Presidency, 1789-1989 

Office of the President

The Constitution of the United States grants broad, sweeping powers to the office of the President, including the responsibility for executing the laws of the land, acting as commander-in-chief of the armed forces, requiring written reports from the principal officers of each executive office, providing information to Congress and the nation through a state-of-the-union report and other messages as needed, and recommending to Congress "measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient" (U.S. Constitution, Article II, Section 3). In addition, the President acts with Congress to approve or veto legislation, and with the advice and consent of the Senate nominates principal officials of the executive branch and judiciary and ratifies and proclaims treaties.

Addresses, Messages, Speeches

Article II, Section 3 of the Constitution requires that the President "shall from time to time give to the Congress information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient." Presidential messages include all communications to Congress, including the state-of-the-union address, inaugural addresses, and veto messages. Early messages are in the American State Papers. Most are also printed in the United States Congressional Serial Set documents series. The Congressional Record and its predecessors always contain presidential messages addressed to Congress, and are indexed under "President of the United States." An early effort to compile the formal messages of the President was published by Congress in a House Miscellaneous Document, Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the President, 1789-1897. The government again authorized an official compilation of Public Papers of the Presidents in 1957 beginning with Dwight Eisenhower. It retrospectively includes Herbert Hoover and President Truman. Compilations for Franklin Roosevelt and earlier presidents have been published commercially. Since 1965, the Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents includes all Presidential communications, written and oral, including addresses and remarks, news conferences, White House press releases, letters, telegrams, etc.

Brief bibliography:

Morehead, Joe. Introduction to United States Government Information Sources.  Libraries Unlimited, Inc., 1999. (Government Publications Reference ZA5055.U6 M67 1999)

Schmeckebier, Laurence F. and Roy B. Eastin. Government Publications and their Use. Brookings Institution, 1969. (Government Publications Reference Z1223.Z7 S3 1969)

Executive Orders and Proclamations

Executive Orders and Proclamations come from the President, have the force of law, and are as important as laws, but are not vetted through the legislative process.  Executive Orders and Proclamations have never been defined by law or regulation, but the President claims the power to issue Executive Orders and Proclamations under implicit or explicit powers granted by the Constitution, or assumed as power delegated by Congress in order to carry out existing legislation. While no law distinguishes Executive Orders and Proclamations, Executive Orders deal primarily with the conduct of government business and  the implementation of the duties and responsibilities of the executive departments and agencies. Generally, Proclamations are of widespread interest addressed to the public at large.  Many are celebratory, such as the declaration of Thanksgiving, others are more famous such as Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation.

Before the Federal Register Act of 1935 that created the current filing and publication system for Executive Orders and Proclamations, there was no standard collection and organization.  The United States Department of State was the official depository of Executive Orders, and in 1907, the department began arranging them in chronological order and numbering them.  However, the Department only included the Executive Orders in their possession.  Thousands more were discovered by the Congressional Information Service (CIS) when they compiled their index and microfiche collection of Presidential Executive Orders and Proclamations, 1789-1983. Since 1936 Executive Orders and Proclamations have been printed in the first section of the daily Federal Register. These are cumulated annually in the Code of Federal Regulations, Title 3, the President. In addition, multi-year cumulations of Title 3 of the Code of Federal Regulations have been issued periodically including 1936-1938, 1939-1942, 1943-1948, 1949-1953, 1954-1958, 1959-1963, 1964-1965, 1966-1970, 1971-1975. Probably the best source to use in researching Proclamations and Executive Orders for the years covered is the one volume Codification of Presidential Proclamations and Executive Orders, 1945-1989 which includes any Executive Orders issued between these dates as well as pre-1945 Executive Orders if they were affected or changed in the time period covered.

Brief bibliography:

Johnson, Nancy. "Presidential Legislation," Legal Reference Services Quarterly 2 (Spring 1982): 3-11.

Morehead, Joe. Introduction to United States Government Information Sources.  Libraries Unlimited, Inc., 1999. (Government Publications Reference ZA5055.U6 M67 1999)

Woodward, Mary. "Executive Orders: A Journey," Legal Reference Services Quarterly 10 (1990): 129-134.

Federal Budget and Economic Indicators

Article I, Section 9, Clause 7 of the Constitution requires that a "regular account of the receipts and expenditures of all public money shall be published from time to time." While the Constitution gives Congress all power to raise and expend revenue, the President sets policy through the Constitution's broad injunction to "recommend to their [Congress] consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient." In addition, in 1921 Congress required the President to submit to Congress, a plan of proposed expenditures for the executive agencies. Each fiscal year, through the budget, the President states exactly how he stands on major policy issues. Since 1922, the Budget has been issued in a series of related, but separately published documents or as a single document with several parts. Budget documents contain budget statements, estimates of appropriations for government services, estimates of revenues and receipts, and comparative tables. The Budget document usually presents the President's proposals for revenue and spending. The Appendix to the Budget provides detailed budget estimates by agency. The Historical Tables provide data on receipts, outlays, surpluses, and deficits over time. Budget documents before and after 1921 have been issued as House Documents in the United States Congressional Serial Set. In addition, since 1922 the budget has also been published annually by the Bureau of the Budget.

The Economic Report of the President and Economic Indicators have been issued annually since 1947 to inform Congress of the economic accomplishments of the year and review economic conditions.

