June 20, 1865---America's coup d'etat

JUNE 20, 1865:        

President Andrew Johnson and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton are confronted in the White House by an enraged Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant.

Grant, who has developed a reputation for dispassion, belies that reputation this day as he lambastes the two men for attempting to prosecute Robert E. Lee and other Confederate leaders for treason.

Grant has already written to the two men regarding the indictment of Robert E. Lee: 

In my opinion the officers and men paroled at Appomattox C.H. and since upon the same terms given to Lee, cannot be tried for treason so long as they observe the terms of their parole.  This is my understanding.  Good faith as well as true policy dictates that we should observe the conditions of that convention.  Bat faith on the part of the Governm’t or a construction of that convention subjecting officers to trial for treason, would produce a feeling of insecurity in the minds of all paroled officers and men.  If so disposed they might even regard such an infraction of terms, by the government as an entire release from all obligation on their part.

I will state further that the terms granted by me met with the hearty approval of the President at the time, and of the country generally.  The action of Judge Underwood in Norfolk has already had an injurious effect, and I would ask that he be ordered to quash all indictments found against paroled prisoners of war, and to desist from further prosecution of them.

Grant’s perceived “sympathy” for Southerners has earned him a command appearance at the White House. President Johnson insisted to General Grant that he wanted “to make treason odious” and insisted that all Confederate parolees face punishment.

Grant became livid, and in a blistering argument with Johnson, said:

I have made certain terms with Lee, the best and only terms.  If I had told him and his army that their liberty would be invaded, that they would be open to arrest, trial, and execution for treason, Lee would never have surrendered, and we should have lost many lives in destroying him.  My terms of surrender were according to military law, and so long as General Lee observes his parole, I will never consent to his arrest.   

Grant angrily told the President that the paroled Confederates were under his protection and that he would do what he must to protect them.

It is unlikely that Grant meant anything more by this than that he would use his good offices as General-in-Chief to thwart any prosecutions, but Johnson was unused to his authority as President being challenged. The irascible Johnson lost his own temper in turn. Scenting a whiff of treason --- even the threat of a coup d’etat --- in Grant’s words, he rose up from behind the Presidential desk, and demanded, “What right does a military commander have to protect an arch-traitor from the laws? Who are you to question the authority of the Executive of the United States?”

Grant retorted that he was the commander of the armies of the United States, still a million strong, and that he would not tolerate the breaking of the Gentlemen’s Agreement of Appomattox. Such a thing, he warned again, could reignite the Civil War:

“I will resign the command of the army rather than execute any order to arrest Lee or any of his commanders so long as they obey the law.”

He added that he had already discussed the matter with General Sherman and his other senior commanders, and that they would all do likewise, effectively decapitating the Armed Forces of the United States.

Johnson knew then that he had been checkmated. The high profile mass resignations of Grant and Sherman and his other Generals and Admirals would throw his Administration into chaos, and the nation with it. The stubborn President sat back down.

“So when can these men be tried?” Johnson asked almost plaintively.  

“Never,” replied Grant.  “Never, unless they violate their parole.”

And with that Grant left the White House. He would return as President in 1869. Although he had never been political, this incident drove a wedge between Grant and Johnson and Stanton (the latter two men would soon have their own acrimonious split), and convinced Grant that the nation was on the wrong course, a course he hoped could be changed. Most historians believe that the General’s political aspirations were born out of this single ugly moment.