INSTRUMENTALITIES FOR FOREIGN RELATIONS. 407 



by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate but 

 emergency appointments below the rank of colonel have been vested 

 in the President alone. ■*'^ Promotion and retirement are provided 

 for by detailed acts of Congress. All military officers are commis- 

 sioned by the President and he has the power of removal, though 

 in the Army and Navy this power is exercised only through courts- 

 martial. As Commander-in-Chief, the President exercises the power 

 of directing all the military and naval services.*^ 



234. Organization of the Department of State. 



The Department of State is peculiarly under control of the 



President. It was organized by an act of 1789 and, differing from 



other departments, is not required to make any reports to Congress. 



" It is," says Senator Spooner, of Wisconsin, " a department which from 

 the beginning the Senate has never assumed the right to direct or control, 

 except as to clearly defined matters relating to duties imposed by statute and 

 not connected with the conduct of foreign relations. We direct all the 

 other heads of departments to transmit to the Senate designated papers or 

 information. We do not address directions to the Secretary of State, nor 

 do we direct requests, even to the Secretary of State. We direct requests to 

 the real head of that department, the President of the United States, and, 

 as a matter of courtesy, we add the qualifying words: 'if in his judgment 

 not incompatible with the public interest.' " ^^ 



Though Senate confirmation of the appointment of the Secretary 

 of State is required, yet, as in the case of other cabinet officers, it 

 is never withheld. As " real head of that department " the Presi- 

 dent has never tolerated a lack of political harmony with the Secre- 

 tary of State. Thus in 1800 after President Adams had requested 

 Timothy Pickering to tender his resignation and no response had 

 been forthcoming he addressed him a note which " discharged him 

 from any further service as Secretary of State." President Wil- 

 son promptly accepted Secretary of State Lansing's resignation in 

 1920 when a divergence in policy became evident.*^ 



*<> Act May 18, 1917, sec. 8, 40 Stat. 81, as amended April 20, 1918; Comp. 

 Stat., sec. 2044b. 



<i Ex parte Milligan, 4 Wall. 2. 



*2 Senate Debate, Feb. 6, 1906, Cong. Rec, 40: 1419; Reinsch. Readings 

 in Am. Fed. Govt., p. 85; Corwin, op. cit., p. 176; Hunt, The Department of 

 State of the United States, 1914, pp. 84, 105. 



*^ Foster, A Century of Am. Diplomacy, p. 180; Lansing, The Peace Ne- 

 gotiations, 1921, p. 3. 



