was no mistake of his nor of yours.  It is the fact only that needs be stated, that at the date of this conversation you did not intend to hold the office with the purpose of forcing Mr. 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.  I know of no statute that would have been violated had you, carrying out your promises in good faith, tendered your resignation when you concluded not to be made a party in any legal proceedings.  You add: 

“I am in a measure confirmed in this conclusion by your recent orders directing me to disobey orders from the Secretary of War, my superior and your subordinate, without having countermanded his authority to issue the orders I am to disobey.”

On the 24th[39] ultimo you addressed a note to the President requesting in writing an order given to you verbally five days before to disregard orders from Mr. Stanton as Secretary of War until you “knew from the President himself that they were his orders.”

On the 29th,[40] in compliance with your request, I did give you instructions in writing “not to obey any order from the War Department assumed to be issued by the direction of the President unless such order is known by the General Commanding the armies of the United States to have been authorized by the Executive.”

There are some orders which a Secretary of War may issue without the authority of the President; there are others which he issues simply as the agent of the President, and which purport to be “by direction” of the President.  For such orders the President is responsible, and he should therefore know and understand what they are before giving such “direction.”  Mr. Stanton states in his letter of the 4th instant,[41] which accompanies the published correspondence, that he “has had no correspondence with the President since the 12th of August last;” and he further says that since he resumed the duties of the office he has continued to discharge them “without any personal or written communication with the President;” and he adds, “No orders have been issued from this Department in the name of the President with my knowledge, and I have received no orders from him.”