e
President. Are there exceptions to this proposition? Yes; there are.
The Constitution says that in appointing to office the Senate shall be
associated with the President, unless in the case of inferior officers,
when the law shall otherwise direct. Have we (that is, Congress) a
right to extend this exception? I believe not. If the Constitution has
invested all executive power in the President, I venture to assert
that the Legislature has no right to diminish or modify his executive
authority. The question now resolves itself into this: Is the power of
displacing an executive power? I conceive that if any power whatsoever
is in the Executive it is the power of appointing, overseeing, and
controlling those who execute the laws. If the Constitution had not
qualified the power of the President in appointing to office by
associating the Senate with him in that business, would it not be clear
that he would have the right by virtue of his executive power to make
such appointment? Should we be authorized in defiance of that clause
in the Constitution, "The executive power shall be vested in the
President," to unite the Senate with the President in the appointment
to office? I conceive not. If it is admitted that we should not be
authorized to do this, I think it may be disputed whether we have a
right to associate them in removing persons from office, the one power
being as much of an executive nature as the other; and the first one is
authorized by being excepted out of the general rule established by the
Constitution in these words: "The executive power shall be vested in the
President."

The question, thus ably and exhaustively argued, was decided by the
House of Representatives, by a vote of 34 to 20, in favor of the
principle that the executive power of removal is vested by the
Constitution in the Executive, and in the Senate by the casting vote
of the Vice-President.

The question has often been raised in subsequent times of high
excitement, and the practice of the Government has, nevertheless,
conformed in all cases to the decision thus early made.

The question was revived during the Administration of President Jackson,
who made, as is well recollected, a very large number of removals, which
were made an occasion of close and rigorous scrutiny and remonstrance.
The subject was long and earnestly debated in the Senate, and the early
construction of the Constitution w