“I believe that one set of men have enjoyed the emoluments of office long enough, and they should let another portion of the people have a chance. [_Cheers._] How are these men to be got out [_A voice, ‘Kick ’em out!’--cheers and laughter_], unless your Executive can put them out,--unless you can reach them through the President? Congress says he shall not turn them out, and they are trying to pass laws to prevent it being done. Well, let me say to you, if you will stand by me in this action [_cheers_],--if you will stand by me in trying to give the people a fair chance,--to have soldiers and citizens to participate in these offices,--God being willing, I will kick them out,--I will kick them out just as fast as I can. [_Great cheering._]” Such diction as this is without example. Proceeding from the President, it is a declaration of “policy” which you must counteract; and in this duty make a precedent, if need be. The bill before the Senate, which the Senator from Vermont [Mr. EDMUNDS] has shaped with so much care and now presses so earnestly, arises from this necessity. Had Abraham Lincoln been spared to us, there would have been no occasion for any such measure. It is a bill arising from the exigency of the hour. As such it is to be judged. But it does not meet the whole case. Undertaking to give protection, it gives it to a few only, instead of the many. It provides against the removal of persons whose offices, according to existing law and Constitution, are held by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. Its special object is to vindicate the power of the Senate over the offices committed to it according to existing law and Constitution. Thus vindicating the power of the Senate, it does something indirectly to protect the citizen. In this respect it is beneficent, and I shall be glad to vote for it. The amendment goes further in the same direction. It provides that all agents and officers appointed by the President or by the head of a Department, with salaries exceeding $1,000, shall be appointed only by and with the advice and consent of the Senate; and it further proceeds to vacate all such appointments made since 1st July last past, so as to arrest the recent process of “kicking out.” The proposition is simple; and I insist that it is necessary, unless you are willing to leave fellow-citizens without protection against tyranny. Really the case is so plain that I do not like to argue it, and yet you will pardon me, if I advert to certain objections which have been made.