242 



CONGKESS. (SUSPENSIONS FROM OFFICE.) 



of a trial for said alleged offense by a resolution or 

 the Senate, there "being no impeachment of said officel 

 in the mode required by the Constitution. 



2. That said committee be instructed to further in- 

 quire and report whether the Senate has the power 

 under the law and the rules adopted for its govern- 

 ment to arrest, try, convict, and punish the Attorney- 

 General ot the United States for a contempt of its 

 rightful authority. 



3. That said committee be further instructed to in- 

 quire and report whether the matters stated and re- 

 ferred to in the manner set forth in the resolution 

 reported from the Committee on the Judiciary above 

 copied constitute any crime or any misdemeanor in 

 office under any law of the United States ; and, if so, 

 what penalty is annexed to said crime or misde- 

 meanor, and what tribunal has the rightful jurisdic- 

 tion to try and, on conviction, to condemn the At- 

 torney-General of the United States to punishment 

 for the same. 



4. That said committee be further instructed to con- 

 sider, ascertain, and report whether in the conduct of 

 the Attorney-General, as stated in the resolution re- 

 ported from the Committee on the Judiciary and in 

 the accompanying report, he violated any and what 

 law of the United States, and in what respect he has 

 violated said law ; and whether he has done any and 

 what act, in his conduct of the business of his office 

 to which said resolution relates, that he might not 

 have done in the exercise of his lawful discretion. 



5. That said committee be further instructed to in- 

 quire and report whether the Senate has any consti- 

 tutional right or power to give its advice and. consent 

 to removals from office by the President, and whether, 

 by withholding such advice and consent, the Senate 

 can prevent the removal of any person from office by 

 the President. 



6. That said committee inquire and report whether 

 the Senate, if a majority shall agree to the resolution 

 above recited (which was reported from the Commit- 

 tee on the Judiciary), has the right, under the Con- 

 stitution, to withhold its consent to the removal of 

 persons by the President who are unfit for office, un- 

 der the circumstances mentioned in said report of the 

 Committee on the Judiciary and in the resolutions re- 

 ported by said committee ; and whether the Senate 

 can bind its members by any declaration of the duty 

 of the Senate,_ or by any rule, as a duty to the Senate, 

 as the same is declared in the following resolution 

 touching the powers and proper conduct of the Sen- 

 ate, which was also reported by the Committee on 

 the Judiciary, namely : 



"Resolved, That it is, under these circumstances, 

 the duty of the Senate to refuse its advice and con- 

 sent to proposed removals of officers the documents 

 and papers in reference to the supposed official or 

 personal misconduct of whom are withheld by the 

 Executive or any head of a department when deemed 

 necessary by the Senate and called for in considering 

 the matter." 



March 1, the President sent to the Senate 

 the following message on the relations of that 

 body to the executive departments : 

 To the Senate of the United States .- 



Ever since the beginning of the present session of 

 the Senate the different heads of the departments 

 attached to the executive branch of the Government 

 have been plied with various requests and demands 

 from committees of the Senate, from members of such 

 committees, and at^ last from the Senate itself, re- 

 quiring the transmission of reasons for the suspen- 

 sion or certain officials during the recess of that body, 

 or for the papers touching the conduct of such offi- 

 cials, or for all papers and documents relating to such 

 suspensions, or for all documents and papers filed in 

 such departments in relation to the management and 

 conduct of the offices held by such suspended officials. 



The different terms from time to time adopted in 



making these requests and demands, the order in 

 which they succeeded each other, and the fact that 

 when made by the Senate the resolution for that 

 purpose was passed in executive session, have led to 

 a presumption ? the correctness of which will, I sup- 

 pose, be candidly admitted, that from first to last 

 the information thus sought and the papers thus de- 

 manded were desired for use by the Senate and its 

 committees in considering the propriety of the sus- 

 pensions referred to. 



Though these suspensions are my executive acts, 

 based upon considerations addressed to me alone, and 

 for which I am wholly responsible, I have had no in- 

 vitation from the Senate to state the position which I 

 have felt constrained to assume in relation to the same, 

 or to interpret for myself my acts and motives in the 

 premises. 



In this condition of affairs I have forborne address- 

 ing the Senate upon the subject, lest I might be ac- 

 cused of thrusting mvself unbidden upon the atten- 

 tion of that body. 



But the report of the Committee on the Judiciary 

 of the Senate, lately presented and published, which 

 censures the Attorney-General of the United States 

 for his refusal to transmit certain papers relating to a 

 suspension from office, and which also, if I correctly 

 interpret it, evinces a misapprehension of the position 

 of the Executive upon the question of such suspen- 

 sions, will, I hope, justify this communication. 



This report is predicated upon a resolution of the 

 Senate directed to the Attorney-General and his re- 

 ply to the same. This resolution was adopted in ex- 

 ecutive session, devoted entirely to business connected 

 with the consideration of nominations for office. It 

 required the Attorney-General "to transmit to the 

 Senate copies of all documents and papers that have 

 been filed in the Department of Justice since the 1st 

 day of January, 1885, in relation to the management 

 and conduct of the office of District Attorney of the 

 United States of the Southern District of Alabama." 



The incumbent of this office on the 1st day of Jan- 

 uary, 1885, and until the 17th day of July ensuing, 

 was George M. Duskin, who, on the day last men- 

 tioned, was suspended by an executive order, and 

 John D. Burnett designated to perform the duties of 

 said office. At the time of the passage of the resolu- 

 tion above referred to, the nomination of Burnett for 

 said office was pending before the Senate, and all the 

 papers relating to said nomination were before that 

 body for its inspection and information. 



In reply to this resolution the Attorney-General, 

 after referring to the fact that the papers relating to 

 the nomination of Burnett had already been sent to 

 the Senate, stated that he was directed by the Presi- 

 dent to say that "the papers and documents which 

 are mentioned in said resolution and still remaining 

 in the custody of this department, having exclusive 

 reference to the suspension by the President of George 

 M. Duskin, the late incumbent of the office of District 

 Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama, it is not 

 considered that the public interests will be promoted 

 by a^compliance with said resolution and the trans- 

 mission of the papers and documents therein men- 

 tioned to the Senate in executive session." 



Upon this resolution and the answer thereto the 

 issue is thus stated by the Committee on the Judi- 

 ciary at the outset of the report : 



/'The important question, then, is whether it is 

 within the constitutional competence of either House 

 of Congress to have access to the official papers and 

 documents in the various public offices of the United 

 States created by laws enacted by themselves." 



I do not suppose that "the public offices of the 

 United States " are regulated or controlled in their 

 relations to either House of Congress by the fact that 

 they were " created by laws enacted by themselves." 

 It must be that these instrumentalities were created 

 for the benefit of the people and to answer the general 

 purposes of government under the Constitution and 

 the laws, and that they are unencumbered by any lien 



