The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1868-01-17
~ war Department. Vacant Ba-
,,,-.s Chief and his Distinguished
'' rrom the National Intslligencer, 18th.

kpE - ~h.
r,ms-Servcr.
from the National Intslligencer, 18th.
va hear much said since Tuesday
rn;rr about the Secretary Of War"
,pG, hack in "his Office" Our readers
.,oy he assured there is no such thing,
80 far as we have been able to learn. Mr..
c,anton has not been thrust out of the
hn;Idinr by the police, and is said to have
~ there now three days, receiving visi-
.o,S and beating clerks and servants,
vas his habit when he aoGS Secretary of
W.. but there is no such officer now.
neral Grant had been acting as such
aSrcr qd interim, but he abandoned his
3r,v on Tuesday morning, in aid Of par
,sa1 trick, without notice or leave, the
War O(fice becoming thereby vacant.
His written communication, subsequently
rrceivcd, wsS, OF course, of no significance
tron person who had already terminated
his official trust by breaking it.
The notion that man can be Secretary
or War and exercise the functions of that
clfce, or any of them, contrary to the will
n the President is equally idle and novel.
\, principle is better established than
,hat in any executive office, most of all
Inc War and Navy Departments, every act
# the secretary or other official is the act
n the President. The conclusive pre-
,rmp!ion which makes this so is, ofcourse,
the same thing as the principle that he
caaaot do anything whatever in his official
character contrary, in the least, to the
Presidents will. If there is anything
which he might do, whether the President
w;lIcd it or not, how could it be known in
cnv particular case whether it was the
Sacrctary's or the Presidents act? To
urcsumc that it;was the Presidents, when,
in truth, it may have been against his Will,
AID was the Secretary'S act and will, would
not be tolerated in court. The preSump-
ton arises only because it could not be
against the Presidents will. The courts
have uniformly held that sall acts Of the
heads Of departments are sthe acts OF the
President, and, consequently, when the
President does not recognize pretended
secretary as such, the presumption fails,
aud the opposite presumption orlSes-.. e.,
that no act of the secretary is the act OF
the President. If this is good logic and
law, there is an end Of Mr.. Stanton's Secre-
taryship of War; however he may, day
after day, be permitted to swagger about
the chamber and to throw away the Idle
hours of a defunct official on those floors
which have so often echoed his stamping
arrogance and witnessed his coward!y
tyranny. Yet, that there is no legal qucs-
ton on the point that secretary is abSo-
lutely poweriess to do any official act
without the authority of the President ex-
pressly given or implied by the voluntary act
I IL -, L.oo,,:1,, him OF,
NAV cite few Of tie adjudged cases in the
United States Supreme and Circuit Courts.
See, Tor example, Cranch's Supreme Court
Reports, voiume2 2, page 10; Peters'S Cir
cult Court Reports, volume l, page 4G6.
In this case the force Of this principle is
well illustrated by the doctrine-not, in
deed, questioned or questionable-tha
the President, should he deem it "more
easy and expeditions discharge of his
dutv," might issue an order through any
oNg head Of department as well as
through that head within whose charge
the business lay. See also PeterSs SUI
preme Court Reports, volume /, pages 293
and 296 same volume, pages 49S and 5l2 !;
same, volume Is, pages POI and 3O2; How
ards Supreme Court Reports, volume /,
mage 300. But, if aught were still requisite
10 out The point at rest, the words OF the
statute creating the Office Of "Secretary
Of the Department Of War" must end the
question.
This venerable statute, after setting out
that there should be'a "principal officer"
etc, preScribes his powers and duties:
Who shall perform and execute such
duties as shall, from time to time, be en-
Joined on or entrusted to him by the Presi-
dent Of the United States, agreeably to the
Constitution" etc., ETC.; the clause end
ING thus: And furthermore, that the said
principal officer shall conduct the business
Of said department in such manner as the
President Of the United States shall, from
time to time, order or instruct" etc. Act
7ih August, 1889, United States Statutes
al Large, volume i, page 49.]
Well, then, what duties can Mr.. Stan
ton "perlorln and execute 7" He can do
nothing which does not appertain to his
office, and yet tho very statute creating
the Office itself gives him to do only what
il may please the President to "enJoin on
or catrust 10 him. 1t must be little, in
deed, that he has to do, If he can do no.
thing not " entrusted " to him by Andrew
Johnson. But, moreover, the very manner
OF the business he cannot adopt without
orders and instructions from the President
about it.
How long this whilom functionary will
be suffered 10 indulge the morbid and i'm
potent memories OF his departed power
about the scene Of his thousand wrongs
and crying cruelties depends upon the
for5earance Of the authority which hence
forth conducts the War Department. But
Detective Bakers chief is not the Secre-
Iarv of War