_Washington, February 6, 1868_.
The PRESIDENT.
SIR: The meeting to which you refer in your letter was a regular Cabinet
meeting. While the members were assembling, and before the President had
entered the council chamber, General Grant on coming in said to me that
he was in attendance there, not as a member of the Cabinet, but upon
invitation, and I replied by the inquiry whether there was a change in
the War Department. After the President had taken his seat, business
went on in the usual way of hearing matters submitted by the several
Secretaries. When the time came for the Secretary of War, General Grant
said that he was now there, not as Secretary of War, but upon the
President's invitation; that he had retired from the War Department. A
slight difference then appeared about the supposed invitation, General
Grant saying that the officer who had borne his letter to the President
that morning announcing his retirement from the War Department had told
him that the President desired to see him at the Cabinet, to which the
President answered that when General Grant's communication was delivered
to him the President simply replied that he supposed General Grant would
be very soon at the Cabinet meeting. I regarded the conversation thus
begun as an incidental one. It went on quite informally, and consisted
of a statement on your part of your views in regard to the understanding
of the tenure upon which General Grant had assented to hold the War
Department _ad interim_ and of his replies by way of answer and
explanation. It was respectful and courteous on both sides. Being in
this conversational form, its details could only have been preserved by
verbatim report. So far as I know, no such report was made at the time.
I can give only the general effect of the conversation. Certainly you
stated that, although you had reported the reasons for Mr. Stanton's
suspension to the Senate, you nevertheless held that he would not be
entitled to resume the office of Secretary of War even if the Senate
should disapprove of his suspension, and that you had proposed to have
the question tested by judicial process, to be applied to the person who
should be the incumbent of the Department under your designation of
Secretary of War _ad interim_ in the place of Mr. Stanton. You contended
that this was well understood between yourself and General Grant;
that when he entered the War Department as Secretary _ad interim_ he
expressed his concurrence in a belief that the question of Mr. Stanton's
restoration would be a question for the courts; that in a subsequent
conversation with General Grant you had adverted to the understanding
thus had, and that General Grant expressed his concurrence in it; that
at some conversation which had been previously held General Grant said
he still adhered to the same construction of the law, but said if he
should change his opinion he would give you seasonable notice of it,
so that you should in any case be placed in the same position in
regard to the War Department that you were while General Grant held
it _ad interim_. I did not understand General Grant as denying nor as
explicitly admitting these statements in the form and full extent to
which you made them. His admission of them was rather indirect and
circumstantial, though I did not understand it to be an evasive one.
He said that, reasoning from what occurred in the case of the police in
Maryland, which he regarded as a parallel one, he was of opinion, and so
assured you, that it would be his right and duty under your instructions
to hold the War Office after the Senate should disapprove of Mr.
Stanton's suspension until the question should be decided upon by the
courts; that he remained until very recently of that opinion, and that
on the Saturday before the Cabinet meeting a conversation was held
between yourself and him in which the subject was generally discussed.
General Grant's statement was that in that conversation he had stated
to you the legal difficulties which might arise, involving fine and
imprisonment, under the civil-tenure bill, and that he did not care to
subject himself to those penalties; that you replied to this remark that
you regarded the civil-tenure bill as unconstitutional and did not think
its penalties were to be feared, or that you would voluntarily assume
them; and you insisted that General Grant should either retain the
office until relieved by yourself, according to what you claimed was
the original understanding between yourself and him, or, by seasonable
notice of change of purpose on his part, put you in the same situation
which you would be if he adhered. You claimed that General Grant finally
said in that Saturday's conversation that you understood his views, and
his proceedings thereafter would be consistent with what had been so
understood. General Grant did not controvert, nor can I say that he
admitted, this last statement. Certainly General Grant did not at
any time in the Cabinet meeting insist that he had in the Saturday's
conversation, either distinctly or finally, advised you of his
determination to retire from the charge of the War Department otherwise
than under your own subsequent direction. He acquiesced in your
statement that the Saturday's conversation ended with an expectation
that there would be a subsequent conference on the subject, which he,
as well as yourself, supposed could seasonably take place on Monday.
You then alluded to the fact that General Grant did not call upon you
on Monday, as you had expected from that conversation. General Grant
admitted that it was his expectation or purpose to call upon you on
Monday. General Grant assigned reasons for the omission. He said he was
in conference with General Sherman; that there were many little matters
to be attended to; he had conversed upon the matter of the incumbency of
the War Department with General Sherman, and he expected that General
Sherman would call upon you on Monday. My own mind suggested a further
explanation, but I do not remember whether it was mentioned or not,
namely, that it was not supposed by General Grant on Monday that the
Senate would decide the question so promptly as to anticipate further
explanation between yourself and him if delayed beyond that day. General
Grant made another explanation--that he was engaged on Sunday with
General Sherman, and I think, also, on Monday, in regard to the War
Department matter, with a hope, though he did not say in an effort,
to procure an amicable settlement of the affair of Mr. Stanton, and
he still hoped that it would be brought about.