Yale Uiiu8r.it'; Libiaf'i Mihm 39002013686127 :!'1'1:K' ¦';i'i;;|tnjin i.f.ijt.i.- YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Grant in Peace. APPOMATTOX TO MOUNT McGREGOR A PERSONAL MEMOIR. ADAM BADEAU, Brevet Brigadier-General United States Army, Military Secretary and Aide-de-Camp to General Grant, Author of Military History OF Ulysses S. Grant, of Aristocracy in England, and of Conspiracy, a Cuban Romance. HARTFORD, CONN.: S. S. SCRANTON & COMPANY. Philadelphia, Hubbard Bros.; Chicago, C. B. Beach & Co.; St. Louis, N. D. Thompson Publishing Co.; Indianapolis, Robert Douglass ; Boston, W. H. Thompson & Co. ; Syracuse, Watson Gill. 1887. Copyright, 1887. By Adam Badeau. \ Cc ^i.B-i- f 9^y^:^ .^^ CONTENTS. PAGE CHAPTER I. Introductory — Relations of the Author with General Grant, ii CHAPTER n. The Terms at Appomattox, i8 CHAPTER ni. Grant and the South After the 'War, .... 25 CHAPTER IV. Grant and Andrew Johnson — Their Original Concord AND THE Growth of a Different Feeling, . . 32 CHAPTER V. Grant's First Step in Politics, 42 CHAPTER VI. Johnson's Manceuvres, 49 CHAPTER VII. Congressional Reconstruction, 57 CHAPTER VIII. Presidential Obstruction, 64 CHAPTER IX. Continued Conflict between Grant and Johnson^ . . 71 CHAPTER X. Grant and Stanton, 77 CHAPTER XI. Grant, Stanton, and Johnson, 84 (S) 6 CONTENTS. PAGE CHAPTER XII. Grant and Sheridan, 95 CHAPTER XIII. Grant in the Cabinet, io6 CHAPTER XIV. Grant and Sherman, ii6 CHAPTER XV. Grant, Sherman, and Johnson, 124 CHAPTER XVI. The Impeachment of Andrew Johnson, ..... 134 CHAPTER XVII. Grant as a Presidential Candidate, 141 CHAPTER XVIII. President-Elect, 150 CHAPTER XIX. Cabinet-Making, 159 CHAPTER XX. Grant in Society, . .170 CHAPTER XXI. The French in Mexico, 180 CHAPTER XXII. Grant and Seward, 190 CHAPTER XXIII. Grant and Motley 197 CHAPTER XXIV. Grant and Sumner, 210 CHAPTER XXV. Grant and Gladstone, 221 CHAPTER XXVI. Grant and Fish, .231 CONTENTS. CHAPTER XXVII. 7 PAGB Life at the White House, 239 CHAPTER XXVIII. Grant and Hayes, 247 CHAPTER XXIX. Leaving the White House 255 CHAPTER XXX. Grant in England, 263 CHAPTER XXXI. Grant and the Prince of Wales, 272 CHAPTER XXXII. Grant at Windsor, 281 CHAPTER XXXIII. Palace and President, 290 CHAPTER XXXIV. Grant as a Traveler, 297 CHAPTER XXXV. The Wanderings of Ulysses 307 CHAPTER XXXVI. The Third Term, 315 CHAPTER XXXVII. Grant and Garfield, 324 CHAPTER XXXVIII. Grant and Arthur, 334 CHAPTER XXXIX. Grant and Blaine, 342 CHAPTER XL. Grant and Mexico, 348 CHAPTER XLI. The Grants and the Lincolns, 355 o CONTENTS. PAGE CHAPTER XLII. Grant and Logan, 3^5 CHAPTER XLIII. Grant and Hancock 369 CHAPTER XLIV. Grant and Catacazy, 373 CHAPTER XLV. Grant and Sickles, 382 CHAPTER XLVI. Grant and Romero, 391 CHAPTER XLVII. Grant and his Friends, 400 CHAPTER XLVIII. Grant and his Family 407 CHAPTER XLIX. The Last Days of General Grant, .... 416 CHAPTER L. Letters of General Grant to General Badeau, . . 462 CHAPTER LL Miscellaneous Correspondence, 566 CHAPTER LII. Conclusion, ^go ILLUSTRATIONS. The Surrender of Lee, President Elect The Boy Stood on the Burning Deck, . Seward Announclng Victory, Grant Meeting Gladstone, Nellie Grant's Wedding, Grant Receiving English Workingmen, Dining with the Prince of Wales, Grant at Windsor, Dining with the King of the Belgians, Hide and Seek in the Alps, Grant and Garfield Breakfasting, Mr. President : I Want to Marry your Daughter, Falling on the Ice, Grant and Ward Awaiting Death, Death of General Grant, Writing History, Riverside page Frontispiece. 149 175 191 230 243270 276288294 309 328 413 416 419428 461 564 S9I (9) FAC-SIMILES. Page. Extract from Letter of General Grant to General Badeau, referring to his political history, . . 3 Letter of General Lee to Colonel Badeau, ... 24 Two NOTES OF President Johnson to General Grant, . 36 Letter of Secretary Stanton to General Grant, . 48 The Scout's Letter to General Grant, .... 56 Grant's Erased Letter to Stanton, 92-93 Extract from Letter of General Sheridan to General Badeau, 100 Note, of Mrs. Lincoln to General Grant, . . . 361 Extract from Letter of General Sherman to General Badeau, 589 (10) GRANT IN PEACE. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY-RELATIONS OF THE WRITER WITH GENERAL GRANT. GENERAL GRANT did his country quite as indispen sable and efficient service during the years immedi ately after the Civil War as in the field ; a service often un known to the world, or to more than a very few of the actors, or nearest observers of the time. I propose to tell the story of the part of which I was a personal witness, or in regard to which I can bear peculiar testimony. I shall treat his relations with the most prominent persons of the epoch, set ting forth his opinions of them and his feelings toward them, and lift the veil from events of importance to history, or to the understanding of Grant's character and influence. I propose also to make known some of the circumstances of his Presidency and later career which have not hitherto been disclosed. General Grant always knew that I contemplated writing his political history, and approved the intention. He prom ised me all the assistance he could give in its preparation, and refused his sanction to others who proposed a