This would, of course, make it requisite that cabinet officers should be
able to look after themselves on their feet. They would have to know
their Department and be ready to answer such questions as are put to
cabinet officers on the floor of Parliament.
President Wilson has inaugurated the policy of delivering his message to
Congress personally. I think that is a good innovation. A Democrat could
have made it, not a Republican. Washington had to go to Congress, so had
Adams, but when Jefferson came in he said, "No, that is monarchical, and
I will just write a letter to Congress," and so he did. Washington went
once to the Senate and attempted to have the Senate concur with him in a
treaty with the Indians. He took with him General Knox, who had
frequently dealt with Indians. John Quincy Adams, in his diary,
describes what happened as he learned it from a member of the Senate at
that time. He says that in the conference, Washington found that every
member of the Senate thought he knew more about the Indian treaty than
General Knox. Whereupon, he, the father of our country, who has been
represented as a model in every way, proved that he was no such "sissy"
as some of his historians would like to make him out.
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