In many of the states the principal executive officers subordinate in rank to the chief executive are chosen by popular election. But many other subordinate officers are provided for, usually appointed by the governor, although the method of selection is of course determined by the constitutional or statutory provisions under which the offices are created, and selection by the legislature or appointment by other authority is to some extent provided for.

In the federal government only the president and vice-president are elected, and the vice-president is an executive officer only in case he is called upon to perform the functions of the president on the removal of the latter from office, or his death, resignation, or inability. (See above, § 41.) The function of the vice-president as presiding officer of the Senate is not in any sense executive.

Under the federal constitution (Art. II, § 2, ¶ 2) it is provided that the president "shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate shall appoint, ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court and other officers of the United States whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided for and which shall be established by law." The ambassadors, public ministers, and consuls may be regarded as officers of the executive department discharging its functions in the diplomatic relations of this country to foreign countries, while the judges of the Supreme Court belong exclusively to the judicial department. In fact, all the important officers of the judicial department are by law appointed by the president. In the same section it is provided that Congress may by law vest the appointment of such inferior officers as it thinks proper in the president alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of departments.

There has been some controversy as to the power of the president to remove the officers whom he is authorized to appoint. Judges of the federal courts are appointed for good behavior, and can only be removed by impeachment. Other officers appointed by and with the advice and consent of the Senate are in effect removed by the appointment of a successor and the approval of such appointment by the Senate. During the recess of the Senate the president is expressly authorized to fill vacancies by granting commissions, which shall expire at the end of the next session, and it seems that the president may for this purpose declare whether a vacancy exists which he has authority thus to fill, and thereby in effect remove an officer. If during the ensuing session no appointment to such position is approved by the Senate, then at the end of the session there is again a vacancy in such office, which the president may fill by appointment, to expire at the end of the following session. The president does, therefore, in fact, exercise the power of removing from office even the officers who are appointed by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. Indeed, it seems to be generally conceded that all appointive officers who are not entitled by the constitution to hold their offices for life are removable by the appointing power, and that, in case of officers who are appointed with the approval of the Senate, the power to remove is in the president alone.

Congress may provide, however, as to the qualifications of subordinate executive officers, the conditions on which they shall hold their offices, and the grounds on which they shall be removed; for as the offices themselves are not provided for by the constitution, but are created by law, the same power which creates them may prescribe the conditions on which they shall be filled.