receive for his services a compensation, which shall neither be increased nor diminished, during the period for which he shall have been elected; and he shall not receive, within that period, any other emolument from the United States, or any of them."

§ 275. The propriety of granting to the President a suitable compensation, cannot well be doubted. The Constitution would, otherwise, exclude all persons of moderate fortune from the office; or expose them to gross temptations, to sacrifices of duty, and perhaps to direct corruption. The compensation should be adequate to the just expenditures of the office. If the Legislature should possess a discretionary authority to increase or diminish it at their pleasure, the President would become an humble dependent upon their bounty, or a mean suppliant for their favor. It would give them a complete command of his independence, and perhaps of his integrity. And on the other hand, if the actual incumbent could procure an augmentation of it during his official term to any extent he might desire, he might be induced, from mere avarice, to seek this as his highest reward, and undermine the virtue of Congress, in order to accomplish it. The prohibition equally forbids any increase or diminution. And, to exclude all exterior influences, it equally denies to him all emoluments arising from any other sources, State or National. He is thus secured, in a great measure, against all sinister foreign influences. And he must be lost to all just sense of the high duties of his station, if he does not conduct himself with an exclusive devotion to the good of the whole people, unmindful at once of the blandishments of courtiers, who seek to deceive him, and of partisans, who aim to govern him, and thus to accomplish their own selfish purposes.

§ 276. The next clause is, "Before he enters on the execution of his office, he shall take the following oath or affirmation: I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend, the Constitution of the United States." There is little need of commentary here.

No

man can doubt the propriety of placing the President under the sanction of an oath of office, to preserve, pro ́tect, and defend, the Constitution, who would require an oath or solemn affirmation on any other occasion. If a judge, or a juryman, or a witness, ought to take a solemn oath or affirmation, to bind his conscience, surely a President, holding in his hands the destiny of the nation, ought so to do. Let it not be deemed a vain or idle form. In all these things, God will bring us into judgement. A President, who shall dare to violate the obligations of his solemn oath or affirmation of office, may escape human censure, nay, may even receive applause from the giddy multitude. But he will be compelled to learn, that there is a watchful Providence, that cannot be deceived; and a righteous Being, the searcher of all hearts, who will render unto all men according to their deserts. Considerations of this sort will necessarily make a conscientious man more scrupulous in the discharge of his duty; and will even make a man of looser principles pause, when he is about to enter upon a deliberate violation of his official oath.

CHAPTER XXIX.

Powers and Duties of the President.

§ 277. WE next come to the consideration of the powers and duties of the President. The first clause of the second section is, "The President shall be commanderin-chief of the army and navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several States, when called into the actual service of the United States. He may require the opinion in writing of the principal officer in each of the executive departments, upon any subject relating to the duties of their respective offices; and he shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offences against the United States, except in cases of impeachment."

the public forces, to execute the laws, maintain peace, resist invasion, and carry on war, are powers obviously belonging to the executive department, and require the exercise of qualifications, which cannot properly be presumed to exist in any other department of the government. Promptitude of action, unity of design, and harmony of operations, are in such cases indispensable to success. Timidity, indecision, obstinacy, pride, and sluggishness, must mingle, in a greater or less degree, in all numerous bodies, and render their councils inert and imbecile, and their military operations slow and uncertain. There is, then, true wisdom and policy in confiding the command of the army and navy to the President, since it will insure activity, responsibility, and firmness, in public emergencies.

§ 279. The President is also authorized to require the opinions of the Heads of Departments, in writing, on subjects relative to their official duties. This, perhaps, might have been deemed an incidental right to his general authority. But it was desirable to make it a matter of constitutional right, so as to enforce responsibility in critical times.

§ 280. To the President, also, is confided the power "to grant reprieves and pardons." Without this power, no government could be deemed to be suitably organized for the purposes of administering human justice. The criminal code of every country must necessarily partake, in some of its punishments, of a high degree of severity; and it is not possible to fix the exact degree of punishment, for every kind of offence, under every variety of circumstances. There are so many things, which may extenuate, as well as inflame the atrocity of crimes, and so many infirmities, which belong to human nature in general, which may furnish excuses, or mitigations for the commission of them, that any code, which did not provide for any pardoning or mitigating power, would be universally deemed cruel, unjust, and indefensible. It would introduce the very evils, which it would seek to avoid, by inducing the community to connive at an escape

disproportionate to the offence. The power of pardon and reprieve is better vested in a single person, than in a numerous body. It brings home a closer responsibility; it can be more promptly applied; and, by cutting off delays, it will, on the one hand, conduce to certainty of punishment, and, on the other hand, enable the Executive, at critical moments, to apply it as a means of detecting, or of suppressing gross offences. But if the power of pardon extended to impeachments, it is obvious, that the latter might become wholly inefficient, as a protection against political offences. The party accused might be acting under the authority of the President, or be one of his corrupt favorites. It is, therefore, wisely excepted from his general authority.

§ 281. The next clause respects the power to make treaties and appointments to office. "He (the President) shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur. And he shall nominate, and, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint, ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United States, whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by law. But the Congress may by law vest the appointment of such inferior officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments.'

§ 282. The power to make treaties is general, and, of course, it embraces treaties for peace, or war; for commerce, or cessions of territory; for alliance, or succors; for indemnity for injuries, or payment of debts; for the recognition or establishment of principles of public law; and for any other purposes, which the policy, necessities, or interests of independent nations may dictate. Such a power is so large, and so capable of abuse, that it ought not to be confided to any one man, nor even to a mere majority of any public body, in a republican government. There should be some higher pledge for

ceive the sanction of such a number of public functionaries, as would furnish a sufficient guaranty of such policy or necessity. Two thirds of the Senate, therefore, are required to give validity to a treaty. It would seem to be perfectly safe in such a body, under such circumstances, representing, as it does, all the States of the Union. The House of Representatives would not have been so eligible a body, because it is more numerous, more popular in its structure, more short in its duration, more unfit to act upon sudden emergencies, more under the control of a few States; and, from its organization, it may fairly be presumed to have less experience in public affairs, and less knowledge of foreign relations, than the Senate.

§ 283. The power of appointment, one of the most important and delicate in a republican government, is next provided for. Upon its fair and honest exercise, must, in a great measure, depend the vigor, the public virtue, and even the safety, of the government. If it shall ever be wielded by any Executive, exclusively to gratify his own ambition or resentments, to satisfy his own personal favorites, or to carry his own political measures, and, still more, if it shall ever interfere with the freedom of elections by the people, or suppress the honest expression of opinion and judgement by voters, it will become one of the most dangerous and corrupt engines to destroy private independence and public liberty, which can assail the republic. It should, therefore, be watched in every free government with uncommon vigilance, as it may, otherwise, soon become as secret, as it will be irresistible, in its mischievous operations. If the time shall ever arrive, when no citizen can obtain any appointment to office, unless he submits to sacrifice all personal independence and opinion, and to become the mere slave of those, who can confer it, it is not difficult to foresee, that the power of appointment will then become the fittest instrument of artful men to accomplish the worst purposes. The framers of the Constitution were aware of this danger, and have sedulously interposed certain guards to check, if not wholly to prevent, the abuse of the power. The advice and consent of the Senate is required to the appoint