Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol III).djvu/348

CHAPTER XXXVII.

EXECUTIVE—POWERS AND DUTIES.

§ 1483. Having thus considered the manner, in which the executive department is organized, the next inquiry is, as to the powers, with which it is entrusted. These, and the corresponding duties, are enumerated in the second and third sections of the second article of the constitution.

§ 1484. The first clause of the second section is,

The President shall be commander-in-chief of the army and navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several states, when called into the actual service of the United States.^[1] He may require the opinion in writing of the principal officer in each of the executive departments, upon any subject relating to the duties of their respective offices. And he shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offences against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.

§ 1485. The command and application of the public force, to execute the laws, to maintain peace, and to resist foreign invasion, are powers so obviously of an executive nature, and require the exercise of qualities so peculiarly adapted to this department, that a well-organized government can scarcely exist, when they are taken away from it.^[2] Of all the cases and concerns of government, the direction of war most peculiarly demands those qualities, which distinguish

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1. See Journal of Convention, 225, 295, 362, 383.
2. 1 Kent's Comm. Lect. 13, p. 264; 3 Elliot's Deb. 103.