Friday, December 21, 1787.
For the Massachusetts Gazette.
To the Inhabitants of this State.
(Continued from our last.)
Section I, of article II. further provides, That the president shall, previous to his entering upon the duties of his office, take the following oath or affirmation: I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of president of the United States, and will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the constitution of the United States. Thus we see that instead of the president's being vested with all the powers of a monarch, as has been asserted, that he is under the immediate controul of the constitution, which if he should presume to deviate from, he would be immediately arrested in his career and summoned to answer for his conduct before a federal court, where strict justice and equity would undoubtedly preside.
Section 3, of article II. provides, That the president of the United States shall, from time to time, give Congress information of the state of the union, and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient—he may, on extraordinary occasions, convene both houses or either of them, and adjourn them to such time as he may think proper—he shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed, and shall commission all officers of the United States.
Very little more power is granted to the president of the United States, by the above section, than what is vested in the governours of the different states. The propriety of vesting such powers in a supreme executive cannot be doubted. What would it signify to appoint an executive officer, and immediately after to make laws which would be a barrier to the execution of his commission?
It would answer the same end that the nominal power which is vested in the different states answers, that is, it would answer the end of paying for the support of a shaddow, without reaping the benefit of the substance.
It is certainly requisite that proper powers should be vested in an executive (and certainly no more than necessary powers are vested in the executive of the United States by the new constitution) or else the establishment of such a branch is needless.
Section 4, of article II. says, The president, vice-president, and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.—Thus we see that no office, however exalted, can protect the miscreant, who dares invade the liberties of his country, or countenance in his crimes the impious villain who sacrilegiously attempts to trample upon the rights of freemen.