is entitled to respect at a still
greater number. At her present rate of growth she will in a very short
time have the requisite population for a Representative in Congress,
and, what is far more important to her own citizens, will have realized
such an advance in material wealth as will enable the expenses of a
State government to be borne without oppression to the taxpayer. Of new
communities it may be said with special force--and it is true of old
ones--that the inducement to emigrants, other things being equal, is in
almost the precise ratio of the rate of taxation. The great States of
the Northwest owe their marvelous prosperity largely to the fact that
they were continued as Territories until they had growth to be wealthy
and populous communities.

ANDREW JOHNSON.

WASHINGTON, _March 2, 1867_.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

I have carefully examined the bill "to regulate the tenure of certain
civil offices." The material portion of the bill is contained in the
first section, and is of the effect following, namely:

That every person 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 any such office and shall
become duly qualified to act therein, is and shall be entitled
to hold such office until a successor shall have been appointed
by the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate, and duly
qualified; and that the Secretaries of State, of the Treasury, of War,
of the Navy, and of the Interior, the Postmaster-General, and the
Attorney-General shall hold their offices respectively for and during
the term of the President by whom they may have been appointed and for
one month thereafter, subject to removal by and with the advice and
consent of the Senate.

These provisions are qualified by a reservation in the fourth section,
"that nothing contained in the bill shall be construed to extend the
term of any office the duration of which is limited by law." In effect
the bill provides that the President shall not remove from their places
any of the civil officers whose terms of service are not limited by law
without the advice and consent of the Senate of the United States. The
bill in this respect conflicts, in my judgment, with the Constitution
of the United States. The question, as Congress is well aware, is by no
means a new one. That the power of remov