Cite as: 510 U. S. 163 (1994)
Souter, J., concurring
The Federalist No. 76, supra, at 513.1 Accord, 3 J. Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States 374- 377 (1833) (The President will be more likely than "a large [legislative] body" to make appointments whose "qualifications are unquestioned, and unquestionable"; but because
1 Hamilton's Federalist Papers writings contain the most thorough contemporary justification for the method of appointing principal officers that the Framers adopted. See The Federalist Nos. 76 and 77, pp. 509-521. Hamilton was clear that the President ought initially to select principal officers and that the President was therefore rightly given the sole power to nominate:
"The sole and undivided responsibility of one man will naturally beget a livelier sense of duty and a more exact regard to reputation. He will on this account feel himself under stronger obligations, and more interested to investigate with care the qualities requisite to the stations to be filled, and to prefer with impartiality the persons who may have the fairest pretentions to them." Id., No. 76, at 510-511.
Hamilton also left no doubt that the role of ultimate approval assigned to the Senate was vital:
"To what purpose then require the co-operation of the Senate? I answer, that the necessity of their concurrence would have a powerful, though in general a silent operation. It would be an excellent check upon a spirit of favoritism in the President, and would tend greatly to prevent the appointment of unfit characters from State prejudice, from family connection, from personal attachment, or from a view to popularity." Id., at 513.
The same notes were struck in the Constitutional Convention, where Hamilton was actually the first to suggest that both the President and the Senate be involved in the appointments process. See 1 Farrand 128; J. Harris, The Advice and Consent of the Senate 21 (1953). For example, Gouvernor Morris, who was among those initially favoring vesting exclusive appointment power in the President, see 2 Farrand 82, 389, ultimately defended the assignment of shared authority for appointment on the ground that "as the President was to nominate, there would be responsibility, and as the Senate was to concur, there would be security." Id., at 539. See also 4 J. Elliot, Debates on the Federal Constitution 134 (1891) (James Iredell in North Carolina ratifying convention) ("[T]he Senate has no other influence but a restraint on improper appointments . . . . [The Appointments Clause provides] a double security"). See generally Harris, supra, at 17-26 (summarizing debates in the Constitutional Convention and in the ratifying conventions).
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