f knowing to what extent, if any, the Senate was
influenced by this nomination, but anxiety about the ultimate result
seemed to be soon allayed. About a month later a vote was taken
in the Senate, and the impeachment failed; my nomination was then
confirmed, as stated at the time, by a nearly unanimous vote of
the Senate.

I entered upon the duties of the office as Secretary of War on the
first day of June, and continued to discharge them until a few days
after General Grant's inauguration in March. I was greeted very
cordially by the President, by all the members of his cabinet, by
General Grant, and by a large number of senators who called upon
me at the War Department.

The duties devolved upon me were often of a very delicate character,
and it required at times no little tact to avoid serious trouble.
President Johnson's views were sometimes in direct conflict with
those which I felt compelled to maintain under the acts of Congress
affecting the States lately in rebellion; but it is due to the
memory of President Johnson to say that he did not at any time
require me to do anything contrary to my interpretation of the acts
of Congress, and the he in general acquiesced without objection in
all the measures I deemed necessary to preserve the peace and secure
a fair vote of the newly enfranchised citizens of the Southern
States in the Presidential election. The cordial assistance of
Mr. Evarts as Attorney-General was a great help to me in such
matters. When he was present I had little difficulty in respect
to the law involved in any question; but when he happened to be
absent, and I was compelled to stand alone against all the cabinet,
or all who chose to take any interest in the question, it was hard
work. But I always carried the day--at least, in act if not in
argument. The President never decided against me. He thus fulfilled
to the letter the implied promise made when he submitted my nomination
to the Senate.

If there ever had been any real ground for the wide-spread apprehension
of criminal purpose on the part of President Johnson, certainly
all indication of any such purpose disappeared with the failure of
his impeachment and the settlement of the long-standing controversy
respecting the War Department. The so-called reconstruction laws,
which the President so emphatically condemned as being unconstitutional,
were carried out without any further objection from him; the
Presidential election in the S