Ulysses S. Grant, who
has this day been authorized and empowered to act as Secretary of War
_ad interim_, all records, books, papers and other public property
now in your custody and charge." Mr. Stanton replied to the
President: "Under a sense of public duty I am compelled to deny your
right under the Constitution and laws of the United States, without
the advice and consent of the Senate and without legal cause, to
suspend me from the office of Secretary of War, or the exercise of any
of the functions pertaining to the same; but inasmuch as the General
commanding the armies of the United States has been appointed _ad
interim_ and has notified me that he has accepted the appointment, I
have no alternative but to submit, under protest, to superior force."
It is evident that General Grant and his legal advisers saw no force
in Mr. Stanton's denial of the President's power to suspend him from
office. The General's acceptance of the Secretaryship of War was
plain proof that he recognized the President's course as entirely
lawful and Constitutional. General Grant's willingness to succeed Mr.
Stanton was displeasing to a certain class of Republicans, who thought
he was thereby strengthening the position of the President; but the
judgement of the more considerate was that as Mr. Johnson had
determined in any event to remove Stanton, it was wise in General Grant
to accept the trust and thus prevent it from falling into mischievous
and designing hands.

By the provisions of the Tenure-of-office Law the President was under
obligation to communicate the suspension to the Senate, with his
reasons therefor, within twenty days after its next meeting. He did
this in his message of the 12th of December (1867), in which he
reviewed with much care the relations between himself and the Secretary
of War. He certainly exhibited to an impartial judge, uninfluenced by
personal or party motives, strong proof of the utter impossibility of
Mr. Stanton and himself working together harmoniously in the
administration of the Government. If the President of the United
States has the right to Constitutional advisers who are personally
agreeable to him and who share his personal confidence, then surely
Mr. Johnson gave unanswerable proof that Mr. Stanton should not remain
a member of his Cabinet. But the Senate was not influenced either by
the general considerations affecting the case or by the special reasons
submitted by the President. The