Mr. KASSON. I oppose this amendment for several reasons. 1st is that the proposition is that the heads of the several Depts of the Government shall hold their offices respectively for the term of 4 years, or for the presidential term. There are but 3 depts of the Government, one is the legislative. one the executive, and one the judicial. I apprehend that the object is to limit not Chief Justice Chase's tenure of office to the presidential term as the head of our judi. chary, or our Speaker's as the head of this ranch, the legislative. A change should be made by strikingout the words oo the Government” and inserting before “Depts” the word “Executive.” There is one other point that I will notice. The gentleman states candidly that his object is to try again the issue decided by the House yesterday. I wish to call the attention of the House to the situation of the President and the SecyState if this proposition should be adopted. Everything is done in relation to foreign affairs nominally by the SecyState, theoretically by the If in the settlement of intricate questions of foreign policy a division of policy shall spring up, and the president shall sustain one policy in dealing with foreign nations and the SecyState another, you will find the SecyState with his hands tied or the President with his hands tied. You must enable the responsible head of the Government to control its policy. You must enable him to change his agent even in the recess of a session of Congress. You must secure harmonious action in the policy of the Government by the President's direct action in the choice of those through whom alone that action can be had. It is not so only in respect to foreign affairs, but in some respects also to domestic affairs. The Presidentis by law, and to some extent by the Constitution, the responsible head of the executive office. The proposition of the gentleman now, which was defeated yesterday, is to make these Secretaries, who are themselves theoretically or actually agents of the President in respect to his policy, independent of the President, and leaves him but a sounding title in the administration, of the affairs of the Government. Now, I say that this is a radical change of the Government of the U.S., and that Congress ought not adopt that change without a more careful consideration than is involved in a proposed change in the tenure of mine r officers of the Government. In respect to the PostMGenl’s Dept, it has already some 27,000 officers. It is impossible for the President to make all these appointments, and the power must necessarily be vested in the PostMGenl, just as you invest power in the courts to appoint commissioners and in deputy postmasters to appoint their clerks; but this goes further, this goes to the very essence of the Government of the U.S., and proposes to take from the President the powers which the Constitution and laws confer upon him.