The public services of Gouverneur Morris to 1787 . of State would have used every little precedent which theymight have established in the furtherance of the extent of theirpower, until the dominant force in the executive department wouldhave been the Council and not the President. Under the presentsystem the Cabinet is entirely unknown to the Constitution, //ith-out the sup>^ort of that document it can become of little importanceas compared v/ith the President, in whom is vested the executivepower of the United States. Morris and his colleagues did betterthan they knew when, discarding all
The public services of Gouverneur Morris to 1787 . of State would have used every little precedent which theymight have established in the furtherance of the extent of theirpower, until the dominant force in the executive department wouldhave been the Council and not the President. Under the presentsystem the Cabinet is entirely unknown to the Constitution, //ith-out the sup>^ort of that document it can become of little importanceas compared v/ith the President, in whom is vested the executivepower of the United States. Morris and his colleagues did betterthan they knew when, discarding all precedents, they establisheda one man executive, sharing no power but that of appointment, andsharing the responsibility with no one. Since he was interested in the establishment of astable executive department, Morris urged appointment of ofLice-^sshould be by the President. -^he convention did not incline to (1) Farrand, II, , 66 Morriss view, but proposed to vest the appointive power in the Sen-ate. Gorham made a mntion on July 18 to have the President appointthe Judges, vhioh motion Morris seconded, but it failed to pass(l).Morris said that if the Senate alone was given the appointive powerthere would be too little responsibility and too much intrigue(2).He favored giving the President the power of nomination and the !Senate the power of confirming, .jince that would secure both respon-sibility and security. The power of appointment was finally refer-red to the Oomraittee on Unfinished Portions, which reported for iappointment by the President,by and with the advice and consent ofthe Senate, and in that form he clause was adoptedfS). Morrislater secured even a greater increase in the executive pov;er in aclause which provided that Congress may by law vest the appoint-ment of such inferior officers as they think proper in the Presidentalone, in the courts of lav/, or in tne heads of departments (4). Morr
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectmo, booksubjecttheses
