The presidency, intended by the framers of the Constitution to be almost exclusively an executive and administrative office, has, in the course of a century and a quarter, not only augmented its executive and administrative authority, but also has acquired a marked political significance. To his constitutional powers the President has added the prerogatives of party leadership, which constitute him the organ for giving effect to the policies of his party at the same time that he exercises a potent influence in the formulation of those policies. The amazing growth of political parties in the United States and the perfection and strength of their organization have been the causes of astonished comment on the part of foreign observers. Moreover, ours has been, in the main, a country of two parties. In view of these facts, the President as party leader becomes a personage of incalculable political consequence. He possesses the political leadership of an English prime minister with the titular dignity which the prime minister lacks.

Since Jackson's time the presidency has achieved a representative character which is the natural result of the President's assumption of political leadership. He perhaps more accurately reflects the mind of the country at large than either of the houses of Congress. The Senate has been wanting in representative character, until the passage of the seventeenth amendment, because of the indirect mode of its election; while the Representatives, because the center of their interests is local rather than national and because their number has been a hindrance to decisive action, have distinctly lost in prestige. The President is able, and finds it to his advantage, to cultivate a nationalistic conception of his office.