Mr. JOHNSON. Was that the purpose of the Constitution? The very provision which gives him the power to fill a vacancy necessa rily shows that in the judgment of the Convention which framed the Constitution it was not necessary to call the Senate together for any such purpose, because the necessity to call the Senate together to act upon vacancies that may happen during the session of the Senate and vacancies that may occur during the recess of the Senate would equally render it necessary (if that is the most advisable way of making appointments) to call the Senate together in all such cases; and yet no Senate has been called together for any such purpose. The only instances in which the Senate have been called together are at the commencement of a presidential term when the incoming President desires to have the nominations of his Cabinet ministers acted upon. There is no other case, and that is only for a few days. The same thing is equally true of a great many very important offices. You have a circuit judge in the circuit of which Vermont constitutes a part, and you have a district judge whose official duties are confined to the State of Vermont. They both die at the latter end of our session here. We do not know it; not a Senator is advised of it. The Senate adjourns. Is the whole administration of the jurisprudence of the U.S. in the circuit of which Vermont constitutes a district to be suspended until the Senate shall meet in the next December? My friend says it can be avoided by calling the Senate together. That takes time. We have a very large country now. The telegraph may carry with the speed of lightning the intelligence of any facts which may occur; but the members cannot get together by telegraph as yet at any rate. The Senators from the Pacific, to say nothing of those who are on this side and who are a great way off, cannot gethere for 25 or 30 days. Are they to be brought here for that purpose, and is mileage to be paid to them? If they are to be brought here they ought to have their mileage. And how often are they to be brought? If there is any weight in my friend's suggestion, they are to be brought whenever an occasion occurs which renders it necessary to the interest of the public that the office should be filled, and then another mile age is to be paid, and so on from time to time. The section of the bill which my friendfrom Indiana moves to amend uses in the 1st clause of it precisely the words of the Constitution: Abife:, That the President shall have power to fill up all vacancieswhich may happen during the recessof the Senate. Precisely the words of the Constitution, except that it goes on to specify in part the causes which may produce the vacancy by saying, “by reason of death, resignation, expiration of term of office, or other lawful coause, ” which takes in all the causes that may a vacancy. It is therefore nothing but a repetition of the Tanguage of the Constitution, and gives to the President the power to appoint, or rather to fill all vacancies which may happen during the recess of the Senate. The AttyGen will perhaps give the same opinion that that means, “happen to exist, ” following the unanimous construction which has been placed upon it by all the law officers of the Government to whom the question has been submitted, and sustained by the action of every President Mr. WILLIAMS. Then the bill is not objectionable in that respect.