Year: 1868

nave beer so great. know that, with a
view TO an early termination Of state of
affairs SO detrimental to the public interest.
you voluntarily offered, both on Monday.
the 10Th instant, and on the succeeding
sunday to call upon Stanton and urge upon
nm that the good Of the service required his
resignation. | confess that considered
yorr proposal as a sort of reparation for the
ial/fe on your part to act in accordance
with an understanding more than once re-.
pea'ed, which thought had received your
full assent, and under which you could have
returned 10 me the office which | had con.
ferred upon YOU thus saving yourself from
embarrassment, and leaving the responsibility
where il properly beIspged, with the Presi.
dent, who is account able for the faithful ex.
ecuion of the law. have not vet been in.
formed by you whether, rs twice proposed
by yourself, you had called upon Stanton
and made an effort to induce him voluntarily
to resign from the War Department. You
conclude your communication with refer.
ence to our conversation at the meeting of
the Cabinet held on Tuesday, the l4th iu.
stant In your account ofwbat then occur.
red, you say that, after the President had
given his version Of our previous converse,
tions, you stated them substantially as given
in your letter, and that you in nowise ad,
mitted the correctness of his statement of
them though to soften the evident contra
dlctlon my statement gave, | said, aluding
to our first communication on the subject.
the President might have understood in the
way he said, viz: that had promised TO re.
sign if did not resist the reinstatement.
made no such promise" My recollection of
what then transpired is Numerically the re.
verse OF your narration. In the presence Of
the Cabinet asked you, first, If, in the con.
versation which took place shortly after your
appointment as Secretary of War ad interim,
you did not agree either to remain at the
head of the War Department. and abide any
judicial proceedings that might follow tho
non concurrence by the Senate in S,anton's
suspension, or, should you wish not 10 be-
come involved in such controversy, to put
me in the same position with respect 70 the
office as l occupied previous to your ap.
pointment, by returning it to me in time to
anticipate such action by the Senate9 This
you admitted. Second-I then asked you
il at the conference on the preceding Sat.
urday, had not, to avoid misunderstanding,
requested you to state what you intended to
do; and further, if in reply to that inquiry
you had not referred to my former conver.
sations, saying that from them understood
your position, and that your action would be
consistent with the understanding which had
been reached? 10 these questions you also
replied in the affirmative. Tbird-I next
asked, il, at the conclusion of our interview
on Saturday, it was not understood that we
were to have another conference on Mon.
day, before final action by the Senate on the
case of StantonG You replied that such was
the understanding, but that you did not sup.
pose the Senate would act SO soon that on
Monday you had been engaged in a confer.
ence with General Sherman, and were occu,
pied with "many little matters" and asked
if General Sherman had not called on that
day. What relevancy General Sherman's
visit to mo on Monday had with the purpose
for which you were to have called, an, at a
loss to perceive. as be certainly did not in
form me whether you bad determined to re-
tain possession of the office, or to afford me
an opportunity to appoint successor in ad-
vance OF any attempted reinstatement of
Stanton. This accounts of what passed be.
tween us at the Cabinet meeting on the l4th
instant widely differs from that contained
in your communication, for it shows that
instead Of having "sated our conversations
as given in the letter." which has made this
reply necessary, you admitted that my recital
of them was entirely accurate. Sincerely
anxious, however, to be correct in my state.
ments, | have to-day read this narration of
what occurred on the l4lb instant to the
members Of the Cabinet who was then pres.
ent. They, without exception, agree in its
accuracy. 1t is only necessary to add that
on Wednesday morning the 18th, you called
on me with Lieutenant General Sherman.
After some preliminary conversation, you
remarked that an article in the National In
telhgencer Of that date did you much injus-
tice. replied that had not seen the In
telHgencer of that morning. You first told
me that it was your intention to urge STAN
ton to resign bis office. After you had with
drawn carefully read the article of which
you had spoken, and found that its state
ment the understanding between us was
subtan,ialy correct. On the l7,h caused
it to be read to four of the five members of
the Cabinet who were present at our confer
ence on the l4h, and they concurred in the
general accuracy Of its statements respecting
our conversation upon that occasion. In re.
ply to your communication have deemed it
proper, in order to prevent further misunder.
standing, TO make the simple recital Of facts.


Very respectfully yours,


ANDREW JOHNSON.


WHATAS OHIO RADICAL THINKs.-Don
Piatt, leading and ihuential Ohio Radical,
says in recently published letter that
General Grant can't 60 into the Presidency
with his mouth shut, that the two hundred