referred to in the resolution of the House of Representatives. I have the honor to be, sir, with great respect, Hon. SCHUYLER COLFAX, 1.-GENERAL GRANT TO THE PRESIDENT. His Excellency A. JOHNSON, any General. 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 b.ll closely, I found that I could not, without 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 should order me to retain it, which he never did. Taking this view of the subject, and learning had taken up the subject of Mr. Stanton's suson Saturday, the 11th instant, that the Senate pension, after some conversation with Lieutenant in which I stated that the law left me no disGeneral Sherman and some members of my staff, cretion 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 did so make it known. In doing this I fulfilled the promise made in our last preceding conversation on the subject. The President, however, instead of accepting 2.-GENERAL GRANT TO THE PRESIDENT. my view of the requirements of the tenure of HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE UNITED STATES, office bill, contended that he had suspended Mr. WASHINGTON, D. C., January 28, 1868. Stanton under the authority given by the ConSIR: On the 24th instant, I requested you to stitution, and that the same authority did not give me in writing the instructions which you preclude him from reporting, as an act of courthad previously given me verbally, not to obey esy, his reasons for the suspension to the Senate. order from Hon. E. M. Stanton, Secretary That, having appointed me under the authority of War, unless I knew that it came from yourself. given by the Constitution, and not under any To this written request I received a message act of Congress, I could not be governed by the that has left doubt in my mind of your inten- act. I stated that the law was binding on me, tions. To prevent any possible misunderstand constitutional or not, until set aside by the ing, therefore, I renew the request that you will proper tribunal. An hour or more was congive me written instructions, and, till they are re-sumed, each reiterating his views on this subject, ceived, will suspend action on your verbal ones. until, getting late, the President said he would I am compelled to ask these instructions in see me again. writing, in consequence of the many and gross misrepresentations affecting my personal honor, circulated through the press for the last fortnight, purporting to come from the President, of conversations which occurred either with the President privately in his office, or in cabinet meeting. What is written admits of no misunderstanding. In view of the misrepresentations referred to, it will be well to state the facts in the case. Some time after I assumed the duties of Secretary of War ad interim, the President asked me my views as to the course Mr. Stanton would have to pursue, in case the Senate should not concur in his suspension, to obtain possession 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 ground I had taken in the case of the Baltimore police commissioners. As In that case I did not doubt the technical right of Governor Swann to remove the old commissioners and to appoint their successors. the old commissioners refused to give up, however, I contended that no resource was left but to appeal to the courts. Finding that the President 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 I did not agree to call again on Monday, nor at any other definite time, nor was I sent for by the President until the following Tuesday. From the 11th to the cabinet meeting on the 14th instant, a doubt never entered my mind about the President's fully understanding my position, namely, that if the Senate refused to concur in the suspension of Mr. Stanton, my powers as Secretary of War ad interim would cease, and Mr. Stanton's right to resume at once the functions of his office would under the law be indisputable, and I acted accordingly. With Mr. Stanton I had no communication, direct nor indirect, on the subject of his reinstatement, during his suspension. I knew it had been recommended to the President to send in the name of Governor Cox, of Ohio, for Secretary of War, and thus save all embarrassment-a proposition that I sincerely hoped he would entertain favorably; General Sherman seeing the President at my particular request to urge this, on the 13th instant. On Tuesday, (the day Mr. Stanton re-entered the office of the Secretary of War,) General Comstock, who had carried my official letter announcing that, with Mr. Stanton's reinstatement by the Senate, I had ceased to be Secretary of War ad interim, and who saw the President open and read the communication, brought back to me from the President a message that he wanted to see me that day at the cabinet meet ing, after I had made known the fact that I was no longer Secretary of War ad interim. At this meeting, after opening it as though I were a member of the cabinet, when reminded of the notification already given him that I was no longer Secretary of War ad interim, the President gave a version of the conversations alluded to already. In this statement it was asserted that in both conversations I had agreed to hold on to the office of Secretary of War until displaced by the courts, or resign, so as to place the President where he would have been had I never accepted the office. After hearing the President through, I stated our conversations substantially as given in this letter. I will add that my conversation before the cabinet embraced other