Exposure made public men careful to examine each application for pardon before they would consent to recommend it to the President.
The President neither approved the bill nor objected to it, but allowed it to become a law by the expiration of the Constitutional limit of ten days.

He obviously took the same view that had been advanced by Mr.Reverdy Johnson, and did not take the trouble to sign it, much less to veto it.

It was _brutum fulmen_, and the President used his Constitutional power to pardon by proclamation just as freely after its enactment as before.
[NOTE.--"Pocketing a bill" is the phrase commonly used to describe the President's course when he permits a bill which reaches him within the last ten days of the session, to die without action on his part.

It is frequently termed the "pocket veto."] [( 1) The original Reconstruction Act and the several supplementary Acts are given in full in Appendix A.] [( 2) The full text of the Act to regulate the tenure of certain civil offices, is given in Appendix B.].