every time he may be promoted (or reduced) and receive a new commission.

The Bureau of Appointments not only has charge of appointments to office, but of resignations, dismissals, and suspensions, and records the dismissals and suspensions. It was an irregular custom in the earlier days of the government for an officer who resigned to return the commission under which he served to the appointing power. When General Washington resigned as Commander-in-Chief of the American Army in 1783 he handed his commission to the President of Congress and it is now a part of the archives of the Continental Congress. When Robert Smith resigned as Secretary of State in 1811, he handed his commission to President Madison. are, or were, a number of resigned commissions among the archives of the Department. In 1831, when John Branch resigned as Secretary of the Navy under Andrew Jackson, he sent his commission to the President, who returned it, saying: "It is your own private property, and by no means to be considered part of the archives of the government. Accordingly I return it." There are no instances in recent years of the surrender of the commission. If a resigning officer should send the document to the President or the Department it would be the duty of either to return it to him.

There

Not only the resignations from office, but the applications and recommendations for office, are part of the archives of this bureau. These papers relate to all offices which are or were under the jurisdiction of

the Department, and are addressed to either the President or the Secretary of State. Some Presidents have filed all papers, even of the most intimate and confidential character, relating to appointments with the Department; but others have carried many such papers away as their personal correspondence. They form an interesting index to the attitude of public opinion towards executive offices. Applications and recommendations in the first administration fall under five heads.1

First, those which relate exclusively to the fitness of the applicant for the duties of the office, this group being much the largest.

Second, those in which the performance of military service constitutes one of the reasons advanced for asking for the office.

Third, those in which continuance in an office already existent under the old government is asked.

Fourth, those in which the necessitous circumstances of the applicant are advanced as a reason, and

Fifth, those in which the political opinions of the applicant are brought forward as a reason for his appointment.

The fifth group was much the smallest under Washington. It was still insignificant under John Adams; it became large and important under Thomas Jefferson; it sank into insignificance under James Madison, James Monroe, and John Quincy Adams, and loomed

1 See Calendar of Applications and Recommendations for Office During the Presidency of George Washington (Hunt), Government Printing Office, 1901.

into overweening proportions under Andrew Jackson. Thereafter it rose and fell, being always, however, large, until in the past thirteen years it has dwindled rapidly. Its size is, of course, affected by the political character of the Secretary of State as well as the President, some secretaries having been more active participants in dispensing patronage than others.

The applications under General Washington, being wholly of historical interest, were, in 1909, deposited by the Department in the Manuscripts Division of the Library of Congress.

It was a custom begun by General Washington, and generally observed thereafter until President Cleveland's second term in 1893, to answer no letters soliciting or recommending to office. Since then the correspondence on the Department's part has taken the briefest form, being no more than a line of acknowledgment of the receipt of the papers.

1 Works of John Adams, IX, 577; Writings of Jefferson (Ford), IX, 313.

CHAPTER XI

THE LAWS

ECTION 2 of the organic act of the Department

SECT

provided that every bill, order, resolution or vote of both houses of Congress which the President approved, or which he suffered to become effective without his approval, should be sent by the President to the Secretary of State; that every such document returned by him to Congress with his disapproval and then passed by a two-thirds vote should be sent by the Speaker of the House or the President of the Senate, according to which body it had originated in, to the Secretary of State; that he should as soon as possible cause it to be printed in at least three newspapers; should deliver one printed copy to each senator and representative; and should send two printed copies duly authenticated to the governors of all the states. He was to preserve the original laws carefully and cause them to be recorded in books.1

Thus there were to be: (1) the original laws; (2) the books of the recorded laws; (3) the laws printed in the newspapers; (4) the printed copies sent to the senators and representatives; and (5) the authenticated copies sent to the governors.

1 See Monthly Catalogue issued by the Superintendent of Documents, September, 1908, Introduction.

By joint resolution of June 14, 1790, treaties were ordered to be published in the same manner as the laws.1

The recording of the laws was neglected by the Department. John Quincy Adams writes November

9, 1819:

Looking over the laws of the United States, with a view to the regulations in them concerning weights and measures, I observed a law passed 15th September, 1789, requiring that the Secretary of State should have all the laws and resolutions of Congress recorded in books to be provided for the purpose. No such record has been kept for many years. I determined that this part of my duty should no longer be omitted, and gave Mr. Brent some directions for carrying it into effect.2

By Act of July 7, 1838, the requirement of recording the laws was repealed. The printing of the laws in newspapers to be selected by the Secretary of State gave him important power of patronage, and the solicitations for the printing are a considerable portion of the early correspondence of the Department. Only journals which favored the administration were selected to print the laws, and payment for the printing was a substantial remuneration to the favored papers. Under the Act of March 3, 1795,* the newspaper publication was abandoned; but it was revived by Act of March 2, 1799,5 and the patronage was extended by requiring the publication in at least one

11 Stat., 187.

2 Memoirs, IV, 435.

35 Stat., 302. + 1 Stat., 443. 5 1 Stat., 724.