James Madison on the Attorney Purge
According to the Congressional Register, on June 17, 1789, congress took up a debate on the phrase “to be removable by the president.” Specifically, the discussion centered on positions (including U.S. Attorneys) which were appointed by the president and confirmed by the senate, and whether the president or the Senate (or both) had the authority to remove such persons. They specifically addressed the possibility of such firings being done for political purposes.
Madison argued that the Senate was authorized to make these decisions without the agreement of the president:
“Perhaps the great danger, as has been observed, of abuse in the executive power, lies in the improper continuance of bad men in office. But the power we contend for will not enable him to do this; for if an unworthy man be continued in office by an unworthy president, the house of representatives can at any time impeach him, and the senate can remove him, whether the president chooses or not.”
On the contrary, Madison viewed it as dangerous that the president could make such decisions on his own - that such an act would be serious enough to be grounds for impeachment by the people.
“The danger then consists merely in this, the president can displace from office a man whose merits require that he should be continued in it. What will be the motives which the president can feel for such abuse of his power, and the restraints that operate to prevent it? In the first place, he will be impeachable by this house, before the senate, for such an act of mal-administration; for I contend that the wanton removal of meritorious officers would subject him to impeachment and removal from his own high trust.”
As we hear so often these days, the Constitution stated that a president could be impeached for ‘High crimes and misdemeanors.’
Interestingly enough, at the time of this debate, there were no federal crimes yet (the first federal crime was defined a year later) - so they were in the process defining impeachable crimes at the very moment this debate was occurring.