are not represented at the board by these directors merely on account
of the stock held by the Government. The right of the United States to
appoint directors and the number appointed do not depend upon the amount
of the stock, for if every share should be sold and the United States
cease to be a stockholder altogether, yet under the charter the right
to appoint five directors would still remain. In such a case what would
be the character of the directors? They would represent no stock and
be chosen by no stockholders. Yet they would have a right to sit at
the board, to vote on all questions submitted to it, and to be made
acquainted with all the proceedings of the corporation. They would not
in such a case be ordinary directors chosen by the stockholders in
proportion to their stock, but they would be public officers, appointed
to guard the public interest, and their duties must conform to their
office. They are not the duties of an ordinary director chosen by a
stockholder, but they are the peculiar duties of a public officer who
is bound on all occasions to protect to the utmost of his lawful means
the public interests, and, where his own authority is not sufficient
to prevent injury, to inform those to whom the law has confided the
necessary power. Such, then, is the character and such are the duties
of the directors appointed by the United States, whether the public be
stockholders or not. They are officers of the United States, and not
the mere representatives of a stockholder.

The mode of their appointment and their tenure of office confirm this
position. They are appointed like other officers of the Government and
by the same authority. They do not hold their offices irrevocably a year
after their appointment; on the contrary, by the express terms of the
law, they are liable to be removed from office at any time by the
President when in his judgment the public interest shall require it.
In every aspect, therefore, in which the subject can be considered it is