Tenure of Office Act, a law passed by the U.S. Congress in 1867 over the veto of President Andrew Johnson. It stated that officials appointed by the President with the consent of the Senate could be removed only with Senate consent. The Radical Republicans in Congress hoped to limit Johnson's power to interfere with their harsh Reconstruction program for the former seccessionist states of the South. Believing the act unconstitutional, Johnson defied it by removing Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton. He was impeached and tried by Congress for misconduct in office but was not convicted. The law was repealed in 1887, and in 1926 a similar law applying to postmasters was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.