Mr. EDMUNDS. I will state with pleasure, so far as I understand it, the reason; and I believe I comprehend the views of the committee on that point. We do not doubt what my friendfrom Wisconsin has said, that these heads of Depts are public officers, who are responsible to the public, and in whose faithful administration the public have just as much interest as they have in that of any other officer. That is all true; but it did seem to the committee, after a great deal of consultation and reflection, that it was right and Just that the Chief Executive of the nation in selecting these named Secretaries, who, by law and by the practice of the country, and officers analagous to whom by the practice of all other countries, are the confidential advisers of the Executive respecting the administration of all his Depts, should be persons who were personally agreeable to him, in whom he could place entire confidence and reliance, and that whenever it should seem to him that the state of relations between him and any of them had become so as to render this relation of confidence and trust and personal esteem inhar monious, he should in such case be allowed to dispense with the services of that officer in vacation and have some other person act in his stead. We thought that so much discretion, so much confidence, so much respect ought to be properly attributed to the Chief Magistrate of the nation. It may happen that at some particular time some people may suppose that it has happened now the Chief Magistrate for the time being ought not to be invested with such powers; but the committee have recommended the adoption of this rule respecting the tenure of officers as a permanent and systematic and as they believe an appropriate regulation of the Government for all Adminis trations and for all time; and it did appear to them (whether the reason may commend itself o tEoxetchuetivSeen, ate or not) that it was just to the and on the whole best for the interest of the nation, that he should be allowed during a recess of the Senate to change his confidential advisers if it should appear to him to be fit, subject to that general responsibility which every officer must be held to to the public and to the Senate when they meet again, That was the reason of the committee.