matter not pertinent here, and is therefore left out. No. 5. THE PRESIDENT TO GENERAL GRANT. January 31, 1868. GENERAL: I have received your communication of the 28th instant, renewing your request of the 24th, that I should repeat in a written form my verbal instructions of the 19th instant, viz: That you obey no order from the honorable Edwin M. Stanton, as Secretary of War, unless you have information that it was issued by the President's directions. In submitting this request, (with which I complied on the 29th instant,) you take occasion to allude to recent publications in reference to the circumstances connected with the vacation, by yourself, of the office of Secretary of War ad interim, and, with the view of correcting statements, which you term " gross misrepresentaI in nowise admitted the correctness of the tions," give at length your own recollection of President's statement of our conversations, the facts under which, without the sanction of though, to soften the evident contradiction my the President, from whom you had received and statement gave, I said (alluding to our first con- accepted the appointment, you yielded the Deversation on the subject) the President might partment of War to the present incumbent. have understood me the way he said, namely, that I had promised to resign if I did not resist the reinstatement. I made no such promise. I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, U. S. GRANT, General. His Excellency A. JOHNSON, President of the United States. No. 3.-ENDORSEMENT OF THE PRESIDENT ON JANUARY 29, 1868. As requested in this communication, General Grant is instructed, in writing, not to obey any order from the War Department, assumed to be issued by the direction of the President, unless such order is known by the General commanding the armies of the United States to have been authorized by the Executive. ANDREW JOHNSON. No. 4.-GENERAL GRANT TO THE PRESIDENT. As stated in your communication, some time after you had assumed the duties of Secretary of War ad interim, we interchanged views respecting the course that should be pursued in the event of non-concurrence by the Senate in the suspension from office of Mr. Stanton. I sought that interview, calling myself at the War Department. My sole object in then bringing the subject to your attention was to ascertain definitely what would be your own action should such an attempt be made for his restoration to the War Department. That object was accomplished, for the interview terminated with the distinct understanding that if, upon reflection, you should prefer not to become a party to the controversy, or should conclude that it would be your duty to surrender the department to Mr. Stanton, upon action in his favor by the Senate, you were to return the office to me prior to a decision by the Senate, in order that, if I desired to do so, I might designate some one to succeed you. It must have been apparent reached, it was ny purpose to relieve you from to you that, had not this understanding been of War ad interim, and to appoint some other the further discharge of the duties of Secretary person in that capacity. all of them having, on my part, the same obOther conversations upon this subject ensued, HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE UNITED STATES, WASHINGTON, January 30, 1868. SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the return of my note of the 24th instant, with your endorsement thereon, that I am not to obey any order from the War Department assumed to be issued by the direction of the President, unless such order is known by me to have been author-ject, and leading to the same conclusion, as the ized by the Executive; and in reply thereto to first. It is not necessary, however, to refer to say, that I am informed by the Secretary of War any of them, excepting that of Saturday, the 11th that he has not received from the Executive any it was then known that the Senate had proinstant, mentioned in your communication. As order or instructions limiting or impairing his ceeded to consi ler the case of Mr. Stanton, I authority to issue orders to the army as has heretofore been his practice under the law and was anxious to learn your determination. After the customs of the department. While this aua protracted interview, during which the prothority to the War Department is not counter-visions of the tenure of office bill were freely discussed, you said that, as had been agreed manded, it will be satisfactory evidence to me that any orders issued from the War Depart-upon in our first conference, you would either ment, by direction of the President, are authorized by the Executive. I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, His Excellency A. JOHNSON, General. return the office to my possession in time to enable me to appoint a successor before final pension, or would remain as its head, awaiting action by the Senate upon Mr. Stanton's susa decision of the question by judicial proceedings. It was then understood that there would be a further conference on Monday, by which with an understanding more than once repeated, which I thought had received your full assent, and under which you could have returned to me the office which I had conferred upon you, thus saving yourself from embarrassment, and leaving the responsibility where it properly belonged-with the President, who is accountable for the faithful execution of the laws. I have not yet been informed by you whether, as twice proposed by yourself, you have called