The Plymouth weekly Democrat. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1860-1869, 1869-04-08

s1J1O0S. buLlc1, W8SnDuIU anu dIlIu6S
being for, and Trumbull, Edmunds and
Bingham being against repeal. Nothing
came of this except the waste of an hour,
and then Mr.. Bingham said that a thought
had struck him tit appears, in sequence,
with fatal effect) that an honorable and
satisfactory compromise might be agreed
to, if the Senate would give up its present
power to try the case of suspended men
and should just let the President suspend
at discretion, and let the Senate have the
whole of their ensuing session in which
to consider nominations to be made to the
places of those suspended. AT first this
proposition, that the Senate relinquish
the power of trial of SUSPENSIONS, struck
Mr. Trumbull and Mr. Edmunds in the
same way that it struck Bingham-as
being tantamount to making it impossible
for supended man ever to resume Office
again. Accordingly, Trumbull and Ed
munds stoutly combated the concession
said the Senate would never agree to It,
nor would they, and there was an end ont.
This only stimulated Bingham, and
Grimes, Butler and INashburn Joined him,
making four to two. AT last the happy
thought struck Mr. Trumbull like me-
teor, that by not considering any nomina-
tions to succeed the suspended man, the
Senate could, by mastery inactivity, re-.
store the latter to office when his suspen-
sion should have expired by limitation, at
the end of the session. This artful under
mining of the proposition Mr.. Trumbull
secretly communicated to Mr.. Edmunds,
and told him not to let it out The tricky
two rolled it as q sweet morsel under their
tongues, and still maintained semblance
of opposition to Mr. Bingham's idea,
finally giving in under fsrcical protest,
as if, like Stanton, they were
only "yielding to superior force. +"
Deceived by their affected surrender,
Messrs. Butler, Washburn and Bingham
to the House, and Mr.. Grimes to the Sen
ate, returned, smacking their lips and rub
bling their hands, never seeing, as Trum-
bull and Edmunds did, the cunningly-
clawed cat under the mild mass of meal.
The result is known How the House
swallowed the pill at once and how the
Senate were informed of its potent purga-
tive properties before they took it. To
the latter it is most strengthening, and to
the former it has reacted like a seidlitz pow
der whose component parts have been
taken one at time and allowed to fuse
inside. AS said, the Grant men have sud-
denly been destroyed and that without
remedy. 1t is either this law or the old one.
1t is either the frying-pan or the fire.
These amendments vetoed, the old one
survives. The Senate will never repeal
it. And the thing is fixed beyond cure.
The President is tied, from the beginning
OF his term to the end, worse than An
drew Johnson was for part of his by the
late passage of the old act.
From the New York Evening Post.
The amended act is so devised as to
embarrass President Grant, or any Presi.
dent who is bent on administering the
laws in their letter and spirit; and yet to
set no obstacle whatever before one who
is disposed to press his own prerogatives,
and who will stoop to evade the law.
The new bill is distinct claim on the
part of Congress that removals as we'll as
appointments by the President require
"the advice and consent of the Senate"
Mr.. Grant, who promises to administer all
laws according TO their spirit, will be
unable to remove any officer, however
unfit. He can only suspend him and
nominate successor to the Senate at its
next session. Should the one named by
him not be confirmed by the Senate, the
officer suspended will be restored by its
adjournment, for the suspension continues
only "until the end of the next session
of the Senate" A President who regards
himself as bound to respect the law will
not again interfere with an officer whom
it has prevented him from removing.
From the New York Express.
The Civil Tenure of Office act means
that Butler has been beaten out of his
boots by Bingham and the crafty Senate
It means in brief
irat no 0f rba
his Cabinet is taken away; Cabinet officers, liable
to suspension, are capable OF going back, as
Stanton did.
Second. Instead of being required to investi-
gate the facts of suspension, the Senate can ig-
1T by forbearing to consider nominations
made to succeed those suspended, and can thus
vote the suspended men back into Office at the
end of the session.
Third. For the first time in the history of the
Government, coordinate power for the Senate
with the President is claimed in the matter of re-
moval, it being expressly stipulated that no re-
moval by the President be made except by
and with the advice and consent of the Senate.
The act of 1920 is that officers shall be
removed at pleasure-and this was, before
1868, held to be at the pleasure of the
President; and excepting in the act of
1868, creating the Office of Comptroller of
Currency, has always been so construed
Nothing has gone beyond this act or this
office till to day, when it is extended over
every office in the Government
Fourth. The whole matter OF removal from and
appointment to Office is declared to be subject en-
tirely to legislation, and not to an Executive act
or an Executive power.
When the report of the conferees came
to the Senate, Mr.. Trumbull moved that
the Senate concur, and declared that
The House had receded from its demand for
repeal, and that il had agreed to the Senate
amendments, with the simple addition that the
nnfou bad hon 81
of the session, but that If the Senate declined
confirm any nominations to succeed the suspended
officers, then OF course the suspended officers
went back into Office at the close OF the sessio n
The Senate heard with complacency this
crafty construction of the law. II was
also insisted, as only one suspension was
allowed for by the law, that, when the sus-
pended man was reinstated at the close of
the session by the failure of the Senate to
confirm any successor to him, to re suspend
him would be an excess of the law and q
serious misdemeanor.
In the House the cold -blooded explana-
tions were equal to those in the Senate.
Bingham declared that
- the Senate had linq uished its claim that in
any case they could reinstate the suspended man.
Now suspension was conclusive, as absolute,
and az final as removals had hitherto been. In
fact, the word suspension had been used instead
of removal only to satisfy the constitutional struc
turai scruples of some Senators"
Judges Noah Davis, of N. Y, and Hoar,
of Mass, inquired what became of the sus-
pended man in case the Senate did not
confirm any nomination of any man to
succeed him. Did he, in that case, go back
into his office? Butler, Bingham and Lo-
gan Numbered that the Office remained i'm
allegiance; but Judge Hoar didn't see it SO,
and then Butler put down with demand