The writings of James Madison, comprising his public papers and his private correspondence, including numerous letters and documents now for the first time printed. |
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TO THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES.
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 | The writings of James Madison, |  |
TO THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES.[67]
I have recd. from the Committee appointed by the resolution
of the Senate of the [14] day of [June] a copy of that resolution,
which authorizes the Committee to confer with the P.
on the subject of the nomination made by him of a Min:
Plenipo. to Sweden.
Conceiving it to be my duty to decline the proposed conference
with the Committee, & it being uncertain when it may be
convenient to explain to the Committee & thro' them, to the
Senate, the grounds of my so doing, I think it proper to address
the explanation directly to the Senate.
Without entering into a general review of the relations, in
which the constitution has placed the several departments of
the Govt. to each other, it will suffice to remark
That the Executive & Senate in the cases of appointments
to Office & of Treaties, are to be considered as independent of
and co-ordinate with each other. If they agree the appointments
If the Senate wish information previous to their final decision,
the practice, keeping in view the constitutional relations of the
Senate & the Executive has been either to request the Executive
to furnish it, or to refer the subject to a committee of their
body to communicate either formally or informally with the
head of the proper Department.
The appointment of a Committee of the Senate to confer
immediately with the Executive himself appears to lose sight
of the co-ordinate relation between the Executive & the
Senate which the Constitution has established, & which ought
therefore to be maintained.
The relation between the Senate & House of Representatives
in whom legislative power is concurrently vested, is sufficiently
analogous to illustrate that between the Executive &
senate in making appointments & treaties. The two houses
are in like manner independent of & co-ordinate with each
other; and the invariable practice of each in appointing Committees
of conference & consultation is to commission them
to confer not with the co-ordinate Body itself, but with a
Committee of that Body. And although both branches of the
Legislature may be too numerous to hold conveniently a conference
with committees were they to be appointed by either
to confer with the entire Body of the other, it may be fairly
presumed that if the whole number of either branch were not
too large for the purpose, the objection to such a conference,
being agst. the principle, as derogating from the co-ordinate
relations of the two Houses, would retain all its force.
I add only that I am entirely persuaded of the purity of the
intentions of the Senate, in the course they have pursued on
this occasion, & with which my view of the subject makes it
my duty not to accord; & that they will be cheerfully furnished
with all the suitable information in possession of the Executive,
in any mode deemed consistent with the principles of the Constitution,
and the settled practice under it.
Jonathan Russell was nominated May 29 to be Minister Plenipotentiary
to Sweden. On June 14 the Senate "Resolved, that the
nomination of Jonathan Russell, and the motion of Mr. Goldsborough,
on the subject, together with the message of the President of the
United States, of the 7th instant, with the communications therein
mentioned, be referred to a committee, with instructions respectfully
to confer with the President of the United States, upon the subject
of the said nomination, and report thereon."—Executive Journal of
the Senate, ii., 354.
| The writings of James Madison, | |