similar task. During his last illness, when it became certain that his military memoir would be widely read, I urged him to attempt himself a political volume, and he consented to do so if I would aid him. The chapters I now offer will include material that would have formed part of such a memoir, whether it had been written by himself or had remained my work, supervised and corrected by General Grant. To this (II) 12 GRANT IN PEACE. I shall add personal details too delicate to have been sub mitted to their subject, or to have been given to the world during his lifetime. My relations with General Grant began in May, 1863. On the 5th of that month, immediately after crossing the Mississippi River in the Vicksburg campaign, he requested my appointment to duty on his staff. He had never seen me at the time, and made the application on the recommend ation of General James H. Wilson, his inspector-general. I was then a captain serving on the staff of General T. W. Sherman, in Banks's campaign against^ Port Hudson. My orders did not reach me till the 27th of May, just as the assault on Port Hudson was beginning. I was wounded in that assault, and unable to report to General Grant in person until the following February. I thus first saw him at Nashville, where he had established his headquarters, after the battle of Chattanooga. Our relations at once became more than cordial. I was still on crutches, and he gave me a desk in his own room at headquarters, threw open his entire official correspondence to me, and delighted from the first to tell me all the details of his battles and campaigns. The bill creating the grade of . lieutenant-general was then before Congress, and I had carried messages to him presaging its success. He dis cussed the subject freely, told me he felt no anxiety for the promotion, and would take no step to secure it ; but, if it came, he would do his best to fulfill the higher duties it im posed. If otherwise, he would neither be disappointed nor in any way less devoted to the cause he served. On the 3d of March he was ordered to Washington, and on the nth assumed command of the armies of the United States. He. at once assigned me to duty as military secre tary, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel on his staff. I remained with him in this capacity till the end of the war • went through the Wilderness campaign and the sie^c of INTRODUCTORY. 13 Richmond by his side, and was present at the fall of Peters burg and the surrender of Lee. During the next four years, those of the administration of Andrew Johnson, I was his confidential secretary and aide-de-camp. I opened all his letters, answered many that were seen by no other man, and necessarily knew his opinions on most subjects closely and intimately. Wherever he went at this time I accompanied him. In his tour through the South after the close of the war, in his visit to Canada, his journey over the entire North, which was one long triumphal procession ; his stay at his little Galena home ; during the stormy days of Reconstruc tion and the struggle between Congress and the President ; at the time of the removal of Stanton ; the impeachment of Johnson ; the attempt to send General Grant out of the country; in the Presidential campaign of 1868; down to the preparations for his first administration, I was constantly in his society and confidence. Enjoying these opportunities for knowing the man, and engaged at the time in writing his military history, I natu rally took to studying his peculiar characteristics. For a long while he was just as much of an enigma to me as to the rest of the world. The apparent absence of vanity, of ambition, of pride in his success, of selfishness, was so com plete and so unusual in a man who had achieved such success, that I could not at first comprehend him. I soon, however, grew into a profound affection for him, which, enhanced by my admiration for his achievements, became the paramount feeling of my life. All my object and ambition were to help build up or illustrate his fame. He appreciated this regard and, I thought, returned it with a warmth that he did not often display. He allowed me to say things to him that few men say to each other, and at last he permitted me to see beneath the veil that con cealed the mystery from mankind. I found him a man like other men, with feelings as profound as those of the most 14 GRANT IN PEACE. passionate, but with a power of concealing them almost with out example. His reserve, however, was natural in part, as well as in part the result of intention. At times there was a positive inability to reveal emotion, a sort of inarticulate undemonstrativeness as far as possible from stolidity. He had few affections, but these were intense ; he did not hate many, but he could be implacable. He was not what is usually called ambitious, but after he had been long in power he was not insensible to the sweets of possession, and was decidedly averse to relinquishing what he had enjoyed. He was not vain, but he knew his own qualities, and, though he had the faculty of receiving adulation with a greater appearance of equanimity than any other human being I have known, he was not indifferent to the recogni tion of the world or the praises of his friends. He who never betrayed on that imperturbable countenance that he relished the plaudits of the multitude has told me often with delicious frankness afterward of the compliments he had received ; he who seemed so careless of censure or criticism — after some little attempt at a speech of four or five lines, has looked around shyly as he sat down, and whispered : "Was that all right .