Where, however, from the nature of the case, or by express constitutional or statutory declaration, it is evident that the personal, individual judgment of the President is required to be exercised, the duty may not be transferred by the President to anyone else. Thus in Runkle v. United States14 it is said: "As the sentence under consideration involved the dismissal of Runkle from the army, it could not become operative until approved by the President, after the whole proceedings had been laid before him. The important question is, therefore, whether that approval has been positively shown. There can be no doubt that the President, in the exercise of his executive powers under the Constitution, may act through the head of the appropriate executive department. The heads of the department, are his authorized assistants in the performance of his executive duties, and their official acts, promulgated in the regular course of business, are presumptively his acts. That has been many times decided by the court. Here, however, the action required of the President is judicial in its character, not administrative. As commander-in-chief of the army, he has been made by law the person whose duty it is to review the proceedings of the courts martial in cases of this kind. This implies that he is himself to consider the proceedings laid before him, and decide personally whether they ought to be carried into effect Such a power he cannot delegate. His of the Act of Congress of 185G, to determine that a guano island shall be considered as appertaining to the United States, being a strictly executive power, affecting foreign relations, and the manner in which his determination shall be made known not having been prescribed by statute, there can be no doubt that it may be declared through the Department of State, whose acts in this regard are in legal contemplation the acts of the President. Wolsey v. Chapman, 101 U. S. 755; 25 L. ed. 915; Runkle v. United States, 122 U. S. 543; 7 Sup. Ct. Rep. 1141; 30 L. ed. 1167." In United States v. Eliason (1G Pet. 201; 10 L. ed. 968) the court say: "The Secretary of War is the regular constitutional organ of the President for the administration of the military establishment of the nation, and rules and orders publicly promulgated through him must be received as the acts of the executive, and as such, be binding upon all within the sphere of his legal and constitutional authority."

14 122 U. S. 543; 7 Sup. Ct. Rep. 1141; 30 L. ed. 1167.

personal judgment is required - as much so as if it would have been in passing upon the case, if he had been one of the members of the court martial itself. He may call others to his assistance in making his examination, and in informing himself what ought to be done, but his judgment when pronounced must be his own judgment and not that of another."