650 



PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. 



EXECUTIVE MANSION, January 31, 1868. 



GENEKAL : I have received your communication 

 of the 28th instant, renewing your request of the 24th, 

 that I should repeat in a written form my verbal 

 instructions of the 19th instant, namely, that you 

 obey no order from Hon. Edwin M. Stantpn, as Sec- 

 retary of "War, unless you have information that it 

 was issued by the President's direction. 



In submitting this request (with which I complied 

 on the 29th instant), you take occasion to allude to 

 recent publications in reference to the circumstances 

 connected with the vacation by yourself of the office 

 of Secretary of War ad interim, and, with the view 

 of correcting statements which you term " gross mis- 

 representations," give at le_ngth your own recollec- 

 tion of the facts under which, without the sanction 

 of the President, from whom you had received and 

 accepted the appointment, you yielded the Depart- 

 ment of War to the present incumbent. 



As stated in your communication, some time after 

 you had assumed the duties of Secretary of War ad 

 interim we interchanged views respecting the course 

 that should be pursued in the event of non-concur- 

 rence by the Senate in the suspension from office of 

 Mr. Stanton. I Sought that interview, calling myself 

 at the War Department. My sole object in then 

 bringing the subject to your attention was to ascer- 

 tain definitely what would be your own action should 

 such an attempt be made for his restoration to the 

 War Department. That object was accomplished ; 

 for the interview terminated with the distinct under- 

 standing that, if, upon reflection, you should prefer 

 not to become a party to the controversy, or should 

 conclude that it would be your duty to surrender the 

 Department to Mr. Stanton upon action in his favor 

 by_ the Senate, you were to return the office to me 

 prior to a decision by the Senate, in order that, if I 

 desired to do so, I might designate some one to suc- 

 ceed you. It must have been apparent to you that, 

 had not this understanding been reached, it was my 

 purpose to relieve you from the further discharge of 

 the duties of Secretary of War ad interim, and to 

 appoint some other person in that capacity. 



Other conversations upon this subject ensued, all 

 of them having, on my part, the same object, and 

 leading to the same conclusion as the first. It is not 

 necessary, however, to refer to any of them, except- 

 ing that of Saturday, the llth instant, mentioned in 

 your communication. As it was then known that the 

 Senate had proceeded to consider the case of Mr. 

 Stanton, I was anxious to learn your determination. 

 After a protracted interview, during which the pro- 

 visions of the 'I Tenure-of-Office Bill " were freely dis- 

 cussed, you said that, as had been agreed upon in our 

 first conference : you would either return the office to 

 my possession, m time to enable me to appoint a suc- 

 cessor before final action by the Senate upon Mr. 

 Stanton' s suspension, or would remain as its head, 

 awaiting a decision of the question by judicial pro- 

 ceedings. It was then understood that there would 

 be a further conference on Monday, by which time, I 

 supposedj you would be prepared to inform me of your 

 final decision. You failed, however, to fulfil the 

 engagement ; and on Tuesday notified me, in writing, 

 of the receipt by you of official notification of the 

 action of the Senate in the case of Mr. Stanton, and 

 at the same time informed me that, " according to the 

 act regulating the tenure of certain civil offices, your 

 functions as Secretary of War ad interim ceased from 

 the moment of the receipt of the notice." You thus, 

 in disregard of the understanding between us, va- 

 cated the office without having given me notice of 

 your intention to do so. It is but just, however, to 

 say that, in your communication, you claim that you 

 did inform me of your purpose, and thus "fulfilled 

 the promise made in our last preceding conversation 

 on this subject." The fact that such a promise ex- 

 isted is evidence of an arrangement of the kind I 

 have mentioned. You had found in our first confer- 

 ence " that the President was desirous of keeping 



Mr. Stanton out of office, whether sustained in the 

 suspension or not." You knew what reasons had in- 

 duced the President to ask from you a promise. You 

 also knew that, in case your views of duty did not 

 accord with his own convictions, it was his purpose 

 to fill your place by another appointment. Even 

 ignoring the existence of a positive understanding 

 between us, these conclusions were plainly deduci- 

 ble from our various conversations. It is certain, 

 however, that, even under these circumstances, you 

 did not offer to return the place to my possession ; 

 but, according to your own statement, placed your- 

 self in a position where, could I have anticipated 

 your action, I would have been compelled to ask of 

 you, as I was compelled to ask of you predecessor in 

 the War Department, a letter of resignation, or else 

 to resort to the more disagreeable expedient of sus- 

 pending you by a successor. 



As stated in your letter, the nomination of Govern- 

 or Cox, of Ohio, for the office of Secretary of War 

 was suggested to me. His appointment, as Mr. 

 Stanton's successor, was urged in your name, and it 

 was said that his selection would save further em- 

 barrassment. I did not think that in the selection of 

 a Cabinet officer I should be trammelled by such con- 

 siderations. I was prepared to take the responsi- 

 bility of deciding the question in accordance with 

 my ideas of constitutional duty, and, haying de- 

 termined upon a course which I deemed right and 

 proper, was anxious to learn the steps you would 

 take, should the possession of the War Department 

 be demanded by Mr. Stanton. Had your action been 

 in conformity to the understanding between us, I do 

 not believe that the embarrassment would have at- 

 tained its present proportions, or that the probability 

 of its repetition would have been so great. 



I know that, with a view to an early termination 

 of a state of affairs so detrimental to the public in- 

 terests, you voluntarily offered both on Wednesday, 

 the 15th instant, and on the succeeding Sunday, to 

 call upon Mr. Stanton, and urge upon him that the 

 good of the service required his resignation. I con- 

 fess that I considered your proposal as a sort of rep- 

 aration for the failure on your part to act in accord- 

 ance with an understanding more than once repeated, 

 which I thought had received your full assent, and 

 under which you could have returned to me the 

 office which I had conferred upon you, thus saving 

 yourself from embarrassment, and leaving the re- 

 sponsibility where it properly belonged, with the 

 President, who is accountable for the faithful execu- 

 tion of the laws. 



I have not yet been informed by you, whether, as 

 twice proposed by yourself, you have called upon 

 Mr. Stanton, and made an effort to induce him vol- 

 untarily to retire from the War Department. 



You conclude your communication with a refer- 

 ence to our conversation at the meeting of the Cabinet, 

 held on Tuesday, the 14th instant. In your account 

 of what then occurred, you say that after the Presi- 

 dent had given his version of our previous conversa- 

 tions, you stated them substantially as given in your 

 letter, that you in no wise admitted the correctness 

 of his statement of them, " though, to soften the 

 evident contradiction my statement gave, I _said (al- 

 luding to our first conversation on the subject) the 

 President might have understood in the way he 

 said, namely, that I promised to resign if I did not 

 resist the reinstatement. I made no such promise." 



My recollection' of what then transpired is diamet- 

 rically the reverse of your narration. In the presence 

 of the Cabinet, I asked you : 



First. If, in a conversation which took place shortly 

 after your appointment as Secretary of War ad in- 

 terim, vou dia not agree either to remain at the head 

 of the War Department, and abide any judicial pro- 

 ceedings that might follow non-concurrence by the 

 Senate in Mr. Stanton's suspension, or, should you 

 wish not to become involved in such a controversy, 

 to put me in the same position with respect to the 



