2815. EXECUTIVE, Single and plural.—[continued].
If experience has ever
taught a truth, it is that a plurality in the
Supreme Executive will forever split in the
discordant factions, distract the nation, annihilate
its energies, and force the nation, to
rally under a single head, generally an usurper.
We have, I think, fallen on the happiest
of all modes of constituting the Executive,
that of easing and aiding our President,
by permitting him to choose Secretaries of
State, of Finance, of War, and of the Navy,
with whom he may advise, either separately
or all together, and remedy their divisions
by adopting or controlling their opinions at
his discretion; this saves the nation from the
evils of a divided will, and secures to it a
steady march in the systematic course which
the President may have adopted for that of
his administration.—
To M. Coray. Washington ed. vii, 321.
(M.
1823)
See President.
