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states by roads and canals. The resolution was defeated without debate."

President John Quincy Adams in his first annual message to Congress, dated December 6, 1826, again called attention to the need of an additional executive department. He declared that "the Departments of Foreign Affairs and of the Interior, which early after the formation of the government had been united, continue so united to this time, to the unquestionable detriment of the public service." Referring to President Madison's recommendation for the establishment of another department, he said: "The exigencies of the public service and its unavoidable deficiencies, as now in exercise, have added yearly cumulative weight to the considerations presented by him as persuasive to the measure, and in recommending it to your deliberations I am happy to have the influence of his high authority in aid of the undoubting convictions of my own experience.""

A special committee was appointed in the House of Representatives, with Daniel Webster as chairman, to take into consideration this portion of the President's message." Webster called upon President Adams on December 16, to obtain his views with respect to the establishment of a new executive department. Adams' reply to his request for information, as recorded in the President's diary, was as follows: "I said if it was possible in

18 Cong. 2 sess. (1824-25), Register of Debates, I, 740. Mr. Learned takes note of an article written by Judge A. B. Woodward, which appeared on April 24, 1824, in the "National Journal," entitled On the Necessity and Importance of a Department of Domestic Affairs, in the Government of the United States. Judge Woodward, who seems to have been a writer of note upon the subject of administration, outlined an elaborate plan for the organization of such a department, which should include eight bureaus or divisions, namely, Science and Art, Public Economy, Posts, Public Lands, Mint, Patents, Indian Affairs, and Justice, each in charge of a Commissioner. In the Bureau of Public Economy he proposed to place the superintendence and execution of internal improvements, and such other matters as the care of unsettled public lands, conservation of forests, slavery, mines, fisheries and general police. "The scheme attracted widespread notice," says Learned," and gained favorable comment here and there. But it lacked simplicity and failed to impress men high in administrative circles with its feasibility."-Learned, op. cit., 266-67.

"Messages and papers of the presidents, II, 314-15. President Adams indicates in his Diary that this proposal was carefully discussed by the Cabinet before it was made public. Cf. Memoirs of John Quincy Adams (ed. Adams), VII, 62-63.

"19 Cong. I sess. (1825-26), Register of Debates, 797.

any manner to obtain this from Congress it must be by a very short act, expressing in very general terms the objects committed to it -the internal correspondence, the roads and canals, the Indians and the Patent Office. I referred him to the papers of Judge Woodward on a Home Department in the National Journal, but observed that was a plan upon a scale much too large for the approbation of Congress, to begin with. I have indeed no expectation of success with this Congress for any such establishment even upon the simplest plan.'

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Soon after his interview with President Adams, Webster addressed a letter on the subject of a Home Department to each of the four heads of departments. Secretary of State Clay expressed his approval of the plan for a new department and stated at some length the causes which seemed to him to make necessary the establishment of a Home Department. Secretary of War Barbour emphasized the desirability of relieving the head of the War Department from the duties connected with administration of pensions and Indian affairs. Secretary of the Treasury Rush refrained from expressing any decided opinion, on the ground that he was too inexperienced in the business of his own department, while Secretary of the Navy Southard did not see any necessity for transferring any of the duties of his department." Clearly, the heads of departments were not as thoroughly convinced of the need for an additional department as were their predecessors in 1816. As it was proposed to take almost entirely from the Departments of State and War the duties to be assigned to the new department, it was only natural that the heads of those two departments should have evinced the most interest in the proposal. Both President Adams and Secretary Clay, although convinced of the necessity for such a department, were extremely skeptical as to the attitude Congress would take toward it."

President Jackson also was impressed with the need for an additional executive department, although convinced that it would be futile to propose again such a measure to Congress. In his annual message of December 8, 1829, he commented upon this subject as follows: "The great and constant increase of business

18 Memoirs of John Quincy Adams, VII, 84.

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10 Ibid., VII, 108-09. Cf. 21 Cong. I sess. (1829-30), S. ex. doc. 109. Memoirs of John Quincy Adams, VII, 63.

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in the Department of State forced itself at an early period upon the attention of the Executive. Thirteen years ago it was, in Mr. Madison's last message to Congress, made the subject of an earnest recommendation, which has been repeated by both of his successors; and my comparatively limited experience has satisfied me of its justness. It has arisen from many causes, not the least of which is the large addition that has been made to the family of independent nations and the proportionate extension of our foreign relations. The remedy proposed was the establishment of a home department—a measure which does not appear to have met the views of Congress on account of its supposed tendency to increase, gradually and imperceptibly, the already too strong bias of the federal system toward the exercise of authority not delegated to it. I am not, therefore, disposed to revive the recommendation, but am not the less impressed with the importance of so organizing that department that its Secretary may devote more of his time to our foreign relations. Clearly satisfied that the public good would be promoted by some suitable provision on the subject, I respectfully invite your attention to it." "

The only effort made in Congress to comply with the President's suggestion was the introduction of a bill designed to reorganize the Attorney General's Office, which provided for the transfer to that office, from the Department of State, of the work of the Patent Office. The bill was defeated, partially through the efforts of those who insisted on the necessity of establishing a Home Department."

