The Sun.
London, England, 1869-04-15 00:00:00

THE TENURE-OF-OFFICE ACT:

(Fom the Anglo-American Times.)
The debate on the repeal of the Tenure-of-Office
Act was resumed on the 20th March, Senator
Thayer making a long speech. He modified his
substitute to thirty days after the commencement
of a session in which to receive the President's re-
port of the names of the removed, and the causes
why, during the recess. The substitute was offered
to get a direct vote for repeal. No good reason had
been given in the long debate why the act should not
be repealed. It was passed to check a dishonest Pre-
sident, not to put manacles on an honest one. His
knowledge of human nature told him that the Pre-
sident must desire the repeal, as would any Senator
in his place. One of bis own reasons for desiring
the repeal was that the President might be free to
turn out the Johnson men and Copperheads still in
office. The Senator from Missouri (Mr. Schurz)
had denounced the system of distributing patronage
in the interests of a party as a curse ; but he (Mr.
Thayer) believed the true doctrine to be that the
patronage of the Government rightfully belonged
to the party i❑ power by the verdict of the people.
He knew it was fashionable to decry this view,
but he would like to see the Senator who did not
seek to exercise the right of dispensing patronage
to his friends. The man who would not do so
would soon be without friends, and would deserve
to be so ; and the political party that refused to
reward its own supporters and followers would
soon go to the wall, and would deserve to do so.
Senator Thurman knew of no Copperhead party ;
the Senator meant the Democrats, and he could
scarcely expect them to vote for the repeal as a
means to facilitate the removal of their few office-
holders. In his State (Ohio) there were but two
in Federal posts ; both distinguished officers, and
one with a wound that would afflict him for life.
Senator Drake favoured repeal, but not suspension,
which was but saying to the President, we will try
you till next session, and he was not one that deserved

such treatment. He also desired to see corrupt officers
and those unfriendly to the Republican party turned
out, for he was a party man, and as his party saved
the country, and in power would promote its wel-
fare, he would use all Executive patronage in its
support. Senator Alorrill, of Vermont, would
modify rather than repeal or suspend. Every
Senator who had voted for the impeachment of
President Johnson, on Article 111., had in that
vote shown the judgment that, in violating this
law, the President had violated the Constitution.
How, therefore, could these Senators now vote for

the repeal ? It was not passed as a temporary de-
vice, but as a permanent policy. He dissented from
the last speaker with regard to Government patron-
age. It was unquestionably true that the party in
power might at any time properly take to itself the
chief offices of the Government, yet it was just as
certain that the system which changed every public
office of Government at the end of every four years
was a great evil. Senator Casserly said he thought
the question was, in whom is vested the power of
removal, arguing to show that it was not vested in
the Senate, nor in the President with the advice and
consent of the Senate, but in the President alone.
Nor was this merely constitutional, but also the
only reasonable view, as the sole means of insuring
a faithful administration of public affairs. Regarding
the doctrine implied in the Act as a dangerous
heresy he would vote for an absolute repeal of the
law. This closed the debate on the 20th ult., and
the anti-repealers met in caucus on the 22d, in the
hope that the repealers, without the Democrats
being in a hopeless minority, would be committed
by the resolution of the caucus. Grant and his
friends went strongly for absolute repeal, and the
hungry office-seekers raised a clamour for it in every
part of Washington, as they believed it to stand
between them and that for which their souls thirsted.
It was proposed to suspend the law during Grant's
term, but nothing less would satisfy the Grant
party than total repeal, and those who favoured that
finding it hopeless seceded amid a storm of excite-
ment. Another caucus was held in the afternoon,
and the majority decided to send the bill and the
amendments discussed back to the Judiciary Com-
mittee, in the hope that Grant might be prevailed
on to accept a modification. Considering the
position in which the Senators who favoured the
retention of the power conferred by the bill were
placed, their obstinacy showed how difficult it is to
wrench power, from an assembly, even temporarily
conferred. Here was a powerful President, in the
height of his popularity who had set his mind on
its repeal, b bind him was a House of Representa-
tives which had voted almost unanimously for a total
repeal ; around them were crowds of office-seekers
clamouring for them to give way, leaving the Pre-
sident's hands free to create vacancies and to give
them the posts. When we reflect on the position
with the knowledge we have that this bare majority
in the end overcame all opposition, and actually
carried off the bone, in spite of the world and the
best men of their own body, we are surprised at the
strength with which such a clique can fight. On the
24th Senator Trumbull, from the Committee on
Judiciary, reported the bill as follows
An act regulating the tenure of certain civil offices,'
passed March 2, 1869, be and the same are hereby repealed,
and in lieu of said repealed sections the following are
hereby enacted :
" That every person holding any civil office to which he
has been, or hereafter may be, appointed by and with the
advice and consent of the Senate, and who shall have be-
come duly qualified to act therein, shall be entitled to hold
such office during the term for which he shall have been
appointed, unless sooner removed by and with the advice
and consent of the Senate, or by the appointment with
the like advice and consent, of a successor in his place, ex-
cept as herein otherwise provided.
" Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That during any
recess of the Senate the President is hereby empowered in
his discretion to suspend any civil officer appointed by and
with the advice and consent of the Senate, except Judges
of the United States Courts, until the end of the next ses-
sion of the Senate, and to designate some suitable person,
subject to be removed in his discretion by the resignation
of another, to perform the duties of such suspended officer
in the meantime, and such person so designated shall take
the oaths, and give the bonds required by law to be taken
and given by the suspended officer, and shall, during the
time he performs his duties, bo entitled to the salary and
emoluments of such officer, no part of which shall belong
to the officer suspended. And it shall bo the duty of the
President within 30 days after the commencement of each
session of the Senate, except for any office which in his
opinion ought not to be filled, to nominate persons to fill
all vacancies in office which existed at the meeting of the
Senate, whether temporarily filled or not, and also in the
place of all officers suspended, and if the Senate during
such session shall refuse to advise and consent to an ap-
pointment in the place of any suspended officer, and shall
also refuse by vote to assent to his suspension, then, and not
otherwise, such officer at the end of the session shall be
entitled to resume the possession of the office from which
he was suspended, and afterward to discharge its duties
and receive its emoluments as though no such suspension
had taken place."

