Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1885-07-21
relief of Grant, and have remained prac-

elleI OF Grdnt, anu nave Telilaineu prdc-
,ically ineffective ever since.
1t has remained for Hon. Charles IL. |
Buckalew of this state, with his character
stic cogency and acumen, to demonstrate
this in an admirable exposition of the
laws. His first and very
important observation is that although the
provides for the "advice and
consent" of the Senate to the presidential
the practically operative
word is consent :" the "advice of the
Senate is not asked nor required the Sen
ate does not, properly speaking, " confirm"
the appointment of the president, which
is complete when made it simply
"assents to it. While the body
holds check upon the appointing
power, it is not part of the power itself.
This important distinction laid down by |
Mr.. Buckalew, is fortified by line of de- |
cisions reaching from Chief Justice Mar
shall down to the decision of the Pennsyl- |
vania court in the case of Recorder Lane,
removed by Governor Pattison.
The presidents power to make appoint
i~nents TO ill vacancies existing or occur
| toned and the removing power, being
beyond all doubt necessary to government,
| its existence is to be implied; and the act
of 1890 defining the four years tenure pro-
| vides that the officers who enjoy it shall be
removable from Office ut pleasure"
Mr.. Buckalew describes with much his
torical vigor the great debate of 1885, when
all the enemies of jackson, with no other
bond of sympathy than this common en-
nifty, united for the time and purpose TO
cripple and curb the executive power. Mr..
Buckalew shows that with all their foren-
sic ability and brillancy of debate, their
constitutional views were inharmonious
and conflicting their coalition was a rope
of sand. incidentally, too, the legal histo-
rian of this subject shows how exaggerated
has been the popular j 'ea of Jackson's gen
: eral indiscriminate removals from office.
1t is true that, to obstruct and embarras!
Andrew johnson, his disappointed part,
| passed the tenure-of-oflice act of 1867, which
was intended to prevent remoyalsa at the ex
ecutive pleasure as contemplated by the ac
! of 1920 but in 1869, after Grant was elected
his party took off the curb by repeating ell
tirely two sections of the law and ina
), terally altering third ; for the removing
: power known and practised before ha
- been substituted a suspending power
which is just what President Clev,
;, laid has been exercising since the at
=, journment of the Senate. Such suspeI
II sions,by the amended act, are discretionaI
:" and are not limited as they were by the az
70 of 1867, to cases of incapacity, crime, di
ability and official misconduct. BY I'll
81 act of 1862 the suspension extends 9 to Il
t. end of the next session of the Senate, y an
~ not merely to tile time when Il
IL case shall be acted upon by q
Senate, as under the act of 1856
re And the president, upon the refusal
a' the Senate to affirm his suspension and co
ny 1 firm his new appointment, may at once l
ne new his suspension of the revived onc
IS holder and keep him out forever.
The whip is certainly in the hand of q
elr president, where the constitution meant
re- should be. The Senate's consent is d
er- sirable, but no transfer TO il of the appoiI
IN ing power, or of any part of it, has be
er- made, rs the law now stands. 1t is u
ull likely that enough Republican senators W
> be found TO successfully quarrel with Il
I'm construction of the law. The Senate ca
III, not afford to invoke any issue us to
la steady and subtle encroachments upon I
ew power of the House and of the executive