heads of departments and other executive
("administrative") agencies of the National Government; fourthly, there
is the power which stems from the duty to enforce the criminal statutes
of the United States; finally, there are so-called "ministerial duties"
which admit of no discretion as to the occasion or the manner of their
discharge. Three principal questions arise: first, how does the
President exercise the powers which the Constitution or the statutes
confer upon him; second, in what relation does he stand by virtue of the
"take care" clause to the powers of other executive, or administrative
agencies; third, in what relation does he stand to the enforcement of
the criminal laws of the United States?

HOW THE PRESIDENT'S OWN POWERS ARE EXERCISED

Whereas the British monarch is constitutionally under the necessity of
acting always through agents if his acts are to receive legal
recognition, the President is presumed to exercise certain of his
constitutional powers personally. In the words of an opinion by Attorney
General Cushing in 1855: "It may be presumed that he, the man
discharging the presidential office, and he alone, grants reprieves and
pardons for offences against the United States, * * * So he, and he
alone, is the supreme commander in chief of the Army and Navy of the
United States, and of the militia of the several States when called into
the actual service of the United States. That is a power
constitutionally inherent in the person of the President. No act of
Congress, no act even of the President himself, can, by constitutional
possibility, authorize or create any military officer not subordinate to
the President."[374] Moreover, the obligation to act personally may be
sometimes enlarged by statute, as, for example, by the act organizing
the President with other designated officials into "an Establishment by
name of the Smithsonian Institute."[375] Here, says the Attorney
General, "the President's name of office is _designatio personae_." He
is also of opinion that expenditures from the "secret service" fund in
order to be valid, must be vouched for by the President personally.[376]
On like grounds the Supreme Court once held void a decree of a court
martial, because, though it has been confirmed by the Secretary of War,
it was not specifically stated to have received the sanction of the
President as required by the 65th Article of War.[377] This case has,
however, been virtually overruled, and at