e President's friends, therefore, was
that senators, while perfectly able to exclude from the control of the
War Department a man in whom they had no confidence, demanded that the
President should retain at the head of that Department an officer in
whom he had no confidence. Hence it was that for the first time in
the history of the United States, an officer distasteful to the
President and personally distrusted and disliked by him was forced upon
him as one of his confidential advisers in the administration of the
Government. In the _prima facie_ statement of this case the Senate
was in the wrong. Upon the record of its votes and the expression of
opinion by its own members, the Senate was in the wrong. The history
of every preceding Administration and of every subsequent
Administration of the Federal Government proves that the Senate was in
the wrong.

The situation in which the President was left by this action was
anomalous and embarrassing. One of the most important Departments of
the Government--especially important at that era--was left under the
control of a man with whom he did not even hold personal relations. If
this could be done in one Department it could with equal justice be
done in all, and the extraordinary spectacle would be presented of
each Executive Department under the control of an officer, who in
matters of personal feeling and in public policy was deadly hostile to
the President of the United States. Even those who insisted most
warmly upon Mr. Stanton's being retained in his position, must have
seen that such a course would contradict the theory of the National
Constitution and be in direct contravention of the practice of the
Federal Government. Every one could see that these circumstances had
brought about an unnatural situation--a situation that must in some way
be relieved. It presented a condition of affairs for which there was
no precedent, and the wisest could not foresee to what end it might lead.

The issue was brought to a head by the President, who informed the
senate on the 21st of February (1868), that in the exercise of the
power and authority vested in him by the Constitution of the United
States, he had that day removed Mr. Stanton from office and designated
the Adjutant-General of the Army--Lorenzo Thomas--as Secretary of War
_ad interim_. The communication was received with great astonishment
by the Senate and with loud expressions of indignation against the
Presid