Between the assasination of Lincoln and the rise of the Roosevelts, the Consular powers were scaled back. The Praetors had previously been appointed by the Consuls with the advice and consent of the Senate, and only Consuls could nominate or dismiss them. The Consuls themselves were chosen by the electoral college and stood apart from them.

After the disastrous consulship of Johnson and Steward in critical condition, the Senate and House were drawn together more solidly. The Joint session was reinvented to allow the Congress to act decisively, giving representatives equal weight to Senators, whose ranks would be increased to three per state.

acting as a joint sitting of Congress, later amended to a single chamber with Senators being chosen from among representatives but holding no special power, the Members considered themselves at liberty to decline the recommendations of either consul and choose their own commissioners.

each commissioner would be responsible to a council, likewise filled by the Congress by election. the commissioners would be subject to the questioning of their council, which could bring a motion to dismiss the commissioners at will.

the Consuls in practice became arbiters. Grant and Butler were in 68, and the consulships and praetorships were mostly at the disposal of the Radical Republicans. their last great political reform before the liberals swung into power was to install the Tribunes, representing The African Diaspora Republics, the Hotonoshone Confederacy, etc., as part of their taking over costs of self administration….