Government appointment

“ Party government can exist only when the absolute control of administration, the appointment of its officers as well as the direction of its means and policy, is given immediately into the hands of that branch of the government whose power is paramount, the representative body. ”

“ The president nominates to the senate, and with its "advice and consent," appoints all the officers of the government, with the exception of those whose appointment congress has authority to vest, by law, in the heads of departments, or in the courts of justice. ”

“ Any one under certain conditions can enter Parliament, but the Civil Service Commissioners bar the entrance to the Government offices with equally certain regulations. For the sake of argument let me assume that you are in the House. You have stood for Slocum-on-the-Marsh, and have persuaded the Slocum-on-the-Marshers to elect you. As an M.P. you are duly qualified to accept any appointment under the Crown when the Government ask you. The best plan is to think of an office and then add one to it—yourself.
"Why not the Public Squander Department?" you ask yourself. ”

“ He cannot get along without the men whom he appoints, with and by the consent and advice of the Senate; and they are really integral parts of that branch of the government which he titularly contains in his one single person. The characters and training the Secretaries are of almost as much importance as his own gifts and antecedents; so that his appointment and the Senate’s confirmation must be added to the machinery of nomination by convention and election by automatic electors before the whole process of making up a working executive has been noted. ”

“ The President may, from time to time, in consultation with the Prime Minister where he considers such consultation to be necessary -
(a) appoint from among Members of Parliament, Ministers who shall not be Members of the Cabinet of Ministers and
(b) determine the assignment of subjects and functions to, and the Ministries, if any, which are to be in charge of, such Ministers.
(2) The President may at any time change any appointment or assignment made under paragraph (1) of this Article. ”

“ They were conscious that the entire weight and responsibility of government rested upon their shoulders, and, as men regardful of the interests of the party which they represented, jealous for the preservation of their own fair names, and anxious, consequently, for the promotion of wise rule, they were naturally and of course the first to advocate a better system of appointment to that service whose chiefs they were recognized to be. ”

“ Of all officers of government, those in whose appointment any participation of popular suffrage is the most objectionable are judicial officers. While there are no functionaries whose special and professional qualifications the popular judgment is less fitted to estimate, there are none in whose case absolute impartiality, and freedom from connection with politicians or sections of politicians, are of any thing like equal importance. ”

“ In selecting the individuals described in paragraph (1) for nomination for appointment to the position of Governor, the President should consult with the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the minority leader of the House of Representatives, the majority leader of the Senate, and the minority leader of the Senate. ”

“ Every member of the Public Service Commission shall hold office for a period of five years from the date of his appointment, unless he earlier resigns his office by a writing under his hand addressed to the President, or is removed from office by the President for cause assigned, but shall be eligible for reappointment. ”

“ In order to lay a due foundation for that separate and distinct exercise of the different powers of Government, which to a certain extent is admitted on all hands to be essential to the preservation of liberty, it is evident that each department should have a will of its own; and consequently should be so constituted, that the members of each should have as little agency as possible in the appointment of the members of the others. ”

“ Either, as in the American republic, the head of the executive must be elected by some agency entirely independent of the representative body; or the body must content itself with naming the prime minister, and making him responsible for the choice of his associates and subordinates. ”

“ Parliament does not nominate any minister, but the crown appoints the head of the administration in conformity to the general wishes and inclinations manifested by Parliament, and the other ministers on the recommendation of the chief; while every minister has the undivided moral responsibility of appointing fit persons to the other offices of administration which are not permanent. ”

“ Each Governour or President of a State shall hold his office until a successor be actually appointed, unless he die, or resign or be removed from office by conviction on impeachment. There shall be no appointment of such Governor or President in the Recess of the Senate. ”

“ Under the constitution, the President and heads of departments are to make nominations for office, the Senate is to advise, and consent to appointments, and the House of Representatives is to accuse and prosecute faithless officers. The best interest of the public service demands that these distinctions be respected; that Senators and Representatives who may be judges and accusers should not dictate appointments to office. ”

“ The president and vice president must be native-born citizens, 35 years of age, and 14 years resident within the United States. The president is assisted by a cabinet of seven ministers, called the secretaries of state, of the treasury, of the interior, of war, and of the navy, the attorney general, and the postmaster general, who are nominated by him and confirmed by the senate. They receive $8,000 a year each. These are the heads of the seven executive departments of the government, viz., state, treasury, interior, war, navy, justice, and post office. ”

