down the manufacturer, without oppressing the people, without decreasing the revenues of the Government; if I had the power, I would order every bank in the country, State and national, and the Government also, to resume specie payment."

"Suppose McCulloch could do that," said Mr. Wentworth, "and give all our boys their money at par."

"If he could do it, I would give him great credit," said Mr. Stevens.

"I believe he can," said Mr. Wentworth.

"My friend is large," said Mr. Stevens, "and has faith like two grains of mustard-seed."

Plans were devised, and ultimately carried through Congress, by which the great volume of paper currency should be gradually reduced at a certain fixed rate, so that the people might know how to calculate the future, and be enabled to provide against a commercial crash.

The first measure designed to accomplish this result was popularly called the Loan Bill, which was amendatory of an act "to provide ways and means to support the Government." When first considered, in March, 1866, it was defeated in the House. It was soon after brought up again in a modified form, and passed both the House and Senate by large majorities. The act provided that the Secretary of the Treasury might receive treasury notes, or "other obligations issued under any act of Congress," in exchange for bonds. The contraction of the currency was restricted and limited by the provision that not more than ten millions of dollars might be retired and canceled within six months from the passage of the act, and thereafter not more than four millions of dollars in any one month.

A financial problem of great importance presented itself for solution in the second session of the Thirty-ninth Congress. A large amount of compound-interest notes, weighed down with accrued interest, had ceased to float as currency, and lay in the vaults of the banks and the coffers of capitalists, awaiting redemption. The question arose as to how they should be redeemed, and the nation saved the payment of the immense amounts of interest which must accumulate in course of time. The House of Representatives proposed to pass an act authorizing and directing the Secretary of the Treasury to issue legal

tender notes, without interest, not exceeding $100,000,000, in place of the compound-interest bearing notes.

To this proposition the Senate would not accede, and passed a substitute which the House would not accept. A Committee of Conference reported a modification of the Senate's substitute, which finally became a law, providing that, for the purpose of redeeming and retiring compound-interest notes, the Secretary of the Treasury should issue temporary loan certificates, to the amount of $50,000,000, at a rate of interest not exceeding three per cent. per annum.

While the greater share of the attention of the Thirty-ninth Congress was occupied with efforts to reconstruct the eleven States which had forfeited their rights by rebellion, the Territories of Colorado and Nebraska applied for admission to the Union. Congress voted to admit both, but the President obstructed their entrance with his vetoes. Congress, on reconsideration, admitted Nebraska, the objections of the President to the contrary notwithstanding. Colorado was not so fortunate, since her people had been so unwise as to prejudice their cause by restricting the enjoyment of political rights by ingrafting the word "white" into their fundamental law. By this mistake they forfeited the favor of the "Radicals," who refused to champion their cause against the President. Incidental to this, Congress ordained that political rights should not be restricted in the Territories on account of race or color.

The manifest evils of unrestricted Executive patronage-the bane of American politics-early enlisted the efforts of the Thirty-ninth Congress to provide a remedy. A bill to regulate appointments to and removals from office was introduced by Mr. Henderson into the Senate near the close of the first session, and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, but never saw the light as an act of Congress.

The President's power of removal and appointment having been unsparingly used during the recess of Congress, the country became convinced that a remedy should be applied which would be effectual for time to come. On the first day of the second session, Mr. Williams brought before the Senate a bill to "regulate the tenure of offices," which was subsequently referred to the joint Committee on Retrenchment. On the 10th of December Mr. Edmunds, chairman of this committee, reported

the bill to the Senate, with amendments. In bringing forward the measure, Mr. Edmunds asserted that they were acting in no spirit of hostility to any party or administration whatever, but for "the true republican interest of the country under all administrations, and under the domination of all parties in the growth before the nation in the future." After grave consideration and protracted discussion in both houses of Congress, the bill was passed near the close of the session. On the 2d of March the bill encountered the veto of the President, who saw in the measure serious interference with the ability of the Executive to keep his oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. The bill was immediately passed over the veto without debate.

The act thus passed provides that officers appointed by and with the advice and consent of the Senate shall hold their offices until their successors are in like manner appointed and qualified. Members of the Cabinet hold their offices during the term of the President by whom they are appointed, and for one month thereafter, subject to removal by consent of the Senate.

CHAPTER XXIV.

THE PRESIDENT AND CONGRESS.

THE PRESIDENT'S TREATMENT OF THE SOUTH-FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE—Mr. SUMNER'S CRITICISM-THE PRESIDENT TRIUMPHANT-HE DAMAGES HIS CAUSE -HUMOR OF MR. STEVENS-VETOES OVERRIDDEN-THE QUESTION SUBMITTED TO THE PEOPLE-THEIR VERDICT-SUMMARY OF VETOES-IMPEACHMENT— CHARGES BY MR. ASHLEY-REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE.

T

[HE Thirty-ninth Congress is remarkable for having run its entire career with the constant opposition of the Executive obstructing its progress. In all In all representative governments, a contest between the executive and the legislative branches of the government has sooner or later arisen, which has invariably ended in the defeat of the former. The hopelessness of the contest on the part of the executive, and the pertinacity with which it has been waged, have given it a mockheroic character.

During the months which intervened between the death of Abraham Lincoln and the assembling of Congress, Andrew Johnson had ample time to preoccupy the field and intrench himself against what he termed a coördinate branch "hanging on the verge of the Government."

In June, 1865, delegates from the South were first admitted to private interviews with the President. On the 17th of June he issued his proclamation providing for the restoration of civil government in Georgia and Alabama, in which he excludes negroes from the category of loyal citizens entitled to vote. The President soon after proceeded to appoint provisional governors for the Southern States a step which was viewed with joy by the late rebels, and sorrow by the Union men of the North. The character of these appointments may be seen in a sentiment

uttered by Governor Perry soon after his elevation to office: "There is not now in the Southern States," said he, "any one who feels more bitterly the humiliation and degradation of going back into the Union than I do." Governor Perry saved himself from dismissal by assuring the people that the death of Mr. Lincoln was no loss to the South, while he had every hope that Mr. Johnson, an old slaveholding Democrat, would be an advantage.

In Alabama, under the provisional government established by Mr. Johnson, the convention prohibited negroes from testifying in the courts. Rebels throughout the South at once began to make their arrangements for taking part in the government. In November, Governor Perry made a public demand that when Congress met the Clerk of the House should place on the roll the names of Representatives from the rebel States.

When South Carolina hesitated to adopt the Constitutional Amendment abolishing slavery, President Johnson assured the Governor that the clause giving Congress the power to enforce it by appropriate legislation really limited congressional control over the negro question. After this assurance, South Carolina accepted the Constitutional Amendment.

In August and September, 1865, Democratic conventions indorsed the President's policy, and Democratic papers began to praise him. Republicans were unwilling to believe that they had been deserted, and hoped that after the assembling of Congress all differences would disappear.

The message of the President, read at the opening of the Thirty-ninth Congress, placed him in direct opposition to the leaders of the Republican party, and at variance with his own policy. "A concession of the elective franchise," said he, "to the freedmen, by act of the President of the United States, must have been extended to all colored men, wherever found, and must have established a change of suffrage in the Northern, Middle, and Western States, not less than in the Southern and Southwestern."

Every one could see that the President possessed as much power to admit the black man to the right of suffrage in the rebel States as to appoint provisional governors over them.

While Congress was in session, and actually employed in legislating for the restoration of the rebel States, Mr. Johnson sub