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Hamilton From the New York Packet.
Friday, April 4, 1788.
To the People of the State of New York:
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.
To state the first in its proper form, is to refute it. It
amounts to this: the President would have an improper influence
over the Senate, because the Senate would have the power of
restraining him. This is an absurdity in terms. 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.
Let us take a view of the converse of the proposition: ``the
Senate would influence the Executive.'' As I have had occasion to
remark in several other instances, the indistinctness of the
objection forbids a precise answer. In what manner is this
influence to be exerted? In relation to what objects? 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. How could the
Senate confer a benefit upon the President by the manner of
employing their right of negative upon his nominations? 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. 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. If by influencing the President
be meant restraining him, this is precisely what must have been
intended. 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. The right of nomination would produce all the good
of that of appointment, and would in a great measure avoid its evils.
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. In that plan the power of nomination is
unequivocally vested in the Executive. 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. The
blame of a bad nomination would fall upon the President singly and
absolutely. 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. 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.
The reverse of all this characterizes the manner of appointment
in this State. The council of appointment consists of from three to
five persons, of whom the governor is always one. This small body,
shut up in a private apartment, impenetrable to the public eye,
proceed to the execution of the trust committed to them. 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. 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.
And while an unbounded field for cabal and intrigue lies open, all
idea of responsibility is lost. 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. 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.
Every mere council of appointment, however constituted, will be
a conclave, in which cabal and intrigue will have their full scope.
Their number, without an unwarrantable increase of expense, cannot
be large enough to preclude a facility of combination. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. And
yet such a council has been warmly contended for as an essential
amendment in the proposed Constitution.
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. 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. A body so fluctuating and at the same time so
numerous, can never be deemed proper for the exercise of that power.
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. 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. The example of most
of the States in their local constitutions encourages us to
reprobate the idea.
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.
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. It required, indeed, an insatiable avidity for
censure to invent exceptions to the parts which have been excepted
to. 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. 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. As to the reception of
ambassadors, what I have said in a former paper will furnish a
sufficient answer.
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. 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? 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. 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. 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. What
more could be desired by an enlightened and reasonable people?
Publius.
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. The consent of that body would be necessary to
displace as well as to appoint. 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. 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. 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.