UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 



5974 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 



The Federal Government 



General Characteristics. Originally the state 

 was the source of all authority; the national 

 government was created by the cooperation of 

 the states. By the Constitution of the United 

 States, the individual states, formerly separate 

 colonies, granted to the national government 

 all essential powers, and themselves agreed to 

 refrain from using those powers. Certain pow- 

 ers, therefore, are reserved to the state, and it 

 is this division of authority between the indi- 

 vidual state and the United States that makes 

 the latter a Federal government. 



The Three Branches. The Constitution di- 

 vides the powers and functions of the national 

 government among three coordinate branches, 

 known as the legislative, the executive and the 

 judicial departments. The lawmaking body is 

 the Congress of the United States; the execu- 

 tive is the President, assisted by his Cabinet; 

 and the judicial department is the Supreme 

 Court and the various lower Federal courts. 

 Though these three branches are practically in- 

 dependent, each is restricted by certain powers 

 of the others. Thus, the President has the 

 power of veto over any acts of Congress, and 

 he may also recommend new laws; Congress, 

 in turn, may impeach and convict the Presi- 

 dent or any other officer of the United States, 

 including judges. The Senate must confirm the 

 President's appointments of high officers and 

 must also approve treaties negotiated by the 

 President or by his Secretary of State. The 

 Supreme Court exercises a check on the powers 

 of Congress, because it may declare laws un- 

 constitutional. Though there are three separate 

 branches of the Federal government, it must 

 be remembered that these branches are not en- 

 tirely free to do as they please. 



Congress. The legal designation of the law- 

 making body is THE CONGRESS. It is composed 

 of two chambers, the House of Representatives 

 and the Senate. The House of Representatives 

 is composed of members apportioned among the 

 states according to population. Every ten 

 years, after the decennial census, the House 

 decides how many members it shall have during 

 the next ten-year period. In 1911 the number 

 was fixed at 433, which gives one Representa- 

 tive for 211,430 inhabitants; the addition of 

 members from the new states of Arizona and 

 New Mexico gave it 435 members. New York 

 has the largest number of Representatives, 

 forty-three, while Arizona, Delaware, Nevada, 

 New Mexico and Wyoming each have only one. 



Each state, no matter how small, has at least 

 one member in the lower House. (See chart, 

 page 4973.) 



The Senate is composed of two members 

 from each state, formerly chosen by the state 

 legislatures, but since the adoption of the Sev- 

 enteenth Amendment in 1913, elected by popu- 

 lar vote. The framers of the Constitution were 

 divided into two groups the small-state and 

 the large-state elements. The delegates from 

 the small states feared that the large states, 

 with their greater populations, would always 

 outvote the small states, if all representatives 

 in Congress were elected in proportion to popu- 

 lation; the delegates from the large states, on 

 the other hand, were unwilling to give the small 

 states, with less population, an equal voice with 

 the large states. A compromise was finally 

 effected, each state being represented by two 

 Senators and by Representatives whose number 

 should be determined according to population. 

 The Senators, chosen from the state at large, 

 were supposed to represent their states directly, 

 while the Representatives, chosen from Con- 

 gressional districts, were to represent more di- 

 rectly their particular localities. The powers of 

 these two houses are fully described in the arti- 

 cles CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES; SENATE; 

 REPRESENTATIVES, HOUSE OF. 



The President. The executive head of the 

 United States is the President, whose term of 

 office is four years. He is the commander-in- 

 chief of the army and the navy, he approves or 

 vetoes acts passed by Congress, and it is his 

 duty to see that the laws are properly obeyed 

 throughout the country. The Vice-President is 

 the presiding officer of the Senate; he pos- 

 sesses no executive powers unless the President 

 is prevented permanently from fulfilling his 

 duties. Assisting the President is the Cabinet, 

 composed of the heads of departments, all ap- 

 pointed by the President, with the approval of 

 the Senate. In Washington's Cabinet there 

 were only three members the Secretary of 

 State, the Secretary of the Treasury and the 

 Secretary of War. Washington also appointed 

 an Attorney-General and a Postmaster-General, 

 but these officers were not legally members of 

 his Cabinet. To these three original depart- 

 ments the following have been added: Navy, in 

 1798; Postoffice, in 1829; Interior, in 1849; 

 Justice, in 1870; Agriculture, in 1889; Com- 

 merce and Labor, in 1903. In 1913 this last 

 department was divided into the Department 



