Third. The
time within which the power is to operate, "during the recess of the
Senate," and the duration of the appointments, "to the end of the next
session" of that body, conspire to elucidate the sense of the provision,
which, if it had been intended to comprehend senators, would naturally
have referred the temporary power of filling vacancies to the recess of
the State legislatures, who are to make the permanent appointments, and
not to the recess of the national Senate, who are to have no concern in
those appointments; and would have extended the duration in office of
the temporary senators to the next session of the legislature of the
State, in whose representation the vacancies had happened, instead of
making it to expire at the end of the ensuing session of the national
Senate. The circumstances of the body authorized to make the permanent
appointments would, of course, have governed the modification of a power
which related to the temporary appointments; and as the national Senate
is the body, whose situation is alone contemplated in the clause upon
which the suggestion under examination has been founded, the vacancies
to which it alludes can only be deemed to respect those officers in
whose appointment that body has a concurrent agency with the President.
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