Ulysses S. Grant as Acting Secretary of War, 1867–1868

Ulysses S. Grant is best known as the Union's leading general and as president. Between those roles he held another federal post: secretary of war ad interim under President Andrew Johnson, from August 12, 1867, to January 14, 1868. The job pushed his already sour relationship with Johnson to the breaking point and helped open the way to his Republican nomination for president in 1868.

Edwin Stanton. Library of Congress.

Grant and Johnson

At the end of the Civil War, Grant was a lieutenant general. The hope that followed Robert E. Lee's surrender to him on April 9, 1865, turned to anger and uncertainty days later when President Abraham Lincoln, Grant's friend as well as his commander in chief, was assassinated. Grant had to work with a new president.

At first the relationship was cordial. Johnson promoted Grant to full general (four stars) and appointed his eldest son, Fred, to West Point. But they soon differed. When Johnson called for Lee and other Confederate leaders to be tried for treason, Grant opposed it and threatened to resign; Johnson backed down.

The deeper split was over Reconstruction. Grant wanted reconciliation between North and South, but not at the cost of civil rights for African Americans, a cost Johnson was willing to accept. In 1866–1867 Congress passed laws on civil rights and on governing the former Confederate states over Johnson's vetoes, and the conflict drew General-in-Chief Grant in.

The "Swing Around the Circle"

Before the 1866 midterm elections, Johnson took Grant on his speaking tour, the "Swing Around the Circle," to present him as a supporter of his policies. It backfired. Grant grew disgusted with the president's conduct. "I have never been so tired of anything before as I have been with the political stump speeches of Mr. Johnson," he wrote to his wife, Julia. "I look upon them as a National disgrace." He left the tour, pleading illness, and went back to Washington.

In public Grant stayed above the fray, but privately he told Congressman Elihu Washburne that Reconstruction measures had passed over "one of the most ridiculous veto messages that ever emanated from any President."

Taking over the War Department

Johnson wanted to remove Edwin Stanton as secretary of war, believing him too friendly to Congress's policies. To protect officials like Stanton, Congress had passed, over Johnson's veto, the Tenure of Office Act, which barred the president from removing certain officeholders without the Senate's approval. Johnson decided to test it by removing Stanton and putting Grant in his place until he found a permanent choice.

On August 12, 1867, Grant wrote to Stanton that he had received the president's letter "notifying me of my assignment as Act Sec. of War and directing me to assume those duties at once." For five months Grant was both acting secretary of war and general-in-chief of the armies.

Handing back the keys

The Senate refused to approve Stanton's removal and ordered him reinstated on January 13, 1868. Johnson wanted a court test of the act. Grant faced a hard choice: defy the president and give up the War Department, or defy the Senate, keep the post and risk a fine or prison under the Tenure of Office Act.

He surrendered his keys, and they went back to Stanton. Johnson was furious, believing Grant had acted in bad faith by not warning him first, and realized he could not count on Grant in his fight with Congress. The break was complete.

Both Democrats and Republicans had been sounding Grant out about the presidency. It was clear he opposed Johnson's policies, especially those that restricted the freedom and civil rights of African Americans and fed violence and instability in the South. Grant broke publicly with Johnson, moved into the Republican camp and accepted the party's nomination for president in 1868.

Sources

• National Park Service, Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site, "Ulysses S. Grant is Appointed Secretary of War Ad Interim": https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/ulysses-s-grant-as-appointed-secretary-of-war-ad-interim.htm