Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN. I read from Story's Commentaries on the Constitution; not his extended Commentaries, but a work based upon them and prepared for colleges: “The power of appointment, one of the most important and delicate in a republican Government, is nmeuxstt provided for. Upon its fair and honest exercise in a great measure depend the vigor, the public virtue, and even the safety of the Government. If it shall ever be sively wielded by any Executive exclu to gratify his own ambition or resentment, to satisfy his own personal favorites or to carry his own political measures, and still more if it shall ever interfere with the freedom of elections by the people o3r suppress the honest expression of opinion ind by voters, it will become one of dangerous the most and corrupt engines to destroy private independence and public virtue which can assail the Republic. It j.therefore, be watched in every free Government with uncommon vigilance, as it may otherwise soonbecome as secret as it will be irresist; ible in its mischievous operations. If the time shall ever arrive when no citizen can obtain an appointment to office unless he submits to the sacrificesof personal independence and opinion, and to become the mere slave of those who can confer it, it is not difficult to foreseethat the power of appointment will then become the fittest instrumentomen to accomplish the worst purposes. The framers of the uC!oonusstliytutiine tnerwpoesreedaware of this dangerand have sed certain guards to check, if not wholly prevent, the abuse of the power. The advice and consent of the Senate is required to the appointquent of embassadors, public ministers, as well as other high officers.” Then the learned jurist goes on to speak of the power of removal. It was 1st insisted, after the Constitution was formed, that no man could be removed from an office without the consent of the Senate as well as of the Executive. It was held for some time after the adoption of the Constitution and argued by the framers that the same power which made the appointment must make the removal, and that where an office was filled by the nomination of the President and the consent of the Senate, no power short of the President and the Senate could make the removal; but having all confidence in the 1st President, the great Washington, they surrendered that view. Now, Mr. Justice Story goes on to say: “If we connect this power of removal thus practi cally expounded with another power, which is given in the succeeding clause, to fill up vacancies in the recess of the Senate, the chief guards intended by the Constitution over the power of appointment may become utterly nugatory. A President of high ambition and feeble principles may removeall officersand make new appointments in the recess of the Senate: and if his choice should not be confirmed by the senate he may reappoint the same persons in the recess, and thus set at defiance the salutary check of the Senate in all such cases. The clause to which we have alluded is the clause giving the power to appoint in the recess. This is a E. provision almost indisto secure a due performanceof public duties y officersof the Government during the recessof the Senate, and as the appointments are but temporary, the temptation to an abuseof the power would seem to besufficiently guarded if it might not draw in its train the dangerous consequences which we have before stated.” r. This is the opinion of one of the greatest jurists of this country one commended to us as Senators by the President in his veto mes: sage vetoing the suffrage bill for the DistCol. I think we may safely be controlled and guided by what Mr. Justice Story says. Mr. President, this Senate, since it commenced its session, has. the right of suffrage to all the people of this District. It has stamped upon Nebraska and Colorado in their plastic form equal suffrage. It has done the same with the Territories. Therein it has fol. lowed the sovereign will of the people of the oUungithetd States. Now the next step this Senate to take is to bring back all appointments to where the Constitution intended they should be placed persons holding office by the nomi. nation of the President and the advice and consent of the Senate. I think that every Senator, seeing the abuse that exists, owes it to this body, without any regard to partisan or party feelings, by proper legislation, to put a check to this mode of appointment, which practically ignores and destroys the power of the Senate.