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Executive Order 3657 ⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight Constitutional Neutral (+0.02) 📜 Art. II §1: Executive Discretion & Internal Operations

Executive Order 3657—Removing and Replacing Certain Officers of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing

Warren G. Harding Warren G. Harding
•
Friday, March 31, 1922
•
2 min read (364 words)

Executive Brief • At a Glance

⏱️ 2 min read (364 words) • ● In Effect
🎯 Primary Mandate

Louis A. Hill is hereby appointed to be Director, and John P. Perry to be Assistant Director.

View all 4 directives ↓
⚖️ Constitutional Footing
⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight
Concurrent Authority / Congressional Silence
📜 Art. II §1: Executive Discretion & Internal Operations
Framers' constitutional debate ↓
🏛️ Scope & Affected Sectors
Executive Branch Departments General Body of the People
Inspect unabridged text ↓

Plain-English Translation & Framers' Constitutional Analysis

Early Statesman synthesis distilling legal jargon into practical meaning, statutory anchors, and structural constitutional impacts.

Signed by President Warren G. Harding on March 31, 1922, this order concerns Removing and Replacing Certain Officers of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. On and after this date the Director of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, James L. Wilmeth, and the Assistant Director, James M.. Fisher, are removed. Louis A. Hill is hereby appointed to be Director, and John P. Perry to be Assistant Director. This action is taken for the good of the service.

Constitutional Assessment: This action represents an orderly exercise of Article II administrative discretion, managing the internal machinery and personnel of the executive branch without abridging the ancient liberties of the people.

Key Directives & Operative Actions

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Louis A. Hill is hereby appointed to be Director, and John P. Perry to be Assistant Director.

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The following named offices in the Bureau of Engraving and Printing are hereby abolished, and the present incumbents of these offices are dismissed for the good of the service: (Exception is made of those who are eligible for retirement for age.

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Such persons shall be placed on the retired list, as of this date), viz:— All offices of Chief of Division; All offices of Assistant Chief of Division; The office of Custodian of Dies, Rolls and Plates; The office of Chief Clerk; The office of Experimental Engineer; The office of Mechanical Expert and Designer; The office of Superintendent of Work; The office of Superintendent of Picture Engravers; The office of Superintendent of Transfers; The office of Superintendent of Photo-litho.

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In lieu of the above offices the following offices are hereby established: All offices heretofore known as Chief of Division and Assistant Chief of Division shall hereafter be designated Superintendent of Division and Assistant Superintendent of Division, respectively; the office heretofore known as Custodian of Dies, Rolls and Plates shall be designated Superintendent of Plate Vault; the office heretofore known as Chief, Clerk shall be designated Chief Accountant; the office heretofore known as Foreman of Building and Qeaners shall be designated Superintendent of the Building; the office heretofore known as Foreman of Garage shall be designated Assistant Superintendent of the Building; the office heretofore known as Foreman of Plate…

Constitutional & Societal Entities Impacted

🏛️ Executive Branch Departments 🏛️ General Body of the People

Policy Areas & Topics

🏷️ Government Operations & Civil Service
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The Framers' Constitutional Council

1787 Prism

Evaluating this order against the constitutional debates of 1787 and the limits of Article II executive power.

⚖️✨ Zone 2 (Zone of Twilight)
§

"When the President acts in absence of either a congressional grant or denial of authority, he can only rely upon his own independent powers, but there is a zone of twilight in which he and Congress may have concurrent authority."

— Justice Robert H. Jackson, Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer (1952) Concurrent Authority / Congressional Silence
JM

James Madison

Separation of Powers & Legislative Primacy

"Power is of an encroaching nature, and it ought to be effectually restrained from passing the limits assigned to it." — Federalist No. 48 (1788)

Madison would view this order with watchful scrutiny. Operating in the 'Zone of Twilight' where Congress is silent, each such directive establishes an administrative precedent that steadily expands the executive perimeter at the expense of legislative primacy.

Madisonian Stance: Vigilant / Cautionary
AH

Alexander Hamilton

The Energetic Executive & Unified Command

"A feeble Executive implies a feeble execution of the government; and a government ill executed, whatever it may be in theory, must be, in practice, a bad government." — Federalist No. 70 (1788)

Hamilton would view this directive as the natural and indispensable functioning of administrative leadership. Without the power to coordinate agencies, manage personnel, and resolve operational ambiguities, the modern presidency would be reduced to an impotent figurehead.

Hamiltonian Stance: Defends Vigor & Dispatch
GM

George Mason

Bill of Rights, Due Process & 10th Amendment

"The president will be surrounded by flatterers and sycophants... and the great powers of the executive will gradually absorb the liberties of the people." — Cato IV (Anti-Federalist, 1787)

The Anti-Federalist prism advises continuous democratic vigilance. Even routine administrative directives aggregate centralized federal power away from town halls and state assemblies toward a distant executive apparatus.

