Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1869-03-11
TEE FERURE-OF-OFFICE ACT TO BE
REPEALED. M

REPEALED.
Grant and Congress have com
menced seesawing already, In his
interviews with number of per-
sons before his Inauguration, Gen.
Grant expressed a determination to
be President, and this was said with
a significance that meant to exer-
else all the duties and functions |
pertaining to the Office. Congress
has usurped the functions of the
executive department so long, that
even under Grants administration |
this power will not be yielded with
out q struggle. This was evineed
in the matter of the appointment OF
Mr.. A. 7. Stewart Secretary of the
Treasury. When Grant asked for
the suspension of the law of 1889
as to Stewart, Congress, under the
leadership of Sumner, virtually re-
fused this request and Grant was
compelled to withdraw it. But it
seems Grant is about to get the bet
ter of Congress on the tenure of
Office question. There are thous-
ands of ofiee-seekers infesting
Washington and importuning Grant
for an Office, but he meets them
with the information that, accord
ing to his Interpretation of the ten
ure-ofaofiee law he cannot make re-
movals under it, except in cases
| where charges are preferred against
the incumbents, and those charges
are serious, and can be proven true
only before the Senate. In pow
WOW with some Pennsylvanians,
week or two before his inaugura
ton, Grant is reported to have said ::
eFrom what they did in Congress yes
| terday, am disposed to think that the
| Senate will desire to be the judges as to
what shall do. Well, if they do not re
peal the law | certainly cannot make
| any changes. i cannot remove a man
1 without making charges of character
which would blast his reputation, and
that would not be very agreeable, you
men who hold Office now will continue to
hold them until the end of the term, no
matter what my desires may be. Of
course, this will save me all this Office
hunting boring.
| 1T is understood that Grant ad-
heres to the position enunciated in
the interview with the Pennsylva-
mans. That, to use an expressive
vulgarism, will ''fetch them" For
each of the seventy-fve thousand
official positions in the gift of the
| government, there are at least ten
applicants. The demoniac bowling
of seven hundred and fifty thou
sand famished lace-hunters, all
loyal, up to the most orthodox
standard, will be too much for even
Senatorial mulishness. With the
stern alternative of "no song, no
supper" for these starving loyalsts,
the Senate will be compelled to sing
the tune the President commands.
This obstinacy on the part of Grant
is about to produce the desired re
suit, and the law which gave the
Senate complete control over re-
movals as we'll as appointments to
Office is about to go down before
the clamor of the swarm of Office
seekers now in Washington. A
| special committee appointed by the
caucus of Republican Senators held
on the 8th inst, to confer with a
similar committee on the part OF
the Republican members of the
House of Representatives, with a
view of deciding the necessary
measures to be acted upon at the
present session of Congress, decided
that the tenure-of- office act must be
repealed. When the question came
| up in the Senate on the 9th inst,
Sumner objected to its considera-
ton and it had to go over. Grant
has the power in his hands of COM
polling Congress to repeal this act,
and Sumner will have to yield.