Page:The Reminiscences of Carl Schurz (Volume Three).djvu/407



HEN Mr. Schurz entered the Senate the political conditions centering in that body were very peculiar. The arduous conflict between President Johnson and Congress had shifted the center of gravity of our constitutional system far over on the legislative side, and the Senate especially had gained unprecedented prestige and importance. Through the Tenure of Office Act Senators were enabled, as never before, to influence the personnel of the civil service and thus to check and control the presidential policy in every branch of the administration. The consequences were serious. In the absence of unified and certain control the civil service had become demoralized beyond even its wartime state. The Senate was displaying an overweening hauteur as if it were the government. In the heat of the fierce struggle with Andrew Johnson these exceptional conditions had been little thought of, although they were factors in determining the acquittal of the President on impeachment, and also in inspiring the first concrete proposition for a civil-service reform. Soon after Grant took possession of the White House the relation of the Senate to the offices became a subject of serious debate. The new President, assuming that there was no longer any reason for the restrictions that had been imposed upon the powers of his office when Johnson filled it, suggested the repeal of the Tenure of Office Act. The House, always restive under any access of power to the Senate, promptly and