History of the Thirty-Ninth Congress of the United States Part 49

The manifest evils of unrestricted Executive patronage--the bane of American politics--early enlisted the efforts of the Thirty-ninth Congress to provide a remedy. A bill to regulate appointments to and removals from office was introduced by Mr. Henderson into the Senate near the close of the first session, and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, but never saw the light as an act of Congress.

The President's power of removal and appointment having been unsparingly used during the recess of Congress, the country became convinced that a remedy should be applied which would be effectual for time to come. On the first day of the second session, Mr. Williams brought before the Senate a bill to "regulate the tenure of offices,"

which was subsequently referred to the joint Committee on Retrenchment. On the 10th of December Mr. Edmunds, chairman of this committee, reported the bill to the Senate, with amendments. In bringing forward the measure, Mr. Edmunds a.s.serted that they were acting in no spirit of hostility to any party or administration whatever, but for "the true republican interest of the country under all administrations, and under the domination of all parties in the growth before the nation in the future." After grave consideration and protracted discussion in both houses of Congress, the bill was pa.s.sed near the close of the session. On the 2d of March the bill encountered the veto of the President, who saw in the measure serious interference with the ability of the Executive to keep his oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Const.i.tution of the United States. The bill was immediately pa.s.sed over the veto without debate.

The act thus pa.s.sed provides that officers appointed by and with the advice and consent of the Senate shall hold their offices until their successors are in like manner appointed and qualified. Members of the Cabinet hold their offices during the term of the President by whom they are appointed, and for one month thereafter, subject to removal by consent of the Senate.

CHAPTER XXIV.

THE PRESIDENT AND CONGRESS.

The President's treatment of the South -- First Annual Message -- Mr. Sumner's Criticism -- The President triumphant -- He damages his Cause -- Humor of Mr. Stevens -- Vetoes overridden -- The Question submitted to the People -- Their Verdict -- Summary of Vetoes -- Impeachment -- Charges by Mr. Ashley -- Report of the Committee.

The Thirty-ninth Congress is remarkable for having run its entire career with the constant opposition of the Executive obstructing its progress. In all representative governments, a contest between the executive and the legislative branches of the government has sooner or later arisen, which has invariably ended in the defeat of the former.

The hopelessness of the contest on the part of the executive, and the pertinacity with which it has been waged, have given it a mock-heroic character.

During the months which intervened between the death of Abraham Lincoln and the a.s.sembling of Congress, Andrew Johnson had ample time to preoccupy the field and intrench himself against what he termed a coordinate branch "hanging on the verge of the Government."

In June, 1865, delegates from the South were first admitted to private interviews with the President. On the 17th of June he issued his proclamation providing for the restoration of civil government in Georgia and Alabama, in which he excludes negroes from the category of loyal citizens ent.i.tled to vote. The President soon after proceeded to appoint provisional governors for the Southern States--a step which was viewed with joy by the late rebels, and sorrow by the Union men of the North. The character of these appointments may be seen in a sentiment uttered by Governor Perry soon after his elevation to office: "There is not now in the Southern States," said he, "any one who feels more bitterly the humiliation and degradation of going back into the Union than I do." Governor Perry saved himself from dismissal by a.s.suring the people that the death of Mr. Lincoln was no loss to the South, while he had every hope that Mr. Johnson, an old slaveholding Democrat, would be an advantage.

In Alabama, under the provisional government established by Mr.

Johnson, the convention prohibited negroes from testifying in the courts. Rebels throughout the South at once began to make their arrangements for taking part in the government. In November, Governor Perry made a public demand that when Congress met the Clerk of the House should place on the roll the names of Representatives from the rebel States.

When South Carolina hesitated to adopt the Const.i.tutional Amendment abolishing slavery, President Johnson a.s.sured the Governor that the clause giving Congress the power to enforce it by appropriate legislation really limited congressional control over the negro question. After this a.s.surance, South Carolina accepted the Const.i.tutional Amendment.

In August and September, 1865, Democratic conventions indorsed the President's policy, and Democratic papers began to praise him.

Republicans were unwilling to believe that they had been deserted, and hoped that after the a.s.sembling of Congress all differences would disappear.

The message of the President, read at the opening of the Thirty-ninth Congress, placed him in direct opposition to the leaders of the Republican party, and at variance with his own policy. "A concession of the elective franchise," said he, "to the freedmen, by act of the President of the United States, must have been extended to all colored men, wherever found, and must have established a change of suffrage in the Northern, Middle, and Western States, not less than in the Southern and Southwestern."

Every one could see that the President possessed as much power to admit the black man to the right of suffrage in the rebel States as to appoint provisional governors over them.

While Congress was in session, and actually employed in legislating for the restoration of the rebel States, Mr. Johnson substantially declared that Congress had no control over the subject, by removing the provisional governor of Alabama, and handing the State Government over to the officers elected by the people.

The Senate having requested information from the President as to the condition of the rebel States, the President, on the 20th of December, sent in a message which Mr. Sumner characterized as an attempt to "whitewash" the unhappy condition of the rebel States. The message of the President was accompanied by reports from General Grant and General Schurz, in which Congress found evidence that the late rebels had little sense of national obligation, and were chiefly anxious to regain political power, and compensate themselves for the loss of slavery by keeping the negroes in abject servitude.