Various motions were made to defeat the Bill, but
in vain. On the morning of that day the Republi-
can Senators had again met in caucus to hear the
report, and had agreed on the amendment known
as the Conkling modification. It had been submitted
to the President by a sub-committee, to whom Gen.
Grant had stated that his principal objection to
the law was the provision preventing him from
making removals during the recess of the Senate.
As the proposed modification contained none of the
features to which he objected he was satisfied with
it, and hoped there would be no further delay.
Hence the vote was now a foregone conclusion, the
chief difficulty being removed. A debate, however,
followed, which was made remarkable by the sayings
of Senator Sprague, of Rhode Island. A few days
before be had expressed an opinion against the pre-
ponderance in Congress of men of one profession,

as unfitting it to control the appointing power of
the President. Though he had carefully avoided

reference many individual, Senator Nye had attacked
him, he said, personally in reply, and raised a laugh
in the galleries. Turning to that quarter, the Sena-

tor remarked he felt justified in addressing to them
a few words. They were better clothed' than the
masses, but each might judge for himself whether
there was more virtue under theie gaudy habili-

ments. He did not wonder that they laughed at

his warning.
" The teaching of the past .had educated them to make

ight of serious things, and had made them of a frivolous,
,houghtless, senseless disposition. They reminded him of
;he idiotic inmate of a burning dwelling, who laughed at
:he warning and perished in tho flames. He would,

