The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-02-09

cred. Diplomatic functionsries who had filed
those stations Wit honor to themselves and
country. have been recalled to make way for and
10 a1ord the means OF corrupting the members
OF the national legislature
The resolutions attached TO this report Affirm
the right OF Congress to make laws. regulating
the appointing and removing mower. denying the
power OF arbitrary removal to the President and
the neads OF departments, and declaring in favor
OF a law regulating qualifications of appointees.
and excluding improper interferences in State or
federal elections by officials. In the debate on
repeating the four-year law, Mr.. Calhoun attrib-
uted the needless increase of the public service
to the Presidents power of removals, and he
claimed that his party had pledged itself TO re-
peal the four year law and to restore to Congress
the power of dismissing officials. Webster aud
Clay strongly supported Calhoun in denying the
power OF absolute removal to the President.
Webster affirmed the power of Congress to re-
verse the action of 1879, and Clay offered an
amendment to Calhoun's bill providing that IL
the Presidents reasons were not satisfactory to
the Senate the removed official should re-
sumo his Office. Webster affirmed the
constitutional right of the Senate to
demand OF the President the reasons for his re-
moyaL. Two years before this, in March, 1912.
the House of Representatives, by resolution.
called on the President and the heads of the de-
partments for the names of all members of the
Twenty-sixth and Twenty-sevcnth Congresses
who were applicants for office, whether they ap
piled in person or by friends. and what places they
wanted. President Tyler refused to give the in
formation, saying, in the first place, that applt-
cations for Office were confidential comuiunica.
tions to him, but he added:
The appointing power, as far as it is bestowed
on the President by the Constitution. is con-
ferred without reserve or qualification. The
reason for the appointment and the responsible
lty Tor the appointment rests with him alone.
L cannot perceive anywhere in the Constitution
of the United States any right conferred on the
House of Representatives to hear the reasons
which an applicant may urge for an appointment
to Office under the executive departments, or any
duty resting upon the House of Representatives
by which it may become responsible for any such
appointment"
In the summer of the same year-July. 1872
the removal of a pension clerk named Sylvester
by Secretary of War Spencer created such q
breeze that the House raised a select committee
to investigate the matter. Garrett Davis was
chairman. This removal was not political Web
ster demanded Sylvesters removal on the ground
that he had spoken libelously of him. Garrett
Davis reported three resolutions, of which the
second is as follows:
Resolved, That both houses of Congress, and espe- !,
cially the House of Representatives, as the grand
inquest of the Nation, have a constitutional right, az
all times, to free access to the executive departments
of the povernment for the examination of all paperx
therein, whether regarded by the head OF the depart
ment as public or as private and confidential, and,
also, to copies OF all such papers from the officer
or officers having their custody, as either house may
require.
The third resolution declared that the power
of removal belonged to the President and SEN
ate together, and that it was the constitutional
duty of the President to send the Senate his
reasons for all removals made during the recess
This report was never acted on. In May, l844,
the Senate, in executive session, adopted a reso-
luton directing the Secretary of the Treasury to
inform the Senate what sums of money had
been expended IN strengthening the military
forces on the Texan frontier or the naval forces
in the Gulf of Mexico. President Tyler replied
to this:
while I cannot recognize this call thus made
OF. the head of a department as consistent With
the constitutional rights of the Senate when actr
ing in its executive capacity, which in such casa
can only properly hold correspondence with thS
President of the United States; nevertheless.
from an anxious desire to lay before the Senate
all such information as may be necessary to ene
able 1t, with full understanding, to act upon any
subject which may be before it, / herewith
transmit" etc.
In February. 1867. the House of Representa-
tives. by resolution, called on the Postmaster
general for a list Of all the postmasters re-
moved between July % and Dec. 6, 1866, togeth-
or with the reasons or cause of such removals.
The Postmaster-general promptly sent in a list
which makes sixty-four printed pages, giving by
States the names of postmasters ren7Zed and
the reasons. The reasons are also tabulated BY
States and by the country as a whole. One
thousand six hundred and forty-four postmasters
had been removed, of whom, ! 1888 were removed
for political reasons. This was before the
tenure-of-office law went into effect.