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Stanton into court, but did hold it then and had accepted
it to prevent that course from being carried out. In other words, you
said to the President, "That is the proper course," and you said to
yourself, "I have accepted this office, and now hold it to defeat that
course." The excuse you make in a subsequent paragraph of that letter
of the 28th ultimo,[38] that afterwards you changed your views as to
what would be a proper course, has nothing to do with the point now
under consideration. The point is that _before_ you changed your views
you had secretly determined to do the very thing which at last you
did--surrender the office to Mr. Stanton. You may have changed your
views as to the law, but you certainly did not change your views as
to the course you had marked out for yourself from the beginning.
I will only notice one more statement in your letter of the 3d
instant[39]--that the performance of the promises which it is alleged
were made by you would have involved you in the resistance of law.


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