The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1886-03-06

legislation, which furnishes evidence
that to limit such power it was sup
posed to be necessary to supplement
the Constitution by such legislation.
The first enactment of this description
was passed under a stress
of partisanship and political
bitterness which eliminated in
the Presidents impeachment. This
law provided that the Federal officials to
which it applied could only be suspended
| during the recess of the Senate when
| shown by evidence satisfactory to the
President to be guilty of misconduct in
| office, or when incapable or disqualified
to perform their duties, and within ten
days after 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 ac-
tons. This statute passed when Con-
gress was overwhelmingly and Bit
terly opposed politically to the
| President, and may be regarded
as an indication that even then it was
thought necessary by Congress in order
to determine the Executive to the Legis-
lative will, to furnish itself for that pur-
! pose, instead of attempting to reach the
object intended by an invention of any
pretended constitutional right. The law
which thus found its way to our statute
books, needed no avowal If valid and
now in operation it would justify the
present course of the Senate and command
obedience of the Executive to its de-
mands- 1t may, however, be remarked
in passing, that under this law the Presi-
dent had the privilege of presenting to
the body which assumed to review his
acts his reasons 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 inauguration of a President in
political accord with both branches of
Congress, the sections of the act regulat-
ing suspensions from Office during the re-
cess of the Senate were entirely de-
feated, and in their place were
substituted provisions which, instead of
limiting the causes of suspension to
misconduct, crime, disability or dis
qualification, expressly permitted, such
suspension by the President in his diScre-
ton, and completely abandoned the re-
quirement oblging him to report to the
Senate the evidence and reasons for his
actions.
"With these notifications, and with
all branches of the Government in polit-
ical harmony, and in the absence of parti-
san incentives to captious obstruction,
the law as it was left by the amendment
of 1869 was much less destructive of ex-
ecutive discretion, and vet the great
General and patriotic citizen who on the
4th of March, 1869, assumed the duties
of chief Executive, and for whose freer
administration of his high office the most
hateful extremes of the law of
1867 were on the 9TH day of
April, 1869, removed, mindful of his
obligation to defend and protect every
prerogative of his great trust and appre-
hensive of injury to the public service
, in the continued operation of these stat
utes, even in their modified form, in his
first message to Congress advised their
repeal on account of their unconstitution'
al character and hurtful tendency, in this
language: 1t may be well to mention
here the embarrassments possible to
arise from leaving on the statute books
J the so-called Tenure of Office act
and to earnestly recommend theil
total repeal? 1t could moi
, have been the intention of the Trainer!
: of the Constitution when providing tina
/, appointments made by the President
: should receive the consent of the Senate
. that the Senate should have the power K
! retain in office persons placed there By
: Federal appointment against the will o
. the President. The law is inconsisten
o with a faithful and efficient administra
ton of the Government. What faith cal
!. an executive put in officials forced upol
9 him, and those, too, whom he has sus
pended for reason? How will such of
! ficias be likely to serve an administra
9 ton which they know does not trus
n them?
Or 81 am unable to state whether or no
G this recommendation for a repeal o
= these laws has been since complied with
8 If it has not, the reason can probabl
i be found in the experience which de
monstrated the fact that the necessitie
o of the political situation but rarely dc
e veloped their vicious character. Am
50 it happens that after an existence O
, nearly twenty years of almost innocu
! Gus disuetude, these laws are brough
- forth, apparently the repealed as well a
# the unrepealed, and put in the way of a.
A. Executive who is willing, if permitted, t
:. attempt an improvement in the meth
q DDS of administration.
" "The constitutionalty of the law is b
;. no means admitted. But why should tn
). provisions of the repealed law, which IT
d quired specific cause for suspension a
l. part of the report to the Senate 'of ev
7 dence and reasons be now in effect al
e piled to the present Executive, instead {
T. the law afterward passed and unrepealet
s, which distinctly permits suspensions b
N the President, in his discretion, and care
ID fully omits the requirement that evidenC
lie and reasons for his action in tn
ID case shall be reported
T. the Senate. The requests and demand
which, by the score, have for nearly thre
n months been presented to the differeI
rs Departments of the Government, wha
10 ever NAV be their form, have but or
m complexion. They assume The right
Of the Senate to sit in Judgment upon Il
h exercise of my exclusive discretion an
IA executive function, for which l am sole
w responsible to the people from whom
If have so lately received the sacred tru
so of office.