enure of certain civil
offices" that the President may suspend an officer from the performance
of the duties of the office held by him, for certain causes therein
designated, until the next meeting of the Senate and until the case
shall be acted on by the Senate; that this respondent, as President
of the United States, was advised, and he verily believed, and still
believes, that the executive power of removal from office confided to
him by the Constitution as aforesaid includes the power of suspension
from office at the pleasure of the President; and this respondent, by
the order aforesaid, did suspend the said Stanton from office, not until
the next meeting of the Senate or until the Senate should have acted
upon the case, but, by force of the power and authority vested in him by
the Constitution and laws of the United States, indefinitely and at the
pleasure of the President; and the order, in form aforesaid, was made
known to the Senate of the United States on the 12th day of December,
A.D. 1867, as will be more fully hereinafter stated.

And this respondent, further answering, says that in and by the act of
February 13, 1795, it was, among other things, provided and enacted that
in case of vacancy in the office of Secretary for the Department of
War it shall be lawful for the President, in case he shall think it
necessary, to authorize any person to perform the duties of that office
until a successor be appointed or such vacancy filled, but not exceeding
the term of six months; and this respondent, being advised and believing
that such law was in full force and not repealed, by an order dated
August 12, 1867, did authorize and empower Ulysses S. Grant, General of
the armies of the United States, to act as Secretary for the Department
of War _ad interim_, in the form in which similar authority had
theretofore been given, not until the next meeting of the Senate and
until the Senate should act on the case, but at the pleasure of the
President, subject only to the limitation of six months in the said
last-mentioned act contained; and a copy of the last-named order was
made known to the Senate of the United States on the 12th day of
December, A.D. 1867, as will be hereinafter more fully stated; and in
pursuance of the design and intention aforesaid, if it should become
necessary, to submit the said questions to a judicial determination,
this respondent, at or near the date of the last-mentioned order, did
make known su