Year: 1868

NOAEses IlNEu GAAELlN III Alb oLuGA III " III
they were spoken, but the ideas expressed
and the facts stated are faithfully preserved
and presented.


1 have the honor to be, Sir, with great
respect,


Your obedient servant,


o. 2. BRowNISG.


To the President.


DEPARTMENT OF STATE,J


WASHINGTON, Feb 6, 1868.


SIR:-The meeting to which you refer
in your letter was . regular Cabinet meet
ing. While the members were assembling,
and before the President had entered the
council chamber, General Grant, on com
ing in, said 10 me that he was not in at
tendance as a member of the Cabinet but
upon invitation, and replied by the In
quiry whether there was q change in the
War Department After the President
had taken his seat, business went on in the
usual way, of hearing matters submitted
by the several Secretaries. When the
time came for the Secretary of War. Gen.
Grant said that he was now there, not as
Secretary Of War but upon the Presidents
invitation; that he had retired from the
War Department. 4 slight difference
then appeared about the supposed invita-
ton, General Grant saying that the officer
who had borne his letter to the President
announcing his retirement from The War
Department, had told him that the Presi-
dent desired b sec him at the Cabinet
meeting, to which the President answered
that, when General Grants communica.
ton was delivered to him, the President
simply replied that he supposed General
Grant would be very soon at the Cabinet
meeting.


regarded the conversation thus begun
as an incidental one. 1t went on quite in
formally and consisted of a statement, on
your part, of your views in regard to your
understanding Of the tenure upon which
| General Grant had as-ented to hold the
War Department Ga interim, and Of bis
replies by way Of answer and explanation.
Il was respectful and courteous on both
sides, being in this conversational form, as
details could only have been presented by
verbatim report. So far as 1 know, no
such report was made at the time. 1 can
give only the general effect of the cOnver-
satoh Certainly, you stated that, al
though You had reported the reasons for
Mr.. Stanton's suspension to the Senate,
YOU nevertheless held that he would not
be entitled to resume the Office Of Secreta-
~ of War, even II the Senate should dis
approve of his suspension, and that you
had proposed to have the question tested
by judicial process TO be applied to the
person who should be the incumbent of
the Department, under yoIr designation
Of a Secretrry of War Ga interim in the
place of Mr.. Stanton. You continued
that this was well understood between
yourself and General Grant that, when
be entered the Department as Secretary
ad interim, he expressed his concurrence
in belief that the question of Mr.. Stan
toms restoration would be q question for
the Courts; that, in a subsequent conver-
sation with the General, you had adverted
to the understanding thus had and that
General Grant expressed his concurrence
in it; that, at some conversation which
had been previously held, General Grant
said he still adhered to the same construe-
ton of the law, but said. if he should
change his opinion, he would give reason
able notice of it, so that you could in any
case be placed in the same position, in re-
gard to the War Department, that you
were while General Grant held it. I did
not understand General Grant as denying,
nor as explicitly admitting, these state
ments, in the form and full extent TO
which you made them. His admission Of
them was rather indirect and circumstan-
tial, though did not understand it to be
an evasive one. BE said that, reasoning
from what occurred in the case Of the pO-
lice in Maryland, which he regarded as a
parallel one, he was of opinion, and so
assured you, that it would be his right and
duty, under your Instructions, to hold the
| War Office after the Senate should disap-
prove Of Mr.. Stanton's suspension, until
the question should be decided by the
Courts that he remained until very re-
Gently of that opinion, and that, on the
Saturday before the Cabinet meeting, a
conversation was held between yourself
and him, in which the subject was gener-
ally discussed. General Grants statement
was that, in that conversation, he had sta
ted to you the legal difficulties which arose
involving q fine and imprisonment under
the Civil Tenure bill, and that he did not
care TO subject himself to those penalties;
that you replied to this remark that you
regarded the Civil Tenute bill as uncOn-
stituuonal and did not think its penalties
were TO be feared, or that you would vol
UNFAIRLY assume them, and you insisted
that General Grant should either retain
the Office until relieved by yourself, ac-
cording to what you claimed was the Ori-
glnal understanding be.weeE yourself and
him, CT, by reasonable notice Of a change
of purpose 81 lis part, put you in the
same situa,.cn ~hich You would be in if
he adhered. YSu claimed that General
Grant finally said, in that Saturdays con-
versation, that you understood his views
and his proceedings thereafter would be
consistent with what had been so under
stood. General Grant did not contrOvert,
nor can say that he admitted, .his last
statement. Certainly, Gen. Grant did not,
at any time In the Cabinet meeting, insist
that he had, in the Saturday conversation,
either distinctly or finally advised you OF
his determination to retire from the charge
of the War Department, otherwise than
under your own subsequent direction. He
acquiesced in your statement that the Sat
urday conversation ended with an expec-
tation that there would be a subsequent
conference on the subject, which he, as
| well as yourself, supposed could seasonably
take place on Monday. You then alluded
to the fact that General Grant did not call
upon you on Monday, as you had expected
from that conversation. General Grant
admitted that it was his expectation or
purpose to call upon you on Monday.
General Grant assigned reasons for the
omission; he said he was in conference
with General Sherman; that there were
many little matters to be attended 70; he
had conversed upon the matter Of the in
cumbeney OF the War Department with
General Sherman, and expected that Gen.
sherman would call upon Monday. Ny
own mind suggested further explanation,
but 1 do not remember whether it was
mentioned or not, namely: that it was
not supposed by General Grant on Monday
that the Senate would decide the question
so promptly as to anticipate further expla-
nation between yourself and him, if de-
layed beyond that day. General Grant
made another explanation that he was en-
gaged on Sunday with Gen. Sherman, and
| / think also on Monday, in regard to the
War Department, with hope, though he
did not say in an effort, TO pro5ure an am
/ icable settlement of the affair Of Mr..
Stanton and still hoped that it would be
brought about.


| I have the honor to be, with great re-
spect, your Obedient servant,


WM. II. SEWARD.


To the President.