the Constitution contains no
reference to a power to remove from office; and until its decision in
Myers _v._ United States,[309] October 25, 1926 the Supreme Court had
contrived to side-step every occasion for a decisive pronouncement
regarding the removal power, its extent, and location. The point
immediately at issue in the Myers case was the effectiveness of an order
of the Postmaster General, acting by direction of the President, to
remove from office a first class postmaster, in face of the following
provision of an act of Congress passed in 1876: "Postmasters of the
first, second, and third classes shall be appointed and may be removed
by the President by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, and
shall hold their offices for four years unless sooner removed or
suspended according to law."[310] A divided Court, speaking through
Chief Justice Taft, held the order of removal valid, and the statutory
provision just quoted void. The Chief Justice's main reliance was on the
so-called "decision of 1789," the reference being to Congress's course
that year in inserting in the act establishing the Department of State a
proviso which was meant to imply recognition that the Secretary would be
removable by the President at will. The proviso was especially urged by
Madison, who invoked in support of it the opening words of article II
and the President's duty to "take care that the laws be faithfully
executed." Succeeding passages of the Chief Justice's opinion erect on
this basis a highly selective account of doctrine and practice regarding
the removal power down to the Civil War which was held to yield the
following results: "That article II grants to the President the
executive power of the Government, i.e., the general administrative
control of those executing the laws, including the power of appointment
and removal of executive officers--a conclusion confirmed by his
obligation to take care that the laws be faithfully executed; that
article II excludes the exercise of legislative power by Congress to
provide for appointments and removals, except only as granted therein to
Congress in the matter of inferior offices; that Congress is only given
power to provide for appointments and removals of inferior officers
after it has vested, and on condition that it does vest, their
appointment in other authority than the President with the Senate's
consent; that the provisions of the second section of article II, which
blend