The power of appointing to office is one of a character the most
delicate and responsible. The appointing power is evermore exposed to be
led into error. With anxious solicitude to select the most trustworthy
for official station, I can not be supposed to possess a personal
knowledge of the qualifications of every applicant. I deem it,
therefore, proper in this most public manner to invite on the part of
the Senate a just scrutiny into the character and pretensions of every
person I may bring to their notice in the regular form of a nomination
for office. Unless persons every way trustworthy are employed in the
public service, corruption and irregularity will inevitably follow.
I shall with the greatest cheerfulness acquiesce in the decision of
that body, and, regarding it as wisely constituted to aid the executive
department in the performance of this delicate duty, I shall look to its
"consent and advice" as given only in furtherance of the best interests
of the country. I shall also at the earliest proper occasion invite the
attention of Congress to such measures as in my judgment will be best
calculated to regulate and control the Executive power in reference to
this vitally important subject.

I shall also at the proper season invite your attention to the
statutory enactments for the suppression of the slave trade, which may
require to be rendered more efficient in their provisions. There is
reason to believe that the traffic is on the increase. Whether such
increase is to be ascribed to the abolition of slave labor in the
British possessions in our vicinity and an attendant diminution in the
supply of those articles which enter into the general consumption of
the world, thereby augmenting the demand from other quarters, and thus
calling for additional labor, it were needless to inquire. The highest
considerations of public honor as well as the strongest promptings of