170 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



discharge all of the executive offices, acts, and duties 

 which were required of me as the President of the 

 United States. 1 am not aware that a failure oc- 

 curred, in any one instance, of my exercising the 

 functions and powers of my office in every case re- 

 quiring their discharge, or of my exercising all 

 necessary executive acts, in whatever part ot the 

 United States I may at the time have been. Fortu- 

 nately, the rapidity of travel and of mail communi- 

 cation, and the facility of almost instantaneous cor- 

 respondence with the offices at the seat of Govern- 

 ment which the telegraph affords to the President, 

 in whatever section of the Union he may be, enable 

 him in these days to maintain as constant and al- 

 most as quick intercourse with the departments at 

 Washington as may be maintained while he remains 

 in the capital. 



The necessity of the performance of executive 

 acts by the President of the United States exists 

 and is devolved upon him, wherever he may be 

 within the United States during his term of office, 

 by the Constitution of the United States. 



His civil powers are no more limited, or capable 

 of limitation, as to the place where they shall bo 

 exercised, than are those which he might be required 

 to discharge in his capacity of Conimander-in-Cbief 

 of the Army and Navy, which latter powers, it is 

 evident, lie might be called upon to exercise possi- 

 bly even without the limits of the United States. 

 Had the efforts of those recently in rebellion against 

 the Government been successful in driving a late 

 President of the United States from Washington, it 

 is manifest that he must have discharged his func- 

 tions, both civil and military, elsewhere than in the 

 place named by law as the seat of Government. 



No act of Congress can limit, suspend, or confine 

 this constitutional duty. I am not aware of the ex- 

 istence of any act of Congress which assumes thus 

 to limit or restrict the exercise of the functions of 

 the Executive. Were there such acts, I should 

 nevertheless recognize the superior authority of the 

 Constitution, and should exercise the powers re- 

 quired thereby of the President. 



The act to which reference is made in the resolu- 

 tion of the House relates to the establishing of the 

 seat of Government, and the providing of suitable 

 buildings and removal thereto of the offices attached 

 to the Government, etc. It was not understood at 

 its date, and by General Washington, to confine the 

 President in the discharge of his duties and powers 

 to actual presence at the seat of Government. On 

 the 80th of March, 1791, shortly after the passage of 

 the act referred to, General Washington issued an 

 executive proclamation, having reference to the sub- 

 ject of this very act, from Georgetown, a place remote 

 from Philadelphia, which then was the seat of Gov- 

 ernment, where the act referred to directed that " all 

 offices attached to the seat of Government " should 

 for the time remain. 



That none of his successors have entertained the 

 idea that their executive offices could be performed 

 only at the seat of Government is evidenced by the 

 hundreds upon hundreds of such acts performed by 

 my predecessors, in unbroken line from Washington 

 to Lincoln, a memorandum of the general nature and 

 character of some of which acts is submitted here- 

 with ; and no question has ever been raised as to 

 the validity of these acts, or as to the right and 

 propriety of the Executive to exercise the powers 

 of his office in any part of the United States. 



U. S. GRANT. 

 WASHINGTON, May 4, 1876. 



Memorandum of absences of the Presidents of the 

 United States from the national capital during 

 each of the several administrations, and of public 

 and executive acts performed during the time of 

 such absences. 



PRESIDENT WASHINGTON 



was frequently absent from the capital ; he appears 



to have been thus absent at least one hundred and 

 eighty-one days during his term. 



During his several absences he discharged official 

 and executive duties, among them : 



In March, 1791, he issued a proclamation, dated at 

 Georgetown, in reference to running the boundary 

 for the territory of the permanent seat of the Gov- 

 ernment. 



From Mount Vernon he signed an official letter to 

 the Emperor of Morocco, and from the same place 

 the commission of Oliver Wolcott as Controller of 

 the Treasury, and the procliimation respecting the 

 Whiskey Insurrection in Pennsylvania; also, va- 

 rious sea-letters, the proclamation of the Treaty of 

 1795 between the United States and Spain, the ex- 

 ecutive order of August 4, 1792, relative to the du- 

 ties on distilled spirits, etc. 



When at Germantown, he signed the commission 

 of John Brackenridge as attorney of the United 

 States for Kentucky, and that of engineer of the 

 United States Mint. 



He proposed to have Mr. Trujo officially presented, 

 as envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary 

 from Spain, to him at Mount Vernon ; but, although 

 Mr. Trujo went there for the purpose, the ceremony 

 of presentation was prevented by Mr. Trujo having 

 accidentally left his credentials. 



PRESIDENT JOHN ADAMS 



was absent from the capital during his term of four 

 years, on various occasions, three hundred and 

 eighty-five days. 



He discharged official duties and performed the 

 most solemn public acts at Quincy, in the same man- 

 ner as when at the seat of Government. 



In 1797 (August 25th) he forwarded to the Secre- 

 tary of State a number of passports which he had 

 signed at Quincy. 



He issued at Quincy commissions to numerous 

 officers of various grades, civil and military. 



On the 28th of September, 1797, he forwarded to 

 the Secretary of State a commission for a justice of 

 the Supreme Court, signed in blank at Quincy, in- 

 structing the Secretary to fill it with the name of 

 John Marshall if he would accept, and if not, Bush- 

 rod Washington. He issued a proclamation opening 

 trade with certain ports of Saint Domingo, and 

 signed warrants for the execution of two soldiers, 

 and for a pardon. 



PRESIDENT JEFFERSON 



was absent from the seat of Government, during his 

 two terms of office, seven hundred and ninety-six 

 days, more than one-fourth of the whole official 

 period. 



During his absence he signed and issued from 

 Monticello seventy-five commissions, one letter to 

 the Emperor of Eussia, and nine letters of credence 

 to diplomatic agents of the United States, accredited 

 to other governments. 



PRESIDENT MADISON 



was absent from the seat of Government, during his 

 two presidential terms, six hundred and thirty-seven 

 days. 



He signed and issued from Montpelier, during his 

 absence from the capital, seventy-one commissions, 

 one proclamation, and nine letters of credence to 

 ministers, accrediting them to foreign governments, 

 and, as it appears, transacted generally nil the neces- 

 sary routine business incident to the executive office. 



PRESIDENT MONROE 



was absent from the capital, during his presidential 

 service of eight years, seven hundred and eight 

 days, independent of the year 1824, and the two 

 months of 1825, for which period no data are found. 

 He transacted public business wherever he hap- 

 pened to be, sometimes at his farm in Virginia, again 

 at his summer resort on the Chesapeake, and some- 

 times while traveling. He signed and issued from 



