nstitutional advisers,
and aid in the execution of his high functions. They are not held
responsible for good government, are not liable to votes of censure for
their policy, although for convenience sake, a kind of semi-official
connection subsists betwixt them and the Federal Legislature.

The "principal officer in each of the executive departments" has a
staff of subordinates. The various officers of the United States
constitute the machinery of government, and the appointment of a large
proportion of them is vested in the President. These various civil
officers, so appointed, are for the execution of public business. The
conduct of public business and the care of the public interests are,
under the President's supervision and control, largely committed to
these functionaries. With the growth of the country in territorial
area, population, and wealth, the enormous increase of taxation and
expenditures and the assumption by the Federal Government of State
duties and prerogatives, the number of officials has increased to
100,000. The civil list in 1859 numbered 44,527; in 1875, 94,119. The
rolls show a larger list of paid dependents since the war than there
was during the war. All these officers hold their places by the tenure
of the President's will. They are to be found in every neighborhood in
the Union, and constitute a large army, dangerous to the welfare and
perpetuity of the republic.

The theory is that all public offices are for administrative efficiency
and the public weal. Up to the beginning of General Jackson's term of
office, there had been, during the forty years of his six predecessors,
112 removals of such officers as required for their appointment "the
advice and consent of the Senate." These few removals were not made
from caprice, or to punish enemies, or to reward partisans, but for
cause and by strict rule. The power of removal was exerted so
exceptionally, only for just and salutary purposes, and was never used
as an instrument of party success. Public policy dictated its exercise.
Offices were not regarded as the private property of the President, or
as the perquisites of a party, but as trusts for the general good.

General Jackson's accession to the Presidency began a revolution.
Differences of opinion were punished by removal from office, and
partisanship was rewarded with places of profit. His successors have
adhered too closely to a precedent which has almost solidified into a
party law,