All but one of the US presidents, beginning with George Washington, have issued orders which can be equated with the modern-day executive order. The sole exception was William Henry Harrison, who died in office after having held the presidency for less than a month. Before 20th century, executive orders were not documented and catalogued according to a uniform scheme; they were seen only by the agencies to which they were directed. Then, in 1907, the Department of State instituted a numbering scheme, starting retroactively with an order dated October 20, 1862, issued by President Abraham Lincoln. The orders which later became known as “executive orders” probably take their name from a document, titled “Executive Order Establishing a Provisional Court in Louisiana.”
The Federal Register Act of 1935 required that all executive orders and proclamations be published in the Federal Register. Since then, all executive orders have been made available in CFR Title 3 compilations.
Abraham Lincoln used an executive order to suspend the habeas corpus rights of John Merryman, leader of an active state militia that had been attacking federal troops passing through Virginia and Maryland on the eve of the US Civil War. Later, the US Congress passed the Habeas Corpus Act of 1863, giving the president the power to suspend habeas corpus, which he had assumed himself through the executive order.
There was a dramatic increase in the use of executive orders during the period beginning with the Great Depression and leading into World War II. During this time, Congress extended wide latitude to the president to act in the best interests of a nation facing economic crisis and war. Franklin D. Roosevelt issued, by a wide margin, the largest number of executive orders, with a total of 3,522. He used these orders to seize [PDF] factories, mines and other privately held assets for wartime production.
To this day, executive orders remain a powerful and immediate way for a president to advance his policies. President Ronald Reagan used executive orders to repeal what his administration viewed as regulations that were holding back the US economy. Notably, President George W. Bush used an executive order to create[PDF] the Department of Homeland Security. He also used an executive order to limit public access to presidential documents. President Barack Obama has used executive orders to implement policies in the face of what his administration views as an increasingly intractable Congress. He also attempted to use executive orders to change some of President George W. Bush’s more controversial policies, including the creation of the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, which remains open.