Mr. JOHNSON. Mr. President, what I rise for the purpose of saying is not to discuss the particular amendment as now modified by the mover of it, but with a view merely to state the opinions which I entertain upon the questions discussed by the honorable member who has just taken his seat, and by the chairman of the Judicia Committee. The honorable chairman, at the same time saying that it was not his purpose to weaken the authority of the Attorneys General, stated that poi ho 3 their opinions were not entitled to the wcight that should be otherwise accorded to them because they held their office under the President, and they may have fashioned their opinions to suit the views of the President. Now, if the honorable member had had the experience which at one time it was my good or bad fortune to have had, I am sure he would not have indulged in a remark which was cal culated to reflect upon the independence of those who have heretofore filled that high office. The Senate are aware, and the country is aware, that in former days it was filled by the most eminent men of the land; men as far incapable of being influenced by any political consideration, and certainly as far from being influenced by any opinion which the President micht entertain, as the honorablememberfrom Illinois, or puybody else, could be in any situation in which they might be placed. They are up pointed under a law passed as far back as 1789 or the very rpose of being thelegal advisers ol the Presi cut and of the several heads of Departinents. They are, therefore, quasi judicial officers, apd as farus I am advised, without any exception, from the time of their up pointnierit to the present hour, there never has been an opinion given by any incumbent of that office upon any question which he did not believe to be in itself sound. It is possible that party may have unconse iously]7 influenced his judgment; but if it be truet atOfficers of that kind might be influenced by party considerations. I suppose it is equally true that Senators of the U.S. may unconse iously be influenced by like motives; that their opinions, therefore, are to be taken with some allowance on that account. But the opinions which have been the subject of comment do not stand alone upon the authority of the eminent men by. whom they have been given. They have had the sanction of Congress, the sanction of this great body, the sanction, of course, of the Presidents who held that high othee duriu the period that the opinions were pronounced, the sauction of Washington, of Jefferson, of Madison, of John Quincy Adams, of Monroe men not eminent on account of any military service, but eminent for their legal knowledge as well as for their undoubted, and now, (however it might have been attempted to throw spots upon their reputation during the period some of them held that high officc) now, in the opinion of the world, spotless reputation; and until the learned ComJudiciary of the Senate upon the occasion adverted to by the honorable Senator, the chairman of that committee, deemed it their duty to express a different opinion. as far as I am advised the opinion pronounced by the law officers of the Government and acted upon by the several Presidents never was questioned. Now the honorable members tell us particularly the honorable member from Michigan, who has just. closed that the language of the Constitution is so plain that it admits of no doubt. The honorable member risksa good deal of his own reputation, high as that is, when he pronounces so authoritatively that the question is free from all doubt, when from the beginning of the Government up to the period when that report was made, founded upon the hypothesis that there was no doubt, the opinion of every branch of the Government was that the true interpretation of the Constitution was directly the reverse of what he supposes now to be its only admissible interpretation. What is the inconvenience to arise from adopting the construction of the executive Dept of the Government? The honorable member supposes, and that is his proposition, that the vacancy, if existing in point of fact. for the 1st time during the aetualpsession of the Senate, cannot be filled by the Executiveif the Senate fails to fill it. Now this may happen; this has happened: a man dies during the session of the Senate; his death is not known to the President, is not known to the Senate; but his death creates a vacancy, and if it cannot be filled one of 2 things will be the result: that the office, however important it may be to the due administration 0? the Government, is to remain vacant for the 8 or 9 months that may elapse from the termination of one seSsion to the beginniu of another, or that the President must. on l the Senate together. Does the honorable member mean to assert that in a case of that description the President has no authority to appoint? If he will look at these opinions he will find that in a case of that sort it never was doubted that the President had the authority to appoint; and the same principle has been adopted in relation to that principle of the Constitution which relates to the filling of vacancies in this body. The language in one respect is the same if a vacancy happens during the recess of the Legislature the Governor is to appoint. The honorable member says that the uniform construction of that clause has been that if in point of fact he who was Senator ceases to be aSenator by death or by any other cause while the Legislature of his State is in session the place cannot be filled. What is the case of my friend, the honorable member from Vermont, [it Mr. Po1. iin?] I looked at it with some concernwben I heard of his appointment. I know hisreputation before he came into the body, and I was exceedingly solicitous that it should turn out that there was no objection to the validity of his appointment. Jud {e Collamer died during the session of the Legislature of Vermont; but the fact was not known to the Legislature, and upon looking at the question with all proor solicitude, for the reason I have just stated", I found that it had been uniformly held that the authority