The vote led to no little recrimination inside
the ranks of the party--each side regarding the other as pursuing an
unwise and unjustifiable course. The advocates of Impeachment were
denounced as rash, hot-headed, sensational, bent on leading the party
into an indefensible position; while its opponents were spoken of as
faint-hearted, as truckling to the Administration, as afraid to strike
the one blow imperatively demanded for the safety of the Republic. But
outside of this quarrel of partisans the great mass of quiet citizens
and more especially the manufacturing, commercial, and financial
communities, were profoundly grateful that the country was not, as
they now believed, to be disturbed by a violent effort to deprive the
President of his great office.

The prophets of Peace were disappointed in their hopes and their
predictions. A train of circumstances, not unnaturally growing out of
the political situation, led in the ensuing month to the renewal of
the scheme of Impeachment because of the President's attempt to
appoint a new Secretary of War. The President himself narrates what
he had done to secure the resignation of Mr. Stanton: "I had come to
the conclusion that the time had arrived when it was proper for Mr.
Stanton to retire from my Cabinet. The mutual confidence and general
accord which should exist in such a relation had ceased. I supposed
that Mr. Stanton was well advised that his continuance in the Cabinet
was contrary to my wishes, for I had repeatedly given him to
understand by every mode short of an express request that he should
resign." On the fifth day of August (1867), the President addressed
Mr. Stanton a brief note in these words: "Public considerations of
a high character constrain me to say that your resignation as Secretary
of War will be accepted." Mr. Stanton replied immediately,
acknowledging the receipt of the letter and adding: "I have the honor
to say that public considerations of a high character, which alone have
induced me to continue at the head of this Department, constrain me
not to resign the Secretaryship of War before the next meeting of
Congress."

Not acting with angry haste, but reflecting for a week upon the
situation resulting from Mr. Stanton's refusal to resign, the President
on the 12th of August suspended him from the Secretaryship of War under
the power conferred by the Tenure-of-office Act, and added in a note
to him: "You will at once transfer to General