Selected Cases on Government and Administration

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II. CENTRAL ADMINISTRATION. I. The President. 1. The Power of Appointment. 'APPOINTMENTS TO OFFICE?CASE OF LIEUTENANT COXE. 4 Opin. Attys. Qen. 217. Attorney General's Office, August 7, 1843. Sir: . . . The facts applicable to the questions presented are these: Mr. Coxe, for some years anterior to 1837, held a commission as a lieutenant in the navy of the United States, which, under circumstances regarded by him as peculiarly oppressive, he resigned. His resignation was accepted. On the 16th February, 1837, he was nominated to the Senate by President Jackson as a lieutenant in the navy from that date. On the 3d March, 1837, the Senate, by resolution, advised and consented to his nomination, the nominee to take rank next after Lieutenant Elisha Peck. Upon the receipt of this resolution at the Navy Department, a commission was made out accordingly, but it never was signed by the President. Under these circumstances, Mr. Coxe, in his letter to the Secretary of the Navy, of the 28th June, 1843, insists that he is a lieutenant in the navy of the United States, and asks that his claim may be inquired into, and that a commission may be issued to him as such lieutenant. The case involves two questions: 1st, assuming the action of the Senate on the nomination of the 16th of February, 1837, to have been regular, whether that nomination, and the advice and consent of the Senate thereon, amount to an appointment, so as to entitle Mr. Coxe to the commission claimed by him? . . . The power of appoinment is conferred and defined by the 2d article of the Constitution of the United States, which provides that the President shall nominate, and, by and with the adviceand consent of the Senate, shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers, and consuls, judges...