granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives,” The article goes on to prescribe the manner in which Congress is to be constituted and organized, and then proceeds to enumerate, specifically, the powers intended to be granted; and adds the general clause, conferring such authority as may be necessary to carry granted powers into effect.  Now, Sir, no man doubts that this is a limited legislature; that it possesses no powers but such as are granted by express words or necessary implication; and that it would be quite preposterous to insist that Congress possesses any particular legislative power, merely because it is, in its nature, a legislative body, if no grant can be found for it in the Constitution itself.

Then comes, Sir, the second article, creating an executive power; and it declares, that “the executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States.”  After providing for the mode of choosing him, it immediately proceeds to enumerate, specifically, the powers which he shall possess and exercise, and the duties which he shall perform.  I consider the language of this article, therefore, precisely analogous to that in which the legislature is created; that is to say, I understand the Constitution as saying that “the executive power herein granted shall be vested in a President of the United States.”

In like manner, the third article, or that which is intended to arrange the judicial system, begins by declaring that “the judicial power of the United States shall be vested in one Supreme Court, and in such inferior courts as the Congress may, from time to time, ordain and establish.”  But these general words do not show what extent of judicial power is vested in the courts of the United States.  All that is left to be done, and is done, in the following sections, by express and well-guarded provisions.

I think, therefore, Sir, that very great caution is to be used, and the ground well considered, before we admit that the President derives any distinct and specific power from those general words which vest the executive authority in him.  The Constitution itself does not rest satisfied with these general words.  It immediately goes into particulars, and carefully enumerates the several authorities which the President shall possess.  The very first of the enumerated powers is the command of the army and navy.  This, most certainly, is an executive power.  And why is it particularly set down and expressed, if any power was intended to be granted under the general words?  This would pass, if any thing would pass, under those words.  But enumeration, specification, particularization, was evidently the design of the framers of the Constitution, in this as in other parts of it.  I do not, therefore, regard the declaration that the executive power shall be vested in a President as being any grant at all; any more than the declaration that the legislative