The pa.s.sage of the Freedmen's Bureau Bill, by a large majority in Congress, and its veto by the President, presents the next phase in the contest. To Republicans the most alarming feature in the Veto Message was the evidence it gave that the President was ready at once to give to traitors who had fought fiercely for four years to destroy the Union an equal voice with loyal men in determining the terms of its reconstruction.

In this instance the President prevailed. The bill failed to pa.s.s over the veto, from the fact that six Senators--Dixon, Doolittle, Morgan, Norton, Stewart, and Van Winkle--who had voted for the bill, now sided with the President. This was the first and last triumph of the President.

Two days after, on the 22d of February, the President greatly damaged his cause by denouncing a Senator and a Representative, and using the slang of the stump against the Secretary of the Senate in the midst of an uproarious Washington mob. The people were mortified that the Executive of the nation should have committed so serious an indiscretion.

The incident received notice in Congress in a humorous speech of Thaddeus Stevens, who declared that the alleged speech could never have been delivered; that it was "a part of the cunning contrivance of the copperhead party, who have been persecuting our President;" that it was "one of the grandest hoaxes ever perpetrated."

Congress, now aware that it must achieve its greatest works of legislation over the obstructing veto of the President, moved forward with caution and deliberation. Every measure was well weighed and carefully matured, since, in order to win its way to the favor of a triumphant majority in Congress and the country, it must be as free as possible from all objectionable features.

Impartial suffrage, as provided in the District of Columbia Suffrage Bill, being a subject upon which the people had not yet spoken, the Senate determined that it would be better not to risk the uncertainty of pa.s.sing the measure over the inevitable veto until the people should have an opportunity of speaking at the ballot-box.

The President applied his veto to the Civil Rights Bill and the second Freedmen's Bureau Bill, but a majority of more than the requisite two-thirds placed these measures among the laws of the land. In the House of Representatives, Mr. Raymond was the only Republican member who voted to sustain the veto of the Civil Rights Bill. The temptation to be friends of the President, in order to aid him in the distribution of patronage, was very great with members of Congress, and the wonder is that so many were able to reject it all, and adhere to principles against which the Executive brought to bear all his power of opposition.

On the adjournment of Congress in July, at the close of the first session, the contest was still continued, though in another arena.

Members of Congress went to their several districts, submitted their doings to their const.i.tuents, and took counsel of the people. The President also traversed the States from the Atlantic to the Mississippi. He made numerous speeches, and endeavored to popularize his policy.

The people gave their verdict at the ballot-box in favor of Congress.

The reelection of Congress was the rejection of the President. The ruin of the President's fortunes was shared by his followers. No gentleman ever entered the House of Representatives with more _eclat_ than that with which Mr. Raymond took his seat as a member of the Thirty-ninth Congress, but his const.i.tuents did not see proper to elect him for a second term. Delano and Stillwell, of the West, were left at home. Cowan, in the Senate, elected six years before as a Republican, was superseded, and Doolittle was instructed by his Legislature to resign.

The message of the President at the opening of the second session displayed no disposition to yield to the people or to Congress. He declared to a State delegation that waited on him that he was too old to learn.

One of the first acts of Congress after rea.s.sembling was to accept the sanction of the people for impartial suffrage, and pa.s.s the District Suffrage Bill over the President's veto. The President deemed it due to his consistency to return bills, with his "objections thereto in writing," to the very last. Among the last doings of the Thirty-ninth Congress was the pa.s.sage of the Tenure-of-office Bill and the Military Reconstruction Bill over vetoes. In humiliating contrast with the circ.u.mstances one year before, when the veto of the Freedmen's Bureau Bill prevailed, the veto of the Military Reconstruction Bill had but ten supporters in the Senate.

The following is a complete list of the bills vetoed by the President during the Thirty-ninth Congress, and of the bills which were pa.s.sed over the veto, and those which became laws without the President's signature:

FIRST SESSION.--To enlarge the powers of the Freedmen's Bureau; vetoed February 19, 1866.

To protect all persons in the United States in their civil rights, and furnish the means of their vindication; vetoed; and pa.s.sed, April 9, 1866, over veto.

For the admission of the State of Colorado into the Union; vetoed May, 1866.

To enable the Montana and New York Iron Mining and Manufacturing Company to purchase a certain amount of the public lands not now in market; vetoed June, 1866.

To continue in force and to amend an act ent.i.tled "an act to establish a bureau for the relief of freedmen and refugees, and for other purposes;" vetoed; pa.s.sed, July 16, 1866, over veto.

For the admission of the State of Nebraska into the Union; not signed; failed through the adjournment of Congress.

SECOND SESSION.--To regulate the elective franchise in the District of Columbia; vetoed; pa.s.sed, January 8, 1867, over veto.

To admit the State of Colorado into the Union; vetoed January 18, 1867.

For the admission of the State of Nebraska into the Union; vetoed; pa.s.sed, February 9, 1867, over veto.

To provide for the more efficient government of the insurrectionary States; vetoed; pa.s.sed, March 2, 1867, over veto.

To regulate the tenure of office; vetoed; pa.s.sed, March 2, 1867, over veto.

_Bills which became laws without the President's signature, the const.i.tutional limit of ten days having expired without their return:_

To repeal section 13 of "an act to suppress insurrection, to punish treason and rebellion, to seize and confiscate the property of rebels, and for other purposes," approved July 17, 1862; became a law January 22, 1867.

To regulate the franchise in the Territories of the United States; became a law January 31, 1867.

To regulate the duties of the Clerk of the House of Representatives, in preparing for the organization of the House, and for other purposes; became a law February 20, 1867.