The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1886-03-05
FREDERICK w. Baker, editor.
Thc President and the Senate.

The President and the Senate.
President Cleveland has never yet been nc,
cuscd OF having weak back, and on MOI
day he showed the stiffness of his spinal YER.
tebrT in sending to the Senate Il message in
which he fatty denies The right Of that body
to have access to his private papers relating
to removals from office In order to gain
more time in which to rally their forces in
support of the unwarranted assumption OF
the Senate in encroachng upon the preroga.
tive the President, the Republican Senators
referred the message to the judiciary commit.
tee.
President Cleveland thinks that it will moi
be denied that he may suspend public Off.
Ger in the absence of papers or documents 10
aid his judgment, and adds
"Whle, therefore, am constrained 10 deny
the right of the Senate to the papers and docu.
ments described, so far as the right to the same
is based upon the claim that they are in any view
of the subject official, am also led unequiyocal-
ly to dispute the right of the Senate, by the aid
of any documents whatever or in any way save
through the judicial process of trial on impcach.
Went, to review or reverse the act of the EXecu.
tive in the suspension during the recess of the
Senate of Federal officials. | believe the power
to remove or suspend such officials is vested in
the President alone by the Constitution, which
in express terms provides that the executive
power snail be invested in President of the
United States of America and that he shall take
care that the laws be faithfully executed The
Senate belongs to the legislative branch of the
government When the Constitution by ex.
press provision super-added to its legislative
duties the right to advise and consent to ap.
pointments to Office and to sit as q court of i'm
parchment ii conferred upon that body all the
control and regulation of executive action sup.
posed to be necessary for the safety of the PEG
pie, and this express and special grant of such
extraordinary powers, not in any way related to
or growing out of general Senatorial duty and
in itself departure from the general plan OF
our government, should be held under famil-
lar maxim of construction, to exclude every
other right of interference with eXecuctive
functions"
The President, after quoting the statutes
says that the demands have but one complex
ion-to assume the right of the Senate to sill
in judgment upon the exercise of Executive
discretion and Executive function. His oath
to support the Constitution and his duty tc
the Chief Magstracy, which must be unim
paired, compel him to refuse the demands
He adds:
"To the end that the service may be mprov'
ed, the Senate is invited to the fullest scrutiny
of the persons submitted to them for public of
flee. In recognition of the constitutional power
OF that body to advise and consent to their ap
pointment | shall continue, as | have thus fal
done, to furnish, at the request of the confirm
ing body, all the information possess touching
the fitness of the nominees placed before them
for their action, both when they are proposed
md to fol. tna,, ,fs,, q
cd officials. Upon refusal to confirm shall
not assume the right To ask the reasons
for the action of the Senate nor question its de
termination. | cannot think that anything
more is required to secure worthy incum bents
in public office than a careful and independent
discharge of onr respective duties within theil
well defined limits"
The President closes with declaration thai
all of his pledges have been faithfully kept
There are no grounds, he says, "for an allega
ton that the fear of being found false to my
professions influences me in declining to sub
nit to the demands of the Senate. | have no.
constantly refused to suspend officials and thus
incurred the displeasure of political friends anC
yet willfully broken faith with the people fol
being false to them. Neither the discomfort o.
party friends nor the allurements constantly
offered of combinations of appontees condi
toned upon the avowal that suspensions have
been made on party grounds alone, MOI the
threat proposed in the resolutions now before
the senate tnat no COMBINATIONS VIII be madt
unless the demands of that body are complied
with, ale sufficient TO discourage or deter m,
from following in the way which | am convinc
ed leads to better government for the people,
The Philadelphia Times in supporting
President Cleveland in resisting the encroach
ments of the Senate says;
1.-THE Republican Senators have raised iht
point that the President cannot remove anv O
their partisans from office with the Senate
consent; but knowing the unsounduess of thi.
position, they have tried to conceal it by the
pretence of their right to ask information. Tht
value of the minority report is not SO much il
its arguments, which are familiar, as in its in
sistance that the real question shall be met OF
its constitutional basis.
"There will be, of course, long debate OF
these papers, and it will not be proftess de
bate If the speakers will keep to the point
The sober discussion Unconstitutional questions
is one of the most useful functions of the Sen
ate. But Senate struggling to keep possession
of few paltry offices is a spectacle as undignl
fled as unpatriotc.'
Collector GrOOme Enters Upon His Du