Charles Sumner: his complete works, volume 16 (of 20)

by Charles Sumner

SUSPENSION OF MR. STANTON RECOGNIZED HIM AS PROTECTED BY THE STATUTE.

Here I might close this part of the case; but there is another illustration. In suspending Mr. Stanton from office, as long ago as August, the President himself recognized that he was protected by the statute. The facts are familiar. The President, in formal words, undertook to say that the suspension was by virtue of the Constitution; but this was a dishonest pretext, in harmony with so much in his career. Whatever he may say, his acts speak louder than his words. In notice of the suspension to the Secretary of the Treasury, and then again in a message to the Senate assigning his reasons for the suspension, both being according to requirements of the statute, he testified, that, in his judgment at that time, Mr. Stanton came within its protection. If not, why thus elaborately comply with its requirements? Why the notice to the Secretary of the Treasury? Why the message to the Senate? All this was novel and without example. Why write to General Grant of “being sustained” by the Senate? Approval or disapproval of the Senate could make no difference in the exercise of the power he now sets up. Approval could not confirm the suspension; disapproval could not restore the suspended Secretary of War. In fine, why suspend at all? Why exercise the power of suspension, when the President sets up the power of removal? If Mr. Stanton was unfit for office and a thorn in his side, why not remove him at once? Why resort to this long and untried experiment merely to remove at last? There is but one answer. Beyond all question the President thought Mr. Stanton protected by the statute, and sought to remove him according to its provisions, beginning, therefore, with his suspension. Failing in this, he undertook to remove him in contravention of the statute, relying in justification on his pretension to judge of its constitutionality, or the pusillanimity of Congress, or something else “to turn up,” which should render justification unnecessary.

Clearly the suspension was made under the Tenure-of-Office Act, and can be justified in no other way. From this conclusion the following dilemma results: If Mr. Stanton was within the statute, by what right was he removed? If he was not, by what right was he suspended? The President may choose his horn. Either will be sufficient to convict.

I should not proceed further under this head but for the new device which makes its appearance under the auspices of the Senator from Maine [Mr. Fessenden], who tells us, that, “whether Mr. Stanton came under the first section of the statute or not, the President had a clear right to suspend him under the second.” Thus a statute intended as a bridle on the President gives the power to suspend Mr. Stanton, but fails to give him any protection. This statement would seem enough. The invention of the Senator is not less fallacious than the pretext of the President. It is a device well calculated to help the President and to hurt Mr. Stanton, with those who regard devices more than the reason of the statute and its spirit.

Study the statute in its reason and its spirit, and you cannot fail to see that the second section was intended merely as a pendant to the first, and was meant to apply to the cases included in the first, and none other. It was a sort of safety-valve, or contrivance to guard against possible evils from bad men who could not be removed during the recess of the Senate. There was no reason to suspend a person who could be removed. It is absurd to suppose that a President would resort to a dilatory and roundabout suspension, when the short cut of removal was open to him. Construing the statute by this plain reason, its second section must have precisely the same sphere of operation as the first. By the letter, Mr. Stanton falls within both; by the intention, it is the same. It is only by applying to the first section his own idea of the intention, and by availing himself of the letter of the second, that the Senator is able to limit the one and to enlarge the other, so as to exclude Mr. Stanton from the protection of the statute, and to include him in the part allowing suspensions. Applying either letter or spirit consistently, the case is plain.

I turn for the present from the Tenure-of-Office Act, insisting that Mr. Stanton is within its protection, and, being so, that his removal was, under the circumstances, a high misdemeanor, aggravated by its defiant purpose and the long series of transgressions which preceded it, all showing a criminal intent. The apologies of the President will be considered hereafter.