o the Adjutant-General, and proceeded to the
Headquarters of the Army and addressed the note above mentioned to the
President, informing him that he (General Grant) was no longer Secretary
of War _ad interim_.

The President expressed great surprise at the course which General
Grant had thought proper to pursue, and, addressing himself to the
General, proceeded to say, in substance, that he had anticipated such
action on the part of the Senate, and, being very desirous to have the
constitutionality of the tenure-of-office bill tested and his right
to suspend or remove a member of the Cabinet decided by the judicial
tribunals of the country, he had some time ago, and shortly after
General Grant's appointment as Secretary of War _ad interim_, asked the
General what his action would be in the event that the Senate should
refuse to concur in the suspension of Mr. Stanton, and that the General
had then agreed either to remain at the head of the War Department till
a decision could be obtained from the court or resign the office into
the hands of the President before the case was acted upon by the Senate,
so as to place the President in the same situation he occupied at the
time of his (Grant's) appointment.

The President further said that the conversation was renewed on the
preceding Saturday, at which time he asked the General what he intended
to do if the Senate should undertake to reinstate Mr. Stanton, in reply
to which the General referred to their former conversation upon the same
subject and said: "You understand my position, and my conduct will be
conformable to that understanding;" that he (the General) then expressed
a repugnance to being made a party to a judicial proceeding, saying that
he would expose himself to fine and imprisonment by doing so, as his
continuing to discharge the duties of Secretary of War _ad interim_
after the Senate should have refused to concur in the suspension of Mr.
Stanton would be a violation of the tenure-of-office bill; that in reply
to this he (the President) informed General Grant he had not suspended
Mr. Stanton under the tenure-of-office bill, but by virtue of the powers
conferred on him by the Constitution; and that, as to the fine and
imprisonment, he (the President) would pay whatever fine was imposed
and submit to whatever imprisonment might be adjudged against him (the
General); that they continued the conversation for some time, discussing
the law at length, and that they