The military spirit, which failed in the effort to set aside a fundamental law as if it were a transient order, was more successful at the Executive Mansion, which at once assumed the character of military head-quarters. To the dishonor of the civil service, and in total disregard of precedent, the President surrounded himself with officers of the Army, and substituted military forms for those of civil life, detailing for this service members of his late staff. The earliest public notice of this military occupation appeared in the “Daily Morning Chronicle” of March 8, 1869, understood to be the official organ of the Administration:-- “President Grant was not at the White House yesterday, but the following members of his staff were occupying the Secretaries’ rooms and acting as such: Generals Babcock, Porter, Badeau, and Dent.” This is to be regarded not only in its strange blazonry of the Presidential pretension, but also as the first apparition of that minor _military ring_ in which the President has lived ever since. Thus installed, Army officers became secretaries of the President, delivering his messages to both Houses of Congress, and even authenticating Presidential acts as if they were military orders. Here, for instance, is an official communication:-- EXECUTIVE MANSION, Washington, D. C., March 15, 1869. ROBERT MARTIN DOUGLAS, Esq.: SIR,--You are hereby appointed Assistant Private Secretary to the President, to date from the 15th March, 1869. By order of the President, HORACE PORTER, _Brevet Brigadier-General, Secretary_.[123] Mark the words, “By order of the President,” and then the signature, “Horace Porter, Brevet Brigadier-General, Secretary.” The Presidential pretension which I exhibit on the simple facts, besides being of doubtful legality, to say the least, was of evil example, demoralizing alike to the military and civil service, and an undoubted reproach to republican institutions in that primary principle, announced by Jefferson in his first Inaugural Address, “the supremacy of the civil over the military authority.”[124] It seemed only to remain that the President should sign his Messages, “Commander-in-Chief of the Army of the United States.” Evidently a new order of things had arrived. Observe the mildness of my language, when I call this Presidential pretension “of doubtful legality.” The law shall speak for itself. Obviously it was the same for our military President as for his predecessors, and it was recent also:-- “The President is hereby authorized to appoint a private secretary at an annual salary of $3,500, an assistant secretary at an annual salary of $2,500, a short-hand writer at an annual salary of $2,500, a clerk of pardons at an annual salary of $2,000, and three clerks of the fourth class.”[125]