such applications.

The letter of the Attorney-General in response to the resolution of the
Senate in the particular case mentioned in the committee's report was
written at my suggestion and by my direction. There had been no official
papers or documents filed in his Department relating to the case within
the period specified in the resolution. The letter was intended, by its
description of the papers and documents remaining in the custody of the
Department, to convey the idea that they were not official; and it was
assumed that the resolution called for information, papers, and
documents of the same character as were required by the requests and
demands which preceded it.

Everything that had been written or done on behalf of the Senate
from the beginning pointed to all letters and papers of a private and
unofficial nature as the objects of search, if they were to be found in
the Departments, and provided they had been presented to the Executive
with a view to their consideration upon the question of suspension from
office.

Against the transmission of such papers and documents I have
interposed my advice and direction. This has not been done, as is
suggested in the committee's report, upon the assumption on my part that
the Attorney-General or any other head of a Department "is the servant
of the President, and is to give or withhold copies of documents in his
office according to the will of the Executive and not otherwise," but
because I regard the papers and documents withheld and addressed to me
or intended for my use and action purely unofficial and private, not
infrequently confidential, and having reference to the performance of a
duty exclusively mine. I consider them in no proper sense as upon the
files of the Department, but as deposited there for my convenience,
remaining still completely under my control. I suppose if I desired to
take them into my custody I might do so with entire propriety, and if
I saw fit to destroy them no one could complain.

Even the committee in its report appears to concede that there may be
with the President or in the Departments papers and documents which, on
account of their unofficial character, are not subject to the inspection
of the Congress. A reference in the report to instances where the House
of Representatives ought not to succeed in a call for the production of
papers is immediately followed by this statement:

The committee feels authorized to state, after a s