upon Mr. Stanton, and made an effort to induce him voluntarily to retire from the War Department. time I supposed you would be prepared to in- | form me of your final decision. You failed, however, to fulfill the engagement, and on Tuesday notified me, in writing, of the receipt by you of official notification of the action of the Senate in the case of Mr. Stanton, and at the same time informed me that according to the act regulating the tenure of certain civil offices your functions as Secretary of War ad interim ceased from the moment of the receipt of the notice. You thus, in disregard of the understanding between us, vacated the office without having given me notice of your intention to do 80. It is but just, however, to say that in your You conclude your communication with a communication you claim that you did inform reference to our conversation at the meeting of me of your purpose, and thus fulfilled the the cabinet held on Tuesday, the 14th instant. promise made in our last preceding conversa-In your account of what then occurred, you say tion on this subject." The fact that such a promise existed is evidence of an arrangement of the kind I have mentioned. You had found in our first conference "that the President was desirous of keeping Mr. Stanton out of office, whether sustained in the suspension or not." You knew what reasons had induced the President to ask from you a promise; you also knew that in case your views of duty did not accord with his own convictions, it was his purpose to fill your place by another appointment. Even ignoring the existence of a positive understanding between us, these conclusions were plainly deducible from our various conversations. It is certain, however, that even under these circumstances, you did not offer to return the place to my possession, but, according to your own statement, placed yourself in a position where, could I have anticipated your action, I would have been compelled to ask of you, as I was compelled to ask of your predecessor in the War Department, a letter of resignation, or else to resort to the more disagreeable expedient of superseding you by a successor. As stated in your letter, the nomination of Governor Cox, of Ohio, for the office of Secretary of War was suggested to me. His appointment, as Mr. Stanton's successor, was urged in your name, and it was said that his selection would save further embarrassment. I did not think that in the selection of a cabinet officer I should be trammelled by such considerations. I was prepared to take the responsibility of deciding the question in accordance with my ideas of constitutional duty, and, having determined upon a course which I deemed right and proper, was anxious to learn the steps you would take should the possession of the War Department be demanded by Mr. Stanton. Had your action been in conformity to the understanding between us, I do not believe that the embarrassment would have attained its present proportions, or that the probability of its repetition would have been so great. that after the President had given his version of My recollection of what then transpired is diametrically the reverse of your narration. In the presence of the cabinet I asked you: First. If, in a conversation 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 non-concurrence by the Senate in Mr. Stanton's suspension; or, should you wish not to become involved in such a controversy, to put me in the same position with respect to the office as I occupied previous to your appointment, by returning it to me in time to anticipate such action by the Senate. This you admitted. Second. I then asked you if, at our conference on the preceding Saturday, I 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 our former conversations, saying that from them I under stood your position, and that your action woul be consistent with the understanding which had been reached. To these questions you also plied in the affirmative. Third. I next asked if, at the conclusion f our interview on Saturday it was not understood that we were to have another conference on Monday, before final action by the Senate in the case of Mr. Stanton. You replied that that such was the understanding, but that you did not suppose the Senate would act so soon; that on Monday you had been engaged in a I know that, with a view to an early termina- conference with General Sherman, and were tion of a state of affairs so detrimental to the occupied with "many little matters," and asked public interests, you voluntarily offered, both on if General Sherman had not called on that day. Wednesday, the 15th instant, and on the suc- What relevancy General Sherman's visit to me ceeding Sunday, to call upon Mr. Stanton, and on Monday had with the purpose for which you urge upon him that the good of the service were then to have called, I am at a loss to perrequired his resignation. I confess that I conceive, as he certainly did not inform me whether sidered your proposal as a sort of reparation for the failure, on your part, to act in accordance you had determined to retain possession of the office, or to afford me an opportunity to appoint a successor in advance of any attempted reinstatement of Mr. Stanton. This account of what passed between us at the cabinet meeting on the 14th instant widely differs from that contained in your communication, for it shows that instead of having "stated 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 statements, I have to-day read this narration of what occurred