•
nevertheles, repeat his warning. The affairs of the
country were being mismanaged and ruined by men °f
the class he had spoken of before. The people of Eog-
land would not tolerate such a state of things. The
men who controlled the affairs of England—Gladstone
and Disraeli—were not lawyers, they were men of wider
culture, with the instincts of statesmen, fit to control
the destinies of a great nation. He had felt deeply
interested in the success of the Republican party
in the past, and had contributed to it, he thought,
as much in character, and a good deal more in money
than other Senators ; indeed, he believed that
contribution of the latter kind had been greater then
those of all the other Senators combined. When the
war broke upon the people without warning, and found
them unprepared, he had been among the first to rush t°
the support of the Government; but now there was
great danger pending, and he felt it his duty to warn the
people of it. He read a long account of the character
and career of the notorious Judge Jeffreys and of the
condition of England in his time, which, he said, was veil
like the condition of this country at the present time. F°ll/.
3 ears ago America had come out of a great civil war
Since that time the great work of Congress had been'
or should have been, to restore harmony and prosperiti.
to the country. How had that work been carried
on ? Is there, he asked, peace at the South ? Is there
prosperity or contentment among the people there?
Are they not rather in a state of chronic revolution?
Is there justice in the land ? Who that is a Pe°f,
man dare attack ono that is rich in any collet in Lbw
land ? Is there protection for the rights or liberties et,
the citizen in this boasted land of freedom ? The Word"
gration to this country had fallen off 30,000 during the last
year, and would continue to fall off, because the industry
and agriculture of the country were so prostrated at the
West that immigrants could not find remunerative em-
ployment, and if they went to farm in the West WI
could not sell their products for enough to supply then'
with the necessaries of life. Whenever any one in thi
Senate, or elsewhere, asked the reason of the depree
sion of our commerce and manufactures, he was sate
to be met with the answer that it was owing to the
fact that we were rot paying specie ; but the real row'
son was that. the legislation and—the administration °f
the Government were so shaped as* to encourage cal'f'
tal to speculate upon every industrial occupation
in the country. If this course was to be continued,
in less than five years there would be a clamour for
a tariff to keep out foreign cotton. But great as v(55
the mismanagement of our national affairs in every cle-
partment, the greatest abuses were in our financial poll/.
That policy was directed and controlled by the bankers.
They no doubt gave as good advice as they could ; but
experience had always shown that dealers in money
knew little or nothing about the relations of money t°
other occupations and interests. The bearing of all this
upon the pending bill was this : —lf the legislators of the
country had done their own work so badly, how could
they dare to assume the powers and duties of the Exeou-
tive also? He had wished for and aided in the election of
General Grant to the Presidency, because he believed that
he (President Grant) had not been contaminated by `be
politicians, and had the capacity required to see through
and defeat their machinations, lie had listened to the
inaugural address with intense interest, and had been
pleased by the President's expression of his purpose to be
independent in the discharge of his official duties; 1)11t
when ho heard the passage asserting the sacredness of the
public debt, he had gone away disheartened and sorrow
ful, because it had shown him that the canker that 05;
sossed the American body politic had got possession 0*
the President also. Still he was not without hope. fie
hoped that the President would yet discover the great
error into which bat advisers had led him, and would tura
away from this policy as from a charnel-house. With an
interesting biographical sketch of himself, Mr. Sprague
finished his speech."
The vote followed, showing 37 Senators for the bills
as amended, against 15, all the minority being De-
mocrats, including the Republican Senators "'essay
den, Grimes, lll‘Donald, Ross, Sprague, and Warner'
and the bill was passed. Its defeat in the House sv93
due principally to Benjamin Butler, who canvas3e'l
earnestly, while strongly opposed by 13inghalt
a member also of the Judiciary Committee, to
the bill was referred ; but it was asserted that
Butler and Logan had been, and were, supportecilil
the President. Butler had been twitted by Bing-
ham for joining the Democrats, but that poll
went with Bingham in voting Butler down, when
e
he endeavoured to get his motion carried under'
the previ us question, and this enabled him Nviti
effect to retort. Judge Noah Davis made 111,1
°
maiden speech as a member of the House, 51311
arguing for absolute repeal. The fight was Or
fined to the Republican party, the Democrats $3/:,
ing little, though voting in a body- for Butler:
motion, by which the House refused to coned'
in the Senate's amendment. As our readers knoll',
the majority for the original bill was 99 against 7O;
but on a Joint Committee of Conference being ark
pointed, it was reported back substantially as that
adopted by the Senate, and passed by both Houses
of Congress thus modified ; the news received this
week being that the President had signed it, a'l,
it had therefore become law.

Senator Nye's reply iu defence of the lawyerl4
which Senator Sprague termed a personal attack'
greatly amused the galleries, and was the comic ini
cident of the debate, setting aside the most comic °f
all Senator Sprague's speech. He alluded to gri
Sprague as the Boanerges from Rhode Island. "

it never enter the Senator's mind that the danger 0
to a Republic lies in the direction of knowing t°°
much. Danger lies in the direction of not knool6
enough. And again," said Senator Nye, " I hoe
the honourable Senator's forebodings will cos ;
The lawyers will not hurt him. If he does not Wa°
to use them they will not charge any fees, and if hel
does the) will not charge him enough to make I
felt by him."

A Deputy of the Cortes, now sitting in Madrid'
has called for papers relating to the introduction into SPRIG
de
of goods for commerce by the Hon. John P. Hale, to'
jo(
his diplomatic franchise as American Minister, There
probably no good feeling towards Mr. Hale in that 9.5'
sembly.
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Births.
MOSTYN —On the 14th inst., at 93, Eaton-square, the 11013'
Mrs. Mostyn, of a daughter.
1442 r
WILSON—On the 13th inst., at Meadowbank, Lower
wood, Mrs. Adam Wilson, of a daughter.

Marriages. Co'
GinnoN—SKINNER—On the 14th inst., at Saint Paul'%et,
vent Garden, Henry Gibboa of No. 6, Clarendon-I' l'
Maidstone, to Louise, youngest daughter of the late
Skinner, of Clive House, Loose, Kent.
lfoj
lit:GHEs--WARD—on the 14th inst., at Croydon, - A pie
Lund Hughes, Esq., of St. Leonard's, Mortlake, to f,," X
Beth, filth daughter of the late Joseph Ward, Esq.,
bill House, Epsom, Surrey.

Deaths. 11
GRIEVE—On the 13th inst., at Kilburn, William 1°1v 9.
Grieve, Esq., aged 75. ra'
HuGuEs -On tho 12th inst , at his residence, Stav'f°
hill, Isaac Hughes, aged 49.
~;tO
oV
SCOTT —On the 13th inst. , Mrs. Mark Scott, of S",
in-Craven, aged 61.

----- ------ ----._ -___-_-_--------
London : Printed and,,PAlished by WILLIAM AND- 11;
;
of No. 112, Strand, Printer, at Tun SUN Odic', N°o of
Strand, in the Precinct of the Se voy :nthe 02°'4
Middlesex.—Thursday, A lax il 16, 18139.