tenure-of-office

Updated: October 19, 2025

Casting off all political disguises and personal pretenses, the simple truth remains that the Tenure-of-office Law was enacted lest President Johnson should remove Republican office-holders too rapidly; and it was practically repealed lest President Grant should not remove Democratic office-holders rapidly enough.

James Gillespie Blaine - Twenty Years of Congress, Volume 2 : From Lincoln to Garfield, with a Review of the Events Which Led to the Political Revolution of 1860

The President deemed it due to his consistency to return bills, with his "objections thereto in writing," to the very last. Among the last doings of the Thirty-ninth Congress was the passage of the Tenure-of-office Bill and the Military Reconstruction Bill over vetoes.

William Horatio Barnes - History of the Thirty-Ninth Congress of the United States

Congress has already been made familiar with my views respecting the "tenure-of-office bill." Experience has proved that its repeal is demanded by the best interests of the country, and that while it remains in force the President can not enjoin that rigid accountability of public officers so essential to an honest and efficient execution of the laws.

Andrew Johnson - State of the Union Address

Stanton's case comes under the Tenure-of-office Act? . . . I must ask your attention therefore to the construction and application of the first section of that Act, as follows: 'that every person holding an official position to which he has been appointed by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, and 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. Then comes what is 'otherwise provided. 'Provided however that the Secretaries of the State, Treasury, War, Navy, and Interior Departments, the Postmaster-General and 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.

James Gillespie Blaine - Twenty Years of Congress, Volume 2 : From Lincoln to Garfield, with a Review of the Events Which Led to the Political Revolution of 1860

It is pertinent to suggest here that the President believed the Tenure-of-Office Act to be unconstitutional, as it was clearly an attempted abridgment of his power over his Cabinet which had never before been questioned by Congress.

Edmund G. (Edmund Gibson) Ross - History of the Impeachment of Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, by the House of Representatives, and his trial by the Senate for high crimes and misdemeanors in office, 1868

Johnson was not believed, and the testimony of the members of his cabinet, regarding what happened, was so conflicting that it failed to convince anybody who did not seek to be convinced. There is reason to believe that Johnson never contemplated retaining Grant in the office, except to use his name and fame to break down the tenure-of-office act.

Walter Allen - Ulysses S. Grant

There is ground for the suggestion that much was hoped for in that direction from the Tenure-of-Office Bill, at least so far as the House was concerned.

Edmund G. (Edmund Gibson) Ross - History of the Impeachment of Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, by the House of Representatives, and his trial by the Senate for high crimes and misdemeanors in office, 1868