The Founders' Blog

May 31, 1789

You dislike the responsibility of the President in the case of the Minister of Foreign Affairs. I would have the President responsible for his appointments; and if those whom he puts in are unfit, they may be impeached, on misconduct, or he may remove them, when he finds them obnoxious. It would be easier for a minister to secure a faction in the Senate, or get the protection of the senators of his own state, than to secure the protection of the President, whose character would suffer by it. The number of the senators, the secrecy of their doings, would shelter them, and a corrupt connection between those who appoint to office, and who also maintain in office, and the officers themselves would be created. The meddling of the Senate in appointments is one of the least defensible parts of the Constitution. I would not extend their power any further. I must finish.

Yours, affectionately.