1. One pretension is, that, the “term” having expired with the life of President Lincoln, Mr. Stanton is retroactively legislated out of office on the 15th May, 1865. As this is a penal statute, this construction makes it _ex post facto_, and therefore unconstitutional. It also makes Congress enact the absurdity that Mr. Stanton had for two years been holding office illegally; whereas he had been holding under the clearest legal title, which could no more be altered by legislation than black could be made white. A construction rendering the statute at once unconstitutional and absurd must be rejected. 2. The quibble that would exclude Mr. Stanton from the protection of the statute, because he was appointed during the first “term” of President Lincoln, and the statute does not speak of “terms,” is hardly worthy of notice. It leads to the same absurd results as follow from the first supposition, enhanced by increasing the retroactive effect. 3. Assuming that the statute does not terminate Mr. Stanton’s right a month after President Lincoln’s death, it is insisted that it must take effect at the earliest possible moment, and therefore on its passage. From this it follows that Mr. Stanton has been illegally in office since the 2d of March, 1867, and that both he and the President have been guilty of a violation of law, the former in exercising the duties of an office to which he had no right, and the latter for appointing him, or continuing him in office, without consent of the Senate, in violation of the Constitution and the statute in question. This is another absurdity to be rejected. Assuming, as is easy, that it is President Lincoln’s “term,” we have the better theory, that it did not expire with his life, but continues until the 4th of March, 1869, in which event Mr. Stanton is clearly entitled to hold until a month thereafter. This construction is entirely reasonable, and in harmony with the Constitution, and the legislation under it. I confess that it is one to which I have often inclined. This brings me back to the construction with which I began, and I find Andrew Johnson the President who appointed Mr. Stanton. To make this simple, it is only necessary to read “chosen” for “appointed” in the statute,--or, if you please, consider the continuance of Mr. Stanton in office, with the concurrence of the President, as a practical appointment, or equivalent thereto. Clearly Mr. Stanton was in office, when the statute passed, from the “choice” of the President. Otherwise he would have been removed. His continuance was like another commission. This carries out the intention of the framers of the statute, violates no sound canon of construction, and is entirely reasonable in every respect. Or, if preferred, we may consider the “term” that of President Lincoln, and then Mr. Stanton would be protected in office until one month after the 4th of March next. But whether the “term” be of Andrew Johnson or President Lincoln, he is equally protected.