hese laws is by no means admitted. But why
should the provisions of the repealed law, which required specific cause
for suspension and a report to the Senate of "evidence and reasons,"
be now in effect applied to the present Executive, instead of the law,
afterwards passed and unrepealed, which distinctly permits suspensions
by the President "in his discretion" and carefully omits the requirement
that "evidence and reasons for his action in the case" shall be reported
to the Senate.

The requests and demands which by the score have for nearly three months
been presented to the different Departments of the Government, whatever
may be their form, have but one complexion. They assume the right of the
Senate to sit in judgment upon the exercise of my exclusive discretion
and Executive function, for which I am solely responsible to the people,
from whom I have so lately received the sacred trust of office. My oath
to support and defend the Constitution, my duty to the people who have
chosen me to execute the powers of their great office and not to
relinquish them, and my duty to the Chief Magistracy, which I must
preserve unimpaired in all its dignity and vigor, compel me to refuse
compliance with these demands.

To the end that the service may be improved, the Senate is invited to
the fullest scrutiny of the persons submitted to them for public office,
in recognition of the constitutional power of that body to advise and
consent to their appointment. I shall continue, as I have thus far done,
to furnish, at the request of the confirming body, all the information
I possess touching the fitness of the nominees placed before them for
their action, both when they are proposed to fill vacancies and to take
the place of suspended officials. Upon a refusal to confirm I shall not
assume the right to ask the reasons for the action of the Senate nor
question its determination. I can not think that anything more is
required to secure worthy incumbents in public office than a careful and
independent discharge of our respective duties within their well-defined
limits.

Though the propriety of suspensions might be better assured if the
action of the President was subject to review by the Senate, yet if the
Constitution and the laws have placed this responsibility upon the
executive branch of the Government it should not be divided nor the
discretion which it involves relinquished.

It has been claimed that the present Executive havin