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know the extent and limitations of the powers that can be asserted, and persons affected may be

informed from the statute of their rights and duties. [Ibid. at 652-53.]

I cannot be brought to believe that this country will suffer if the Court refuses further to

aggrandize the presidential office, already so potent and so relatively immune from judicial

review, at the expense of Congress.

But I have no illusion that any decision by this Court can keep power in the hands of

Congress if it is not wise and timely in meeting its problems. A crisis that challenges the

President equally, or perhaps primarily, challenges Congress. If not good law, there was worldly

wisdom in the maxim attributed to Napoleon that "The tools belong to the man who can use

them." We may say that power to legislate for emergencies belongs in the hands of Congress, but

only Congress itself can prevent power from slipping through its fingers.

The essence of our free Government is "leave to live by no man's leave, underneath the

law"--to be governed by those impersonal forces which we call law. Our Government is

fashioned to fulfill this concept so far as humanly possible. The Executive, except for

recommendation and veto, has no legislative power. The executive action we have here

originates in the individual will of the President and represents an exercise of authority without

law. No one, perhaps not even the President, knows the limits of the power he may seek to exert

in this instance and the parties affected cannot learn the limit of their rights. We do not know

today what powers over labor or property would be claimed to flow from Government possession

if we should legalize it, what rights to compensation would be claimed or recognized, or on what

contingency it would end. With all its defects, delays and inconveniences, men have discovered