Mr. President, without pursuing the discussion further, I will detain the Senate only while I recapitulate the opinions which I have expressed; because I am far less desirous of influencing the judgment of others, than of making clear the grounds of my own judgment.

I think, then, Sir, that the power of appointment naturally and necessarily includes the power of removal where no limitation is expressed, nor any tenure but that at will declared.  The power of appointment being conferred on the President and Senate, I think the power of removal went along with it, and should have been regarded as a part of it, and exercised by the same hands.  I think, consequently, that the decision of 1789, which implied a power of removal separate from the appointing power, was erroneous.

But I think the decision of 1789 has been established by practice, and recognized by subsequent laws, as the settled construction of the Constitution, and that it is our duty to act upon the case accordingly, for the present; without admitting that Congress may not, hereafter, if necessity shall require it, reverse the decision of 1789.  I think the legislature possesses the power of regulating the condition, duration, qualification, and tenure of office, in all cases where the Constitution has made no express provision on the subject.

I am, therefore, of opinion, that it is competent for Congress to declare by law, as one qualification of the tenure of office, that the incumbent shall remain in place till the President shall remove him, for reasons to be stated to the Senate.  And I am of opinion that this qualification, mild and gentle as it is, will have some effect in arresting the evils which beset the progress of the government, and seriously threaten its future prosperity.

These are the reasons for which I give my support to this bill.

* * * * *

NOTE.

This speech is singular among the speeches of Mr. Webster, as it exhibits him as a “Strict-Constructionist,” and as a master of that peculiar kind of deductive reasoning which is commonly considered the special distinction of his great antagonist, Mr. Calhoun.  In subtilty and refinement of argument it is fully the match of most of Mr. Calhoun’s elaborate disquisitions.  At the time of its delivery it excited the almost savage ire of John Quincy Adams, as will be seen by reference to the latter’s “Diary.”  It was in connection with this speech that Mr. Adams speaks of “the rotten heart of Daniel Webster.”  How such a purely intellectual feat as this, one so entirely passionless and impersonal, should be referred to rottenness of heart, is one of the unexplained mysteries of the operations of Mr. Adams’s understanding, when that understanding was misled by personal antipathy.

[Footnote 1:  Mr. Madison.  See the discussion in Gales and Seaton’s Debates in Congress, Vol.  I. p. 473 et seq.]