ABSTRACT

The centralization of decision-making authority in an expanded White House staff is one of the most important institutional developments of the modern presidency. The question of how to organize the presidency presented itself first as a question of whether there should be one president or several. Babcock's role in the Grant White House was far more than "intermediator between the people and the President." In 1932, the last year of Hoover's presidency, the executive branch, not counting the post office and national defense, had fewer than 200,000 employees. A remarkable number of delegates at the Constitutional Convention favored a plural executive. The Constitution provided scant guidance as to how the president should be advised and the presidency organized. Although rarely remembered as an innovator, the former general was the first president to rely heavily on White House staff for policy and personnel advice.