¦"" The disclosure is no betrayal of his confidence, now that his modesty can no longer be pained. It cannot but make his calm and stalwart nature still more interesting to know that it covered the ordinary softnesses of humanity. The living, breathing man is nearer to us than the statue of stone or unreal demi-god. The Grant that I knew was full of human nature. He had his weaknesses, but they made him more lovable sometimes to those who found them out ; he had his faults, but to deny this would be to deny that he was mortal. I took a great delight in studying, not only his moral, but his intellectual qualities. He was not in the least a critic by nature ; especially he was not introspective. But he was so sure of me that he was willing for me to explore his INTRODUCTORY. 1 5 nature, confident that I could find little to depreciate and noth ing to dishonor him. I used to ask him how he came to do cer tain notable things, how the idea of some battle or campaign had been inspired or evolved in his mind, how he felt in a famous emergency ; and he always tried to answer me. He was curious himself when I suggested the inquiry. It had never occurred to him to examine himself in this way, and he was not an expert ; but he would tell me all that he could remember or understand. And I always found the same simple, unaffected nature underlying all. If he was unfair, and he was at times, he did not know it ; he did not intend to be so. If his likes or dislikes affected his judgment, and they did, undoubtedly, it was unconsciously to himself ; and he always wanted to atone for a wrong when he was convinced that he had inflicted one. But it was diffi cult to convince him. It is, however, the intellectual side of him that is less understood. I never saw anything more curious than his intellectual growth. His faculties had never been exercised upon any large matters, or on any large scale until the war ; then they expanded in the eminently practical career of a soldier. All his niilitary greatness came of the plainest possible qualities, developed to an astounding degree. The clearness of his judgment, the control of his emotions, his quick insight into a subject, his large grasp, his determined will — these are faculties that any one might possess in an ordinary measure without exciting wonder, but these he carried into the most extraordinary circumstances, and ap plied on the grandest possible theatre. Notwithstanding all this, until the close of the war he had met few great men except soldiers, he had studied few great events except mili tary ones, he knew few great subjects or situations, except battles and marches and sieges and campaigns. When he went to Washington and was thrown into con tact with men trained in the political and social arena, at first 1 6 GRANT IN PEACE. he was very shy. He did not like the atmosphere ; he was not at home in it. He avoided the world, so far as he, at the core and the top of the world, could avoid it. He disliked politics and society, but soon perceived that his duty and his position threw him into both politics and society, and though he never seemed to be observing, he watched closely. He very soon conformed to etiquettes which at first had been, not only unfamiliar, but distasteful. He learned to under stand the ways of men — and women — long used to arts and artifices. He never himself became a skillful simulator, but he could dissimulate as well as any man that ever lived ; that is, he could prevent all but those who were absolutely closest to him, and sometimes these, from penetrating further than he wished into his thoughts or purposes or desires. I had not seen him for several years when he visited Europe, and I was very much struck, at that time, with the growth and breadth of his intellect. I was with him at the tables of kings ; I saw him in the company of the greatest European statesmen ; at more than one brilliant court ; and he rose to an equality that the foremost recognized. On his return to America, I was again very much with him, almost, if possible, in a closer intimacy than ever before, and I was convinced that he had learned profoundly by his experience of the Presidency and his wonderful journey around the world. I saw him almost to the last, in his grim struggle with the greatest of all foes, and then too I recognized that the massive qualities of the man, though on so grand a scale, were after all, very human — the simple, natural traits that he shared with us all. He was a typical man, with his faults and virtues, only surpassing the rest by his achievements and his developed powers. It is my intention to narrate the incidents and describe the conduct which produced in me this idea of General Grant. INTRODUCTORY. 