were spoken, but the
ideas expressed and the facts stated are faithfully preserved and
presented.

I have the honor to be, sir, with great respect, your obedient servant,

O.H. BROWNING.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,

_Washington, February 6, 1868_.

The PRESIDENT.

SIR: The meeting to which you refer in your letter was a regular Cabinet
meeting. While the members were assembling, and before the President had
entered the council chamber, General Grant on coming in said to me that
he was in attendance there, not as a member of the Cabinet, but upon
invitation, and I replied by the inquiry whether there was a change in
the War Department. After the President had taken his seat, business
went on in the usual way of hearing matters submitted by the several
Secretaries. When the time came for the Secretary of War, General Grant
said that he was now there, not as Secretary of War, but upon the
President's invitation; that he had retired from the War Department. A
slight difference then appeared about the supposed invitation, General
Grant saying that the officer who had borne his letter to the President
that morning announcing his retirement from the War Department had told
him that the President desired to see him at the Cabinet, to which the
President answered that when General Grant's communication was delivered
to him the President simply replied that he supposed General Grant would
be very soon at the Cabinet meeting. I regarded the conversation thus
begun as an incidental one. It went on quite informally, and consisted
of a statement on your part of your views in regard to the understanding
of the tenure upon which General Grant had assented to hold the War
Department _ad interim_ and of his replies by way of answer and
explanation. It was respectful and courteous on both sides. Being in
this conversational form, its details could only have been preserved by
verbatim report. So far as I know, no such report was made at the time.
I can give only the general effect of the conversation. Certainly you
stated that, although you had reported the reasons for Mr. Stanton's
suspension to the Senate, you nevertheless held that he would not be
entitled to resume the office of Secretary of War even if the Senate
should disapprove of his suspension, and that you had proposed to have
the question tested by judicial process, to be applied to the person who
should be the incumbent of the Department under your designation of
Secreta