ws of the United States, to give effect
to such his decision and determination, did, on the 5th day of August,
A.D. 1867, address to the said Stanton a note of which the following
is a true copy:

SIR: Public considerations of a high character constrain me to say that
your resignation as Secretary of War will be accepted.

To which note the said Stanton made the following reply:

WAR DEPARTMENT,

_Washington, August_ 5, _1867_.

SIR: Your note of this day has been received, stating that "public
considerations of a high character constrain" you "to say that" my
"resignation as Secretary of War will be accepted."

In reply 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 office of Secretary of War
before the next meeting of Congress.

Very respectfully, yours,

EDWIN M. STANTON.

This respondent, as President of the United States, was thereon of
opinion that, having regard to the necessary official relations and
duties of the Secretary for the Department of War to the President of
the United States, according to the Constitution and laws of the United
States, and having regard to the responsibility of the President for
the conduct of the said Secretary, and having regard to the permanent
executive authority of the office which the respondent holds under
the Constitution and laws of the United States, it was impossible,
consistently with the public interests, to allow the said Stanton to
continue to hold the said office of Secretary for the Department of War;
and it then became the official duty of the respondent, as President of
the United States, to consider and decide what act or acts should and
might lawfully be done by him, as President of the United States, to
cause the said Stanton to surrender the said office.

This respondent was informed and verily believed that it was practically
settled by the First Congress of the United States, and had been so
considered and uniformly and in great numbers of instances acted on by
each Congress and President of the United States, in succession, from
President Washington to and including President Lincoln, and from the
First Congress to the Thirty-ninth Congress, that the Constitution of
the United States conferred on the President, as part of the executive
power and as one of the necessary means and instruments