His chief assistants.
d. The administration of the treasury department since 1789.

20. The duties of the remaining cabinet officers:--
a. Of the secretary of war.
b. Of the secretary of the navy.
c. Of the secretary of the interior.
d. Of the postmaster-general.
e. Of the attorney-general.

Section 4. _The Nation and the States._

We have left our Federal Convention sitting a good while at
Philadelphia, while we have thus undertaken to give a coherent account
of our national executive organization, which has in great part grown
up since 1789 with the growth of the nation. Observe how wisely the
Constitution confines itself to a clear sketch of fundamentals, and
leaves as much as possible to be developed by circumstances. In this
feature lies partly the flexible strength, the adaptableness, of our
Federal Constitution. That strength lies partly also in the excellent
partition of powers between the federal government and the several
states.

[Sidenote: Difference between confederation and federal union.]
We have already remarked upon the vastness of the functions retained
by the states. At the same time the powers granted to Congress have
proved sufficient to bind the states together into a union that is
more than a mere confederation. From 1776 to 1789 the United States
_were_ a confederation; after 1789 it was a federal nation. The
passage from plural to singular was accomplished, although it took
some people a good while to realize the fact. The German language
has a neat way of distinguishing between a loose confederation and a
federal union. It calls the former a _Staatenbund_ and the latter
a _Bundesstaat_. So in English, if we liked, we might call the
confederation a _Band-of-States_ and the federal union a _Banded-State_.
There are two points especially in our Constitution which transformed
our country from a Band-of-States into a Banded-State.

[Sidenote: Powers granted to Congress.]
The first was the creation of a federal House of Representatives, thus
securing for Congress the power to lay and collect taxes, duties,
imposts, and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common
welfare of the United States. Other powers are naturally attached to
this,--such as the power to borrow money on the credit of the United
States; to regulate foreign and domestic commerce; to coin money
and fix the standard of weights and measures; to provide for
the punishment of counterfeiters; to establish p