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to be removed or suspended? Does it not also import a Right to
restrain the Officer from acting out of the Line of his Duty, and
from doing every Act incompatible with the Office, or that may
pervert the Use, or frustrate the Design of its Creation? This we
call a general superintending Power over the Officers in the Execu-
tion of the Laws; It is not to be exercised arbitrarily, but properly,
and with Discretion. We do not contend that every Mistake, or
trifling Deviation from the Law, will warrant a Removal or sus-
pension, but in such Cases, a vigilant and mild Executive would do
enough in admonishing the Officer, and directing him to avoid a
similar Conduct in future. If he was about to act contrary to Law
and the Interest of the State, the Executive would warn him of it
and direct him to desist, but if, with incorrigible Obstinacy, he
persevered in his pernicious System, they would consider the Mag-
nitude and evil Influence of his Delinquency, and be governed by
Circumstances, in determining whether it would be proper to repeat
the Admonition, suspend, or remove him. But you say in answer to
our Construction of this Part of the Constitution, that it compre-
hends only the ordinary Officers of Government, taken Notice of by
the Constitution. If this Doctrine be admitted, what will it lead to?
How easy would it be for one Assembly, by conferring new Names
upon old Officers, to defeat that Clause in the Constitution, which
contains a Provision that no Part of it shall be altered or repealed
without the Concurrence of two successive Legislatures? but it is
plain beyond Controversy, and you would have discovered it, had
you read with Attention the preceding Part of that Section, that
every Civil Officer of Government who has not a Commission during
good Behaviour, whether known to the Constitution, or since created
by the Legislature, may be suspended or removed by the Executive :
and altho' we do not question the Right of the General Assembly of
creating an Office for the better Administration of Justice, or Exe-
cution of the Laws, yet we do insist the Power and Rights of the
Executive derived from the Constitution, are equally permanent and
well established, because they flow from the same Source, the Will
of the People, whence all Power originates. And farther, that no
Act done by the Legislature can annihilate, diminish, or in any
Degree impair the Constitutional Rights of the Executive, but in
the Mode prescribed by the Constitution. Admitting then, that this
Power is vested in us by the Constitution, and that it extends to
Officers created by the Legislature, which we think has been suffi-
ciently evinced, though perhaps not to your Satisfaction, it follows
as certainly as the Shadow does the Substance, and will be denied
by none but the Intendant, that we have a Right to enquire into the
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October 9
Liber No. 78
p. 383
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