The President vetoed all of the Reconstruction acts but they were passed over his vetoes. The Tenure of Office Act was passed March 2d, taking away from the Executive the power of removal of all officers whose nomination required confirmation by the Senate.[1] The President might suspend such an officer during the recess of the Senate, but must within twenty days after that body reassembled present his reasons therefor. If the Senate deemed them insufficient, the officer at once resumed his place. On March 2, 1867, also through a rider attached to an Appropriation bill, the President was forbidden to give any orders to the army save through the general of the army, General Grant, or to order him from Washington save with the consent of the Senate.
[1] This Act was repealed in 1887.
President Johnson stoutly maintained that all of these acts were unconstitutional. Supplementary Reconstruction acts set aside the instructions of the President issued to the military governors, notwithstanding the fact that all of the Cabinet had endorsed them, with the exception of Stanton.
From the beginning of President Johnson’s efforts to readmit the seceded states, Secretary Stanton’s contempt for his chief, whom he ridiculed as the “Tailor from Tennessee, the Knight of the Shears and Goose,” developed into open hostility, and he had aligned himself with the opponents of Johnson in Congress. The President considered his presence in his Cabinet out of place and undesirable. On August 5, 1867, he sent the following communication to Secretary Stanton:
Sir:
Public considerations of a high character constrain me to say that your resignation as Secretary of War will be accepted.
(Signed) Andrew Johnson.
Mr. Stanton replied the same day as follows:
War Department,
Washington, Aug. 5, 1867.
Sir: