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End of Federalist Paper No. 77
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FEDERALIST NO. 77
The Appointing Power Continued and Other Powers of the Executive Considered
From the New York Packet Friday April 4, 1788
Author: Alexander Hamilton
To the People of New York
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DeB 128 C 18Mod=18- FP2View=77- ParaX=1- XthisXParaX=1-
DeB 131 -1-IT HAS been mentioned as one of the advantages to be expected from the co-operation of the Senate, in the business of appointments, that it would contribute to the stability of the administration.
DeB 131 -2-The consent of that body would be necessary to displace as well as to appoint.
DeB 131 -3-A change of the Chief Magistrate, therefore, would not occasion so violent or so general a revolution in the officers of the government as might be expected, if he were the sole disposer of offices.
DeB 131 -4-Where a man in any station had given satisfactory evidence of his fitness for it, a new President would be restrained from attempting a change in favor of a person more agreeable to him, by the apprehension that a discountenance of the Senate might frustrate the attempt, and bring some degree of discredit upon himself.
DeB 131 -5-Those who can best estimate the value of a steady administration, will be most disposed to prize a provision which connects the official existence of public men with the approbation or disapprobation of that body which, from the greater permanency of its own composition, will in all probability be less subject to inconstancy than any other member of the government.
DeB 128 C 18Mod=18- FP2View=77- ParaX=2- XthisXParaX=2-
DeB 131 -1-To this union of the Senate with the President, in the article of appointments, it has in some cases been suggested that it would serve to give the President an undue influence over the Senate, and in others that it would have an opposite tendency, a strong proof that neither suggestion is true.
DeB 128 C 18Mod=18- FP2View=77- ParaX=3- XthisXParaX=3-
DeB 131 -1-To state the first in its proper form, is to refute it.
DeB 131 -2-It amounts to this: the President would have an improper INFLUENCE OVER the Senate, because the Senate would have the power of RESTRAINING him.
DeB 131 -3-This is an absurdity in terms.
DeB 131 -4-It cannot admit of a doubt that the entire power of appointment would enable him much more effectually to establish a dangerous empire over that body, than a mere power of nomination subject to their control.
DeB 128 C 18Mod=18- FP2View=77- ParaX=4- XthisXParaX=4-
DeB 131 -1-Let us take a view of the converse of the proposition: "the Senate would influence the Executive."
DeB 131 -2-As I have had occasion to remark in several other instances, the indistinctness of the objection forbids a precise answer.
DeB 131 -3-In what manner is this influence to be exerted?
DeB 131 -4-In relation to what objects?
DeB 131 -5-The power of influencing a person, in the sense in which it is here used, must imply a power of conferring a benefit upon him.
DeB 131 -6-How could the Senate confer a benefit upon the President by the manner of employing their right of negative upon his nominations?
DeB 131 -7-If it be said they might sometimes gratify him by an acquiescence in a favorite choice, when public motives might dictate a different conduct, I answer, that the instances in which the President could be personally interested in the result, would be too few to admit of his being materially affected by the compliances of the Senate.
DeB 131 -8-The POWER which can ORIGINATE the disposition of honors and emoluments, is more likely to attract than to be attracted by the POWER which can merely obstruct their course.
DeB 131 -9-If by influencing the President be meant RESTRAINING him, this is precisely what must have been intended.
DeB 131 -10-And it has been shown that the restraint would be salutary, at the same time that it would not be such as to destroy a single advantage to be looked for from the uncontrolled agency of that Magistrate.
DeB 131 -11-The right of nomination would produce all the good of that of appointment, and would in a great measure avoid its evils.
DeB 131 -12-Upon a comparison of the plan for the appointment of the officers of the proposed government with that which is established by the constitution of this State, a decided preference must be given to the former.
DeB 131 -13-In that plan the power of nomination is unequivocally vested in the Executive.
DeB 131 -14-And as there would be a necessity for submitting each nomination to the judgment of an entire branch of the legislature, the circumstances attending an appointment, from the mode of conducting it, would naturally become matters of notoriety; and the public would be at no loss to determine what part had been performed by the different actors.
DeB 131 -15-The blame of a bad nomination would fall upon the President singly and absolutely.
DeB 131 -16-The censure of rejecting a good one would lie entirely at the door of the Senate; aggravated by the consideration of their having counteracted the good intentions of the Executive.
DeB 131 -17-If an ill appointment should be made, the Executive for nominating, and the Senate for approving, would participate, though in different degrees, in the opprobrium and disgrace.
DeB 128 C 18Mod=18- FP2View=77- ParaX=5- XthisXParaX=5-
DeB 131 -1-The reverse of all this characterizes the manner of appointment in this State.
DeB 131 -2-The council of appointment consists of from three to five persons, of whom the governor is always one.
DeB 131 -3-This small body, shut up in a private apartment, impenetrable to the public eye, proceed to the execution of the trust committed to them.
DeB 131 -4-It is known that the governor claims the right of nomination, upon the strength of some ambiguous expressions in the constitution; but it is not known to what extent, or in what manner he exercises it; nor upon what occasions he is contradicted or opposed.
DeB 131 -5-The censure of a bad appointment, on account of the uncertainty of its author, and for want of a determinate object, has neither poignancy nor duration.
DeB 131 -6-And while an unbounded field for cabal and intrigue lies open, all idea of responsibility is lost.
