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Executive Orders Historical Archive
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Executive Order 9674 🏛️✅ Zone 1: Maximum Authority Constitutional Fidelity (+0.33) 📜 Art. II §2: Commander-in-Chief Supervisory Authority

Executive Order 9674—Liquidation of War Agencies

Harry S Truman Harry S Truman
•
Friday, January 4, 1946
•
3 min read (522 words)

Executive Brief • At a Glance

⏱️ 3 min read (522 words) • ● In Effect
🎯 Primary Mandate

There shall be in the Office for Emergency Management of the Executive Office of the President a Director of Liquidation, hereinafter referred to as the Director, who shall be appointed by the President and who shall perform his functions in consultation with a Liquidation Advisory Committee.

View all 4 directives ↓
⚖️ Constitutional Footing
🏛️✅ Zone 1: Maximum Authority
Express or Implied Congressional Authorization
📜 Art. II §2: Commander-in-Chief Supervisory Authority
Framers' constitutional debate ↓
🏛️ Scope & Affected Sectors
Executive Departments & Federal Civil Servants Private Citizens & Property Owners Financial Institutions & Monetary Authorities
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 Harry S Truman on January 4, 1946, this order concerns Liquidation of War Agencies. There shall be in the Office for Emergency Management of the Executive Office of the President a Director of Liquidation, hereinafter referred to as the Director, who shall be appointed by the President and who shall perform his functions in consultation with a Liquidation Advisory Committee.

Constitutional Assessment: Scrutinized through Article II, Section 2, this action exercises the President's constitutional role as Commander in Chief. Early Framers recognized broad executive discretion in commanding military forces during conflict, provided it remains bounded by congressional declarations and respects civilian domestic courts.

Key Directives & Operative Actions

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There shall be in the Office for Emergency Management of the Executive Office of the President a Director of Liquidation, hereinafter referred to as the Director, who shall be appointed by the President and who shall perform his functions in consultation with a Liquidation Advisory Committee.

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The Liquidation Advisory Committee shall be composed of one representative of each of the following agencies: the Department of the Treasury, the Surplus Property Administration, the national Archives, the Civil Service Commission, the Public Buildings Administration, the General Accounting Office, and the Bureau of the Budget.

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The chairman of the Committee shall be designated by the Director from the Committee's membership. 2.

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It shall be the duty of the Director to further proper preparations, arrangements, and methods for the orderly and timely winding up of the affairs of the temporary Federal agencies created for the purposes of the war, hereinafter referred to as war agencies, particularly with respect to personnel, property, accounts, space, and records.

Constitutional & Societal Entities Impacted

🏛️ Executive Departments & Federal Civil Servants 🏛️ Private Citizens & Property Owners 🏛️ Financial Institutions & Monetary Authorities

Policy Areas & Topics

🏷️ Economy & Finance 🏷️ 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 1 (Maximum Authority)
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"When the President acts pursuant to an express or implied authorization of Congress, his authority is at its maximum, for it includes all that he possesses in his own right plus all that Congress can delegate."

— Justice Robert H. Jackson, Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer (1952) Express or Implied Congressional Authorization
JM

James Madison

Separation of Powers & Legislative Primacy

"The constitutional magistracy was designed not to invent policy, but to be the faithful instrument of the laws passed by the people's representatives." — Speech in the First Congress (1789)

Madison would approve the structural posture of this order. The President acts strictly in subordination to statutory authority granted under Article II, Section 3 ("take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed"). The checks and balances hold firm because the policy origin remains with the legislature.

Madisonian Stance: Concurring (Statutory)
AH

Alexander Hamilton

The Energetic Executive & Unified Command

"The direction of war implies the direction of the common strength; and the power of directing and employing the common strength must be under the direction of the single hand of the Executive." — Federalist No. 74 (1788)

Hamilton would forcefully champion executive discretion here. For foreign entanglements, commerce defense, and national security, deliberative assemblies are too slow and faction-ridden. A unified, energetic Executive exercising swift command is precisely what the Philadelphia Convention intended for national preservation.

Hamiltonian Stance: Strong Prerogative Support
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

Moderate Friction

Administers commerce or fiscal programs requiring ongoing statutory delegation and legislative oversight.

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

Low Friction

The President operates strictly as the constitutional Chief Executive, carrying out policy established by Congress with strong statutory backing.

Benchmark: Express or Implied Congressional Authorization
⚖️ 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
522
3,188 characters
Estimated Read Time
3 min
@ 200 words / min
Flesch-Kincaid
17.5
Post-Graduate Legal
Language Tone Score
+0.33
Constitutional Fidelity
How is this scored?
Text size:

Official Archival Text

View Source Document

By virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and statues, including Title I of the First War Powers Act, 1941 (55 Stat. 838), and as President of the United Stations, it is hereby ordered as follows: 1. There shall be in the Office for Emergency Management of the Executive Office of the President a Director of Liquidation, hereinafter referred to as the Director, who shall be appointed by the President and who shall perform his functions in consultation with a Liquidation Advisory Committee. The Liquidation Advisory Committee shall be composed of one representative of each of the following agencies: the Department of the Treasury, the Surplus Property Administration, the national Archives, the Civil Service Commission, the Public Buildings Administration, the General Accounting Office, and the Bureau of the Budget. The chairman of the Committee shall be designated by the Director from the Committee's membership. 2. It shall be the duty of the Director to further proper preparations, arrangements, and methods for the orderly and timely winding up of the affairs of the temporary Federal agencies created for the purposes of the war, hereinafter referred to as war agencies, particularly with respect to personnel, property, accounts, space, and records. To this end the Director shall: (a) Cause to be developed by each war agency, for use whenever it shall, pursuant to act of Congress or order of the President, as the case may be, cease the performance of its substantive functions or materially reduce the volume of its activities, suitable plans for the winding up or retrenchment of its affairs. (b) When deemed appropriate arrange for the designation, by the head of any war agency, of a liquidation officer for the agency. (c) Receive periodic reports which shall be submitted by each war agency, showing the status of preparation for liquidation, or of liquidation, as the case may be. (d) Establish such uniform liquidation practices as will accelerate the rate or improve the quality of the liquidation. (e) Suggest to the Civil Service Commission and the Liaison Officer for Personnel Management measures designed to ameliorate the impact of liquidation upon the employees of the war agencies liquidated. (f) Advise and assist the war agencies in such other respects as will facilitate the preparation for and the carrying out of the liquidation of their affairs. 3. Nothing in this order shall be deemed to divest any agency referred to in paragraph 1 of this order of any of its functions which may be concerned with the liquidation of a war agency. The functions of the Director shall not be deemed to extend to the affairs of any agency which has heretofore been, or shall hereafter be, abolished and the affairs of which are transferred to the Department of the Treasury, or to any other department, for the final winding up of such affairs. 4. The Director may, within the limits of funds which may be made available, employ personnel and make provisions for supplies, facilities, and services, and incur other expenses, necessary to discharge the functions of the Director under this order. HARRY S. TRUMAN

THE WHITE HOUSE, #signature

January 4, 1946

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Referenced By Later Executive Orders (1)

Subsequent presidents who cited, amended, continued, or revoked this directive in later orders.

References Executive Order 9744—Termination of the Office of the Director of Liquidation
Harry S Truman • 1946-06-27
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Scholarly & Legal Citations 

Exec. Order No. 9674 (Jan. 4, 1946), https://executiveordersarchive.org/orders/app-executive-order-9674-liquidation-war-agencies.