ment under the belief that it was important to test
the true meaning of the Constitution in the premises, and that this
could be most effectively done by directly restraining by law the power
which had been so long conceded to the Executive Department. To that
end Mr. Williams of Oregon on the first Monday of December, 1866,
introduced a bill "to regulate the tenure of civil offices." It was
referred to the Committee on Retrenchment, and reported back with
amendment by Mr. Edmunds of Vermont, who thenceforward assumed
parliamentary control of the subject.

The bill came up for discussion on the 10th day of January. Its first
section provided that every person _except members of the Cabinet_,
"holding any civil office to which he has been appointed by and with
the advice and consent of the Senate, and every person who shall
hereafter be appointed to such office, shall be entitled to hold such
office until a successor shall have been, in like manner, appointed and
duly qualified, except as herein otherwise provided." The second
section declared that "when any officer shall, during the recess of the
Senate, be shown by evidence satisfactory to the President, to be
guilty of misconduct in office, or crime, or for any reason shall
become legally disqualified or incapable of performing the duties of
his office; in such case, and in no other, the President may suspend
such officer and designate some suitable person to perform temporarily
the duties of such office, until the next meeting of the Senate, and
until the case shall be acted upon by the Senate: and in such case it
shall be the duty of the President, within twenty days after the first
day of such meeting of the Senate, to report to the Senate such
suspension, with the evidence and reasons for the same, and if the
Senate shall concur in such suspension, and advise and consent to the
removal of such officer, they shall so certify to the President, who
shall thereupon remove such officer, and by and with the advice and
consent of the Senate appoint another person to such office; but if
the Senate shall refuse to concur in such suspension, such officer
so suspended shall forthwith resume the functions of his office, and
the powers of the person so performing its duties in his stead shall
cease."

Mr. Howe wished to know why members of the Cabinet should be excepted.
"Each one of those officers," he said, "is created by statute, and
created not for the personal benef