Pending the arrival of General Hancock, I turned over the command of the district September 1 to General Charles Griffin; but he dying of yellow fever, General J. A. Mower succeeded him, and retained command till November 29, on which date General Hancock assumed control.  Immediately after Hancock took charge, he revoked my order of August 24 providing for a revision of the jury lists; and, in short, President Johnson’s policy now became supreme, till Hancock himself was relieved in March, 1868.

My official connection with the reconstruction of Louisiana and Texas practically closed with this order concerning the jury lists.  In my judgment this had become a necessity, for the disaffected element, sustained as it was by the open sympathy of the President, had grown so determined in its opposition to the execution of the Reconstruction acts that I resolved to remove from place and power all obstacles; for the summer’s experience had convinced me that in no other way could the law be faithfully administered.

The President had long been dissatisfied with my course; indeed, he had harbored personal enmity against me ever since he perceived that he could not bend me to an acceptance of the false position in which he had tried to place me by garbling my report of the riot of 1866.  When Mr. Johnson decided to remove me, General Grant protested in these terms, but to no purpose: 

“HEADQUARTERS ARMIES OF THE UNITED STATES,
“WASHINGTON, D. C., August 17, 1867

“SIR:  I am in receipt of your order of this date directing the assignment of General G. H. Thomas to the command of the Fifth Military District, General Sheridan to the Department of the Missouri, and General Hancock to the Department of the Cumberland; also your note of this date (enclosing these instructions), saying:  ’Before you issue instructions to carry into effect the enclosed order, I would be pleased to hear any suggestions you may deem necessary respecting the assignments to which the order refers.’

“I am pleased to avail myself of this invitation to urge—­earnestly urge—­urge in the name of a patriotic people, who have sacrificed hundreds of thousands of loyal lives and thousands of millions of treasure to preserve the integrity and union of this country—­that this order be not insisted on.  It is unmistakably the expressed wish of the country that General Sheridan should not be removed from his present command.

“This is a republic where the will of the people is the law of the land.  I beg that their voice may be heard.

“General Sheridan has performed his civil duties faithfully and intelligently.  His removal will only be regarded as an effort to defeat the laws of Congress.  It will be interpreted by the unreconstructed element in the South—­those who did all they could to break up this Government by arms, and now wish to be the only element consulted as to the method of restoring order—­as a triumph.  It will embolden them to renewed opposition to the will of the loyal masses, believing that they have the Executive with them.