Page:The Reminiscences of Carl Schurz (Volume Three).djvu/396

 dropped. Mr. Boutwell, of Massachusetts, was made Secretary of the Treasury in Mr. Stewart's place, and the repeal or suspension of the old law was never again heard of.

So this incident passed over harmless. But the cloak-room of the Senate, where Senators amused one another with the gossip of the day, continued to buzz with anecdotes about President Grant's curious notions of the nature and functions of civil government. One of those anecdotes told by a Senator who was considered one of the best lawyers in that body, and one of the most jealous of the character of his profession, was particularly significant. He heard a rumor that President Grant was about to remove a Federal judge in one of the Territories of the United States. The Senator happened to know that judge as a lawyer of excellent ability and uncommon fitness for the bench, and he went to the President to remonstrate against so extreme a measure as the removal of a judge unless there were cogent reasons for it connected with the administration of the office. President Grant admitted, that as far as he knew, there was no allegation of the unfitness of the judge as a judge, “but,” he added, “the Governor of the Territory writes me that he cannot get along with that judge at all, and is very anxious to be rid of him; and, I think, the Governor is entitled to have control of his staff.” The Senator closed his story by saying that he found it to be a delicate as well as a difficult job to make the great General in the chair of the President of the United States understand how different the relations between a territorial governor and a Federal judge were from those between a military commander and his staff officers. The anecdote was received by the listeners with a laugh, but the mirth was not far from head-shaking apprehension. However, there being sincere and perfect good will on both sides, things went on pleasantly in the expectation that