action by the legislative branch, or by part of it, in the work of
the executive, are limitations to be strictly construed and not to be
extended by implication; that the President's power of removal is
further established as an incident to his specifically enumerated
function of appointment by and with the advice of the Senate, but that
such incident does not by implication extend to removals the Senate's
power of checking appointments; and finally that to hold otherwise would
make it impossible for the President, in case of political or other
differences with the Senate or Congress, to take care that the laws be
faithfully executed."[311]

The holding in the Myers case boils down to the proposition that the
Constitution endows the President with an illimitable power to remove
all officers in whose appointment he has participated with the exception
of judges of the United States. The motivation of the holding was not,
it may be assumed, any ambition on the Chief Justice's part to set
history aright--or awry.[312] Rather it was the concern which he voiced
in the following passage in his opinion: "There is nothing in the
Constitution which permits a distinction between the removal of the head
of a department or a bureau, when he discharges a political duty of the
President or exercises his discretion, and the removal of executive
officers engaged in the discharge of their other normal duties. The
imperative reasons requiring an unrestricted power to remove the most
important of his subordinates in their most important duties must,
therefore, control the interpretation of the Constitution as to all
appointed by him."[313] Thus spoke the former President Taft, and the
result of his prepossession was a rule which, as was immediately pointed
out, exposed the so-called "independent agencies," the Interstate
Commerce Commission, the Federal Trade Commission, and the like, to
Presidential domination.

"The Nature of the Office" Concept

Unfortunately, the Chief Justice, while professing to follow Madison's
leadership had omitted to weigh properly the very important observation
which the latter had made at the time regarding the office of
Comptroller of the Treasury. "The Committee," said Madison, "has gone
through the bill without making any provision respecting the tenure by
which the comptroller is to hold his office. I think it is a point
worthy of consideration, and shall, therefore, submit a few observations
upon it.