Believe it or not, the U.S. Senate once took 11 years to confirm an appointment to the military leadership. In 1821, a constitutional disagreement between James Monroe and the U.S. Senate led to an 11 year stand-off over the appointment of Colonel to a Regiment of Artillery created under the Military Peace Establishment Act of 1821. In 1826, five years into the stand-off, President John Quincy Adams pushed back on the Senate, and asked for a "supplementary or explanatory act of the Legislature" that might find a way to move forward on the appointment.
On March 2, 1821 Monroe signed the Military Establishment Act to reduce the Army by 40% to just 6126 men. This act established 4 regiments of artillery and 7 regiments of infantry and provided that each regiment should consist of 1 colonel, 1 lieutenant colonel, 1 major and 9 companies. Even though, the act reduced the size of the military, the new organization yet opened up five new offices; four colonels to lead four regiments of artillery and an Adjutant General for the army. President Monroe had the duty and the pleasure of appointing these new officers subject to the confirmation of the U.S. Senate. The selection of the new colonels was not without controversy though. One of the men that Monroe appointed was Colonel Nathaniel Towson who had distinguished himself as a captain in the war of 1812. The appointment was made in 1822, but the U.S. Senate refused to confirm Towson because at the time of Towson's nomination he was the paymastergeneral, a civil officer. The senate argued that the candidates chosen must be to the army, and refused to confirm Towson. Monroe disagreed and re-submitted his nomination of Towson in 1822.
On April 13, 1822 Monroe penned a special letter to the Senate of the United States defending his choice of Colonel Townsend. In his letter, Monroe explained that in filling the "vacancies in the artillery" he considered himself to be at liberty to choose any officer belonging to any part of the military establishment. Monroe pointed out that nowhere in the Constitution did it restrain the power of the President from making "a free selection of proper persons for these offices from the whole body of his fellow-citizens". After giving his reasons for choosing General Macomb for the Corps of Engineers, Colonel Armistead to one of the regiments of Artillery and Colonel Fenwick to another, Monroe turned to Colonel Towson. For the last regiment, he chose Colonel Towson, "who had served with great distinction in the same corps and been twice brevetted for his gallantry in the late war". Monroe continued to make the point, that Congress had no right to restrain his selection of men to those in the army. He restated that in his belief, the president had the constitutional authority to the "free selection" of a candidate from the "whole body of his fellow citizens". Without any law that restrained the selection, the Senate had no legal authority to refuse confirmation on those grounds. Even if there such a law, Monroe argued it would be void because according to the Military Peace Establishment of 1815 and 1816, the Pay Department of which Towson was appointed General and Chief was subjected to the Rules and Articles of War. Therefore, the appointment of Towson in 1815 according to Monroe was "strictly conformable to law". If the appointment of Towson was legal under the Military Peace Establishment Act of 1815, then an appointment under the Act of 1821 must be legal also.
Monroe made a good argument, but the Senate refused and Towson was again not confirmed. Four years later, when President John Quincy Adams was in his second year of the presidency, there was still no Colonel appointed and confirmed for the regiment of artillery. It had been five years, and what Adams called a "difference of opinion" between Monroe and the Senate left one regiment without a Colonel to command them. In his second State of the Union Address, Adams requested that the Senate produce some "explanatory act" as the "only expedient practicable for removing the difficulty of this appointment." The senate did not budge, and the disagreement lasted through three administrations and was finally settled in 1832, when Senior Lieutenant-Colonel William Lindsay was appointed.
"From the reports herewith communicated of the Secretaries of War and of the Navy, with the subsidiary documents annexed to them, will be discovered the present condition and administration of our military establishment on the land and on the sea. The organization of the Army having undergone no change since its reduction to the present peace establishment in 1821, it remains only to observe that it is yet found adequate to all the purposes for which a permanent armed force in time of peace can be needed or useful. It may be proper to add that, from a difference of opinion between the late President of the United States and the Senate with regard to the construction of the act of Congress of 1821-03-02, to reduce and fix the military peace establishment of the US, it remains hitherto so far without execution that no colonel has been appointed to command one of the regiments of artillery. A supplementary or explanatory act of the Legislature appears to be the only expedient practicable for removing the difficulty of this appointment."
References
Presidency.ucsb.edu. (2018). John Quincy Adams: Second Annual Message. [online] Available at: http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=29468 [Accessed 27 Mar. 2018].History, U. (2018). Second Regiment of Artillery | Center of Military History. [online] History.army.mil. Available at: https://history.army.mil/books/R&H/R&H-2Art.htm [Accessed 27 Mar. 2018].
Presidency.ucsb.edu. (2018). James Monroe: Special Message. [online] Available at: http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=66303 [Accessed 27 Mar. 2018].
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathaniel_Towson#/media/File:A_sketch_of_General_Nathan_Towson.jpg
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