Washington, June 12, 1807.

Dear Sir,

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The proposition in your letter of May the 16th, of adding an umpire to
our discordant negotiators at Paris, struck me favorably on reading it,
and reflection afterwards strengthened my first impressions. I made it
therefore a subject of consultation with my coadjutors, as is our usage.
For our government, although in theory subject to be directed by the
unadvised will of the President, is, and from its origin has been, a
very different thing in practice. The minor business in each department
is done by the Head of the department, on consultation with the
President alone. But all matters of importance or difficulty are
submitted to all the Heads of departments composing the cabinet;
sometimes by the President's consulting them separately and
successively, as they happen to call on him; but in the greatest cases,
by calling them together, discussing the subject maturely, and finally
taking the vote, in which the President counts himself but as one. So
that in all important cases the executive is, in fact, a directory,
which certainly the President might control: but of this there was never
an example either in the first or the present administration. I have
heard, indeed, that my predecessor sometimes decided things against his
council.

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I adopted in the present case the mode of separate consultation. The
opinion of each member, taken separately, was, that the addition of