740 



UNITED STATES. 



March 30th, to meet on July 3d, and continued 

 in, session until July 20th, when it adjourned 

 to November 21st, and ended on December 2, 

 1867. On July 3d the Senate passed a resolu- 

 tion calling upon the President to communicate 

 all orders, instructions, letters, etc., etc., to the 

 military commanders of the five districts from 

 any department of the Government; also, 

 whether the appropriation of money for the 

 military governments was sufficient. (For the 

 reply of the President, see PUBLIC DOCUMENTS.) 

 Among other documents sent to the Senate, 

 by the President, with his answer, there were 

 the following dispatches: 



On June 27th General Sheridan, at New Or- 

 leans, sent the following dispatch to General 

 Grant: 



I am in receipt of a communication from the Adju- 

 tant-General's ^Department, dated 20th of June, in 

 reference to registration. I am at a loss to know 

 whether it is an order or not. The fonn and phrase- 

 ology are not those of an order, but I may be mistaken, 

 and ask for information whether I am to regard it as 

 an order. 



On the next day General Grant replied as 

 follows : 



Your dispatch of yesterday received. Enforce your 

 own construction of the Military Bill until ordered to 

 do otherwise. The opinion of the Attorney-General 

 has not been distributed to district commanders in 

 language or manner entitling it to the force of an 

 order, nor can I suppose that ,the President intended 

 it to have such force. 



Again, on July 7th, General Sheridan sent 

 the following dispatch to General Grant: 



The result of Mr. Stanbery's opinion is beginning 

 to show itself by a defiant opposition to all acts of the 

 military commanders, by impeding and rendering 

 helpless the civil officers acting under his appoint- 

 ment. For instance, the mayor of the city notifies 

 the Common Council that one and a quarter millions 

 of illegal money has been issued by the Comptroller 

 of the Treasury. The Common Council refuse to in- 

 vestigate to ascertain the facts ; the city attorney re- 

 fuses to sue out an injunction to stop the issue. I 

 fear the chaos which the opinion will make if carried 

 out is but little understood. Every civil officer in this 

 State will administer justice according to his own 

 view. Many of them, denouncing the Military Bill as 

 unconstitutional, will throw every impediment in the 

 way of its execution, and bad will go to worse unless 

 this embarrassing condition of affairs is settled by 

 permitting me to go on in my just course, which was 

 indorsed by all the people except those disfranchised, 

 most of whom are officeholders or desire to be such. 



Previous to adjournment in July, Congress 

 passed an additional supplement to the " Re- - 

 construction " Act of March ,2d, and the supple- 

 ment of March 23d. It declared the intent 

 and meaning of the previous Acts to have been, 

 that the civil governments of the ten States 

 were not legal governments, and, if continued, 

 were to be subject in all respects to the mili- 

 tary commanders, and the paramount authority 

 of Congress. It made the acts of the military 

 commanders subject only to the disapproval of 

 the General of the Army, and authorized them 

 to remove any person from office under the 

 State government. It further defined the 

 classes disfranchised, and directed that no dis- 



trict commander shall be bound in his action 

 by any opinion of any civil officer of the United 

 States. 



This bill was returned to the House by the 

 President, with his objections. (See PUBLIC 

 DOCUMENTS.) He declared " that it was impossi- 

 ble to conceive any state of society more in- 

 tolerable than this " produced by the bill, and 

 that "while these States were in actual rebel- 

 lion, and after that rebellion was brought to a 

 close, they have been again and again recog- 

 nized as States of the Union," by continuous 

 legislation, etc. The bill subsequently became 

 a law, notwithstanding the objections of the 

 President. 



The acts of the district commanders having 

 thus been made subject only to the disapproval 

 of the General of the Army, the President was 

 thereby deprived of all power to execute the 

 work of reconstruction in the Southern States, 

 except so far as he might constitutionally re- 

 tain authority as C omm an der-in -Chief of the 

 Army. On this ground he was able to remove 

 and appoint military commanders. Previous 

 to the close of the year, all these five district 

 officers were changed, by his command to Gen- 

 eral Grant. Some of these orders became the 

 subject of the following correspondence. 



On August llth General Grant wrote to the 

 President as follows : 



[PRIVATE.] 



HEADQUARTERS ARMIES OF TIIE UNITED STATES, I 

 WASHINGTON, Augunt 11, 18C7. f 

 His Excellency Andrew Johnson, President of the 



United States : 



SIR : I take the liberty of addressing you privately 

 on the subject of the conversation weliad this morn- 

 ing, feeling, as I do, the great danger to the welfare 

 of the country should you carry out the designs then 

 expressed. 



1. On the subject of the displacement of the Sec- 

 retary of War, this removal cannot be effected against 

 his will without the consent of the Senate. It was 

 but a short time since the United States Senate was 

 in session, and why not then have asked for his re- 

 moval if it was desired? It certainly was the inten- 

 tion of the Legislative branch of the Government to 

 place a Cabinet Minister beyond the power* of the 

 Executive removal, and it is pretty well understood 

 that so far as Cabinet Ministers are affected by the 

 terms of the Tenure-of-Office Bill, it was intended 

 specially to protect the Secretary of "War, whom the 

 country felt great confidence in. The meaning of the 

 law may be explained away by an astute lawyer, but 

 common-sense and the views of the loyal people will 

 give to it the effect intended by its framers. 



2. On the subject of the removal of the very able 

 commander of the Fifth Military District. Let me 

 ask you to consider the effect it would have upon the 

 public. He is universally and deservedly beloved by 

 the people who sustained the Government through 

 its trials, and feared by those who would still be the 

 enemies of the Government. It fell to the lot of but 

 few men to do as much against an armed enemy as 

 General Sheridan did during the rebellion, and it is 

 within the scope of the ability of but few in this or 

 any other country to do what he has. His civil ad- 

 ministration has given equal satisfaction. He has 

 had difficulties to contend with which no other dis- 

 trict commander has encountered. Almost, if not 

 quite, from the day he was appointed district com- 

 mander to the present time, the press has given put 

 that he was to be removed, that the Administration 



