Tenure of Office Act

Tenure of Office Act in U.S. history, measure passed on Mar. 2, 1867, by Congress over the veto of President Andrew Johnson ; it forbade the President to remove any federal officeholder appointed by and with the advice and consent of the Senate without the further approval of the Senate. It also provided that members of the President's cabinet should hold office for the full term of the President who appointed them and one month thereafter, subject to removal by the Senate. With this measure the radical Republicans in Congress hoped to assure the continuance in office of Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton and thus prevent any interference with the military occupation of the South in their Reconstruction plan. In order to bring about a court test of the constitutionality of the act, Johnson dismissed Stanton, but the Supreme Court, intimidated by the radicals, refused to pass on the case. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant , whom Johnson appointed Secretary ad interim, turned the office back to Stanton when the Senate refused to approve his dismissal. Johnson then appointed Gen. Lorenzo Thomas Secretary of War, but Stanton, barricading himself in the department, refused to yield. Johnson's alleged violation of the Tenure of Office Act was the principal charge in the impeachment proceedings against him. When this move failed (May, 1868), Stanton finally gave up. The act, considerably modified in Grant's administration, was in large part repealed in 1887, and in 1926 the Supreme Court declared its principles unconstitutional.

Tenure of Office Act (1867).This statute resulted from a fear on the part of congressional Republicans that President Andrew Johnson, in the course of a bitter dispute over Reconstruction policy, would make sweeping removals of federal officeholders and replace them with Democrats. The law sought to protect officials appointed with Senate consent “until a successor shall have been in like manner appointed and duly qualified.” Cabinet officers were to remain in place “for and during the term of the President by whom they may have been appointed, and for one month thereafter.”

The latter provision appeared to protect Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, who had allied himself with the congressional position on Reconstruction. Since the U.S. Army was the chief enforcement agency for federal policy in the South, control of the army, through the War Department, was vital to both Johnson and Congress. Johnson vetoed the measure as unconstitutional; Congress overrode the veto on 2 March 1867.

In February 1868, Johnson appeared to violate the act by removing Stanton. The House of Representatives impeached Johnson, citing his violation of the Tenure of Office Act as one reason. At the trial, the president's defense team raised serious questions about the statute's constitutionality. They also raised doubts that it even applied to Stanton, who had been appointed not by Johnson but by Abraham Lincoln. These doubts, together with other considerations, caused enough senators to vote not guilty that Johnson escaped conviction by a single vote. Efforts to repeal the law began in 1869 and succeeded in 1887. In 1926, the Supreme Court, reviewing the presidential removal power in Myers v. United States, held unconstitutional the Tenure of Office Act and an 1876 successor.
[See also Commander in Chief, President as.]

Bibliography

James E. Sefton , The United States Army and Reconstruction, 1865–1877, 1967.
Hans L. Trefousse , Andrew Johnson: A Biography, 1989.

James E. Sefton