1054. CABINET, Verbal and Written Opinions.—[further continued].
The ordinary business of
every day is done by consultation between the
President and the head of the department
alone to which it belongs. For measures of importance
or difficulty; a consultation is held
with the heads of departments, either assembled,
or by taking their opinions separately in
conversation or in writing. The latter is
most strictly in the spirit of the Constitution:
because the President, on weighing the advice
of all, is left free to make up an opinion for
himself. In this way they are not brought together,
and it is not necessarily known to
any what opinion the others have given. This
was General Washington's practice for the
first two or three years of his Administration,
till the affairs of France and England threatened
to embroil us, and rendered consideration
and discussion desirable.—
To Dr. Walter Jones. Washington ed. v, 510.
Ford ed., ix, 273.
(M.
1810)
