It is usually said, by those who maintain its existence in the single hands of the President, that the power is derived from that clause of the Constitution which says, “The executive power shall be vested in a President.”  The power of removal, they argue, is, in its nature, an executive power; and, as the executive power is thus vested in the President, the power of removal is necessarily included.

It is true, that the Constitution declares that the executive power shall be vested in the President; but the first question which then arises is, What is executive power?  What is the degree, and what are the limitations? Executive power is not a thing so well known, and so accurately defined, as that the written constitution of a limited government can be supposed to have conferred it in the lump.  What is executive power?  What are its boundaries?  What model or example had the framers of the Constitution in their minds, when they spoke of “executive power”?  Did they mean executive power as known in England, or as known in France, or as known in Russia?  Did they take it as defined by Montesquieu, by Burlamaqui, or by De Lolme?  All these differ from one another as to the extent of the executive power of government.  What, then, was intended by “the executive power”?  Now, Sir, I think it perfectly plain and manifest, that, although the framers of the Constitution meant to confer executive power on the President, yet they meant to define and limit that power, and to confer no more than they did thus define and limit.  When they say it shall be vested in a President, they mean that one magistrate, to be called a President, shall hold the executive authority; but they mean, further, that he shall hold this authority according to the grants and limitations of the Constitution itself.

They did not intend, certainly, a sweeping gift of prerogative.  They did not intend to grant to the President whatever might be construed, or supposed, or imagined to be executive power; and the proof that they meant no such thing is, that, immediately after using these general words, they proceed specifically to enumerate his several distinct and particular authorities; to fix and define them; to give the Senate an essential control over the exercise of some of them, and to leave others uncontrolled.  By the executive power conferred on the President, the Constitution means no more than that portion which itself creates, and which it qualifies, limits, and circumscribes.

A general survey of the frame of the Constitution will satisfy us of this.  That instrument goes all along upon the idea of dividing the powers of government, so far as practicable, into three great departments.  It describes the powers and duties of these departments in an article allotted to each.  As first in importance and dignity, it begins with the legislative department.  The first article of the Constitution, therefore, commences with the declaration, that “all legislative power herein