“ All subordinate public officers who are not appointed by some mode of public competition should be selected on the direct responsibility of the minister under whom they serve. The ministers, all but the chief, will naturally be selected by the chief; and the chief himself, though really designated by Parliament, should be, in a regal government, officially appointed by the crown. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Then a new allocation using this Constitution may proceed.
§ 6.3.⁠The Prime Minister will be chosen by the Privy Council in all conscience from those submitting to the election according to qualification. The certificate of appointment shall be issued by the Sovereign and the Privy Council. After accepting the office, the Prime Minister – as do all Ministers appointed by him (see § 21, Section 1) – will take the oath on the Constitution. ”

“ The manner of appointing a Minister, as also the manner of acquainting a colleague that his services are no longer required, varies with different Premiers. One may be as curt in his methods of appointment as another is in his mode of dismissal. ”

“ In the event of the President's death, incapacitation, or resignation, the Council is authorized to act as head of the state until the National Assembly shall have chosen a successor. As a cabinet the ministers formulate the fundamental policies of the Government and represent it in the chambers. The Council is administrative and is expressly recognized by law; the Cabinet is political and is not so recognized. In the meetings of the Council the President of the Republic not only sits, but presides; in those of the Cabinet he rarely even appears. ”

“ There is a class of government positions which are not within the letter of the civil-service statute, but which are so disconnected with the policy of an administration that the removal therefrom of present incumbents, in my opinion, should not be made during the terms for which they were appointed, solely on partisan grounds, and for the purpose of putting in their places those who are in political accord with the appointing power. ”

“ Each cabinet officer, again, controls his own department pretty much as he pleases, without consultation with the President or with his coadjutors, and often in the face of determinations which have been reached by the others. ”

“ A fourth [fifth] period in the history of the appointing power is to come—a reformed period; when the chief Executive can boast like the great Premier that his sole patronage is the appointment of his private secretary; when every legislator can say, with a leading member of the House of Commons, that he is without power to influence in the smallest degree the appointment of a custom-house officer or an exciseman; when both Executive and Congress, freed from their duties of dispensing office, can turn their attention to more important questions of state ”

“ 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. ”

“ The circumstances of the body authorized to make the permanent appointments would, of course, have governed the modification of a power which related to the temporary appointments; and as the National Senate is the body, whose situation is alone contemplated in the Clause upon which the suggestion under examination has been founded, the vacancies to which it alludes can only be deemed to respect those officers in whose appointment that body has a concurrent agency with the President. ”

“ The Senate guards jealously its right to determine whether an appointee is properly to be considered as belonging to any one of the twenty-one stipulated categories, and if it decides that he is not thus eligible, he is refused a seat. But as long as the sovereign keeps clearly within the enumerated classes, no practical limitation can be placed upon his power of appointment. [546] In practice, appointment by the king has meant regularly appointment by the ministry commanding a majority in the lower chamber ”

“ The President is empowered to nominate four persons of the Council to be his Deputies, and supply his place in case of sickness or absence, and the President, Council, Fellows, or any twenty-one or more, are empowered to make statutes, rules, orders and by-laws, for the government and direction of the said Society, their estates, goods, &c. ”

“ The two capital departments of government, the legislative and executive, in which the delegated power resides, consisting of the President, Vice-President, Senate and Representatives, are directly, and by the respective legislatures and delegates, chosen by the people. ”

“ The executive, therefore, ought to be so constituted as to be the great protector of the mass of the people. It is the duty of the executive to appoint the officers, and to command the forces, of the republic—to appoint, first, ministerial officers for the administration of public affairs ”

“ As the Cabinet is the subject of frequent discussions here, I have now and then mentioned Walker's name, and in every instance the unanimous judgment was that his appointment would be almost too good a thing to hope for. I can only add that such an appointment would be hailed by every well-wisher of the Republic in general and your Administration in particular with the greatest satisfaction, while the appointment of any man of indifferent or doubtful qualifications to so enormously difficult and responsible a position would be likely to become the cause of great regret to you. ”

“ But the power of appointment to other offices and the revisionary check on legislation were no sooner annexed to the executive office, than it was perceived that some provision must be made for obviating the effects of its dependence on the legislative branch. An executive chosen by the legislature must be to a great extent the creature of those from whom his appointment was derived. ”

“ The invariable rule in appointments should have reference to the honesty, fidelity, and capacity of the appointees, giving to the party in power those places where harmony and vigor of administration require its policy to be represented, but permitting all others to be filled by persons selected with sole reference to the efficiency of the public service, and the right of all citizens to share in the honor of rendering faithful service to the country. ”

“ Furnished with these qualifications, and not being liable to lose their office from the accidents of home politics, they identify their character and consideration with their special trust, and have a much more permanent interest in the success of their administration, and in the prosperity of the country which they administer, than a member of a cabinet under a representative constitution can possibly have in the good government of any country except the one which he serves. ”