Page:Federalist, Dawson edition, 1863.djvu/397

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The Fœderalist.
253

such a manner, as to contradict all the ideas of regular Government, and all the requisite precautions in favor of liberty. Whilst this objection circulates in vague and general expressions, there are but a few who lend their sanction to it. Let each one come forward with his particular explanation, and scarce any two are exactly agreed upon the subject. In the eyes of one, the junction of the Senate with the President, in the responsible function of appointing to offices, instead of vesting this Executive power in the Executive alone, is the vicious part of the organization. To another, the exclusion of the House of Representatives, whose numbers alone could be a due security against corruption and partiality in the exercise of such a power, is equally obnoxious. With another, the admission of the President into any share of a power, which must ever be a dangerous engine in the hands of the Executive magistrate, is an unpardonable violation of the maxims of republican jealousy. No part of the arrangement, according to some, is more inadmissible than the trial of impeachments by the Senate, which is alternately a member both of the Legislative and Executive departments, when this power so evidently belonged to the Judiciary department. "We concur fully," reply others, "in the objection to this part of the plan, but we can never agree that a reference of impeachments to the Judiciary authority would be an amendment of the error. Our principal dislike to the organization arises from the extensive powers already lodged in that department." Even among the zealous patrons of a Council of State the most irreconcilable variance is discovered, concerning the mode in which it ought to be constituted. The demand of one gentleman is, that the Council should consist of a small number to be appointed by the most numerous branch of the Legislature. Another would prefer a larger number, and considers it as a fundamental condition, that the