etermined mode of procedure he caused it
to be known to Republican senators and representatives that so long as
the statute was in force he would simply stand still in the matter of
appointments and permit the incumbents to remain in position, except
where flagrant misconduct should call for suspension under the law.
This position was startling to all those who were desirous of securing
the appointment of political favorites, who in a party sense had
earned their reward and were waiting to receive it. There was a
general desire to remove the men whom President Johnson had forced
into office before the restraining Act was passed. But General Grant
was resolved that neither he nor the members of his Cabinet would go
through the disagreeable and undignified process of filing reasons for
suspending an officer, when in fact no reason existed aside from
obnoxious political opinion. The Republican members of both branches
quickly perceived that tying the hands of a hostile President like
Andrew Johnson afforded more satisfaction than the same process applied
to a friendly President like General Grant.

It was therefore determined by the Republicans to escape from their
embarrassment, even at the expense of an inconsistency which could but
prove humiliating to them. On the 9th of March, just five days after
Andrew Johnson had left the Presidency, General Butler introduced in
the morning hour of the House, a bill of two lines, absolutely
repealing the Tenure-of-office Act, for a constructive violation of
which he had ten months before urged the impeachment of President
Johnson and his expulsion from office. The standing committees had
not yet been announced; and therefore without reference or a moment's
debate or consideration of the measure, General Butler demanded the
_previous question_, which was sustained, and under a call of the
_ayes_ and _noes_, the bill was passed by 138 to 16. The small
minority was composed of Republicans. The Democrats, who had solidly
voted against the Tenure-of-office bill two years before, voted now
with entire consistency for its repeal, and with them also, in solid
ranks, voted the men who, in the preceding Congress, had clamored most
loudly for Johnson's decapitation.

When the bill reached the Senate, there was a disposition on the part
of some leading members of that body to pass it as promptly as it
had been passed by the House. Mr. Morton urged that it be put on its
passage withou