Mr. JOHNSON.. My friendfrom Indiana has correctly told the Senate, from the beginning of the Government the construction has been and it has been acted upon by every President from Washington to the present time that under the clause which gives the President the right to fill vacancies which may happen, he has that power in all cases where there is an office vacant in point of fact. The obvious reasons for giving him the power were stated by my friendfrom Indiana. The government cannot get on unless the offices are filled, and as the Constitution gives no authority to any other Dept of the Government to act during the recess but the President, if he has not the power to fill a vacancy which may exist during the recess of the Senate the office is unfilled, and the public interest, so far as it may be connected with the exercise of the duties of that office, suffers. Now, it would be idle to say because I know that gentlemen here entertain a very decided opinion upon the point different from that which the Government has heretofore practiced on, and it would be very improper to say that the clause in the Constitution under which the President has acted is so plain as to admit but of the interpretation that the Government has heretofore given to it. The language of the Constitution in the provision which immediately follows the clause that gives to the President the general power to appoint by and with the advice and consent of the Senate is, that “the President shall have W. to fill up all vacancies that may happen.” What is the meaning of the word “happen” as there used? It is necessary perhaps to supply a word to make the oaning clearly intelli gent. It presents a caseabf what grammarians call an ellipsis, and in a case of that description it is for the commentator, or him who is called upon to construe the Constitution, to fill that ellipsis with the words which he thinks will carry out the purpose of the power. Now, if you fill the ellipsis with the words “to exist, ” the authority of the President is very clear. If you fill it with the words “to occur, ” it is equally clear that the President would not have the power. The law officers of the Government (and they were led to give that interpretation to it by the necessity under which the Government might be placed) have construed the words used in the Constitution to mean “vacancies hap pening to exist.”. So read, the authority of the President would be very clear, and I do not know why we are not just as much at liberty to supply the omitted words by adopting the words “to exist, ” as to supply them by adopting the words “to occur, ” even looking and I am free at it as a matter of grammatical construction." But when in addition to what would be a fair interpretation of the clause as a mere matter of grammatical construction we take into consideration what would be the consequence of a different interpretation, the argument seems to me to be irresistible. We may have and I refer to the fact now as illustrative of what I am about to say, as I referred to it yesterday. for the of illustrating what I then said on another subject we may have very delicate negotiations abroad. There may be, as was the case during the war of 1812, negotiations going on between our minister and the minister of the nation with which we have been at war, upon which hangs the peace of the country, which is to decide whether the war is to be continued or is to terminate. We have a minister there to represent us othat grave question, that vital question. He dies. On the 4th of March we hear for the 1st time of his death. The Senate has adjourned. As the law stood originally it could not meet again until the following December; so that during the whole period that is to elapse from the 4t of March in the year when we are advised of the death of our minister abroad and the succeeding 1st Monday in December that vacancy cannot be supplied.