Mr. HENDERSON. When I rose I arose merely for the purpose of reading an extract from a letter.?. SecyNavy and to condemn the doctrine that the Secretary lays down in it. The Senfrom Pennsylvania [Mr..] will find that it is not alto gether the merit of the office holder that controls these appointments. It may be that the President is too well served; and I apprehend that that is so in this case. I have no ill feeling inst the President. My impression is that his Secretaries undertake to serve him better than he desires; and I think that the President himself in his appointments has not carried P." persecution to the extent that some of those holding office under him have done. Some complaints were made some time since at the Norfolk navy yard about removals, and I knew myself, that some of the most worthy men there had been removed for no other cause than that their political sentiments did not agree with those of the SecyNavy. I offered a resolution in the early part of the session, which was adopted, making some inquiry into the matter and asking for the corre spondence on the subject. The Secretary sends in this correspondence, and he sends with it a letter dated October 20, 1866, addressed by himself to Rear Admiral S. C. Rowan, commandant of the navy yard at Norfolk; and I will read to the Senate the qualifications that he lays down to his officer in charge of the various depts of the Norfolk navy yard for office. He says, speaking of the persons to be appointed:, “Whatever their merits in other respects, disloyal ists are not to be employed. It policy of has not been the this Dept to give countenance or encouragement to disunionists of any description. Those who oppose the Government, in its efforts to establish national o whether claiming that States have the right, to voluntarily withdraw from the Union by secession, or striving by delegated power arbitrary and unto exclude States from the Union, are not deemed worthy of service in the Union twhheiych they oppose and by the Government which would subvert.”