ully executed"; and that, "being thus made responsible for the
entire action of the executive department, it is but reasonable that the
power of appointing, overseeing, and controlling those who execute the
laws, a power in its nature executive, should remain in his hands. It
is, therefore, not only his right, but the Constitution makes it his
duty, to 'nominate, and, by and with the advice and consent of the
Senate, appoint,' all 'officers of the United States whose appointments
are not in the Constitution otherwise provided for,' with a proviso that
the appointment of inferior officers may be vested in the President
alone, in the courts of justice, or in the heads of departments."

The first proposition, then, which the Protest asserts, in regard to the
President's powers as executive magistrate, is, that, the general duty
being imposed on him by the Constitution of taking care that the laws be
faithfully executed, _he thereby becomes himself responsible for the
conduct of every person employed in the government_; "for the entire
action," as the paper expresses it, "of the executive department." This,
Sir, is very dangerous logic. I reject the inference altogether. No such
responsibility, nor any thing like it, follows from the general
provision of the Constitution making it his duty to see the laws
executed. If it did, we should have, in fact, but one officer in the
whole government. The President would be everybody. And the Protest
assumes to the President this whole responsibility for every other
officer, for the very purpose of making the President everybody, of
annihilating every thing like independence, responsibility, or
_character_, in all other public agents. The whole responsibility is
assumed, in order that it may be more plausibly argued that all officers
of government are not agents of the law, but the President's agents, and
therefore responsible to him alone. If he be responsible for the conduct
of all officers, and they be responsible to him only, then it may be
maintained that such officers are but his own agents, his substitutes,
his deputies. The first thing to be done, therefore, is to assume the
responsibility for all; and this you will perceive, Sir, is done, in the
fullest manner, in the passages which I have read. Having thus assumed
for the President the entire responsibility of the whole government, the
Protest advances boldly to its conclusion, and claims, at once, absolute
power over all ind