The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-12-30
ENFORCING THE LAWS. =

From the NJ Y sun.
1t is affirmed in the Cincinnati Commercial
that the Tenure of Office act is regarded as
dead letter by some among the members of
General Grants Cabinet According to that
journal, hundreds of offceholders were sus-
pended during the recent vacation of Con-
Gress, but not q single reason for such sus-
pension has been communicated to the Senate
by the President, and the Senate has acted
upon nominations to fill vacancies caused
10y such suspension in the same manner it
has acted upon vacancies which have oc-
CURED from death, resignation, OF other like
cause.
The law prescribing the qualifications of
officers of the Internal Revenue Bureau is
likewise disregarded and treated as dead
letter by the President and his subordinates
but no notice is taken of the fact in Congress
or elsewhere except in the columns of the in
dependent press. The statute requires that
every assessor shall be a resident of the dis
trict in which he discharges his functions
When Chief Justice Chase was Secretary of
the Treasury, the provisions of this statute
were vigorously enforced; but General Grant
regards the law with contempt. His old crony
Augustus Ford is Assessor of the Eighth Dis
trict in this city, but has his residence in
Brooklyn. His friends have assured us that
he thus violates the law by special permission
from General Grant, but we cannot think
this is so. Such permission would be an
act Of direct usurpation on the part of
the President. If his conscience is
dull, he may ignore the law, as in the
case OF the Tenure of Office act, men
toned by the Cincinnati COm0lercidI. he
may even connive at its violation, as in ap-
pointing his friend Ford, and in allowing
him to act as Assessor of the Eighth district
without changing his residence; but we do
not believe he would arrogate to himself the
authority to give Ford express dispensation
to continue to violate the law when Ford
had himself called his attention to the re-
quirements of the statute. Would it not be
well for Congress to examine into these
transactions? General Grant has not only
sworn to execute the laws, but he has repeat
edly proclaimed it as his special and peculiar
design to see to it that they were thoroughly
executed. The last words of his MESSAGE
We're to this effect; -"On my part, said he,
Il promise a rigid adherence TO the laws and
their strict enforcement Professions are
always easier than practice, and General
Grant seems to form no exception to the rule.
GENERAL SEIZURES BUNCOMBE BILLS.
From the ST. Louis Republican,
Our German Senator is evidently not so fe-
licitous with his maiden bills as he was with
the little short maiden speech he made during
the last session of Congress. He then com
bined certain fitting modesty with some
sound thoughts and statesmanlike views. 1t
seemed particularly meritorious to us then
that he escaped the temptations to make any
thing like buncombe speech, which might be
construed as intended for home consumption
among his German countrymen. 1t is entirely
different with the two bills introduced by him
at the commencement of the present session of
Congress. OF his civil service bill we have
already spoken. 1t has such an outspoken
smack of the Prussian that it never can be
I made palatable to American tastes. 1t pre-
! supposes an organization of society, and eBpe-
cially an educational system, so totally at vari-
ance with ours, that if Senator Sohurz's bill
should become a law, its enforcement would at