No further attention was paid to this subject until 1845, when President Polk, in his first annual message to Congress, again emphasized the increased amount of public business which devolved on the heads of the several executive departments. "In some respects," said Polk, "the distribution of duties among them. seems to be incongruous, and many of these might be transferred from one to another with advantage to the public interest." He particularly called attention to the desirability of relieving the Secretary of State from the duty of supervising the work of the Patent Office, and recommended the transfer of that bureau to the Attorney General's Office." Congress failed to give heed to

"Messages and papers of the presidents, II, 461-62.

"21 Cong. I sess. (1829-30), Register of Debates, VI, Pt. 1, 276, 322-24.

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*Messages and papers of the presidents, IV, 414-15.

the recommendations of President Polk, however, possibly due, in part at least, to the advent of the war with Mexico.

Three years later, Secretary of the Treasury Walker, in his annual report to Congress, dated December 9, 1848, after pointing out the need for certain alterations in the organization of the executive departments, emphasizing particularly the defects in the organization of his own department, presented a definite plan for the establishment of a new department, which should be placed in charge of an officer "to be called the Secretary of the Interior, inasmuch as his duties would be connected with those branches of the public service . . . associated with our domestic affairs." He proposed to transfer from the Treasury Department to this new department the work of the General Land Office, and the supervision of the accounts of United States district attorneys and marshals. From the War Department, he recommended the transfer of the office of Indian Affairs and the Pension Office, and from the State Department, the supervision of the Patent Office."

Establishment of Department of the Interior. A bill for the purpose of organizing a Department of the Interior was introduced in the House of Representatives on February 12, 1849, by the Chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means, who stated that it had been prepared by Secretary Walker at the special request of the committee. Consequently the measure embodied, in the main, the ideas of that officer, as outlined in his report submitted two months before. The bill encountered considerable opposition in both Houses of Congress. It was argued that to create a new department would increase considerably the federal patronage, that it would certainly add another cabinet officer to the government, and finally, that it meant the further extension of federal authority to the detriment of the states. On the contrary, those who favored the measure called attention to the repeated recommendations of former Presidents for the establishment of a Home Department, and contended that the creation of a new department was not aimed at an extension of federal power, but rather sought to reorganize the administrative departments in an effort to promote increased efficiency in their operation."

34 30 Cong. 2 sess. (1848-49), H. ex. doc. 7, 35-37.

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30 Cong. 2 sess. (1848-49), Congressional Globe, XVIII, 514, 516, 543, 670-80.

The bill passed both the House and the Senate and was signed by President Polk, on March 3, 1849. That the measure did not meet with the approval of the President is evidenced by the following extract taken from his diary and written several weeks after he had signed the bill: "I had serious objections to it, but they were not of a constitutional character and I signed it with reluctance. I fear its consolidating tendency. I apprehend its practical operation will be to draw from the states, where the Constitution has reserved it, and to extend the jurisdiction and power of the U. S. by construction to an unwarrantable extent. Had I been a member of Congress I would have voted against it." "

Organization. The act of 1849 provided for the creation of a new executive department, to be called the Department of the Interior; the head of which should be called the Secretary of the Interior. The appointment of the chief officer in the new department was vested in the President, with the consent of the Senate. and his tenure of office and salary were to be the same as those of the secretaries of the other executive departments. The act further provided for the transfer to the new department, from the Department of State, of the Patent Office and the supervisory power exercised by the Secretary of State over the acts of marshals and others in taking and returning the census; the General Land Office, from the Treasury Department, together with the supervisory power exercised by the head of that department over the accounts of the marshals, clerks, and other officers of the United States courts, and over the lead and other mines of the United States and the accounts of the agents thereof; the Offices of Commissioner of Indian Affairs and Commissioner of Pensions, from the War Department; and the supervisory power exercised by the President over the Commissioner of Public Buildings. The Secretary of the Interior was also authorized to exercise a supervisory power and control over the board of inspectors and warden of the penitentiary of the District of Columbia. The appointment of a chief clerk by the Secretary of the Interior was authorized, and the President was directed, upon the recommendation of the Secretary, to transfer to the new department such clerks in the office of the Secretary of the

"The diary of James K. Polk during his presidency (ed. Quaife), Chicago Historical Society, Collections, IX, 371-72.

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