This respondent was also aware that this act was understood and intended
to be an expression of the opinion of the Congress by which that act
was passed that the power to remove executive officers for cause might
by law be taken from the President and vested in him and the Senate
jointly; and although this respondent had arrived at and still retained
the opinion above expressed, and verily believed, as he still believes,
that the said first section of the last-mentioned act was and is wholly
inoperative and void by reason of its conflict with the Constitution of
the United States, yet, inasmuch as the same had been enacted by the
constitutional majority in each of the two Houses of that Congress, this
respondent considered it to be proper to examine and decide whether the
particular case of the said Stanton, on which it was this respondent's
duty to act, was within or without the terms of that first section of
the act, or, if within it, whether the President had not the power,
according to the terms of the act, to remove the said Stanton from the
office of Secretary for the Department of War; and having, in his
capacity of President of the United States, so examined and considered,
did form the opinion that the case of the said Stanton and his tenure of
office were not affected by the first section of the last-named act.
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