on the 14th instant to the members of the cabinet who were then present. They, without exception, agree in its accuracy. It is only necessary to add that on Wednesday morning, the 15th instant, you called on me, in company with Lieutenant General Sherman. After some preliminary conversation, you remarked that an article in the National Intelligencer of that date did you much injustice. I replied that I had not read the Intelligencer of that morning. You then first told me that it was your intention to urge Mr. Stanton to resign his office. After you had withdrawn, I carefully read the article of which you had spoken, and found that its statements of the understanding between us were substantially correct. On the 17th, I caused it to be read to four of the five members of the cabinet who were present at our conference on the 14th, and they concurred in the general accuracy of its statements respecting our conversation upon that occasion. In reply to your communication, I have deemed it proper, in order to prevent further misunderstanding, to make this simple recital of facts. Very respectfully, yours, General U. S. GRANT, ANDREW JOHNSON. Commanding U. S. Armies. No. 6.-GENERAL GRANT TO THE PRESIDENT. HEADQ'RS ARMY OF THE UNITED STATES, WASHINGTON, February 3, 1868. SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communication of the 31st ultimo, in answer to mine of the 28th ultimo. After a careful reading and comparison of it with the article in the National Intelligencer of the 15th ultimo, and the article over the initials J. B. S., in the New York World of the 27th ultimo, purporting to be based upon your statement and that of the members of your cabinet therein named, I find it to be but a reiteration, only somewhat more in detail, of the "many and gross misrepresentations "contained in these articles, and which my statement of the facts set forth in my letter of 28th ultimo was intended to correct; and I here reassert the correctness of my statements in that letter, anything in yours in reply to it to the contrary notwithstanding. I confess my surprise that the cabinet officers referred to should so greatly misapprehend the facts in the matter of admissions alleged to have been made by me at the cabinet meeting of the 14th ultimo as to suffer their names to be made the basis of the charges in the newspaper article referred to, or agree in the accuracy, as you affirm they do, of your account of what occurred at that meeting. You know that we parted on Saturday, the 11th ultimo, without any promise on my part, either express or implied, to the effect that I would hold on to the office of Secretary of War ad interim against the action of the Senate, or, declining to do so myself, would surrender it to you before such action was had, or that I would see you again at any fixed time on the subject. The performance of the promises alleged by you to have been made by me would have involved a resistance to law, and an inconsistency with the whole history of my connection with the suspension of Mr. Stanton. From our conversations, and my written protest of August 1, 1867, against the removal of Mr. Stanton, you must have known that my greatest objection to his removal or suspension was the fear that some one would be appointed in his stead who would, by opposition to the laws relating to the restoration of the southern States to their proper relations to the government, embarrass the army in the performance of duties especially imposed upon it by these laws; and it was to prevent such an appointment that I accepted the office of Secretary of War ad interim, and not for the purpose of enabling you to get rid of Mr. Stanton by my withholding it from him in opposition to law, or not doing so myself, surrendering it to one who would, as the statement and assumptions in your communication plainly indicate was sought. And it was to avoid the same danger, as well as to relieve you from this personal embarrassment in which Mr. Stanton's reinstatement would place you, that I urged the appointment of Governor Cox, believing that it would be agreeable to you and also to Mr. Stanton-satisfied as I was that it was the good of the country, and not the office, the latter desired. On the 15th ultimo, in presence of General Sherman, I stated to you that I thought Mr. Stanton would resign, but did not say that I would advise him to do so. On the 18th I did agree with General Sherman to go and advise him to that course, ad on the 19th I had an interview alone with Mr. Stanton, which led me to the conclusion that any advice to him of the kind would be useless, and I so informed General Sherman. Before I consented to advise Mr. Stanton to resign, I understood from him, in a conversation on the subject immediately after his reinstatement, that it was his opinion that the act of Congress, entitled "An act temporarily to supply vacancies in the executive departments in certain cases," approved February 20, 1863, was repealed by subsequent legislation, which materially influenced my action. Previous to this time I had had no doubt that the law of 1863 was still in force, and notwithstanding my action, a fuller examination of the law leaves a question in my mind whether it is or is not repealed. This being the case, I could not now advise his resignation, lest the same danger I apprehended on his first removal might follow. The course you would have it understood I agreed to pursue was in violation of law, and without orders from you; while the course I did pursue, and