The inchoate character of the Cabinet for a considerable period explains
what might otherwise seem to be an anomaly,--the delay of Jefferson in
occupying his post. He did not arrive until March 21, 1790, when
Washington had been in office nearly a year. But this situation occasioned
no remark. The notion that the heads of the departments formed a cabinet,
taking office with the President and reflecting his personal choice as his
advisers, was not developed until long after Washington's administration,
although the Cabinet itself, as a distinct feature of the system of
government, dates from his first term. The importance which the Cabinet
soon acquired is evidence that, even under a written constitution,
institutions owe more to circumstances than to intentions. The
Constitution of the United States is no exception to the rule that the
true constitution of a country is the actual distribution of power,
written provisions being efficacious only in the way and to the extent
that they affect such distribution in practice. Hence results may differ
widely from the expectations with which those provisions are introduced. A
constitution is essentially a growth and never merely a contrivance.



CHAPTER II


GREAT DECISIONS

While Washington was bearing with military fortitude the rigors and
annoyances of the imitation court in which he was confined, Congress
reached decisions that had a vast effect in determining the actual
character of the government. The first business in order of course was the
raising of revenue, for the treasury was empty, and payments of interest