Again, the basic situation is no different in constitutional monarchies like ours. (Not assigning a pardon power to anyone in particular is an option for a state, but this would make the actions of judges un-revisable by any earthly authority — which, honestly, may be the system of government toward which Canada is speeding.) The founders understood perfectly well that a president might make unscrupulous or self-interested use of the power, especially on the way out of the office; they just expected that republican virtue, along with the popularly elected legislature’s power to impeach, would protect the state from disgusting and obvious excesses at the top. And if it came to that, the American people would retain the power to amend the constitution as it thought necessary — although, again, any solution to the problem must leave the final decision-making power to somebody or other.