Anti-Federalist Stance: Eternal Vigilance Required
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Five Measurable "Constitutional Friction" Dimensions

An objective audit measuring potential separation-of-powers tension against the United States Constitution and established Supreme Court doctrine.

⚖️ Discretionary Twilight Zone
31 / 100 friction index
Dimension 1 • Art. I, §1 & §8

Legislative Encroachment & Purse

Low Friction

Operates within delegated statutory execution without modifying legislative appropriations or taxing powers.

Benchmark: Power of the purse, taxes/tariffs, and rule of law reserved to Congress.
Dimension 2 • Art. II, §1 & §3

Executive Scope & Faithfulness

Moderate Friction

Directs internal executive branch machinery, agency workflows, and federal personnel.

Benchmark: Faithfully execute laws enacted by Congress vs. unilateral decree.
Dimension 3 • 10th Amendment

Federalism & State Sovereignty

Low Friction

Confined strictly to internal federal jurisdiction, federal property, or direct military command.

Benchmark: Police powers and un-delegated responsibilities reserved to the States.
Dimension 4 • 5th & 14th Amendments

Due Process & Individual Rights

Low Friction

Focuses on internal governmental operations with no direct impairment of private rights or property.

Benchmark: Protection of private property, contracts, liberty, and procedural justice.
Dimension 5 • Separation of Powers

Youngstown Jacksonian Tier

Moderate Friction

The order relies on inherent Article II executive discretion, civil service management, or foreign diplomacy where Congress has neither expressly approved nor prohibited action.

Benchmark: Concurrent Authority / Congressional Silence
⚖️ Audit Synthesis

This order operates within Justice Jackson’s Zone of Twilight, resting upon concurrent presidential authority or congressional silence.

Weighted composite: Art. I (25%), Art. II (25%), Federalism (15%), Due Process (15%), Youngstown (20%).
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How to read these dimensions: Executive power expands whenever an administration acts without explicit statutory authorization from Congress (Article I), touches upon police powers historically reserved to the states (Tenth Amendment), or limits private rights and property without judicial process. A low friction score indicates strict concordance with enacted law; a high friction score highlights orders testing the limits of presidential discretion.
Total Words
364
2,308 characters
Estimated Read Time
2 min
@ 200 words / min
Flesch-Kincaid
16.6
Post-Graduate Legal
Language Tone Score
+0.02
Constitutional Neutral
How is this scored?
Text size:

Official Archival Text

View Source Document

On and after this date the Director of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, James L. Wilmeth, and the Assistant Director, James M.. Fisher, are removed. Louis A. Hill is hereby appointed to be Director, and John P. Perry to be Assistant Director. This action is taken for the good of the service. The following named offices in the Bureau of Engraving and Printing are hereby abolished, and the present incumbents of these offices are dismissed for the good of the service: (Exception is made of those who are eligible for retirement for age. Such persons shall be placed on the retired list, as of this date), viz:— All offices of Chief of Division; All offices of Assistant Chief of Division; The office of Custodian of Dies, Rolls and Plates; The office of Chief Clerk; The office of Experimental Engineer; The office of Mechanical Expert and Designer; The office of Superintendent of Work; The office of Superintendent of Picture Engravers; The office of Superintendent of Transfers; The office of Superintendent of Photo-litho. Section; The office of Superintendent of Electrolytic Section; The office of Foreman of Building and Qeaners; The office of Foreman of Garage; The office of Foreman of Plate Cleaners; The office of Storekeeper. In lieu of the above offices the following offices are hereby established: All offices heretofore known as Chief of Division and Assistant Chief of Division shall hereafter be designated Superintendent of Division and Assistant Superintendent of Division, respectively; the office heretofore known as Custodian of Dies, Rolls and Plates shall be designated Superintendent of Plate Vault; the office heretofore known as Chief, Clerk shall be designated Chief Accountant; the office heretofore known as Foreman of Building and Qeaners shall be designated Superintendent of the Building; the office heretofore known as Foreman of Garage shall be designated Assistant Superintendent of the Building; the office heretofore known as Foreman of Plate Cleaners shall be designated Technical Foreman of Plate Qeaners and the office heretofore known as Storekeeper shall be designated Custodian of Supplies. All vacancies created by the above described plan of reorganization shall be filled by the Director of the Bureau. WARREN G. HARDING

THE WHITE HOUSE, #signature

March 31, 1922.

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Scholarly & Legal Citations 

Exec. Order No. 3657 (Mar. 31, 1922), https://executiveordersarchive.org/orders/app-executive-order-3657-removing-and-replacing-certain-officers-the-bureau-engraving-and.