The Sun.
London, England, 1868-03-04 00:00:00

THE GREAT STANTON CASE.

THE GRANT AND JOHNSON CORRESPONDENCE.
From the Anglo-American Times.)
As the great Stanton case appears to be the
match destined to ignite the combustibles gathered
at Washington, we give the details almost in full.
On the 3d February a resolution was agreed to iu
the House calling for the correspondence between
the President and General Grant relative to the
surrender of the War Office to Secretary Stanton
on his re-instatement by the Senate. Next day the
Secretary of War forwarded to the Speaker copies
furnished him by General Grant purporting to be all
the correspondence the General had on the subject.
Mr. Stanton, in his forwarding letter, states that he
had no communication with the President since last
August. In obedience to the Act of Congress, he
had resumed the duties of his office, and no order
had been issued from the Department in the name
of the President, that he had received no orders
from him, nor written,
nor had personal commu-
nication with him. General Grant's first letter is+
dated January 25, 1868. It will be observed that
this was Saturday, and he commences by alluding
to a request he had made on Friday to substitute
written for the verbal instructions Mr. Johnson
he had previously given not to obey any order
from Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War,
unless he knew it came from the President.
His message in reply
left doubt in Grant's
mind, and, to prevent the chance of misun-
derstanding, he renewed the application for writ-
ten instructions. He is coMpelled to ask for this in..
consequence of the gross misrepresentations affect-
ing his personal honour circulated in the press,
and purporting to come from the President, of
either private conversations with the President,
or in Cabinet meetings. What is written,"
the General says, " admits of no misunder-
standing, and in view of the misrepresentations
sent forward, it will be well to state the facts of
the case." General Grant has learnt the bitter les-
son that he cannot serve two masters ; and be has
yet to learn that what is written can admit of mis-
understanding. The following is the General's ver-
sion of the circumstances :--" Some time after I
assumed the duties of Secretary of War, ad interim,
the President asked my views
as to the course Mr.
Stanton would have to
pursue, in case the Senate
should not concur in his suspension, to obtain pos-
session 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 grounds I had taken in the case of the Balti-
more Police Commissioners. In that case, I did not
doubt the technical right of Governor Swann to re-
move 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 Pre-
sident 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, with-
out 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
ordered me to remain, which he never did. Taking
this view of the subject, and learning on Saturday,
the 11th inst., that the Senate had taken up the
subject of Mr. Stanton's suspension, after some
conversation with Lieut.-Gen. 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 I did so make it known. In