tution of this department which was infinitely
the most difficult part in the great work of creating our present
government. To give to the executive department such power as should
make it useful, and yet not such as should render it dangerous; to make
it efficient, independent, and strong, and yet to prevent it from
sweeping away every thing by its union of military and civil authority,
by the influence of patronage, and office, and favor,--this, indeed, was
difficult. They who had the work to do saw the difficulty, and we see
it; and if we would maintain our system, we shall act wisely to that
end, by preserving every restraint and every guard which the
Constitution has provided. And when we, and those who come after us,
have done all that we can do, and all that they can do, it will be well
for us and for them, if some popular executive, by the power of
patronage and party, and the power, too, of that very popularity, shall
not hereafter prove an overmatch for all other branches of the
government.

I do not wish, Sir, to impair the power of the President, as it stands
written down in the Constitution, and as great and good men have
hitherto exercised it. In this, as in other respects, I am for the
Constitution as it is. But I will not acquiesce in the reversal of all
just ideas of government; I will not degrade the character of popular
representation; I will not blindly confide, where all experience
admonishes me to be jealous; I will not trust executive power, vested in
the hands of a single magistrate, to be the guardian of liberty.

Having claimed for the executive the especial guardianship of the
Constitution, the Protest proceeds to present a summary view of the
powers which are supposed to be conferred on the executive by that
instrument. And it is to this part of the message, Sir, that I would,
more than to all others, call the particular attention of the Senate. I
confess that it was only upon careful reperusal of the paper that I
perceived the extent to which its assertions of power reach. I do not
speak now of the President's claims of power as opposed to legislative
authority, but of his opinions as to his own authority, duty, and
responsibility, as connected with all other officers under the
government. He is of opinion that the whole executive power is vested in
him, and that he is responsible for its entire exercise; that among the
duties imposed on him is that of "taking care that the laws be
faithf