Aug. 5, 1867. |
1868. |
1868. |
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public good.
It adjourned on the 31st of March, to meet on the first Wednesday in July.
It assembled accordingly on the 4th of that month, and on the 20th adjourned to meet on the 21st of November.
The chief business of the short session was to adopt measures for removing the obstructions cast by the President in the way of a restoration of the disorganized States.
A bill supplementary to the one for the military government of those States was passed over the usual veto of the President, and it was believed that the Chief Magistrate would refrain from further acts calculated to disturb the public peace.
Not so. Immediately after the adjournment of Congress, he proceeded, in defiance of that body, and in alleged violation of the Tenure-of-Office Act, to remove the Secretary of War (Mr. Stanton), and to place General Grant in his place.
The President first asked
the Secretary to resign.
Mr. Stanton refused.1 A week later the President directed General Grant to assume the duties of Secretary of War.
Grant obeyed.
Stanton retired, under protest, well satisfied that his office was left in the hands of a patriot whom the President could not corrupt, nor unlawfully control.
The removal of the Secretary of War was followed by the removal of General Sheridan from the command of the Fifth District, and General Sickles from that of the Second District, by which the country was notified that the most faithful officers, who were working with the representatives of the people for the proper and speedy restoration of the Union, would be deprived of power to be useful.
General Grant protested against these acts, but in vain.
The country was greatly excited, and the loyal people waited with impatience the reassembling of Congress, upon which they relied in that hour of seeming peril to the Republic.
That body met at the appointed time, and on the 12th of December the President sent to the Senate a statement of his reasons for removing the Secretary of War.
They were not satisfactory, and on the 13th of January
the Senate reinstated Mr. Stanton, and General Grant retired from the War Department.2 Already Congress had made much progress toward the restoration of the disorganized States to the Union, by providing for conventions for framing constitutions and electing members of Congress; and a few days after the restoration of Mr. Stanton, a new bill for the further reorganization of those States was passed by the House of Representatives, in which larger powers were given to the General-in-Chief of the armies in their military government, and depriving the President of all power to interfere in the matter.
On the 21st of February,
the President caused a new and more intense excitement throughout the country, by a bolder
1 The President addressed a note to the Secretary, in which he said, “Grave public considerations constrain me to request your resignation as Secretary of War.” The Secretary replied: “Grave public considerations constrain me to continue in the office of Secretary of War until the next meeting of Congress.” It is believed that the President was then contemplating a revolutionary scheme, in favor of the late enemies of the country, and was seeking to use the army for that purpose.
2 The President was angry with General Grant for quietly giving up the office to Stanton, at the bidding of the Senate, and he charged the General-in-Chief with having broken his promises, and tried to injure his reputation as a soldier and a citizen. A correspondence ensued, which speedily found its way to the public. It assumed the form of a question of veracity between the President and the General-in-Chief.--Finally, Grant felt compelled to say to the President: “When my honor as a soldier, and integrity as a man, have been so violently assailed, pardon me for saying that I can but regard this whole matter, from beginning to end, as an attempt to involve me in the resistance of law, for which you hesitated to assume the responsibility in orders., and thus to destroy my character before the country.” The President did not deny this charge.
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