Year: 1868

| "SIR: Pubic considerations Of high character constrain me to say that your resignation as secretary of War will be accepted"

 To which note said Stanton made the following reply:

 WAR DEPARraxSs, WASHINGTON, D. c. l August 6, 1868. ]

 "SIR: Your note of this day has been received, stating that public considera- tions of high character constrain you to say that my resignation as Secretary of War will be accepted. In reply, l have the honor to say that public con sideration of a high character, which alone have induced me to continue at \ the head of the Department, constrain me not to resign the office of secretary of War before the next meeting of Con gress. Respectfully, yours,

 [Signcd EDWIN NJ. STANTON"

 The respondent, as President of the United States, was of the opinion that having regard to the necessary official relations of the Secretary for the De- pertinent of War to the President of the United States, and according to the Constitution and laws ofthe United States, and having regard to the respon- | sibility of the President for the conduct of said Secretary, and having regard | to the permanent executive authority of the office which the respondent held under the Constitution and laws of the l United States, it was impossible, con sistently with the public interest, to allow said Stanton to continue to hold | said office of Secretary of War and it l then became the official duty of the re- spondent, as President of the United | States, to consider and decide what act of the acts should and ought lawfully be done as President of the United | States, to cause said Stanton to surren- der the said office. This respondent was informed and verify believed that it was practically settled by the first 1 Congress of the United States, and had | been so considered and uniformly and | in great number of instances acted on | by Congress and the Presidents of the United States. from Washington to and including Lincoln, and from the first | Congress to the thirty first Congress that the Constitution of the United l States conferred on the President, as part of the executive power, and as one | of the necessary means and instruments of performing the executive duties im- posed on him by the Constitution or taking care that the laws be faithfully executed, the power of at any and all | times removing from office all execu- tive officers for causes to be judged of by the President alone. This respon- dent has the assurance that the Con- stitution required the opinion of each co-principal officer of the Executive Department upon the question of executive power and duty, had been advised by each of them in relieving said Stanton, Secretary of the Depart ment of War; that under the Constitu- tion of the United States this power was lodged by the Constitution in the President of the United States, and consequently cannot lawfully be exer- cised by any except him, and Congress could not deprive him of the power thereof, because in that capacity he was both enabled and bound to use his best judgment upon this question. He did in good faith, and with honest de- sires to arrive at the truth, come to the conclusion and did make the same known to the honorable Senate of the United States, by message, dated on the 2d day of March, 1867, n true copy whereofis hereunto attached and mark ed. That the power last mentioned was conferred and the duty of exercis- ing it in such cases was imposed on the President by the Constitution of the United States, and that the Presi- dent could not be deprived of this 1 power or relieved Of this duty, nor could the same be vested by law in the President and the Senate jointly. either ill part or whole, and this has ever since remained and it was the opinion of this respondent at the time when he was forced, as aforesaid, to consider and decide whether that act could or might be lawfully done by this respondent as President of the l United States, to cause the said Stan | ton to surrender said office this res i pendent was also then aware that the 1 first section of an act regulating the tenure of civil office, passed March ,, 1867, by constitutional majority Of both Houses of Congress, it was enac- ted as follows: "Every person holding any civil office, to which he has been appointed by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, and every per- son who shall hereafter be appointed to such office. shall become duly quali- fled to act therein, or shall be entitled to hold such office until his successor shall have been in like manner appoin

 ted and duly qualified, except as here in otherwise provided: that the Secre- tary of State; Secretary of the Treas ury Secretary of the Navy; Secretary of the Interior; the Postmaster Gen eral, and the Attorney General shall

 hold office for and during the term of the President by whom they may have been appointed, and for one month thereafter; subject to removal by the advice and consent of the Senate" This respondent understood and believ- ed to be an expression of the opinion

 of Congress, by which that act was pas sed, that the power to remove the exec utive officers for causes, might, by law, be taken from the President. and ves- ted in him and the Senate jointly and although this respondent had arrived to and still retained the opinion above expressed, he verily believed, as he still believes, that the first section in the last mentioned act was and is in- operative and void by reason of its con filct with the Constitution of the Uni ted States, yet, as the same had been enacted by the constitutional majority in each of the two Houses of that Con- gross, this respondent considered that it would be proper to examine and de- eide whether any particular case of the said Stanton, on which it was this respondents duty to act, was within or without terms of that first section of the act, and, if within it, whether the President had not the power, accor- ding to those terms. to remove said Stanton from the office of Secretary of War, and, having in his capacity as President of the United States, exam l ined and considered, did form the opinion that the case of said Stanton and his tenure of office were not affec- ted by the first section of the last nam 1 ..l ,at and fh;s sAa ,as,Aala.t in,