y the President appoint
whatever officers he pleases, with whatever duties he pleases, and pay
them as much as he pleases, out of the moneys thus paid by the banks,
for the sake of having the deposits?

Mr. President, the executive claim of power is exactly this, that the
President may keep the money of the public in whatever banks he chooses,
on whatever terms he chooses, and apply the sums which these banks are
willing to pay for its use to whatever purposes he chooses. These sums
are not to come into the general treasury. They are to be appropriated
before they get there; they are never to be brought under the control of
Congress; they are to be paid to officers and agents not known to the
law, not nominated to the Senate, and responsible to nobody but the
executive itself. I ask gentlemen if all this be lawful. Are they
prepared to defend it? Will they stand up and justify it? In my opinion,
Sir, it is a clear and most dangerous assumption of power. It is the
creation of office without law; the appointment to office without
consulting the Senate; the establishment of a salary without law; and
the payment of that salary out of a fund which itself is derived from
the use of the public treasures. This, Sir, is my other reason for
concurring in the vote of the 28th of March; and on these grounds I
leave the propriety of that vote, so far as I am concerned with it, to
be judged of by the country.

But, Sir, the President denies the power of the Senate to pass any such
resolution, on any ground whatever. Suppose the declaration contained in
the resolution to be true; suppose the President had, in fact, assumed
powers not granted to him; does the Senate possess the right to declare
its opinion, affirming this fact, or does it not? I maintain that the
Senate does possess such a power; the President denies it.

Mr. President, we need not look far, nor search deep, for the foundation
of this right in the Senate. It is close at hand, and clearly visible.
In the first place, it is the right of self-defence. In the second
place, it is a right founded on the duty of representative bodies, in a
free government, to defend the public liberty against encroachment. We
must presume that the Senate honestly entertained the opinion expressed
in the resolution of the 28th of March; and, entertaining that opinion,
its right to express it is but the necessary consequence of its right to
defend its own constitutional authority, as one bran