ion took place
upon the subject referred to in the morning. The substance of what
Mr. Evarts said was as follows: He was fully satisfied that the
President could not be convicted upon the evidence; if he was
removed, it would be done wholly from supposed party necessity;
that this was the opinion and feeling of a considerable number of
the ablest lawyers and statesmen among the Republican senators;
that it was his and their opinion that if the President was removed,
it would be not really from anything he had done, but for fear of
what he might do; that he (Mr. Evarts) did not believe the President
could possibly be convicted in any event, but that senators were
at a loss how to remove the apprehensions of the Republican party
as to what the President would do in case of acquittal, unless the
War Department was placed in a satisfactory condition in advance.
He said: 'A majority of Republicans in both houses of Congress
and throughout the country now regret the commencement of the
impeachment proceedings, since they find how slight is the evidence
of guilty intent. But now the serious question is, how to get out
of the scrape? A judgment of guilty and removal of the President
would be ruinous to the party, and cause the political death of
every senator who voted for it as soon as the country has time to
reflect upon the facts and appreciate the frivolous character of
the charges upon which the removal must be based. The precedent
of the impeachment and removal of the President for political
reasons would be exceedingly dangerous to the government and the
Constitution; in short, the emergency is one of great national
peril.'

"He added that this was the view of the case entertained by several
among the most prominent Republican senators, and that from such
senators came the suggestion that my nomination as Secretary of
War be sent to the Senate, in order that the Senate might vote upon
the President's case in the light of that nomination. Mr. Evarts
believed that I was so named because my appointment would be
satisfactory to General Grant, and would give the Republican party
a sense of security as to the President's future action in reference
to the War Department and the military districts of the South; that
it was not with anybody a question of friendship or hostility toward
the President personally, for he really had no friends. That while
the Democrats in the Senate would of course vote for his acquittal,
a