The daily national Whig. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1847-1849, 1849-05-30
- In continuation and conclusion Of our


We endeavored, in our remarks, yester
day, to show, that the constitution grants thu
possession Of ALL the legislative powers emu
merated in that instrument, to the absolute
control and care Of the Federal Congress
and that the part to be performed by thu
President, before law can go into effect
is purely executive act and not legisla,
tive junction.
But, there is another view Of the subject
which, we think, ought not to be lost sigh
Of, and which, we are sure, cannot be con
travened by the advocates of nnumpirdte
and that is, that the legislative, executive
and judicial powers granted by the consttu-
ton are homogeneous other words, thai
the federal Legislature exercises none but
Legislative powers, the federal executive
none but executive powers and the federal
Judiciary none but Judicial powers. To say,
that the President exercises a Legislative
function, in approving or Disappearing a
law, Is as untenable, as to say that the
Federal Supreme Court exercises legisla-
tive function, when it pronounces a law to
be unconstitutional and therefore no longer
Of effect, Will any one say, that such a
Judgment, on the part Of the United States
Supreme Court, isan executive act' Surely
not, and yet il is Just as much an executive
act, Just as-much the exercise of an execu-
tive function, as to say that an act Of the
executive is Legislative function. Upon
the same principle, we do not consider the
part assigned by the constitution TO The
Federal Senate, in advising and consentng
TO the appointments of federal executive
officers, an executive function, though we
are aware, it has been and still is so con-
sidered and treated by the Senate itself
We regard it as legislative function, as
much so as is advising and conserving to the
passage of bill into law. The President
begins an executive act, by laying before
the Senate a nomination Of an individual for
given Office. The Senate deliberate upon
the nomination, go through all the forms Of
law-making upon it, and conclude their de-
alterations upon it as they do, when a bill is
before them for adoption or rejection. They
are masters of the mode Of considering no.
limitations for executive office, as they are
for considering bills which they or the House
Of Representatives inchoate. They cannot
take any part in the executive act of nominal
ton, any more than the President can in the
act Of law-making. Their consent is made
necessary in certain cases, before a nominal
ton for public Office can be effective, just
as the Presidents consent is required, in
certain cases, before law can 90 into
effect. They express their consent or dis
sent to the effectiveness Of nomination by
the process incident to the making of laws,
and the President expresses his assent or dis
sent---not to the passage Of law--but to its
going into effect, by the process incident to
the execution Of laws. Indeed, we have al
ways questioned, whether an executive pow
er can, in strictness of terms, be entrusted
to two or more men, and whether a legisla-
tive or Judicial power can be entrusted, for
the same reason, to one man. The execu-
ton of a law would appear, from necessity
and from the natural fitness Of things, to be-
long to single individual. All the require
ments incident to just execution of law,
are to be found only in single individual,
such a promptitude, responsibility, vigor, eff
fective will, and, it may be, secresy. These
things cannot be combined in two or more
men And according to the same view, the
making oflaws would seem to demand, from
the force Of the objects sought to be achieved,
two or more men as the instruments neces-
sary to accomplish the purpose intended -
Deliberation, interchange of opinions, de-
lay, perfecting of Bill, and indeed the
whole process Of law-making absolutely re-
quire the presence OF number Of men,
The same observations, we think, hold true
respecting the necessity Of committing the
Interpretation Of the laws to two or more
men. So that, ca piiermini, we are inclin-
ed to regard the powers of government by
the Constitution, as strictly divided between
TIE legislative, the executive aud the judi
cial, that is, that every thing which the
legislative has to do, is legislative, that eve
ry thing which the executive has to do, il
executive, and the same Of the judicial
1t is, only, in our opinion, by a strict ad
herence to this doctrine, that this govern
ment can ever be administered according t
the letter and the spirit Of the constitution
The moment that one department Of it be
gins to consider, that its powers are no
single, are multiform, are combined by exc
cutive, Legislative and Judicial, that momen
will usurpation begin. Each department
can only be kept in its prescribed orbit, b,
considering and treating its powers as ex
clusively and separately Legislative, execu