throwing thunderbolts
150 years ago today the United States Congress got so riled up that the House even canceled its intended Washington’s birthday holiday. Congress would be taking care of business the next day, but it wouldn’t exactly be business as usual.
In compliance with the Tenure of Office Act President Andrew Johnson suspended Secretary of War Edwin Stanton in August 1867 and replaced him with General Ulysses S. Grant as Secretary ad interim. When Congress reconvened in December the Senate eventually decided not to accept the removal of Mr. Stanton, and General Grant turned the War Office over to him. This aggravated Mr. Johnson and the Johnson – Grant dispute became public in early February. On January 21, 1868 the president decided to forgo the niceties of the Tenure Act by firing Stanton outright and replacing him with General Lorenzo Thomas as another Secretary ad interim.
From The New-York Times February 22, 1868:
The New-York Times
February 22, 1868
Special Dispatch to the New-York Times.
WASHINGTON, Friday, Feb. 21.
The second attempt of the President to remove the Secretary of War came upon the Public and Congress to-day like a thunderbolt. It at once threw both Houses into a whirl of excitement, almost to the exclusion of regular business. Members gathered in knots and excitedly talked matters over. Stories grew and multiplied, and got so confused that the actual facts were hard to seize. Correspondents flew from end to end of the Capitol as if shot out of guns. The telegraph offices in the lobby were loaded with cards of dispatches to Wall-street, heralding the wildest stories, and before four o’clock one excited individual had articles of impeachment already drawn up.
![[Portrait of Brig. and Adjutant-Gen. Lorenzo Thomas, officer of the Federal Army] (Between 1860 and 1865; LOC: https://www.loc.gov/item/cwp2003000397/PP/)](https://www.bluegrayreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/04799v.jpg)
would he “stand fire”?
The calm of the forenoon had been nigh unto sluggishness. The storm of the afternoon was its antipodes in the fierceness with which fact and rumor raged through the Capitol and streets. Divested of all superfluous and sensational matter, the facts are as follows:
The President has within the last two or three weeks been drawing political inspiration from some of the leading and most unscrupulous Democratic politicians of the country. These men have breathed he spirit of defiance to Congress very strongly. The Democratic organ here has been bolder than ever in urging open resistance to the action of Congress, and the politicians have caused Mr. JOHNSON to be flattered with indirect allusions to his probable nomination as the Democratic standard-bearer in the coming campaign, the great object of these men being to get a lodgment in the Executive patronage which will render its vast power certainly on its side during the canvass. To do this, the first thing necessary was to break down the Tenure of Office Act. They therefore seized upon Mr. JOHNSON’S hostility [to] Mr. STANTON and the law, to urge him to make the case boldly and plainly, and by removing him peremptorily, get the matter into the courts, where he and they deem the destruction of the law certain.
The President has thus been goaded up to the point of this new action on the War Department. There was a full Cabinet meeting this morning, and the matter was submitted to and approved by a majority of its members. Adjt.-Gen. THOMAS was also consulted beforehand to see if he would stand fire. He talked with Gen. GRANT about it during the morning, but what came of that your correspondent cannot say.
About 12:30 the Secretary of War received the following letter from the President, through Adjt.-Gen. THOMAS:
Gen. THOMAS also presented his order from the President to take possession of the Department. Mr. STANTON asked him for a copy of the order, which was given, and he then informed Gen. THOMAS that he would take time to consider the matter. THOMAS then returned to the Adjutant-General’s office, and soon after left the Department. He did not then indicate, nor has he up to the present writing indicated, any action on his part looking toward further measures for the possession of the office.
Soon after sending these orders to STANTON and THOMAS, the President transmitted to the Senate a communication couched in nearly the following language:
To the Senate of the United States:
On the 12th day of August last, by virtue of the authority vested in me under the Constitution of the United States, I suspended EDWIN M. STANTON from the office of Secretary of War. I have the honor to inform the Senate that by virtue of that same authority I have this day removed EDWIN M. STANTON from the office of Secretary of War, and have appointed Brevet Major-Gen. LORENZO THOMAS, Adjutant-General United States Army, Secretary of War ad interim.
ANDREW JOHNSON.
The above is not literal, but as given me by a Senator who read the document, it not having been read in open Senate. …
The article goes on to report that when President Johnson’s messages were received New York Senator Roscoe Conkling yielded the floor to a motion to go into Executive Session, which began about 3:15. Secretary Stanton forwarded President Johnson’s messages to him to the House and Senate. In the House the communication from Stanton was referred to the Committee on Reconstruction. “The effect in the House was, of course, to create a good deal of a furore, and the intention to observe to-morrow as a holiday, was at once reversed, and a session for regular business ordered.” An Impeachment resolution was forwarded to the Reconstruction Committee, and the House adjourned about 4:45 PM.
The Times also reported that the Senate adjourned at about 10:00 PM after adopting the following resolution, which was passed 29-6:
Whereas, The Senate have received and considered the communication of the President, stating that he had removed EDWIN M. STANTON as Secretary of War, and has designated the Adjutant General of the Army to act as Secretary of War ad interim, therefore,
Resolved, by the Senate of the United States, That under the Constitution and laws of the United States, the President has no power to remove the Secretary of War and designate any other officer to perform the duties of that office.
Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate is hereby directed to transmit a copy of this resolution to the President, the Secretary of War, and Adjt.-Gen. THOMAS.
standing pat, staying put
The Times article stressed that Mr. Stanton was in possession of the War Department and had no intention of leaving. Many Congressmen and Senators urged Mr. Stanton to not leave the building. As of 11:00 PM “his office was still full of visitors.” Secretary Stanton ordered the Department closed the next day for Washington’s Birthday, a legal holiday.
According to Hans L. Trefousse President Johnson did not meet with his cabinet on the morning of the 21st. He informed his advisers of of his actions at a cabinet meeting during the afternoon.[1]
Mr. Trefousse wrote that by the middle of February President Johnson felt he had to act to axe Stanton or resign – and he was willing to risk impeachment. But he also saw political advantages to acting before the re-admission of radicalized Southern states created new political complications. The fall elections in 1867 were favorable to the Democrats. An impeachment effort in December failed, possibly partly because people feared a President Ben Wade. Supporters of Grant for President didn’t want Wade to be tempoary president, and “Ben Butler, still Grant’s inveterate foe, was one of the principal advocates of impeachment.”[2]
