CHAPTER II

ADMINISTRATIVE ORGANIZATION: 1775-1789

One of the most significant tendencies in the development of national administration in the United States is the change that has taken place in the system or method of administrative organization. Yet the great majority of books and articles dealing with the organization and functions of the executive departments in the national government give little attention to the general principles of administrative organization that have been applied to them throughout the history of the Republic. During the period from 1775 to 1789, when the thirteen colonies were engaged in their struggle to secure and maintain independence, three distinct types of administrative organization were successively adopted. Following the formation of the Union, Congress, after considerable debate, in which the ideas of the framers of the Constitution with respect to administrative organization and the experiences of the Confederation exercised an important influence, adopted the system of single-headed executive or administrative departments. The principle of single-headed control was followed, with but few exceptions, even in the various subdivisions of the departments, until the latter part of the nineteenth century; and the single-headed régime may still be said to be the dominant characteristic of national administration. This is in striking contrast to the system of state administration in the United States, where the system of board or multiple control under a great variety of forms is still a marked feature, in spite of the recent widespread movement among the states in the direction of administrative centralization.

Beginning with the establishment of the Civil Service Commission in 1883 and the Interstate Commerce Commission in 1887, many administrative boards and commissions have been set up in the national government, independent from, and outside of, the ten executive departments. This development has been amplified by the continued extension of administrative control over industry and commerce, involving the determination of rates and the adjudi

cation of disputes-powers which, in a democracy, are considered to be too vital to individual liberty and welfare to be exercised by a single individual. The number of these independent administrative commissions was greatly increased during the recent period of emergency, resulting from the entrance of the United States into the World War. It is proposed, within the limits of this monograph, to make a thorough study of these successive changes in national administrative organization, beginning with the organization effected by the Continental Congress in 1775.

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The development of executive departments in the United States during the period from 1775 and 1789 has been made the subject of an interesting and valuable study by Mr. J. C. Guggenheimer, which constitutes the third of a series of five essays in the constitutional history of the United States edited by Professor J. Franklin Jameson. It was with the avowed purpose of demonstrating the element of continuity in the development of American governmental institutions that this series of essays was written, and Mr. Guggenheimer's own contribution to this common aim or object was in seeking to secure "the acceptance of the general conclusion that the number of departments, and the principles upon which they were established under the Federal Congress, were determined altogether by their previous development." Consequently, Mr. Guggenheimer was essentially interested in tracing the lines of development within each particular department, and not in making a comprehensive study of the successive changes in administrative organization which were common to all the departments, such as is contemplated in the present monograph. Furthermore, the historical information submitted by Mr. Guggenheimer, whose work was published in 1889, has since been materially augmented by studies made of a particular branch of administration or of the historical development of the national administration as a whole, the writers of which have had access to a large number of public documents, pamphlets, and manuscripts which Mr. Guggenheimer gives no indication of having used in the preparation of his monograph. In addition to these sources of information, the writings of Revolutionary statesmen, many of which have been published since Mr. Guggenheimer's essay was written,

1 Guggenheimer, Development of the executive departments, 1775-1789, in Jameson, Essays in the constitutional history of the U. S., 184 (1889).

shed a great deal of light on the progress of events during the period under consideration. The writer of the present treatise has made extensive use of the latter source of information.

Because of the essential difference between the method of treatment proposed in this monograph and that adopted by Mr. Guggenheimer; because of recent and important contributions to our fund of historical data with reference to administration during the formative period of the United States; and, finally, because of the significance of this early period in connection with the establishment of executive or administrative departments under the Constitution, it seems advisable to undertake a thorough and detailed analysis of administrative organization during the years from 1775 to 1789, placing particular emphasis upon the various stages by which the early statesmen were led to the conviction that the adoption of a system of single-headed administrative control was a primary requisite to securing efficiency and responsibility in the administration of governmental affairs.

Administration by Committees and Boards. The Continental Congress which first convened at Philadelphia in May, 1775, soon came to realize the necessity of delegating its executive power. Naturally, the devices first resorted to were those which the Revolutionary statesmen had been accustomed to see amply serve similar ends in their respective colonies. Furthermore, as one writer points out, "the Congress was regarded as a temporary body, assembled for a temporary purpose; and consequently no need for a permanent executive was at first experienced. This was changed when independence was declared, but a serious obstacle yet stood in the way of the development of executive departments. It was through the royal officials in the old colonial governments that the oppression of Great Britain had been most seriously felt, and a widespread distrust of all executive power had grown up in the colonies. This influence was strong in the Continental Congress, and it long delayed the establishment of effective departments for the conduct of the business of the government."

Committees of Congress. The proper conduct of the war was the first problem of an executive and administrative character which

'Bullock, The finances of the United States from 1775 to 1789, with especial reference to the budget, University of Wisconsin, Bulletin, Economics, Political Science, and History Series, I, 189 (June, 1895).

Congress was called upon to meet. Resolving to place the colonies in a state of defence, a committee was appointed on May 27, 1775 to consider ways and means of securing ammunition and military stores. On June 3 a committee was appointed for the purpose of borrowing money with which to purchase gunpowder. A committee appointed on June 14 was directed to draw up rules for the government of the army, and ten days later a committee of seven was appointed to devise ways and means to put the militia in a proper state for the defense of America. Other important committees, such as the Medical Committee, appointed on September 14 to devise ways and means for supplying the army with medicines, the Secret Committee, appointed on September 18 to secure or provide for the manufacture of gunpowder, arms and cannon, and the Cannon Committee appointed on January 15, 1776, to estimate the number of cannon needed for the defense of the United Colonies and to devise ways and means for procuring the same, were charged with duties of a more permanent character. Thus the conduct of the war was first undertaken through the appointment of numerous committees, each charged with a particular duty and varying in number from three to thirteen, the latter number being usually selected for the more important committees, so that each colony might be represented.

Board of War and Ordnance. The impossibility of efficiently carrying on the war through the committee system soon became apparent, however, and Congress was compelled to concentrate executive authority with respect to military affairs in the hands of an administrative board or commission. Several of the colonies, for the direction of their own military affairs, had already found a suitable device in their Councils of Safety and Committees of Observation, which they had established upon the recommendation of the Continental Congress. These councils were composed of the most substantial citizens in each colony, who were charged with the direction and control of all military preparations in their respective colonies. Congress, on June 12, 1776, after an urgent

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Journals of the Continental Congress, II, 67, 79, 90, 106, 250, 253; IV, 55. On July 18, 1775, Congress recommended that each colony should appoint a committee of safety. to superintend and direct all matters necessary for their security and defense, in the recess of their assemblies and conventions. Journals of the Continental Congress, II, 189.