Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1886-03-04

the LEGISLATIVE duties luS Elkut ~ oo'ASS "hN
consent to appointments to office and to SIT as
a court of impeachment, it conferred upon
that body all the control and regulation OF
executive action supposed to be necessary for
the safety of the people, and this express anc
special grant of such extraordinary powers,
not in any wav related to or growing out OF
general Senatorial duty, and in itself de-
parture from the general plan of our govern
meut, should be held, under familiar maxim
of construction, to exclude every other right
of interference with Executive functions In
the first Congress which assembled after the
adoption of the Constitution, comprising
MANY who aided in its preparation, leglsia'
tive construction was given to that lnstru-
ment in which the independence OF the
Executive 10 the matter of removals from
office was fully sustained. think it will be
found that in the subsequent discussions
of this question there was generally, II
not at all times, proposition pending to
in some way curtail this power of the Presi-
dent by legislation which furnishes evidence
that to limit such power it was supposed to
be necessary to supplement the Constitution
py such legislation. The first enactment OF
this description was passed under stress OF
partisanship and political bitterness which
eliminated in the Presidents impeachment
This law provided that the Federal officers to
which it applied could only be suspended dur
ing the recess of the Senate when shown by
evidence satisfactory to the President to be
guilty of misconduct in office, or crime, or
when incapable or disqualified to perform
their duties, and that within twenty days at
ter the next meeting of the Senate it should
be the duty of the President "to report to
the Senate such suspension. with the evidence
and reasons for his action in the case" TINS
statute, passed in 1867, when Congress was
overw helmngly and bitterly opposed politi-
cally to the President, may be regarded as an
indication that even then it was thought
necessary by Congress determined upon the
subjugation of the Executive to Legislative
will to furnish itself law for that purpose,
instead of attempting to reach the object in
tended by an invocation of any pretended
constitutional right. The law which thus
found its way to our statute book was plain
in its terms, and its intent needed no avowal.
If valid and now in operation it would JUST
fy the present course of the Senate and COM
mand the obedience of the Executive to it's
demands. 1t may, however, be remarked in
passing that under this law the President had
the privilege of presenting to the body which
assumed to review his executive acts his res-
sons therefor, instead of being excluded from
explanation or judged by papers found in the
departments. Two years after the law OF
1867 was passed, and within less than five
weeks after the inau yuration of President
in political accord with both branches Of
Congress, the sections of the act regulating
| suspensions from office during the recess of
| the Senate were entirely repealed, and in
their place were substituted provisions which,
instead of limiting the causes of suspension
10 misconduct, crime, disability or disqualifi.
cation, expressly permitted such suspension
by the President Gin his discretion" and
completely abandoned the requirement oblig-
ing him to report to the Senate the evidence
and reasons for his action.
QUOTING FROM GENERAL GRANT.
With these notifications and with all
branches of the Government in political har-
mony, and in the absence of partisan incen-
tive to captious obstruction, the law as it was
left by the amendment of 1869 was much less
destructive of Executive discretion. And
vet the great General and patriotic citizen
who on the 4th day of March, 1869. assumed
the duties of Chief Executive, and for whose
administration of his high Office the most
hateful restraints of the law of 1867 were on
the 9TH day of April. 1869, removed, mindful
OF his obligation to defend and protect every
preroQatve of his great trust, and apprehen-
sive of the injury threatened the public SER
vice in the continued operation of these stat
utes even in their modified form, in his first
message to Congress advised their repeal and
set forth their unconstitutional character and
hurtful tendency in the following language
"lt may be well to mention here the
embarrassment possible to arise from
leaving on the statute books the so.called
Tenure of Office Acts and to earnestly rec
ommend their total repeal 1t could not have
been the intention OF the trainers of the con-
stitution, when providing that appointment.
made by the President should receive the
consent of the Senate. that the latter should
have the power to retain in office persons
placed there by Federal appointment against
the will Of the President The law is incon-
sistent with faithful and efficient admins
tration of the government. What faith can
an executive put in officials forced upon him,
and those. too, whom he has suspended for
reason? How will such officials be likely to
serve an administration which they know
does not trust them?"
l am unable to say whether or not this
recommendation for a repeal of these laws
has been since repeated. If it has not, the
reason can probably be found in the expe-
rience which demonstrated the fact THAT the
necessities of the political situation but rare
ly developed their vicious character. And
so it happened that after an existence of
nearly twenty years of almost innocuous des-
uetude these laws are brought forth appar-
emily the repealed we'll az the un-
repealed, and put in the wav of an Executive
who is willing. if permitted, to attempt an
improvement in the methods of administra-
ton. The constitutionality of these laws is
by no means admitted. But why should the
provisions of the repealed law, which
required specific cause for suspen-
SION and report to the Senate of
''evidence and reasons" be now, in effect,
applied to the present Executive instead of
the law, atterward passed and unrepealed
which distinctly permits suspensions by the
President Sin his discretion" and carefully
omits the requirement that .'evidence and
reasons for his action in the case shall be
reported to the Senate?
WHY THE PRESIDENT is COMPELLED TO RE-
FUSE.
| The requests and demands which by the
score have for nearly three months been pre-
scented to the different departments of the
government, whatever may be their form,
have but one complexion, They assume the
right of the Senate to sit in Judgment upon
the exercise of my exclusive discretion and
executive function, for which am solely re.
sPonsible to the people from whom have So
lately received the sacred trust of Office Nv
oath to support and defend the constitution
my duty to the people who have chosen me
to execute the powers of their great office
and not to relinquish them, and nv duty to
! OF ms Fr1afr 81. r