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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 October 2013
A noted writer on political subjects, Woodrow Wilson, says in his Congressional Government: “Before the Republican reaction which followed the supremacy of the Federalists, the heads of the departments appeared in person before the Houses to impart desired information, and to make what suggestions they might have to venture, just as the President appeared in person to read his ‘address.’” This statement is one of a large number afloat, which assume that executive officers at one time enjoyed the privilege of speaking on the floors of Congress. Inasmuch as the basis of this impression is a few occurrences indistinctly recorded and still more vaguely cited, it may be worth while to discover from the sources whether they bear out any such view of the early practices of the government.
The occurrences which give color to such an impression may be divided into two groups. Into the first fall three transactions, in which there is no doubt that certain high Executive officers participated in person. The second includes a class of events, of which there are at least twenty, where the real significance of the thing that happened is not so clear on the surface.
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page 148 note * By the courtesy of the New England Genealogical Society.