The secret sessions of the Senate, in which they discuss the nominations of the President, are called Executive Sessions, because they then attend to executive business. The characters of persons nominated, are freely discussed. Sometimes what takes place during the discussions, transpires, and sometimes it remains under the seal of secrecy.

The secretaries are in England called ministers. In that country, they have usually a seat in parliament, and take a leading part in the legislation of the country; but in the United States, the executive department is more completely separated from the legislative, and the secretaries, or ministers, or members of the cabinet, have no seat in either branch of Congress. The annual salaries of the secretaries are $6,000 each.

CHAPTER LVI.

Secretary of State.

THE Secretary of State has an office near the President's house. This consists of a large edifice, containing many rooms, in which there are numerous clerks, all engaged in the business of the department. In these rooms, also, are deposited a library for the use of the department, and a multitude of papers and documents, which have accumulated for the last fifty years, belonging to the business of the office.

The main duty of the Secretary of State is to manage the negociations of foreign countries; to give instructions to our foreign ambassadors, to

charges and consuls, and to answer their letters; to receive the communications of the various foreign ambassadors who reside at Washington, and to answer them as directed by the President.

Beside this, the Secretary of State is charged with the preparation of the census of the United States, a general supervision of the Patent Office, and keeping the evidence of copyrights. He also has charge of the federal seal, and preserves the originals of the laws and of treaties.

The Secretary of State in this country is generally considered as the highest officer in the cabinet; he takes the rank of what is called Premier in England and France. His duties are of the. most important kind, requiring an intimate knowledge not only of our own, but of foreign countries. He not only is required to know the geographical position, the commerce, the resources, the character of foreign countries, but he must know the nature of their governments, the character and disposition of the king and ministers and leading men in each.

To this vast amount of knowledge, the secretary should add the greatest coolness and calmness of temper, and sagacity of mind. In managing affairs with the agents of foreign countries, called diplomacy, he must watch over every word and action, for peace and war depend upon his conduct. It has frequently happened, in the history of mankind, that an unlucky expression, or careless phrase, used by a Secretary of State, has involved powerful nations in all the horrors of war.

Several eminent statesmen have held this high office; as Thomas Jefferson, John Randolph, John Marshall and James Monroe, of Virginia;

John Pickering, John Quincy Adams, and Daniel Webster, of Massachusetts; Henry Clay of Kentucky; Edward Livingston, of Louisiana; and Martin Van Buren, of New York.

CHAPTER LVII.

Secretary of the Treasury.

THE Treasury Department is held in a large and handsome edifice, contiguous to the office of the Secretary of State. Here is a library, and a variety of subordinate offices, filled with books and papers. Here also is the office of the Treasurer, who has immediate charge of the public money; the Comptroller, who has the supervision of the public accounts; and several Auditors, whose duty it is to ' examine accounts. Beside these, there are in the department a multitude of clerks.

The Secretary of the Treasury presides over this whole department; the special duty assigned him is to watch over the money affairs of the government; to see to the collection of the revenue at the various custom houses and land offices; to see that the business is properly conducted at those places; to see to the disbursement of the public moneys, the payment of salaries, liquidation of contracts, &c.

His duty is also, to advise the President and Congress, as occasion may require, of the condition of the public finances: to look forward, and devise and recommend such plans, as may enable the government to raise the requisite amount of money in the manner least kurthensome to the people.

A Secretary of the Treasury should be a man of great arithmetical precision; familiar with the agriculture, trade, commerce, and manufactures of the country, and with their products; he should understand foreign commerce; whence various articles come; where they are produced, and whether they can advantageously be produced here or not.

It has been already stated that the money wanted by the government, is chiefly derived from duties laid on foreign goods and merchandises. These duties are in two forms-specific and ad valorem.

A specific duty is that which imposes a specific tax on a specific article; as three cents on a pound of cotton; one cent on a pound of iron; four cents on a pound of coffee.

An ad valorem duty is a tax according to value, as twenty per cent. on the cost or valuation of articles. When the duty is so much on the cost, then it is rated on the invoice; when it is according to valuation, appraisers belonging to the customhouse, appraise the goods, and the twenty per cent. is received on the amount of the appraisal.

All this business of collecting the duties is managed at the custom-houses. At the head of each custom-house is a collector, and under him, a surveyor of the port, naval officer, inspectors, measurers, appraisers, and a multitude of clerks. About five hundred persons are attached to the custom house at New York; and near a hundred to that at Boston.

When a vessel arrives at a port of the United States, she is entered by the captain on the books of the custom-house, and taken in charge, with her whole cargo, by the officers thereof-appointed to their several specific duties. An account is

taken of her cargo, and the duties fixed by law must be paid to the collector or his deputy. It is the money thus collected which forms the chief support of the government of the United States.

The watching over the several custom-houses of the country is a vast concern, and requires not only great capacity, and familiarity with financial affairs, but it also requires untiring industry, vigilance and care. Where there is money, there is danger of corruption. It is therefore indispensable that not only an honest but a sagacious man be at the head of the great money department of the government, so as to detect errors and punish fraud, and thus save the people from plunder.

There is another important thing to be considered, here. In laying duties upon foreign goods, we not only wish to collect revenues, but it is also thought by some politicians, to be the duty of the government to lay them in such a manner as to protect and encourage the industry of our own country. This can be done by laying duties on articles which we produce, such as butter, cheese, wool, beef, cotton cloths, woollen cloths, iron manufactures, &c.

If duties are laid on these articles as they come from foreign countries, they will either not be sent here at all, or the price of them will be raised, so as to give encouragement and protection to our own producers; it will drive away the foreign productions, or raise the price; thus giving the entire market, or a better market, to the productions of our home industry.

The rate of duties is called a tariff; and a protective tariff is such a rate of duties as is designed to protect and encourage our own producers; to