thority. He went
ahead with his negotiations and concluded treaty arrangements which the
Senate, of course, rejected; but, as that result had been anticipated,
a modus vivendi which had been arranged by executive agreements between
the two countries went into effect, regardless of the Senate's
attitude. The case is a signal instance of the substitution of executive
arrangements for treaty engagements which has since then been such a
marked tendency in the conduct of the foreign relations of the United
States.

A consideration which worked steadily against the Senate in its attacks
upon the President, was the prevalent belief that the Tenure of Office
Act was unconstitutional in its nature and mischievous in its effects.
Although Senator Edmunds had been able to obtain a show of solid party
support, it eventually became known that he stood almost alone in
the Judiciary Committee in his approval of that act. The case is an
instructive revelation of the arbitrary power conferred by the committee
system. Members are loath to antagonize a party chairman to whom their
own bills must go for approval. Finally, Senator Hoar dared to take
the risk, and with such success that on June 21, 1886, the committee
reported a bill for the complete repeal of the Tenure of Office Act, the
chairman--Senator Edmunds--alone dissenting. When the bill was taken up
for consideration, Senator Hoar remarked that he did not believe there
were five members of the Senate who really believed in the propriety of
that act. "It did not seem to me to be quite becoming," he explained,
"to ask the Senate to deal with this general question, while the
question which arose between the President and the Senate as to the
interpretation and administration of the existing law was pending. I
thought, as a party man, that I had hardly the right to interfere with
the matter which was under the special charge of my honorable friend
from Vermont, by challenging a debate upon the general subject from a
different point of view."

Although delicately put, this statement was in effect a repudiation of
the party leadership of Edmunds and in the debate which ensued, not
a single Senator came to his support. He stood alone in upholding
the propriety of the Tenure of Office Act, arguing that without its
restraint "the whole real power and patronage of this government was
vested solely in the hands of a President of the United States and
his will was the law." He held that the