_Washington, D.C., January 28, 1868_.
His Excellency A. JOHNSON,
_President of the United States_.
SIR: On the 24th instant I requested you to give me in writing the
instructions which you had previously given me verbally not to obey any
order from Hon. E.M. Stanton, Secretary of War, unless I knew that it
came from yourself. To this written request I received a message that
has left doubt in my mind of your intentions. To prevent any possible
misunderstanding, therefore, I renew the request that you will give me
written instructions, and till they are received will suspend action on
your verbal ones.
I am compelled to ask these instructions in writing in consequence
of the many and gross misrepresentations affecting my personal honor
circulated through the press for the last fortnight, purporting to come
from the President, of conversations which occurred either with the
President privately in his office or in Cabinet meeting. What is written
admits of no misunderstanding.
In view of the misrepresentations referred to, it will be well to state
the facts in the case.
Some time after I assumed the duties of Secretary of War _ad interim_
the President asked me my views as to the course Mr. Stanton would have
to pursue, in case the Senate should not concur in his suspension,
to obtain possession of his office. My reply was, in substance, that
Mr. Stanton would have to appeal to the courts to reinstate him,
illustrating my position by citing the ground I had taken in the case
of the Baltimore police commissioners.
In that case I did not doubt the technical right of Governor Swann to
remove the old commissioners and to appoint their successors. As the old
commissioners refused to give up, however, I contended that no resource
was left but to appeal to the courts.
Finding that the President was desirous of keeping Mr. Stanton out of
office, whether sustained in the suspension or not, I stated that I had
not looked particularly into the tenure-of-office bill, but that what
I had stated was a general principle, and if I should change my mind in
this particular case I would inform him of the fact.
Subsequently, on reading the tenure-of-office bill closely, I found that
I could not, without violation of the law, refuse to vacate the office
of Secretary of War the moment Mr. Stanton was reinstated by the Senate,
even though the President should order me to retain it, which he never
did.
Taking this view of the subject, and learning on Saturday, the 11th
instant, that the Senate had taken up the subject of Mr. Stanton's
suspension, after some conversation with Lieutenant General Sherman and
some members of my staff, in which I stated that the law left me no
discretion as to my action should Mr. Stanton be reinstated, and that I
intended to inform the President, I went to the President for the sole
purpose of making this decision known, and did so make it known.
In doing this I fulfilled the promise made in our last preceding
conversation on the subject.
The President, however, instead of accepting my view of the requirements
of the tenure-of-office bill, contended that he had suspended Mr.
Stanton under the authority given by the Constitution, and that the same
authority did not preclude him from reporting, as an act of courtesy,
his reasons for the suspension to the Senate; that, having appointed me
under the authority given by the Constitution, and not under any act of
Congress, I could not be governed by the act. I stated that the law was
binding on me, constitutional or not, until set aside by the proper
tribunal. An hour or more was consumed, each reiterating his views on
this subject, until, getting late, the President said he would see me
again.
I did not agree to call again on Monday, nor at any other definite time,
nor was I sent for by the President until the following Tuesday.
From the 11th to the Cabinet meeting on the 14th instant a doubt never
entered my mind about the President's fully understanding my position,
namely, that if the Senate refused to concur in the suspension of Mr.
Stanton my powers as Secretary of War _ad interim_ would cease and Mr.
Stanton's right to resume at once the functions of his office would
under the law be indisputable, and I acted accordingly. With Mr. Stanton
I had no communication, direct nor indirect, on the subject of his
reinstatement during his suspension.
I knew it had been recommended to the President to send in the
name of Governor Cox, of Ohio, for Secretary of War, and thus save all
embarrassment--a proposition that I sincerely hoped he would entertain
favorably; General Sherman seeing the President at my particular request
to urge this on the 13th instant.
On Tuesday (the day Mr. Stanton reentered the office of the Secretary of
War) General Comstock, who had carried my official letter announcing
that with Mr. Stanton's reinstatement by the Senate I had ceased to be
Secretary of War _ad interim_, and who saw the President open and read
the communication, brought back to me from the President a message that
he wanted to see me that day at the Cabinet meeting, after I had made
known the fact that I was no longer Secretary of War _ad interim_.
At this meeting, after opening it as though I were a member of the
Cabinet, when reminded of the notification already given him that I was
no longer Secretary of War _ad interim_, the President gave a version of
the conversations alluded to already. In this statement it was asserted
that in both conversations I had agreed to hold on to the office of
Secretary of War until displaced by the courts, or resign, so as to
place the President where he would have been had I never accepted the
office. After hearing the President through, I stated our conversations
substantially as given in this letter. I will add that my conversation
before the Cabinet embraced other matter not pertinent here, and is
therefore left out.
I in no wise admitted the correctness of the President's statement of
our conversations, though, to soften the evident contradiction my
statement gave, I said (alluding to our first conversation on the
subject) the President might have understood me the way he said, namely,
that I had promised to resign if I did not resist the reinstatement.
I made no such promise.