any rate such cases are
exceptional.[378]

The general rule, as stated by the Court, is that when any duty is cast
by law upon the President, it may be exercised by him through the head
of the appropriate department, whose acts, if performed within the law,
thus become the President's acts.[379] In Williams _v._ United
States[380] was involved an act of Congress, which prohibited the
advance of public money in any case whatever to disbursing officers of
the United States, except under special direction by the President.[381]
The Supreme Court held that the act did not require the personal
performance by the President of this duty. Such a practice, said the
Court, if it were possible, would absorb the duties of the various
departments of the government in the personal acts of one chief
executive officer, and be fraught with mischief to the public service.
The President's duty in general requires his superintendence of the
administration; yet he cannot be required to become the administrative
officer of every department and bureau, or to perform in person the
numerous details incident to services which, nevertheless, he is, in a
correct sense, by the Constitution and laws required and expected to
perform.[382] As a matter of administrative practice, in fact, most
orders and instructions emanating from the heads of the departments,
even though in pursuance of powers conferred by statute on the
President, do not even refer to the President.[383]

POWER AND DUTY OF THE PRESIDENT IN RELATION TO SUBORDINATE EXECUTIVE
OFFICERS

Suppose, that the law casts a duty upon a head of department _eo
nomine_, does the President thereupon become entitled by virtue of his
duty to "take care that the laws be faithfully executed," to substitute
his own judgment for that of the principal officer regarding the
discharge of such duty? In the debate in the House in 1789 on the
location of the removal power Madison argued that it ought to be
attributed to the President alone because it was "the intention of the
Constitution, expressed especially in the faithful execution clause,
that the first magistrate should be responsible for the executive
department"; and this responsibility, he held, carried with it the power
to "inspect and control" the conduct of subordinate executive officers.
"Vest," said he, "the power [of removal] in the Senate jointly with the
President, and you abolish at once the great principle of unity and
responsibility