finally separated without having
reached a definite conclusion, and with the understanding that the
General would see the President again on Monday.

In reply General Grant admitted that the conversations had occurred, and
said that at the first conversation he had given it as his opinion to
the President that in the event of nonconcurrence by the Senate in the
action of the President in respect to the Secretary of War the question
would have to be decided by the court--that Mr. Stanton would have to
appeal to the court to reinstate him in office; that the _ins_ would
remain in till they could be displaced and the _outs_ put in by legal
proceedings; and that he _then_ thought so, and had agreed that if he
should change his mind he would notify the President in time to enable
him to make another appointment, but that at the time of the first
conversation he had not looked very closely into the law; that it had
recently been discussed by the newspapers, and that this had induced him
to examine it more carefully, and that he had come to the conclusion
that if the Senate should refuse to concur in the suspension Mr. Stanton
would thereby be reinstated, and that he (Grant) could not continue
thereafter to act as Secretary of War _ad interim_ without subjecting
himself to fine and imprisonment, and that he came over on Saturday to
inform the President of this change in his views, and did so inform him;
that the President replied that he had not suspended Mr. Stanton under
the tenure-of-office bill, but under the Constitution, and had appointed
him (Grant) by virtue of the authority derived from the Constitution,
etc.; that they continued to discuss the matter some time, and finally
he left, without any conclusion having been reached, expecting to see
the President again on Monday.

He then proceeded to explain why he had not called on the President on
Monday, saying that he had had a long interview with General Sherman,
that various little matters had occupied his time till it was late, and
that he did not think the Senate would act so soon, and asked: "Did not
General Sherman call on you on Monday?"

I do not know what passed between the President and General Grant on
Saturday, except as I learned it from the conversation between them at
the Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, and the foregoing is substantially what
then occurred. The precise words used on the occasion are not, of
course, given exactly in the order in which they