CONGKESS, UNITED STATES. 



been twenty-one changes. In the Post-Office 

 Department there are seven hundred and nine 

 appointments, and there have been one hundred 

 and ninety-seven changes. In the office of the 

 Attorney-General there are two hundred and 

 two appointments, and there have been nineteen 

 changes." 



Mr. Grimes: "What do you mean by 'ap- 

 pointments?' " 



Mr. Cowan : " Presidential appointments. 

 Now, sir, there is the sum and substance of all 

 this matter, and what does it amount to ? What 

 is there alarming in it? Nothing alarming to 

 anybody except to somebody who is afraid of 

 being turned out of office ; that is all. 



" Then the question arises, how long are these 

 people to remain in office ? Is any dominant 

 party in this country willing to put itself upon 

 the ground that they, once in, shall remain and 

 continue in ? I am very free to say that if I 

 understand the feeling of the American people, 

 it is directly against that system of perpetuating 

 one man in office. It has been said here that 

 the ballot educates ; we ought to give the ballot 

 to men and women to educate them. It is clear 

 that offices educate, too, and hence the old doc- 

 trine of rotation in office. Orie of the merits of 

 this Government is, that the offices are within 

 the reach of every man ;,but if, when a party 

 gets in and gets control of the offices, gets a 

 dominant majority, they determine that the 

 President shall not remove unless with their 

 consent, what is that but saying, ' We have the 

 key in our hands and will lock the door and keep 

 ourselves in and every one else out.' " 



Here a question of order was raised by Mr. 

 McDougall, of California, which occupied the 

 Senate during the remainder of the session. 

 The debate was renewed on the next day. 



Mr. Sumner, of Massachusetts, said : " The 

 President has usurped the powers of Congress 

 on a colossal scale, and he has employed these 

 usurped powers in fomenting the rebel spirit 

 and awakening anew the dying fires of the re- 

 bellion. Though the head of the executive, he 

 has rapaciously seized the powers of the legis- 

 lative, and made himself a whole Congress in 

 defiance of a cardinal principle of republican 

 government that each branch must act for itself 

 without assuming the powers of the other; and, 

 in the exercise of these illegitimate powers, he 

 has become a terror to the good and a support 

 to the wicked. This is his great and unpardon- 

 able offence, for which history must condemn 

 him if you do not. He is a usurper, through 

 whom infinite wrong has been done to his 

 country. He is a usurper, who, promising to 

 be a Moses, has become a Pharaoh. Do you 

 ask for evidence ? It is found in public acts 

 which are beyond question. It is already writ- 

 ten in the history of our country. And now in 

 the maintenance of his usurpation he has em- 

 ployed the power of removal from office. Some, 

 who would not become the partisans of his 

 tyranny he has, according to his own language, 

 4 kicked out.' Others are left, but silenced by 



this menace and the fate of their associates. 

 Wherever any vacancy occurs, whether in the 

 loyal or the rebel States, it is filled by the par- 

 tisans of his usurpation. Other vacancies are 

 created to provide for these partisans. I need 

 not add that just in proportion as we sanction 

 such nominations or fail to arrest them, accord- 

 ing to the measure of our power, we become 

 parties to his usurpation. 



" Here I am brought directly to the practical 

 application of this simple statement. I have 

 already said that the duty of the hour was in 

 protection to the loyal and patriotic citizen 

 against the President. Surely this cannot be 

 doubted. The first duty of a Government is 

 protection. The crowning glory of a republic 

 is that it leaves no man, however humble, with- 

 out protection. Show me a man exposed to 

 wrong, and I show you an occasion for the exer- 

 cise of all the power that God and the Constitu- 

 tion have given yon. It will not do to say that 

 the cases are too numerous, or that the remedy 

 cannot be applied without interfering with a 

 system handed down from our fathers, or worse 

 still, that you have little sympathy with this 

 suffering. This will not do. You must apply 

 the remedy, or fail in duty. Especially must 

 you apply it when, as on the present occasion, 

 this wrong is part of an enormous usurpation 

 in the interest of recent rebellion. 



" The question then recurs, are you ready to 

 apply the remedy, according to the measure of 

 your powers? The necessity of this remedy 

 may be seen in the rebel States, and also in the 

 loyal States, for the usurpation is felt in both. 



" If you look at the rebel States, you will see 

 everywhere the triumph of Presidential tyranny. 

 There is not a mail which does not bring letters 

 without number supplicating the exercise of all 

 the powers of Congress against the President. 

 There is not a newspaper which does not exhibit 

 evidence that you are already tardy in this work 

 of necessity. There is not a wind from that 

 suffering region which is not freighted with 

 voices of distress. And yet you hesitate. 



" I shall not be led aside to consider the full 

 remedy for this usurpation; for it is not my 

 habit to travel out of the strict line of debate. 

 Therefore, I confine myself to the bill now under 

 consideration, which is applicable alike to the 

 loyal and the rebel States. 



"This bill has its origin in what I have al- 

 ready called the special duty of the hour, which 

 is the protection of loyal and patriotic citizens 

 against the President. In what I have already 

 said I have shown the necessity of this protec- 

 tion. But the brutal language which the Presi- 

 dent has employed shows the spirit in which 

 he has acted. The Senator from Indiana (Mr. 

 Hendricks), whose judgment could not approve 

 this brutality, doubted if the President had used 

 it. Let me settle this question. Here is the 

 National Intelligencer, always indulgent to the 

 President. In its number for the 13th of Sep- 

 tember last it thus reports what our Chief 

 Magistrate said in his speech at St. Louis : 



