6116. OFFICES, Nominations.—[further continued].
Nomination to office is
an executive function. To give it to the Legislature,
as we [in Virginia] do, is a violation
of the principle of the separation of powers.
It swerves the members from correctness, by
temptations to intrigue for office themselves,
and to a corrupt barter of votes; and destroys
responsibility by dividing it among a multitude.
By leaving nomination in its proper
place, among executive functions, the principle
of the distribution of power is preserved,
and responsibility weighs with its
force on a single head.—
To Samuel Kerchival. Washington ed. vii, 12.
Ford ed., x, 40.
(M.
1816)
