The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-04-05
SPIRIT OF THE PRESS.
KDfroRtAL oPINIoRs op 7BB JEADrEd JOURNALS
UPOE CURRHNT ToPt0s-COMPlhRD svRET
DAY FOR THR EvRNINs vELEeRAPH.
General Grant an lbe New Tenure'Of-
OffieD. Law.
nom he N. Y. Heraid

Once. laws
From the ". Y. Herutd
The repeslers have been cheated. The Dlli
agreed upon by the joint committee OF ool,et1 .ed
ence on the Tenure-Oi-Ofice law, auu AoooRS apsss
by the late out-and- out Republican rePealete
OF both houses as q satisfactory adJ u3tnen,,
thew moves TO be a shabby trlcK' IL
ennoors that the new act, which II was
fhouqht restored to the PRESIDENT decisive
ortboritv In the matter OF removals ana sus-
pensions from office, does no such tnlng, pus
That in the case of a suspension from once
unon which, within limited time, the senate
SbalI have taken no action, such suspension
Io rsas and the suspended officer is reinstated'
lacking at the new act for its own lnterPreta-
fiop, it is a case that might puzzle Philaoel-
mia lawyer, whether the law has been
changed from tweedledee to tWeedledum, or
from tweedledum to tweedledee.
Rnt this compromise was Hobson's choice to
,be President: for it was either this or the old
ANDY Johnson law, which not only tied him
fast in regard to removals and suspensions,
lint fastened his Cabinet upon him for his
whole term, subject in any removal to the con-
sent of the Senate. Now, as General Grant
has intimated pretty broadly that when he
abaII become dissatisfied with any Cabinet
officer he will make change, even to the ex-
4ent IL necessary, of changing the whole Cabi-
net every week till he shall have found the
right materials, the full liberty given him
here by the Senate in this new law is an i'm
portsnt point gained. But the difficulty
suggested in the matter OF SUSPENSIONS
duYipe the absence of the Senate still re-
mains The President may assume that the
law means tweedledum; but If the Senate say
sbat II means tweedledee they have him, or
thew bring him to an issue for the Supreme
Court. Here II is. We will suppose that the
Senate has adjourned and that John Smith,
an unsatisfactory internal revenue officer in
good whisky district has been, in the absence
OF the Senate, suspended, and that John
Jones has been put IN his place. we Will
next suppose that the Senate has reassembled,
and that this suspension, according to law,
has been reported to the Senate, but that the
session has closed without any action upon
the case. Then it is claimed that, under this
new law, Smith, the man suspended, goes
back to his Office, and Jones, the Presidents
substitute, goes out
But what does this signify if the President
shall conclude to stick to Jonesf In this
emergency the Senate, on reassembling, will
be waited upon by Smith and informed of his
continued exclusion from his whisky inspec-
tions in defiance of the Senate's construction
of the law. A resolution of inquiry upon the
President will then be necessary in behalf of
Smith. What then ? All that the President
will have to do will be to say to the Senate
that according to his construction of the law
Jones lb Ln6 TIRut HAL. IL WILL Uo
that President Johnson found in one of the
Reconstruction laws hole through which Gas
Daniel OConnell said of the holes in the laws
of Parliament) you might drive coach and
four, and that johnson did drive his coach and
four, labelled 'My policy" through the hole
aforesaid. This done, the two houses of Con-
gress, under special law provided to head off
johnson, speedily reassembled and passed an
explanatory law, filling up the hole in question
and heading of Johnson over his veto, as
usual.
In the case of Jones the only alternative to
the Senate will be the same thing-a law ex-
planatory of this new Tenure Office act
but If they attempt it they will be swamped
In the House and the President will have the
victory. The case is clear enough. The
President must execute the laws; but where
there is manifestly trick of pettifogging in a
law capable Of two or three constructions, the
President must execute it as he understands
it. In doing this, in default of any explana-
tory law, he may get up case for the Su-
preme Court, where, as that court now stands,
all this Office legislation trenching upon the
unbroken practice of the Government down to
the tying up of Johnson would doubtless be
pronounced unconstitutional and void. 1t
would be great thing for the country, too,
II General Grant were to seize the first oppor-
tunity to make a case for the Supreme Court
which would result in defining the constitu-
tional rights Of the Executive and the metes
and bounds Of Congress.