[76] The only officers appointed by the courts of law are clerks, reporters, and other minor ministerial officers; but there are a large number of inferior officers in the various departments who are appointed by the heads of departments. _Appointments to Minor Positions_ are often made upon the recommendations of the representative in Congress from the district in which the office is located, though many such appointments are now made on the basis of examinations, under civil service rules. Obviously the President or the head of the department could not fill the thousands of minor positions of this sort without reliance upon the advice of others. They cannot investigate personally every application for appointments of this kind. It is natural, therefore, that they should accept the recommendations of members of Congress, who are more apt to be acquainted with the qualifications of applicants in their districts, and who are familiar with local conditions. =Power of Removal.=--While the Constitution expressly authorizes the President to appoint officers, with the consent of the senate, it is completely silent on the question of whether he may remove an officer, either with or without the consent of the senate. The only provision in the Constitution in regard to removal is that which relates to impeachment. It might, therefore, be contended that the only constitutional method of depriving an incumbent of an office to which he has been appointed is by impeachment. But this process of removal is so cumbersome and unwieldy that if it were the only means of getting rid of incompetent office-holders many unfit persons would remain in office indefinitely, and, besides, it would be impossible for the President, upon whom the responsibility for the enforcement of the laws rests, to surround himself with officials in whose integrity and fitness he has confidence. Moreover, to resort to the process of impeachment to remove a person from a petty inferior office would be very much like shooting birds with artillery intended for destroying battleships. From the first, therefore, it was recognized that there was another process of removal than by impeachment. But there was a difference of opinion as to whether that power lay with the President alone, or whether he could remove only with the consent of the senate, as in the case of appointments; or whether the power lay with Congress to prescribe how removals might be made. The matter was threshed over in the first Congress after the Constitution went into effect, and it was decided that the President might remove alone, without the necessity of securing the consent of the senate. But there was considerable fear that he might abuse the power, and Madison is said to have declared that the wanton removal of a meritorious officer would subject him to impeachment.