The first session of the Fifty-first Congress (1889-90) was, with one exception, the longest ever held.[1] During the session there were introduced in the House 12,402 bills and joint resolutions, and in the Senate 4,570, making a total of 16,972. The total number of acts passed was 1,335 as against 1,790 for both sessions of the Fiftieth Congress. Of these 881 were pension bills.
[Footnote 1: The longest session was the long session of the Fiftieth
Congress.]
Congress ordinarily assembles at noon, and remains in session until 4 or 5 p.m., though towards the end of the term it frequently remains in session until late in the night. The first thing upon assembling in the morning is prayer. On Mondays, as stated, there is next a roll-call of States for the introduction of bills. Sometimes a committee is instructed to prepare and bring in a bill of its own, without waiting to have one introduced and referred to it. Reports from committees are heard during morning hours on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and on Mondays after the introduction of bills. Friday is a day usually set apart for the consideration of private measures. On Saturdays Congress seldom sits.
There is still one feature of Congressional government which needs explanation, and that is the caucus. A caucus is the meeting of the members of one party in private, for the discussion of the attitude and line of policy which members of that party are to take on questions which are expected to arise in the legislative halls.
Thus, in Senate caucus, is decided who shall be members of the various committees. In these meetings is frequently discussed whether or not the whole party shall vote for or against this or that important bill, and thus its fate is decided before it has even come up for debate in Congress.
CHAPTER X.
The Cabinet and Executive Departments.
We have seen that the functions of government are divided into three distinct classes, the legislative, the judicial, and the executive. The Constitution provides as to the methods for the exercise of the first two, but none for the third. The only reference in the constitution to executive departments is in Art. II, Sec. 2, where the President is given the power to require the opinion in writing of the principal officer in each executive department upon any subject relating to the duties of his office. The departments have in each case been created by an act of Congress and from time to time as convenience has demanded.
The duties of the executive are to enforce and apply the laws of the nation after they are made by the legislature and interpreted by the courts. This is the real business of government, by which the laws are put into effect, and the work of government is actually carried on. In the United States Government this power is placed in the hands of a body of men distinct from the legislative and judicial officers. At the head is the President, and hence his title of "Chief Executive." It is evident that he must divide up the vast amount of work to be done, and delegate it to others. Congress directs how this shall be done. For this purpose Congress has created nine executive departments (1)State, (2)Treasury, (3)War, (4)Navy, (5)Interior, (6)Post Office, (7)Justice, (8)Agriculture, (9)Labor.
These departments have been created as required by the growth of government duties. Three departments, the State, Treasury and War, were created by the first Congress, in 1789. By the same Congress was created the office of Attorney-General of the United States, who, together with the Secretaries of the three departments, constituted President Washington's first cabinet. The Navy Department was added in 1798. Prior to that date, naval affairs had been managed by the War Department. A Post Office for the colonies was established by the Postal Act of Queen Anne's reign. The Post Office Department under the present government was established in 1789, but the Postmaster-General did not become a Cabinet officer until 1829. The Interior Department was created in 1849 by grouping together in one department several branches of the government service, which had formerly been distributed among the other departments. As early as 1839 the Patent Office, under the Interior Department, was intrusted with various duties concerning the agricultural interests of the country, among the chief of which was the distribution of seeds. In 1862 a separate Department of Agriculture was established, and these duties transferred to it. In 1889 the head of the Department became Secretary of the Department of Agriculture and a Cabinet officer. A Bureau of Labor under the Interior Department was created in 1884. In 1888 Congress constituted it a separate department, but did not make its head a Secretary, and therefore not a Cabinet officer.