inia now led the attack.
He had been a member of the Continental Congress from 1786 to 1788, and a
member of the ratifying convention of his State. Although he voted for
a provisional acceptance of the Constitution, he had supported an
amendment requiring Congress to collect direct taxes or excises through
State agency, which would have been in effect a return to the plan of
requisitions--the bane of the Confederation. In an elaborate speech he
attacked the clause giving the President power to remove from office, as
an attempt to impart an authority not conferred by the Constitution, and
inconsistent with the requirement that appointments should be made with
the advice and consent of the Senate. The debate soon became heated. "Let
us look around at this moment," said Jackson of Georgia, "and see the
progress we are making toward venality and corruption. We already hear the
sounding title of _Highness_ and _Most Honorable_ trumpeted in our ears,
which, ten years since, would have exalted a man to a station as high as
Haman's gibbet." Page of Virginia was ablaze with indignation. "Good God!"
he exclaimed. "What, authorize in a free republic, by law, too, by your
first act, the exertion of a dangerous royal prerogative in your Chief
Magistrate!" Gerry, in remarks whose oblique criticism upon arrangements
at the President's house was perfectly well understood, dwelt upon the
possibility that the President might be guided by some other criterion
than discharge of duty as the law directs. "Perhaps the officer is not
good natured enough; he makes an ungraceful bow, or does it left leg
foremost; this is unbecoming in a great officer at the President's levee.
Now, because he is so unfortunate as not to be so good a dancer as he is a
worthy officer, he must be removed." These rhetorical flourishes, which
are significant of the undercurrent of sentiment, hardly do justice to the
general quality of the debate which was marked by legal acuteness on both
sides. Madison pressed home the sensible argument that the President could
not be held to responsibility unless he could control his subordinates.
"And if it should happen that the officers connect themselves with the
Senate, they may mutually support each other, and for want of efficacy
reduce the power of the President to a mere vapor; in which case, his
responsibility would be annihilated and the expectation of it unjust."

The debate lasted for several days, but Madison won by a vo