Independence Hall Home Search Contents Indexes Help  Article 2,
Section 2, Clauses 2 and 3  Document 46  Roger Sherman to John
Adams  July 1789Adams Works 6:440--42  I received your letter of
the twentieth instant. I had in mine, of the same date,
communicated to you my ideas on that part of the constitution,
limiting the president's power of negativing the acts of the
legislature; and just hinted some thoughts on the propriety of
the provision made for the appointment to offices, which I
esteem to be a power nearly as important as legislation.  If
that was vested in the president alone, he might, were it not
for his periodical election by the people, render himself
despotic. It was a saying of one of the kings of England, that
while the king could appoint the bishops and judges, he might
have what religion and law he pleased.  It appears to me the
senate is the most important branch in the government, for
aiding and supporting the executive, securing the rights of the
individual states, the government of the