The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-01-13
The Tenure.Of.Office Law.
From the ~. Y. Herald.

from We ~. Z. deTQLu.
General Butler, the man rejected by the ex-
treme radicals Of the Fifth Congressional dis
triot of Massachusetts, but reelected for all
that by an overwhelming majority, achieved
on Monday, backed by the potential Wash
burne very important victory in the House
OF Representatives in behalf of a new de-
parture of the Republican party under Gene
raj Grant. His bill for the repeal of the
Tenure Office law, under the whip and spur
of the previous question, was brought to the
decisive vote and passed-yeas III, nays AZ.
The affirmative vote, as it will be seen, iu.
Cluded all the Democrats; the negative vote is
all Republican, and embraces such radical
extremists as Schenck, Shellabarger, and
Garfield, of Ohio; Jenckes, of the Civil Service
bill; Maynard and Stokes, of Tennessee, and
others to the number of forty-seven. Wash
burns, the right hand man Of General Grant,
of course took an active hand for the repeal,
and his influence, no doubt greatly strength
ened Butler, inasmuch as it is generally un-
derstood that in reference to the President
elect Washburne speaks and acts as one hav-
Ing authority. The passage Of the repeal by
the heavy voten given idicates the beginning of
decline in the power of radicalism and the
ascendsncy of more moderate and conciliatory
counsels in Congress than those which have
ruled the two houses in their long and despe-
rate conflict with President Johnson.
II is possible that the radicals in the Senate,
where they have no previous question, will
endsavor to prevent the passage of this bill by
parliamentary evasions and delays but the
friends Of the repeal, we understand, intend to
push 1t through. The action of the House, at
all events, marks the commencement of a new
dispensation. 1t foreshadOws not only the re-
peal of the Tenure OF. Office law, but the fail
ure of Mr.. Jenckes' Civil Service bill and OF
the little bill of Mr.. Edmunds in the Senate,
excluding from civil offices officers of the army
and navy. This Edmunds bill, it is conjec-
tured, is aimed especially against General
Sohofeld and Admiral Porter as prospective
members of Grants Cabinet, the design being
to head off Grant in reference to these appre-
hended appointments, but from the develop
ments OF Monday we suspect the scheme will
fail.
Had the vote of the House on Monday beer
taken without a call to the record, it is proba
BILE that Buffers bill would have failed; but the
record, in bringing the members face to face
with General Grant, cut down the Tenure o.
Office law party to forty-seven. These forty
seven, with their adherents in the Senate
headed by Sumner, may yet create some trou
BILE In the party camp before the final victory
ia won; but from the unexpected success o
the first move of Butler on his new track, We
may look for q removal before the 4Lh o
March Of all the shackles which have been put
upon the hands of the President, so that will
the Inauguration of President Grant the office
will be restored to its status under Lincoln.
The House Of Representatives recognizes
the PRESIDENT elect as living power in the
land, enutied to this degree of respect and
confidence; the new President will be- invested
with his constitutional functions. and thus. il
the absence OF a two-thirds radical majority
in the House, he will be in position Al ones
to proclaim his own policy, foreign and do
mestic, with the power to cause it to ba re-
speoted, whatever may become OF the in,raot
able radicals of Congress and their followers