On Tuesday (the day Mr. Stanton reentered the office of the Secretary of
War) General Comstock, who had carried my official letter announcing
that with Mr. Stanton's reinstatement by the Senate I had ceased to be
Secretary of War _ad interim_, and who saw the President open and read
the communication, brought back to me from the President a message that
he wanted to see me that day at the Cabinet meeting, after I had made
known the fact that I was no longer Secretary of War _ad interim_.
At this meeting, after opening it as though I were a member of the
Cabinet, when reminded of the notification already given him that I was
no longer Secretary of War _ad interim_, the President gave a version of
the conversations alluded to already. In this statement it was asserted
that in both conversations I had agreed to hold on to the office of
Secretary of War until displaced by the courts, or resign, so as to
place the President where he would have been had I never accepted the
office. After hearing the President through, I stated our conversations
substantially as given in this letter.
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