of the Executive to fill a vacancy did not depend upon the mere fact of an existing vacancy, but de pended upon the existence of 2 facts: 1st, vacancy existing and 2nd, the knowledge of the vacancy being possessed by the Legislature. Our friendfrom Vermont was received without objection on the part of anybody. Does anyone doubt that he is entitled to his seat by virtue of that executive appointment? and yet, without giving a liberal interpretation to the word “happen, ” as it is found in that clause of the Constitution, he is not here by virtue of a valid appointment. O But there is a difference between the lam guage of that clause and the language of the clause which is immediately before the Senate. The language of the clause before the Senate is: “The President shall have power to fill up all vacancies that may happen during the recessof the Senate.by granting commissionswhich shall expire at the end of their next session." The language of the corresponding clause in relation to the filling of vacancies in this body is: “If vacancieshappen by resignation or otherwise during the recessof the Legislature of any State. the Executive thereof may make temporary appointments until the next meeting of the Legislature, which shall then fill such vacancy.” The appointment in that case terminates with the beginning of the session of the next Legislature; the appointments in the case under consideration do not terminate at the meetin of the next session of the Senate of the U.S.totes, but continue until the termination of that session and there is a difference in another respect, a practical difference. Looking to the wholesome administration of the Government, the Government can O on without the Senate being full. Whether Vermont, for example, was represented as she is now represented, or was not represented until a Legislature met and should choose the same members or choose somebody else. was a matter, so far as the actual administration of the Government was concerned, of little or no moment; but how is the executive branch of the Government to be car ried on upon any such doctrine? Your Sec feta? of the Treasury dies, dies this morning; you O not hear of it; you adjourn before notice of the fact reaches you; are the finances of the Government to remain unndministered until we meet here next December? and so in relation to all the other appointments. The laws cannot be executed without your executive officers; the judgments ofyour courts cannot be enforced withoutyour marshal; and ifthe Senate rejectun appointment made by the Pros ident, or decline to act upon an appointment proposed by the President, and adjourn, are your courts to be practically closed? Certain] that will be the result if it be true that in such case there is no authority in the Executive to so pl the vacancy unless the Senate shall be en ledrtogether again, and the practical result might be that vie might be called together from mouth toynonth. he mise hief arising from that, the inconvenience resulting from, that, the expenditure consequent upon that, is infinitely greater than to give the President the power to appoint a marshal or a SecyTreasury, and to have the judgments of the courts, in the case of the 1st of these officers, executed: and so in relation to all other Depts of the Government. but my friendfrom Illinois and I, and perhaps for the some reason, have been very loud in past times of the uiccties of special pleading, and he does not seem to have gotten rid of his love of them yet. He seems given over to technicalities, and pushes them to an extent in the construction of the Constitution even further than I have heard them applied to the construction of a plea in abatement. Now, what does he tell as? The power of appoint ment is not conferred n on the President; the clause relied upon for the purpose of showing, that he has any power of appointment was not i intended to accomplish any such end; the word “appointment" is not in the particular clause; the word “a pointmeut” is to be found in the clause which relates to what he may do with the advice and consent of the Senate; and becausethe word “appointment” is not in the one and is to be found in the other, the power of a pointiueut in the one does not exist, althou it exists in the other. What is the power, Mr. President? If vacancies exist they shall be filled by commissions issued by the President. That is the power conferred upon him. When the vacancy existing by the death or the resignation of the antecedent Officer is filled, does not the incum bent hold his office by virtue of that commission 1 Does he not hold it, therefore, by the opointment of the Executive just as substantially as ifthe word “appointment” was to be found in the particular clause? Who can doubt that? He who did fill it filled it by virtue of the authority of the President to apoint, by and with the consent of the Senate. fie who succeeds him in filling it fills it by virtue of the appointment of the President alone during the period for which.he is authorized to fill it; so that in both cases the incumbent is in office by virtue of an appointing power. therefore submit, upon either of the 2 nestions to which I have addressed myself, rst, that a long settled interpretation by every branch of the Government of the meaning of this clause is not to be unsettled now by the opinion of any committee of this body. No one has greater confidence than I have in the particular committee by whom the report relied upon was drafted or in the draftsman of that report; but I am sure he will not take it at all in an offensive sense, nor will any member of that committee consider me as meaning to disparage the authority to which each one of the committee is entitled, whenl say that perhaps it may be that Pinkney and Wirt and one and Legare and Berrien and Cashing may be right and this committee wrong; and more especially when what Pinkncy and Wirt and Taney and Berrien and Legare and Cash,ing have said upon the subject has received the sanction of every dept of the Government until it 1st fcl under the kind and critical censure of the members of this committee.