Mr. FESSENDEN. The Senfrom Massachusetts, in remarking that my argo. did a particular point was one of exaggeration I should like to say upon. not choose to take notice of the part of the argument which I consider of very much more importance than that which he did answer. I observed incidentally that I thought it would be very inconvenient for us to have these 1000s of mine r officers come here to be acted That was the only part of the argument which the Senator thought fit to notice. But, sir, there was something beyond that which I called his attention to, and that is the infinite trouble and confusion it would make even with the President if he was obliged to make all these nominations, and the want of proper information that he would have. The proper information now comes from the head of the office where the officer is to the SecyTreasury, who is at the head of the Dept and responsible for what is done in the Dept. There is the distinction, and it is a pretty important one; and I put that upon the ground that it was better so, infinitely better so, as a matter of practice, than it would be if these men were to come necessarily to the President and next to the Senate; that the system is not so good a one; that the present system is one which was decided upon after proper consideration, and has been in existence from the foundation of the Government, and has been found to work well in practice. Because we happen to have a President at the present time who is not doing what we think to be right in reference to this matter, is, it worth while for us to change this system which has been found so good and beneficial for so many years? The present President, if the Senator finds fault with him, cannot live forever, cannot be President forever, unless the people choose to reelect him from time to time. A change will come in the natural order of things, and then when we get a President to suit us I suppose the Senator would be for putting things back again and taking away this power. We should look rather small and triing to do anything of that kind. Therefore I repeat what I said: let us do what is necessary, under the contingency, to protect the position and the constitutional rights of the Senate itself with reference to appointments, and not run the thing into the ground by taking every possible power out of the hands of, not of the President, for it is not in his hands now, but out of the hands of the heads of Depts, and taking everything to ourselves to act upon. Sir, I do not think it would be wise; and the Senator will allow me to say that if he considers my argument one of exaggeration I consider his one of declamation, and exaggeration is certainly as good as declamation for an argument, in the Senate at any rate. There is a reason which is applicable to officers of the Army which is not applicable to these officers. They take their off. for life. Those appointments exist as long as they be have wo It is a very different thing from othese little appointments in o the civil service, which are held only for 2 or 3 years, more or less. That is a matter that is dependent on something else.