New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1873-03-30
Assistant Secretary Of the Treasury saw
yer.

Assistant Secretary OF the Treasury Saw
yer.
From the Washington Republican,
The nomination Of ex-senator Frederick
A. Sawyer of South Carolina, to be Assist
ant Secretary of the Treasury, which has
been frequently foreshadowed III these col
umns, was sent to the Senate yesterday,
and as is customary when former member
OF that body is put in nomination, was
taken up and unanimously confirmed with
out reference to a committee. While this
fOrmality was proceeding to final execu-
ton, the constitutional experts, including d
few journalists of the selt-assumed NestOr
persuasion, who ought to know better, were
engaged outside the Senate in demonstrat-
ing the ineligibility OF the nominee on the
ground that the salary of the office to which
he had been nominated had been increased
during his Senatorial term. To show how
completely they misconstrued the facts in
the case 1t Is only necessary to quote the
second clause OF the sixth section Of the
first article of the constitution, which reads
as follows:
mo Senator or Representative shall,
during the time for which he was elected,
be appointed to any civil Office under the
authority OF the United States, which shall
have been created, or the emOlumeEts
whereof shall have been increased during
such term; and no person holding any
office under the United States shall be a
member Of either house during his cOntinu-
anGe in OIice'
Mr.. Sawyer's term expired or the third
instant, and although the increase of salary
referred to was made during his term Of
Office as Senator, the constitutional prOhibi-
ton does not include him "a applied to the
new Office for the duties of which he will
probably qualify to-day. He was born in
RnGfnn WnPrplTpr
December Il, 1922 attended the public
schools of that and the neighbOring towns;
graduated at Harvard University in lS44;
was successfully employed rs a teacher in
Gardiner, Wisca sset, Lowell. Nashua, South
Reading and Boston, leaving the Brimmer
school in the last named city in April,
1859, to accept an invitation TO become
principal of the State Normal school for
girls in Charleston, South Carolina. This
position he held until September, 1861, when
his persistent loyalty rendered him SO DC
noxious to tho rebels that they gave him a
passport tor himself and his family through
the lines to Port Royal, then in the posses
sion of the federal forces. In May, 1860.
lie was appointed collector Of internal reve-
nue. Of the second district Of South Caro-
lima, tho first civil appointment made in the
Stare after the rebellion. he was elected
member of the State Constitutional Conven-
the proceedings Of that body, was elected
to the Senate of the United States the six
teenth Of July. 1868, and took his seat July
y, 1868. During his term in the Senate lie
served continuously as q member of the
Committee on Appropriations and the Com
mittee on Private Land Claims. He was
also chairman of the Committee on Educa-
ton and Labor, which position his eminent
faculties and pertinent information enabled
him TO fill with great acceptabihty. His
general services as a Senator were also
Of a character to win the most
earnest praise, and to earn the con-
fidence of his fellow members. In fact,
he became the acknowledged leader Of the
Republican Senators for the South. His
conceded ability as ready debater, and
his assiduOus attention to the details of
legislative business aided him in sustaining
this position, and the benefits which fol
lowed to the South from the influence which
it gave him were innumerable. To demon.
strate more clearly the confidence reposed
in him by his fellow members. it is only
necessary to state that twenty Sena-
tors, representing twenty-seven States, in
Guiding Messrs. Patterson and Robertson.
of his own State, joined voluntarily in the
recommendation for his appointment.