nt a doubt never
entered my mind about the President's fully understanding my position,
namely, that if the Senate refused to concur in the suspension of Mr.
Stanton my powers as Secretary of War _ad interim_ would cease and Mr.
Stanton's right to resume at once the functions of his office would
under the law be indisputable, and I acted accordingly. With Mr. Stanton
I had no communication, direct nor indirect, on the subject of his
reinstatement during his suspension.

I knew it had been recommended to the President to send in the
name of Governor Cox, of Ohio, for Secretary of War, and thus save all
embarrassment--a proposition that I sincerely hoped he would entertain
favorably; General Sherman seeing the President at my particular request
to urge this on the 13th instant.

On Tuesday (the day Mr. Stanton reentered the office of the Secretary of
War) General Comstock, who had carried my official letter announcing
that with Mr. Stanton's reinstatement by the Senate I had ceased to be
Secretary of War _ad interim_, and who saw the President open and read
the communication, brought back to me from the President a message that
he wanted to see me that day at the Cabinet meeting, after I had made
known the fact that I was no longer Secretary of War _ad interim_.

At this meeting, after opening it as though I were a member of the
Cabinet, when reminded of the notification already given him that I was
no longer Secretary of War _ad interim_, the President gave a version of
the conversations alluded to already. In this statement it was asserted
that in both conversations I had agreed to hold on to the office of
Secretary of War until displaced by the courts, or resign, so as to
place the President where he would have been had I never accepted the
office. After hearing the President through, I stated our conversations
substantially as given in this letter. I will add that my conversation
before the Cabinet embraced other matter not pertinent here, and is
therefore left out.

I in no wise admitted the correctness of the President's statement of
our conversations, though, to soften the evident contradiction my
statement gave, I said (alluding to our first conversation on the
subject) the President might have understood me the way he said, namely,
that I had promised to resign if I did not resist the reinstatement.
I made no such promise.

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

U.S. GRANT, _Gen