e look into the State constitutions, we shall find the line of
distinction between the departments still less perfectly drawn, although
the general principle of the distinction is laid down in most of them,
and in some of them in very positive and emphatic terms. In some of
these States, notwithstanding the principle of distribution is adopted
and sanctioned, the legislature appoints the judges; and in others it
appoints both the governor and the judges; and in others, again, it
appoints not only the judges, but all other officers.

The inferences which, I think, follow from these views of the subject,
are two: first, that the denomination of a department does not fix the
limits of the powers conferred on it, nor even their exact nature; and,
second (which, indeed, follows from the first), that in our American
governments, the chief executive magistrate does not necessarily, and by
force of his general character of supreme executive, possess the
appointing power. He may have it, or he may not, according to the
particular provisions applicable to each case in the respective
constitutions.

The President appears to have taken a different view of this subject. He
seems to regard the appointing power as originally and inherently in the
executive, and as remaining absolute in his hands, except so far as the
Constitution restrains it. This I do not agree to, and I shall have
occasion hereafter to examine the question further. I have intended thus
far only to insist on the high and indispensable duty of maintaining the
division of power _as the Constitution has marked out that division_,
and to oppose claims of authority not founded on express grants or
necessary implication, but sustained merely by argument or inference
from names or denominations given to departments.

Mr. President, the resolutions now before us declare, that the Protest
asserts powers as belonging to the President inconsistent with the
authority of the two houses of Congress, and inconsistent with the
Constitution; and that the Protest itself is a breach of privilege. I
believe all this to be true.

The doctrines of the Protest are inconsistent with the authority of the
two houses, because, in my judgment, they deny the just extent of the
law-making power. I take the Protest as it was sent to us, without
inquiring how far the subsequent message has modified or explained it.
It is singular, indeed, that a paper, so long in preparation, so
elaborate in c