Mr. Stanton surrendered the office to General Grant under protest, though it was well understood, without any hostile feeling toward him personally. General Grant managed the affairs of the Department wisely and well, reducing expenses, and infusing a somewhat greater zeal and activity into the public service. On the reassembling of Congress in November, 1867, a demand was made by the Senate upon the President for an account of the circumstances attending the suspension of Secretary Stanton, and having received them, after a very full discussion, they decided them insufficient, and that Secretary Stanton must be reinstated. On the passage of this resolution by the Senate, General Grant promptly relinquished his position to Mr. Stanton, having notified the President that he should do so. The President, greatly enraged at having his purpose foiled, of putting a man into the place who would sympathize with him, commenced an angry correspondence with the General, and attempted to fasten upon him the charges of treachery and want of veracity, claiming that he had promised to give him due notice of his intention to surrender the office, that he might put some one else in his place, or to hold the position himself when Stanton should demand it. General Grant replied with a frank and soldier-like statement of the facts, to which the President rejoined somewhat abusively, and adduced letters from members of his Cabinet for the purpose of sustaining his statements. Some of these letters failed most signally to accomplish the object for which they were intended, while others were evidently a mere compliance with the President’s request that they should sustain his statements. General Grant replied again, more briefly than before, but clearing himself handsomely from the charge of insubordination, which the President had sought to fix upon him. There was probably some misunderstanding of General Grant’s language on the part of the President in the first place, as the General, before examining the subject, had expressed the opinion to the President that Secretary Stanton would have to apply to the courts to be reinstated, but had subsequently, on careful examination, changed his opinion, and so informed the President. As the result of his refusing to surrender the office would have been a fine of ten thousand dollars and five years’ imprisonment, there is no probability that he made the promise to retain the position, notwithstanding the President’s very liberal but totally impracticable offer, to take the punishment upon himself. With the views he entertained, when he discovered the President’s purpose of putting a man into the office who would carry out his views of reconstruction, it is equally incredible that he should have promised to give the President the opportunity of accomplishing his purpose and thwarting the congressional plan of reconstruction, the success of which he had much at heart. Aside from this, the issue in a question of veracity between Ulysses S. Grant and Andrew Johnson could not fail to be decided in favor of the former, whose sturdy truthfulness has been as conspicuous as Johnson’s shuffling self-contradiction, and general unveracity.
General Grant is now by common consent the candidate of the Republican party for the Presidency, and seems to have the prospect of an election almost by acclamation.
In person he is short, about five feet eight (the height if we recollect aright of the “Little Corporal,” and like him somewhat inclined to stoutness). He has a clear, well-balanced brain, with no faculty in excess and none deficient. He is not a genius, but a man of fair talents, with a thorough insight into character, and a remarkable faculty of always putting “the right man in the right place.” Despite the reports of his being addicted to intoxication, we have the highest authority for saying, that he is not only not a drunkard, but a man of remarkable temperance, abstaining from the use even of wine, when most men would consider themselves bound in courtesy to drink it. He does smoke excessively, being seldom seen without a cigar in his mouth, but his smoking is quiet and not spiteful, like that of General Sherman. He is a skillful billiard-player, and retains his old fondness for horses. He is one of the best equestrians in the country, and, like Phil. Sheridan, appears to extraordinary advantage in the saddle.
For the rest, he is not ambitious; is reticent in the extreme on all political questions, but evidently not from ignorance of them. He possesses great vitality, and a pertinacity and perseverance in completing what he undertakes, which on the right side (and he will be generally found there) is invaluable. His seven years of command have been a valuable discipline to him, and his views have been widened and deepened thereby. He is thoroughly honest, and will be as careful of the people’s money as of his own; yet his views of economy are not of the scrimping, miserly sort. He only desires that money shall be rightly, judiciously, and prudently expended, and not squandered for the benefit of office-holders. While we do not regard him as the greatest of men, we believe if his life is spared he will make one of the best of Presidents.
GEN. GRANT’S LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE.
To Gen. Joseph R. Hawley, President National Union Republican Convention:
In formally accepting the nomination of the National Union Republican Convention of the 21st of May inst. it seems proper that some statement of views beyond the mere acceptance of the nomination should be expressed. The proceedings of the Convention were marked with wisdom, moderation, and patriotism, and I believe express the feelings of the great mass of those who sustained the country through its recent trials. I endorse the resolutions. If elected to the office of President of the United States, it will be my endeavor to administer all the laws in good faith, with economy, and with the view of giving peace, quiet, and protection everywhere. In times like the present it is impossible, or at least eminently improper, to lay down a policy to be adhered to, right or wrong, through an administration of four years. New political issues, not foreseen, are constantly arising; the views of the public on old ones are constantly changing, and a purely administrative officer should always be left free to execute the will of the people. I always have respected that will, and always shall. Peace and universal prosperity—its sequence—with economy of administration will lighten the burden of taxation, while it constantly reduces the National debt. Let us have peace. With great respect, your obedient servant,
U. S. GRANT.
Schuyler Colfax