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tenure of office Act, mArcH 2, 1867 U.S. Statutes at Large 14:430–32. A product of the contest for power and authority between President Andrew Johnson and the Republican-controlled Congress, and enacted over the veto of the president, this act sought to protect the holdover lincoln cabinet officers who supported Congress’ plans for Reconstruction from removal by President Johnson. Section 1 states that any officer appointed with the advice and consent of the Senate should hold office until his/her successor had been confirmed. Cabinet officers were to hold their offices for the term of the president who appointed them, plus one month, “subject to removal by and with the advice and consent of the Senate.” later section provided for interim appointments and removals if Congress was not in session. This act limited the president’s traditional power to remove cabinet officers and others on his own without any oversight by Congress; the president’s removal power constitutes a gray area in the Constitution, which Congress tried to clarify with this act. Yet, this act is political and aimed at limiting President Johnson from interfering with Congress’ and the Republicans’ plans for Reconstruction. In February 1868, when President Johnson removed Secretary of War edwin m. Stanton without informing Congress or following the terms of this act, Congress impeached Johnson. While impeached, Johnson was acquitted by the Senate and not removed from office. President Johnson always maintained that the Tenure of office Act was unconstitutional. No legal challenge to this act ever occurred, and in 1877, Congress repealed it. Chap. ClIV.—An Act regulating the Tenure of certain Civil Offenses. Be it enacted by the Senate and the House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That every person holding any civil office to which he has been appointed by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, and Documentary History of the American Civil War era 210 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 in like manner appointed and duly qualified, except as herein otherwise provided: Provided, 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. Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That when any officer appointed as aforesaid, excepting judges of the united States courts, shall, during a 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 incapable or legally disqualified to perform its duties, 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 such person so designated shall take the oaths and give the bonds required by law to be taken and given by the person duly appointed to fill such office; and in such case it shall be the duty of the President, within twenty days after the first day of such next meeting of the Senate, to report to the Senate such suspension, with the evidence and reasons for his actions in the case, and the name of the person so designated to perform the duties of such office. 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 may 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, and the official salary and emoluments of such officer shall, during such suspension, belong to the person so performing the duties thereof, and not to the officer so suspended: Provided, however, That the President, in case he...

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