Adam Badeau, Grant in peace: from Appomattox to Mount McGregor, a personal memoir

[109] and Grant of course accepted the invitations; his colleagues visited him and he returned the courtesy; all of which produced the impression upon the country which Grant believed that Johnson desired. It gave the appearance of political support of the President's unpopular course; it made many Republicans hostile and provoked the criticism that Grant was a trimmer. Yet all the while he was doing as much as any Republican in the land to further the views that Republicans entertained.

He performed meanwhile all the routine duties of his place with care, and was an excellent Secretary of War. He kept the duties of his two positions distinct, and as Secretary he sometimes gave orders to the General of the Army. He visited both offices daily, spending a few hours in the morning at the War Department, and later in the day repaired to his old headquarters. His staff did not accompany him to the War Department; he was determined to hold the post only ad interim, and to give no appearance of permanency to his enforced acceptance of its functions. The letters to the General of the Army went to one place, and those of the Secretary of War to another. I opened all of the former, as usual, and submitted those that required his attention, as any other officer would have done, in the room of the Secretary of War.

The two buildings were on opposite sides of the same street, and when I went across to see him I always thought he received me with more formality than at other times; but on his return to his headquarters later in the day he threw aside the manner of a Cabinet Minister and was a soldier with his staff, as intimate and unrestrained as ever. I think he always gave me my title when I went to the Secretary of War; but on other occasions he rarely called me anything but ‘Badeau.’ I recollect urging several points upon him at this time which he refused to concede because—so it seemed to me—they belonged peculiarly to the province of