of Representatives that the Constitution creates diplomatic offices, and that the President can appoint as many men to fill them as he sees fit, subject, of course, to the foregoing limitations.

(5) MISCELLANEOUS POWERS.

Section 3.-He shall from time to time give to the Congress information of the state of the Union, and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on extraordinary occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and, in case of disagreement between them with respect to the time of adjournment, he may adjourn them to such time as he shall think proper; he shall receive ambassadors and other public ministers; he shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed, and shall commission all the officers of the United States.

483. THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE. The message delivered at the opening of the annual session of Congress, presents an outline history of the government for the year, with the President's views and recommendations, and is accompanied by the annual reports of the heads of Departments and by other documents collectively known as the Executive Docu- . ments. Special messages relate to questions that make special sessions necessary, or that arise in the course of such sessions. The communications in which the President nominates officers, and in which he gives the reasons why he refuses to sign bills, are also special messages.

Presidents. Washington and Adams delivered their annual addresses in person to the two Houses in joint assembly. Each House then made a formal reply to the address. This procedure was in imitation of the ceremony attending the opening of Parliament. President Jefferson adopted the simpler expedient, which his successors have followed, of sending to each House a copy of a written message, to be read by the clerk or secretary. President Washington sometimes met the Senate in person to confer upon executive business; and it was the original expectation that the relations of the Executive and the Upper House would be more intimate than they have proved to be in practice. Even

now, however, one of the standing rules of the Senate contains this clause: "When the President of the United States shall meet the Senate in the Senate Chamber for the consideration of executive business, he shall have a seat on the right of the Presiding Officer."

484. SPECIAL SESSIONS.-Presidents John Adams, Jefferson Madison, Van Buren, W. H. Harrison, Pierce, Lincoln, and Hayes all found it necessary to call such sessions. The Senate has often been called in special session to transact executive business, but the House of Representatives has never been called alone. It is now the custom for a President, a few days before he retires from office, to issue a proclamation calling the Senate together immediately following the inauguration of his successor. This gives the Senate an opportunity to elect a President pro tempore, and the President an opportunity to nominate his cabinet and other officers. No President has ever had occasion to adjourn Congress.

Parliament does not convene at a time fixed by law, or adjourn of its own motion. It is convened and prorogued by the Crown. However, the law requires that there shall be at least one session every year, and this commonly begins in February. The legal limit of a parliament is seven years, but this is rarely reached. The Crown has power to dissolve, as well as to convoke and prorogue, Parliament, and this it does almost invariably before the legal limit has expired. In such cases, writs of election for a new House of Commons must issue within forty days of the dissolution. The average life of a parliament in this century has been less than four years.

485. THE RECEPTION OF MINISTERS.-The reception of a minister is a formal acknowledgement of the country that he comes from as belonging to the family of nations. This is the practical effect of the President's reception, but Congress can no doubt reverse such recognition. No nation is obliged to receive as a minister any man whom another nation may choose to send to it; the man himself must be an accceptable person (persona grata). A minister, on arriving in Washington, sends his papers to the State Department, and in due time it is

signified to him that he will or will not be received. In the former case, he visits the White House accompanied by the Secretary of State, who introduces him to the President. He delivers an address to the President, and receives from him a reply. He thus becomes the accredited representative of his country to the United States.

486. THE RIGHT OF DISMISSAL.-A minister may be dismissed for various reasons. The two governments may no longer have a good understanding. Hence to send a minister his papers is considered equivalent to a declaration of war. The government to which the minister has been sent may no longer consider the country from which the minister comes as a nation. The minister may become an unacceptable person (persona non grata).

President Washington dismissed M. Genet, the French minister, in 1793, for meddling in political matters, and President Cleveland dismissed Lord Sackville, in 1888, for a similar offense. Several nations have recalled ministers on the request of ours. France recalled M. Poussin in 1849; England, Mr. Jackson in 1809, and Sir John Crampton in 1856, and Russia, M. Catacazy in 1872. 487. TO EXECUTE THE LAWS AND COMMISSION OFFICERS. -The President must see that the laws are faithfully executed. For this purpose he is clothed with ample power. He is the head of the Executive Department; he appoints officers; he is in close relations with Congress; he is commander-in-chief of the army and navy, and on emergencies can call out the militia of all the States. There is an obvious propriety in the Executive's commissioning all officers, civil, military, and naval.

CHAPTER XVII.

THE EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS.

ARTICLE II.

488. THE CREATION OF SUCH DEPARTMENTS ASSUMED.The first and second clauses of Section 2, Article II., quoted above, are the only clauses of the Constitution mentioning such departments. They assume that they will be created, and by implication confer power to create them. In fact, several such departments existed under the Confederation. The number, the names, and the functions of these departments were wisely left to the discretion of Congress. Eight have been created, and their history and organization throw much light on the growth of the government and on the distribution of executive business. The heads of the Executive Departments receive the same salary, $8,000.

489. THE DEPARTMENT OF STATE.-The Continental Congress took the first steps toward the creation of such a department. In 1775 it created the Committee of Foreign Correspondence, afterward called the Committee of Foreign Affairs; in 1781 it established the Department of Foreign Affairs which, presided over first by R. R. Livingston and then by John Jay, transacted the foreign business of the government down to 1789. In July of that year, Congress established a new department of the same name, but soon changed the name to Department of State, which it has since borne.

The Secretary of State's duties are not very strictly defined by law, and cannot be. Under the direction of the President

he executes duties relative to correspondence, commissions, or instructions to or with public ministers or consuls to or from the United States. The originals of treaties, laws, and foreign correspondence, together with the seal of the United States, which he affixes to documents that require it, are in his custody. He also authenticates the President's proclamations with his signature. But his principal business is to conduct the foreign affairs of the country, under the President's direction. The Department of State is the first of the departments in dignity; and the Secretary of State, sometimes called the Premier, in imitation of the English Premier, is the head of the Cabinet.

490. THE DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY.-The first steps leading to this department were also taken in 1775. In 1781 a Finance Department took the place of the Board of Treasury, that had taken the place of the Treasury Office of Accounts in 1778. Robert Morris, to whose financiering the country owed so much, was the first Superintendent of the Finance Department. The present department was established by Congress in September, 1789. It is the most complex and extensive of all the Executive Departments.

The Secretary of the Treasury cannot be a person engaged in trade or commerce. He proposes plans for the public revenues and credit; prescribes the form of keeping the public accounts; makes reports annually of the state of the National financies, and special reports from time to time as called upon, or as the exigencies of affairs require; superintends the collection of the revenue; issues warrants upon the treasury for money appropriated by law for various purposes, and performs all such duties connected with the fiscal business of the government as the law requires.

491. BUREAUS IN THE TREASURY DEPARTMENT.-There are in the department the offices of the First and Second Comptrollers; of First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Auditors;