the power of removal, where the tenure of
office was not fixed; and no man, I imagine, would in that case have
looked for the removing power either in that clause which says the
executive authority shall be vested in the President, or in that other
clause which makes it his duty to see the laws faithfully executed.
Everybody would have said, "The President possesses an uncontrolled
power of appointment, and that necessarily carries with it an
uncontrolled power of removal, unless some permanent tenure be given to
the office by the Constitution, or by law."

And now, Sir, let me state, and examine, the main argument, on which the
decision of 1789 appears to rest it.

The most plausible reasoning brought forward on that occasion may be
fairly stated thus: "The executive power is vested in the President;
this is the general rule of the Constitution. The association of the
Senate with the President in exercising a particular function belonging
to the executive power, is an exception to this general rule, and
exceptions to general rules are to be taken strictly; therefore, though
the Senate partakes of the appointing power, by express provision, yet,
as nothing is said of its participation in the removing power, such
participation is to be excluded."

The error of this argument, if I may venture to call it so, considering
who used it,[1] lies in this. It supposes the power of removal to be
held by the President under the general grant of executive power. Now,
it is certain that the power of appointment is not held under that
general grant, because it is particularly provided for, and is
conferred, in express terms, on the President and Senate. If, therefore,
the power of removal be a natural appendage to the power of appointment,
then it is not conferred by the general words granting executive power
to the President, but is conferred by the special clause which gives the
appointing power to the President and Senate. So that the spirit of the
very rule on which the argument of 1789, as I have stated it, relies,
appears to me to produce a directly opposite result; for, if exceptions
to a general rule are to be taken strictly, when expressed, it is still
more clear, when they are not expressed at all, that they are not to be
implied except on evident and clear grounds; and as the general power of
appointment is confessedly given to the President and Senate, no
exception is to be implied in favor of one part of that general po