Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol III).djvu/362

also included in it; and may in the last resort be exercised by the executive, although it is in many cases by our laws confided to the treasury department.^[1] No law can abridge the constitutional powers of the executive department, or interrupt its right to interpose by pardon in such cases.^[2]

§ 1499. The next clause is:

He (the president) shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the senate, to make treaties, provided two thirds of the senators present concur. And he shall nominate, and, by and with the advice and consent of the senate, shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers, and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United States, whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by law. But the congress may by law vest the appointment of such inferior officers, as they think proper, in the president alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of departments.

§ 1500. The first power, "to make treaties," was not in the original draft of the constitution; but was afterwards reported by a committee; and after some ineffectual attempts to amend, it was adopted, in substance, as it now stands, except, that in the report the advice and consent of two thirds of the senators was not required to a treaty of peace. This exception was struck out by a vote of eight states against three. The principal struggle was, to require two thirds of the

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1. Act of 3d of March, 1797, ch. 67; Act of 11th of Feb. 1800, ch. 6.
2. Instances of the exercise of this power by the president, in remitting fines and penalties incases, not within the scope of the laws giving authority to the treasury department, have repeatedly occurred; and their obligatory force has never been questioned.