The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1867-04-03
DAILY PRESS.
PORTLAND.
Wednesday Morning, April 8, 1867.
Ihe senate-ConRrma,ion md Re-
iecliOms

Se"a'e-Conf rmaiions and Re-
From Democratic paper in New York
city, whose editor has occupied seat in the
national Congress, we clip the following nara
graph:
The Constitution plainly contemplates that
the President, as the Chief Executive of tbs
nation, should actually appoint all officers for
whose conduct he is primarily responsible, the
power of confirmation or rejection vested i'm
the Senate being intended only to prevent the
devlovement of public trusts upon persons
des titute of the qualifications of integrity and
capacity. That power was designed to operate
simply as check upon the President, and not
as division of the power of appointment be-
tween him and the Senate The latter has the
p0acer to reject any nomination, but it has ne
right to do SO, when the nominee is personally
unobjectiOnable. To insist, as the Senate does
at present, upon debating to the President
whom he shall appoint to office and what their
partisan character shall be, is gross perver-
sion of the Constitution.
The Constitution, Art. 2, Sec. 2, provides,
that the President "shall nominate, and by
"and NTH the aduice and consent of the Sen
"ate, shall appoint ambassadors, other pub
"ic ministers and consuls, judges of the
supreme Court, and all other officers of the
"United States whose appointments are not"
otherwise provided for, &c.
The power of the President to nominate is
full and absolute; his power to appoint is
,oholly dependent upon the previously obtain
ed "advice and consent of the Senate"
Without these he has no more power to ap-
mmission-( Except during the recess
of the Senate, within clearly defined limits)
than the unborn child. The po,oer and con-
stitutional right of the Senate to reject a
nomination are as full, ample and absolute as
the power and right of the President to nom
mate; nor is the Senate any more called upon
to give treason for it's reflections than the
President is for his nominations. The pre-
negatives of each are distinct and ipde-
pendent. l'.f JIM '. '.l- '' p
The assertion that "the power of confirma-
tion or rejection vested in the Senate" is only
intended to prevent the devolvement of pub
lie trusts upon persons destitute of the quail
fications Of integrity and capacity" is perfect
ly gratuitous; so also is the other assertion,
that the Senate has mo right to reject when
the nominee is personally unobjeetiouable.'
We admit that, ordinarily, where a vacancy
occurs by death Oh; resignation, the nominee
to fill the place, if believed to be faithful, ca
paple and honest, should not be rejected, but
the duty of the Senate even in such cases
may be properly controlled by considerations
entirely aside from the personal fitness of the
appointee. szv ag. sC 4T
But in such cases as the majority of those
which have come before the Senate within
the past few months, the duty of the confirm
ing or rejecting power has been rendered clear
as daylight by the spirit. and animus of the
Executive, and the personal character and
fitness of those whom he has attempted to
set aside, or, 10 use his own classic phrase,
to "kick out" t4l
/. Take, for example, the case of the Austrian
mission, TO which several nominations have
been made and as many rejected. That post
was filled by man of eminent fitness,-J. L.
MoTLEY,-a man whose name is pronounced
with respect and honor in all the best circles
of Europe; man eminent in letters, pure in
his character, and in all respects above re-
proach, and whose keen sense of honor and
self-respect compelled him to tender his resie-
nation rather than submit to insult from the
President, and the espionage of caves
droppers and semi-official government detect
ives unworthy to sit beneath the roof of
gentleman. Mr.. Motley's resignation, forced
upon him by such insulting and infamous
means, was promptly accepted, when his letter
rendering it should have extorted a humble
apology not only from Mr.. Seward but from the
President himself, accompanied by respectful
and urgent request that he should withdraw his
resignation and continue to occupy a position
which he had filled with SO much credit to
himself and honor to his country. Instead of
doing this-the least act of atonement that
could have been offered-the President. as
though glad to be rid of man so much and
in so many ways his superior, undertook to
fill the place, first with one of his own sa-
traps,-the treacherous Cowan of Pennsylva-
mia, whose own State had spewed him out
and then with a man of some military fame.
but who also had proved treacherous to all the
principles and parties which had given him
any name above the average level of his fel-
lows. Both of these nominations were re-
jected, and the Senate could find ample
ground for its action without going beyond
the simple question of fitness in the nominees.
Neither of them would meet Jefferson's stan
dard OF capability, fidelity and HONESTY. But
we insist that, should the President nominate
man for the Austrian mission as pure as an
ax,n1xn ,orNl l.
living, as faithful and as honest as saint in
heaven, and of a political creed of the most
unexceptionaI character, the Senate should
not confirm the nomination so long as the ma
tional disgrace of Mr.. Motley's forced resig-
nation remains unatOned for. Let the office
remain vacant until the Danube dries up
rather than sanction such an outrage upon
n lnfth hf11l offsa Il