he other heads of departments together
could not touch them. The President could not touch them. The power of
change was a trust confided to the discretion of the Secretary, and to
his discretion alone. The President had no more authority to take upon
himself this duty, thus assigned expressly by law to the Secretary, than
he had to make the annual report to Congress, or the annual commercial
statements, or to perform any other service which the law specially
requires of the Secretary. He might just as well sign the warrants for
moneys, in the ordinary daily disbursements of government, instead of
the Secretary. The statute had assigned the especial duty of removing
the deposits, if removed at all, to the Secretary of the Treasury, and
to him alone. The consideration of the propriety or necessity of removal
must be the consideration of the Secretary; the decision to remove, his
decision; and the act of removal, his act.

Now, Sir, on the 18th day of September last, a resolution was taken to
remove these deposits from their legislative, that is to say, their
legal custody. _Whose resolution was this?_ On the 1st of October, they
were removed. _By whose power was this done?_ The papers necessary to
accomplish the removal (that is, the orders and drafts) are, it is true,
signed by the Secretary. The President's name is not subscribed to them;
nor does the Secretary, in any of them, recite or declare that he does
the act by direction of the President, or on the President's
responsibility. In form, the whole proceeding is the proceeding of the
Secretary, and, as such, had the legal effect. The deposits were
removed. But whose act was it, in truth and reality? Whose will
accomplished it? On whose responsibility was it adopted?

These questions are all explicitly answered by the President himself, in
the paper, under his own hand, read to the Cabinet on the 18th of
September, and published by his authority. In this paper the President
declares, in so many words, that he begs his Cabinet to consider the
proposed measure as his own; that its responsibility has been assumed by
him; and that he names the first day of October as a period proper for
its execution.

Now, Sir, it is precisely this which I deem an assumption of power not
conferred by the Constitution and laws. I think the law did not give
this authority to the President, nor impose on him the responsibility of
its exercise. It is evident that, in this removal, the Se