ovision for the framing of
constitutions in the respective States, their ratification by the
people, excluding all those who were not voters in April, 1861, and for
the election of Senators and Representatives to the Congress of the
United States without the assent of the Representatives of the existing
States.

When I arrived in Washington to attend the meeting of Congress at the
December session, 1866, I received a note from Mr. Stanton asking me to
meet him at the War Office with as little delay as might be
practicable. When I called at the War Office, he beckoned me to retire
to his private room, where he soon met me. He then said that he had
been more disturbed by the condition of affairs in the preceding weeks
and months than he had been at any time during the war. He gave me to
understand that orders had been issued to the army of which neither he
nor General Grant had any knowledge. He further gave me to understand
also that he apprehended an attempt by the President to re-organize the
Government by the assembling of a Congress in which the members from
the seceding States and the Democratic members from the North might
obtain control through the aid of the Executive. He then said that he
thought it necessary that some act should be passed by which the power
of the President might be limited. Under his dictation, and after such
consultation as seemed to be required, I drafted amendments to the
Appropriation Bill for the Support of the Army, which contained the
following provisions: The headquarters of the General of the Army were
fixed at Washington, where he was to remain unless transferred to duty
elsewhere by his own consent or by the consent of the Senate. Next, it
was made a misdemeanor for the President to transmit orders to any
officer of the army except through the General of the Army. It was
also made a misdemeanor for any officer to obey orders issued in any
other way than through the General of the Army, knowing that the same
had been so issued. These provisions were taken by me to Mr. Stevens,
the chairman of the Committee on Appropriations. After some
explanation, the measure was accepted by the committee and incorporated
in the Army Appropriation Bill. The bill was approved by the President
the second day of March, 1867. His approval was accompanied by a
protest on his part that the provision was unconstitutional, and by the
statement that he approved the bill only because it was neces