officer, as the head of a department. They suppose him an inferior officer in aid of the executive. ”

“ This is the most delicate part in the organization of a republican government. It is the most difficult to establish on unexceptionable grounds. It appears to me most eligible as it is. The Constitution has taken a medium between the two extremes, and perhaps with more wisdom than either the British or the state governments, with respect to their eligibility to office. They can fill no new offices created by themselves, nor old ones of which they increased the salaries. ”

“ The state courts can do their business without federal assistance. I do not know how far any gentleman may suppose that I may, from my office, be biased in favor of the state jurisdiction. I am no more interested than any other individual. ”

“ In order to form some balance, the departments of government were separated, and as a necessary check, the legislative body was composed of two branches. Steadiness and wisdom are better insured when there is a second branch, to balance and check the first The stability of the laws will be greater when the popular branch, which might be influenced by local views, or the violence of party, is checked by another, whose longer continuance in office will render them more experienced, more temperate, and more competent to decide rightly. ”

“ The authority of a federal officer to act derives from federal sources, and the rule which recognizes a privilege under appropriate circumstances as to statements made in the course of duty is one designed to promote the effective functioning of the Federal Government. ”

“ Officers and employees elected or appointed to offices requiring full-time service shall resign their positions with the Federal Government. If elected or appointed to offices requiring only part-time service, they may accept and hold same without relinquishing their Federal employment, provided the holding of such part-time office does not conflict or interfere with their official duties as officers or employees of the Federal Government. ”

“ The White House Office of Presidential Personnel shall coordinate with all departments and agencies of the executive branch of the Government to produce a catalogue of all positions in their respective jurisdictions that are filled by presidential appointment requiring Senate confirmation (PAS positions) . ”

“ Each agency shall have an accountable process to ensure meaningful and timely input by State and local officials in the development of regulatory policies that have federalism implications. Within 90 days after the effective date of this order, the head of each agency shall designate an official with principal responsibility for the agency's implementation of this order and that designated official shall submit to the Office of Management and Budget a description of the agency's consultation process. ”

“ The Network is defined as the coordinated effort by Federal agencies to develop a strategy and to use existing technical infrastructure, to the extent permitted by law and subject to the availability of appropriations and under the guidance of the Interagency Coordinating Committee and the Committee Support Office, to make more effective use of information technology to assist our Government, and foreign governments where appropriate, by providing disaster-related information to prepare for and respond to disasters. ”

“ It is composed of three great constituent parts—the legislative department, the executive department, and the judicial department. The legislative department is subdivided into two branches—the House of Representatives and the Senate. Can there be a House of Representatives in the general government, after the state governments are annihilated? Care is taken to express the character of the electors in such a manner, that even the popular branch of the general government cannot exist unless the governments of the states continue in existence. ”

“ The legislature must always have a discretionary power of appointing officers, not expressly known to the Constitution, and this power will include that of authorizing the federal government to make the appointments in cases where the general welfare may require it. ”

“ The offices of the government do not belong to the legislative department to dispose of on any conditions it may choose to impose. The legislature creates most of the offices, it is true, and provides compensation for the discharge of their duties; but that is its duty to do, in order to establish a complete organization of the functions of government. When established, the offices are, or ought to be, open to all. They belong to the United States, and not to congress, and every citizen having the proper qualifications has the right to accept office, and to be a candidate therefor. ”

“ Of course every new province into which Congress has been allured by the principle of implied powers has required for its administration a greater or less enlargement of the national civil service, which now, through its hundred thousand officers, carries into every community of the land a sense of federal power, as the power of powers, and fixes the federal authority, as it were, in the very habits of society. ”

“ But with us there is no such intimate relationship between legislative and executive service. From experience in state administration to trial in the larger sphere of federal administration is the only natural order of promotion. We ought, therefore, to hail the recognition of this fact as in keeping with the general plan of the federal Constitution. The business of the President, occasionally great, is usually not much above routine. Most of the time it is mere administration, mere obedience of directions from the masters of policy, the Standing Committees. ”

“ The committee will therefore indulge me in remarking that, if the operations of the general government will subvert those of the individual states, the interest of the state officers may be affected in some measure, otherwise their emoluments will remain undiminished—their consequence not so much impaired as not to compensate men of interested pursuits by the prospect of sharing the offices of the general government. ”