DeB 131 -7-The most that the public can know, is that the governor claims the right of nomination; that TWO out of the inconsiderable number of FOUR men can too often be managed without much difficulty; that if some of the members of a particular council should happen to be of an uncomplying character, it is frequently not impossible to get rid of their opposition by regulating the times of meeting in such a manner as to render their attendance inconvenient; and that from whatever cause it may proceed, a great number of very improper appointments are from time to time made.
DeB 131 -8-Whether a governor of this State avails himself of the ascendant he must necessarily have, in this delicate and important part of the administration, to prefer to offices men who are best qualified for them, or whether he prostitutes that advantage to the advancement of persons whose chief merit is their implicit devotion to his will, and to the support of a despicable and dangerous system of personal influence, are questions which, unfortunately for the community, can only be the subjects of speculation and conjecture.
DeB 128 C 18Mod=18- FP2View=77- ParaX=6- XthisXParaX=6-
DeB 131 -1-Every mere council of appointment, however constituted, will be a conclave, in which cabal and intrigue will have their full scope.
DeB 131 -2-Their number, without an unwarrantable increase of expense, cannot be large enough to preclude a facility of combination.
DeB 131 -3-And as each member will have his friends and connections to provide for, the desire of mutual gratification will beget a scandalous bartering of votes and bargaining for places.
DeB 131 -4-The private attachments of one man might easily be satisfied; but to satisfy the private attachments of a dozen, or of twenty men, would occasion a monopoly of all the principal employments of the government in a few families, and would lead more directly to an aristocracy or an oligarchy than any measure that could be contrived.
DeB 131 -5-If, to avoid an accumulation of offices, there was to be a frequent change in the persons who were to compose the council, this would involve the mischiefs of a mutable administration in their full extent.
DeB 131 -6-Such a council would also be more liable to executive influence than the Senate, because they would be fewer in number, and would act less immediately under the public inspection.
DeB 131 -7-Such a council, in fine, as a substitute for the plan of the convention, would be productive of an increase of expense, a multiplication of the evils which spring from favoritism and intrigue in the distribution of public honors, a decrease of stability in the administration of the government, and a diminution of the security against an undue influence of the Executive.
DeB 131 -8-And yet such a council has been warmly contended for as an essential amendment in the proposed Constitution.
DeB 128 C 18Mod=18- FP2View=77- ParaX=7- XthisXParaX=7-
DeB 131 -1-I could not with propriety conclude my observations on the subject of appointments without taking notice of a scheme for which there have appeared some, though but few advocates; I mean that of uniting the House of Representatives in the power of making them.
DeB 131 -2-I shall, however, do little more than mention it, as I cannot imagine that it is likely to gain the countenance of any considerable part of the community.
DeB 131 -3-A body so fluctuating and at the same time so numerous, can never be deemed proper for the exercise of that power.
DeB 131 -4-Its unfitness will appear manifest to all, when it is recollected that in half a century it may consist of three or four hundred persons.
DeB 131 -5-All the advantages of the stability, both of the Executive and of the Senate, would be defeated by this union, and infinite delays and embarrassments would be occasioned.
DeB 131 -6-The example of most of the States in their local constitutions encourages us to reprobate the idea.
DeB 128 C 18Mod=18- FP2View=77- ParaX=8- XthisXParaX=8-
DeB 131 -1-The only remaining powers of the Executive are comprehended in giving information to Congress of the state of the Union; in recommending to their consideration such measures as he shall judge expedient; in convening them, or either branch, upon extraordinary occasions; in adjourning them when they cannot themselves agree upon the time of adjournment; in receiving ambassadors and other public ministers; in faithfully executing the laws; and in commissioning all the officers of the United States.
DeB 128 C 18Mod=18- FP2View=77- ParaX=9- XthisXParaX=9-
DeB 131 -1-Except some cavils about the power of convening EITHER house of the legislature, and that of receiving ambassadors, no objection has been made to this class of authorities; nor could they possibly admit of any.
DeB 131 -2-It required, indeed, an insatiable avidity for censure to invent exceptions to the parts which have been excepted to.
DeB 131 -3-In regard to the power of convening either house of the legislature, I shall barely remark, that in respect to the Senate at least, we can readily discover a good reason for it.
DeB 131 -4-AS this body has a concurrent power with the Executive in the article of treaties, it might often be necessary to call it together with a view to this object, when it would be unnecessary and improper to convene the House of Representatives.
DeB 131 -5-As to the reception of ambassadors, what I have said in a former paper will furnish a sufficient answer.
DeB 128 C 18Mod=18- FP2View=77- ParaX=10- XthisXParaX=10-
DeB 131 -1-We have now completed a survey of the structure and powers of the executive department, which, I have endeavored to show, combines, as far as republican principles will admit, all the requisites to energy.
DeB 131 -2-The remaining inquiry is: Does it also combine the requisites to safety, in a republican sense, a due dependence on the people, a due responsibility?
DeB 131 -3-The answer to this question has been anticipated in the investigation of its other characteristics, and is satisfactorily deducible from these circumstances; from the election of the President once in four years by persons immediately chosen by the people for that purpose; and from his being at all times liable to impeachment, trial, dismission from office, incapacity to serve in any other, and to forfeiture of life and estate by subsequent prosecution in the common course of law.
DeB 131 -4-But these precautions, great as they are, are not the only ones which the plan of the convention has provided in favor of the public security.
DeB 131 -5-In the only instances in which the abuse of the executive authority was materially to be feared, the Chief Magistrate of the United States would, by that plan, be subjected to the control of a branch of the legislative body.
DeB 131 -6-What more could be desired by an enlightened and reasonable people?
Beginning of Federalist Paper No. 77
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