In 1888 Congress constituted it a separate department,
but did not make its head a Secretary, and therefore not a Cabinet
officer.
The heads of the first eight of these departments together form a
council of eight, called the "Cabinet," whose duty it is, in addition to
the management of the departments, to advise the President on matters of
importance. For this purpose regular meetings are held, at which the
affairs of government are discussed, and lines of action decided upon.
The cabinet is neither the creation of the constitution, nor strictly of
law. The existence of a cabinet, however, was always taken for granted
in the discussion and formation of the constitution. It is a creation of
custom and has no powers other than of advice and counsel to the
President. The growth of executive and administrative business is not
fully indicated by the increase in the number of departments. The growth
within each department has been much greater. Separate bureaus and
divisions have been created, which in some cases are, for all practical
purposes, as independent and important as the departments themselves.
The organization of all the different departments is much the same. At
the head of each is an officer appointed by the President, the President
thus having control generally over the whole executive business of the
government. These officers are called Secretaries, except in the cases
of the Post Office Department, whose head is the Postmaster-General, and
of the Department of Justice, whose head is the Attorney-General.
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