Brief bibliography:

Boyd, Anne Morris. United States Government Publications. H.W. Wilson Company. 1949. (Government Publications Reference Z1223.Z7 B7 1950)

Morehead, Joe. Introduction to United States Government Information Sources. Libraries Unlimited, Inc., 1999. (Government Publications Reference ZA5055.U6 M67 1999)

Morehead, Joe. Introduction to United States Public Documents. Libraries Unlimited, Inc., 1978. (Stacks Z1223.Z7 M67 1978)

Zwirn, Jerrold. Congressional Publications: A Research Guide to Legislation, Budgets, and Treaties. Libraries Unlimited, Inc., 1983.

Treaties and International Agreements

Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution grants the President the power "by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur." The power of the President to make treaties is shared with the Senate (see Legislative Branch Publications - Senate Advice and Consent-Treaties). The making of treaties involves a series of steps beginning with the negotiation and signing of the treaty with foreign countries and until 1871 Indian tribes, referral to the Senate for approval, then return to the President for ratification and proclamation.  Treaties are not in force until they have been proclaimed into law by the President. Treaties remain "unperfected," not in force, for a variety of reasons: the President may not submit signed treaties to the Senate for approval, the Senate may never take action on the treaty, the Senate may make changes to the treaty that are unacceptable to the President or the countries involved, or participating countries have not acted on treaties once proclaimed by the President. Of treaties submitted to the Senate in the first 200 years, 90% have been approved by the Senate.  Since 1789 only 21 treaties have been rejected by Senate vote.

Basically, the difference between a treaty and Executive or International Agreement is that any agreement (by whatever name, e.g. protocol, convention, agreement, treaty) that is submitted to the Senate for approval is a treaty, all others are agreements. The President claims authority to enter into international agreements with other countries without the advice and consent of the Senate by statutory authority, by a prior treaty provision, or by implied power granted to the executive by the Constitution. While international agreements have been used since the first decade of the nation, the number of international agreements has increased significantly after World War II so that now executive agreements far outnumber treaties.  With the increase in United States business dealings and contacts with other countries and the slow process of treaty negotiation and Senate approval, Congress has authorized the executive branch to conclude international agreements in certain fields such as trade, foreign aid, and agriculture and have included the authorization to make further agreements between parties in approved treaties.

A treaty or international agreement once "in force" becomes part of the law of the land. As such all Indian treaties and treaties with foreign countries have been printed in the Statutes at Large from 1789 to 1950 when a new series, United States Treaties and other International Agreements (UST) became the equivalent for the Statutes at Large for treaties, i.e., a chronologically bound cumulation of treaties in force.  Various compilations of treaties have been printed over the years, but the latest cumulation Treaties and Other International Agreements of the United States of America, 1776-1949 compiled by Bevans became the definitive edition of United States treaties and agreements up to the beginning of the UST. There is currently a time lag of about 20 years in the UST. Treaties and international agreements are issued in pamphlet form in the Treaties and Other International Acts Series (TIAS) and serve as the official version until replaced by the cumulative bound UST. Treaties in Force is an annual bibliographic record of all bilateral and multilateral treaties and agreements currently in force.

Prior to 1871 formal treaties were made with Indian tribes. These were compiled in Kappler's Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties. After March 1871 no other Indian tribe was recognized for treaty purposes.

Brief bibliography:

Treaties (United States Senate)

Morehead, Joe. Introduction to United States Government Information Sources.  Libraries Unlimited, Inc., 1999. (Government Publications Reference ZA5055.U6 M67 1999)

Schmeckebier, Laurence F. and Roy B. Eastin. Government Publications and their Use. Brookings Institution, 1969. (Government Publications Reference Z1223.Z7 S3 1969)

Treaties and International Agreements - Diplomatic Correspondence

In addition to official treaties and international agreements, there are collections of official papers relating to the foreign relations of the United States, including communications to and from the President along with officials from the State and Defense departments and other foreign affairs agencies. Early correspondences and documents relating to foreign affairs were collected first as part of the American State Papers Foreign Relations series and then issued as part of the United States Congressional Serial Set (see IPFW's guide to the United States Congressional Serial Set, 1789-1989). In 1861 the Department of State began issuing its series Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers. This is an invaluable collection of official papers relating to foreign affairs. The aim of this series is to include all documents needed to give a comprehensive record of the major foreign policy decisions, but its contents are edited to remove materials that might impede current diplomatic negotiations or relations and confidential or offensive material. This series is duplicated in the early twentieth century in the Serial Set. The series is issued chronologically by country or geographic region. Currently there is a 30-40 year time lag in the printing of the series. The Department of State Bulletin, published weekly from 1939 to 1978 and then monthly until 1989, provides access to contemporaneous communications such as press releases, speeches, official statements of policy, news conferences, texts of documents, and authoritative articles. The American Foreign Policy Current Documents series beginning in 1956 compiled major foreign affairs messages, addresses, statements, interviews, press conferences, briefing reports, congressional testimony and other communications from the White House, State Department and other federal agencies.

Brief bibliography:

Morehead, Joe. Introduction to United States Government Information Sources.  Libraries Unlimited, Inc., 1999. (Government Publications Reference ZA5055.U6 M67 1999)

Schmeckebier, Laurence F. and Roy B. Eastin. Government Publications and their Use. Brookings Institution, 1969. (Government Publications Reference Z1223.Z7 S3 1969)