CONGRESS. (SUSPENSIONS FROM OFFICE.) 



243 



in favor of either branch, of Congress growing out of 

 their construction, and unembarrassed by any .obliga- 

 tion to the Senate as the price of their creation. 



The complaint of the committee, that access to offi- 

 cial papers in the public offices is denied the Senate, 

 is met by the statement that at no time has it been 

 the disposition or the intention of the President or 

 any department of the executive branch of the Gov- 

 ernment to withhold from the Senate official docu- 

 ments or papers filed in any of the public offices. 

 "While it is by no means conceded that the Senate has 

 the right in any case to review the act of the Execu- 

 tive in removing or suspending a public officer upon 

 official documents or otherwise, it is considered that 

 documents and papers of that nature should, because 

 they are official, be freely transmitted to the Senate 

 upon its demand, trusting the use of the same for 

 proper and legitimate purposes to the good faith of 

 that body. And though no such paper or document 

 has been'specifically demanded in any of the numer- 

 ous requests and demands made upon the depart- 

 ments, vet as often as they were found in the public 

 offices they have been furnished in answer to such ap- 

 plications. 



The letter of the Attorney-General in response to 

 the resolution of the Senate in the particular case 

 mentioned in the committee's report was written at 

 my suggestion and by my direction. There had been 

 no official papers or documents filed in his depart- 

 ment relating to the case within the period specified 

 in the resolution. The letter was intended, by its 

 description of the papers and documents remaining 

 in the custody of the departmentj to convey the idea 

 that they were not official j and it was assumed that 

 the resolution called for information, papers, and 

 documents of the same character as were required by 

 the requests and demands which preceded it. 



Everything that had been written or done on be- 

 half of the Senate from the beginning pointed to all 

 letters and papers of a private and unofficial nature as 

 the objects of search, if they were to be found in the 

 departments, and provided they had been presented 

 to the Executive with a view to their consideration 

 upon the question of suspension from office. 



Against the transmission of such papers and docu- 

 ments I have interposed my advice and direction. 

 This has not been done, as is suggested in the com- 

 mittee's report, upon the assumption on my part that 

 the Attorney-General or any other head of a depart- 

 ment "is the servant of the President, and is to give 

 or withhold copies of documents in his office according 

 to the will of the Executive and not otherwise," but 

 because I regard the papers and documents withheld 

 and addressed to me, or intended for my use and ac- 

 tion, purely unofficial and private, not infrequently 

 confidential, and having reference to the performance 

 of a duty exclusively mine. I consider them in no 

 proper sense as upon the files of the department, but 

 as deposited there for my convenience, remaining still 

 completely under my control. I suppose if I desired 

 to take them into my custody I might do so with en- 

 tire proprietyj and it I saw fit to destroy them no one 

 could complain. 



Even the committee in its report appears to con- 

 cede that there may be with the President, or in the 

 departments, papers and documents which, on ac- 

 count of their unofficial character, are not subject to 

 the inspection of the Congress. A reference in the 

 report to instances where the House of Representa- 

 tiyes ought not to succeed in a call for the production 

 of papers is immediately followed by this statement : 



" The committee feels authorized to state, after a 

 somewhat careful research, that within the foregoing 

 limits there is scarcely in the history of this Govern- 

 ment, until now, any' instance of a refusal by a head 

 of a department, or even of the President himself, to 

 communicate official facts and information as distin- 

 guished from private and unofficial papers, motions, 

 views, reasons, and opinions to either House of Con- 

 gress when unconditionally demanded." 



To which of the classes thus recognized do the pa- 

 pers and documents belong that are now the objects 

 of the Senate's quest? 



They consist of letters and representations ad- 

 dressed to the Executive or intended for his inspec- 

 tion ; they are voluntarily written and -presented by 

 private citizens who are not in the least instigated 

 thereto by any official invitation or at all subject to 

 official control. While some of them are entitled to 

 executive consideration, many of them are so irrele- 

 vant, or, in the light of other facts, so worthless, that 

 they have not been g^iven the least weight in deter- 

 mining the question to which they are supposed to 

 relate. 



Are all these, simply because they are preserved, 

 to be considered official documents and subject to the 

 inspection of the Senate ? If not, who is to determine 

 which belong to this class? Are the motives and 

 purposes of the Senate, as they are day by day de- 

 veloped, such as would be satisfied with my selec- 

 tion s Am I to submit to theirs at the risk of being 

 charged with making a suspension from office upon 

 evidence which was not even considered ? 



Are these papers to be regarded official because they 

 have not only been presented but preserved in the 

 public offices ? 



Their nature and character remain the same whether 

 they are kept in the Executive Mansion or deposited 

 in the departments. There is no mysterious power 

 of transmutation in departmental custody, nor is there 

 magic in the undefined and sacred solemnity of de- 

 partment files. If the presence of these papers in the 

 public offices is a stumbling-block in the way of the 

 performance of senatorial duty, it can be easily re- 

 moved. 



The papers and documents which have been de- 

 scribed derive no official character from any constitu- 

 tional, statutory, or other requirement making them 

 necessary to the performance of the official duty of the 

 Executive. 



It will not be denied, I suppose, that the President 

 may suspend a public officer in the entire absence of 

 any papers or documents to aid his official judgment 

 and discretion. And I am quite prepared to avow 

 that the cases are not few in which suspensions from 

 office have depended more upon oral representations 

 made to me by citizens of known good repute, and by 

 members of the House of Representatives and Senators 

 of the United States, than upon, any letters and docu- 

 ments presented for my examination. I have not 

 felt justified in suspecting the veracity, integrity, and 

 patriotism of Senators, or ignoring their representa- 

 tions, because they were not in party affiliation with 

 the majority of their associates ; and I recall a few 

 suspensions* which bear the approval of individual 

 members identified politically with the majority in 

 the Senate. 



While, therefore, I am constrained to deny the 

 right of the Senate to the papers and documents de- 

 scribed, so far as the right to the same is based upon 

 the claim that they are in any view of the subject offi- 

 cial, I am also led unequivocally 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 impeachment to review or reverse the acts of 

 the Executive in the suspension, during the recess of 

 the Senate, of Federal officials. 



I believe the power to remove or suspend such offi- 

 cials is vested in the President alone by the Constitu- 

 tion, which in express terms provides that " the ex- 

 ecutive power shall be vested in a 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 express 

 provision superadded to its legislative duties the right 

 to advise and consent to appointments to office and to 

 sit as a court of impeachment, it conferred upon that 

 body all the control and regulation of executive 

 action supposed to be necessary for the safety of the 



