Mr. TRUMBULL. I am quite aware of these opinions of the Attorneys General, commencing back some 30 or 40 years ago. The Attorneys General are the appointees of the President, and we know that they hold their ofices at his will, and we know that when some persons have filled the presidential office they have not. allowed persons to hold Cabinet Offices who did not agree with them in o inion. I do not mean to derogate from the big character of the gentlemen who have filled the office of AttyGen in this country. They have been very able men, distinguished men, and they have given opinions upon the clause of the Constitution which I have read, but I really think those opinions will not bear the test of examination. If you bring those opinions to the language of the Constitution, I think you will see that they cannot be sustained. A mistake has arisen in the Senate in supposing that the President can appoint to office at an time. The President cannot appoint. an o cer either in the recess of the senate or during the session of the Senate. The Constitution of the U.S. has not put the apointing powerin the Presidents hands, but it as put it in the hands of the President “by and with the advice and consent of the Senate;” and he can no more appoint an officer without the advice and consent of the Senate than he can make a treaty without the advice and consent of the Senate. He can do neither. The language of the Constitution is peculiar. This is the language: “ He shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties, provided 2/3rds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate shall appoint, emb ors, other public ministers and consuls, judges of the SupremeCourt, and all other otheers of the U.S. whose appointments nre not herein otherwise providedfor. on which shall be establishedby law." Then follows an exception authorizing congress by law to vest the appointment ofinferior officers either in the President alone or in the courts of law or in the heads of Depts. That is not material to the question we are now discussin. Here, then, is the appointing power given to the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate; and that is all the appointing power that is given in the Constitution of the IU.S. The men who framed this Constitution saw that the Senate might not always be in session; there might be a difficulty in consequence of vacancies occurring by death or resignation while the Senate was not in session, and it would be impossible to fill that vacancy or to have the duties of the office discharged unless a power was vested in some body temporarily to detail a person to perform those duties; and hence they added this clause: “The President shall have power to fill u all vacanciesthat may happen during the recesso the Senate by granting commissionswhich shall expire at the on of their next session." Now, what shall the President have power to do? To “appoint” persons? Not at all; but he shall have power to “fill u vacancies by grantin commissions which she l expire at the end of the next session.” The vacancy exists all the time; and if the President de sires to have that person to whom he has granted a commission to fill up the vacancy continued in the office, he nominates him to the Senate and he is confirmed not on this commission that was granted; that is not the practice. If a postmaster in the city of Bal timore had die in September last, and the President had designated A B to discharge the duties of postmaster at Baltimore on the 1st of October by granting him a commission to expire at the end of the present session of the Senate, and he thinks proper to appoint that same person to the office O postmasterin Baltimore, this designation that c has made by giving the commission is not what comes before us at all; but he sends his name in to us, and asks the Senate to advise and consent that he may apoint this man (whom he detailed by giving bim a commission to not there until the Senate should meet) to the office, and his commission dates from confirmation, and this designation that he had given him a commission to expire at the end of the session goes for nothiiw; that is the end of it.