which I never doubted you fully understood, was in accordance with law, and not in disobedience of any orders of my superior. And now, Mr. President, when my honor as a soldier and integrity as a man have been so violently assailed, pardon me for saying that I can but regard this whole matter, from the beginning to the end, as an attempt to involve me in the resistance of law, for which you hesitated to assume the responsibility in orders, and thus to destroy my character before the country. I am in a measure confirmed in this conclusion by your recent orders directing me to disobey orders from the Secretary of War-my superior and your subordinate-without having countermanded his authority to issue the orders I am to disobey. With the assurance, Mr. President, that nothing less than a vindication of my personal honor and character could have induced this correspondence on my part, I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, U. S. GRANT, His Excellency A. JOHNSON, President of the United States. and I leave the proof without a word of comment. I deem it proper, before concluding this communication, "to notice some of the statements contained in your letter. You say that a performance of the promises alleged to have been made by you to the President "would have involved a resistance to law, and an inconsistency with the whole history of my connection with the suspension of Mr. Stanton." You then state that you had fears the President would, on the removal of Mr. Stanton, appoint some one in his place who would embarrass the army in carrying out the reconstruction acts, and add: "It was to prevent such an appointment that I accepted the office of Secretary of War ad interim, and not for the purpose of enabling you to get rid of Mr. Stanton, by my withholding it from him in opposition to law, or not doing so myself, surrendering it to one who would, as the statements and assumptions in your communication plainly in dicate was sought." General. No. 7.-THE PRESIDENT TO GENERAL GRANT. First of all, you here admit that from the very beginning of what you term "the whole history" of your connection with Mr. Stanton's suspension, you intended to circumvent the President. It was to carry out that intent that you accepted the appointment. This was in your mind at the GENERAL: The extraordinary character of obedience to the order of your superior, as has time of your acceptance. It was not, then, in your letter of the 3d instant would seem to pre-heretofore been supposed, that you assumed the clude any reply on my part; but the manner duties of the office. You knew it was the Prein which publicity has been given to the corres-sident's purpose to prevent Mr. Stanton from repondence of which that letter forms a part, and the grave questions which are involved, induce me to take this mode of giving, as a proper sequel to the communications which have passed between us, the statements of the five members of the cabinet who were present on the occasion of our conversation on the 14th ultimo. Copies of the letters, which they have addressed to me upon the subject, are accordingly herewith en closed. sentations" You speak of my letter of the 31st ultimo as a reiteration of the "many and gross misreprecontained in certain newspaper articles, and reassert the correctness of the state'ments contained in your communication of the 28th ultimo, adding and here I give your own words "anything in yours in reply to it to the contrary notwithstanding." When a controversy upon matters of fact reaches the point to which this has been brought, further assertion or denial between the immedi ate parties should cease, especially where, upon either side, it loses the character of the respectful discussion which is required by the relations in which the parties stand to each other, and degenerates in tone and temper. In such a case, if there is nothing to rely upon but the opposing statements, conclusions must be drawn from those statements alone, and from whatever in trinsic probabilities they afford in favor of or against either of the parties. I should not shrink from this test in this controversy, but, fortunately, it is not left to this test alone. There were five cabinet officers present at the conversation, the detail of which, in my letter of the 28th ultimo, you allow yourself to say, contains "many and gross misrepresentations." These gentlemen heard that conversation and have read my statement. They speak for themselves, suming the office of Secretary of War, and you suppose written by yourself in your letter of the 28th ult.: I now give that part of this "history," as war ad interim, the President asked me my views as to the course Mr. Stanton would have to pursue, in case the Senate should not concur in his suspension, to obtain possession of would have to appeal to the courts to reinstate him, illushis office. My reply was, in substance, that Mr. Stanton trating my position by citing the ground I had taken in the case of the Baltimore police commissioners." "Sometime after I assumed the duties of Secretary of Now, at that time, as you admit in your letter of the 3d instant, you held the office for very object of defeating an appeal to the cour In that letter you say that in accepting th office one motive was to prevent the President from appointing some other person who would retain possession, and thus make judicial proceedings necessary. You knew the President was unwilling to trust the office with any one who would not, by holding it, compel Mr. Stau |