17 The following letter refers to my plan of writing General Grant's political history : GENERAL GRANT TO GENERAL BADEAU. Naples, Dec. 18, '77. My Dear General, — Your letter and enclosed chapter of history were received here on our arrival yesterday. I have read the chapter and find no comments to make. It is, no doubt, as correct as history can be written, " except when you speak about me." I am glad to see you are progressing so well. Hope Vol. II. will soon be complete, and that the book will find large sale. No doubt but Governor Fish will take great pleasure in aiding you in your next book. He has all the data, so far as his own department was concerned. It was his habit to sum up the pro ceedings of each day before leaving his office, and to keep that information for his private perusal. To-day we ascend Mt. Vesuvius, to-morrow visit Pompeii and Herculaneum. About Saturday, the 22d, start for Palermo, thence to Malta, where we will probably spend the 25th. From there we go to Alexandria and up the Nile. That is about as far as I have definitely planned, but think on our return from the Nile we will go to Joppa, and visit Jerusalem from there ; possibly Damascus and other points of interest also, and take the ship again at Bey- rout. The next point will be Smyrna, then Constantinople. I am beginning to enjoy traveling, and if the money holds out, or if Consolidated Virginia mining stock does, I will not be back to the Eastern States for two years yet. Should they — the stocks — run down on my hands, and stop dividends, I should be compelled to get home the nearest way. Jesse is entirely well and himself again, and enjoys his travels under these changed conditions very much. I wrote a letter to Porter a good while ago, but have received no answer yet. Very truly yours, U. S. Grant. CHAPTER IL THE TERMS AT APPOMATTOX. THE terms at Appomattox were neither dictated by the Government, nor suggested by Mr. Lincoln, nor in spired by any subordinate. Early in March, 1 864, the Ad ministration had positively prohibited General Grant from attempting to settle or even discuss the conditions of peace ; and at the interview between Mr. Lincoln and the commis sioners sent out from Richmond in February Grant was not permitted to be present. There was a determination on the part of Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Stanton to exclude the military authorities altogether from the final settlement, after sub mission should be secured. During Mr. Lincoln's stay at City Point, prior to the final movements of the war, he had many conversations with Grant, but said nothing to indicate definitely what steps he intended to take at the close. Those steps were probably uncertain in his own mind,^for, like all sagacious statesmen, he left much to be determined by circumstances as they might arise. Even after the fall of Petersburg, when the end of the war was evidently at hand, when Mr. Lincoln came up and conferred for an hour or two with Grant in the captured town, there was no definite line laid down for the head of the army. Grant only knew the general magnanimity of the President's views and his dis position toward clemency. I make this statement from his own positive declarations. So, also, it is within my knowledge that no subordinate however great or however near, either knew or suggested (18) THE TERMS AT APPOMATTOX. jg in advance the terms that Grant would impose on Lee. This fact he has repeatedly stated to me. Matters of such consequence he never decided until the moment for decision came, and he never in his life arranged the details of any mat ter until it was presented to him for actual determination. Thus, untilhe knew that he had the remains of the army of Lee within his grasp, he did not reduce to form, even in his own mind, the exact conditions upon which he would allow it to surrender. He had indeed long felt that when the war was ended there should be no vindictive policy toward the van quished, and he informed Lee at once when they met that he meant to accept paroles; but the important final provi sion, that which gives all its peculiar character to the capit ulation, was unstudied, and its language spontaneous. Yet the language is as precise as words can make it, and enun ciates a policy which has done as much as victory itself to secure the results of the war. " Each officer and man will be allowed to return to his home, iiot to be disturbed by United States authority so long as they observe their paroles and the laws in force where they reside." The terms, however, were not in the least the result of chance, or carelessness, or indifference. They were the legitimate outgrowth of Grant's judgment and feeling; the consequence of all that had gone before ; embodied then for the first time, because then for the first time the necessity for the embodiment had arrived. In this way Grant always did his greatest things. It may be strange or inexplicable, but he could not often explain his methods, nor, indeed, always his reasons. He had at this moment no defined large views about separating the military from the civil power, far less any intent of encroaching on the domain or prerogative of politics. He did not even, like Sherman, take into consid eration the fate or condition of other forces of the enemy, although he was General-in-Chief ; he confined himself strictly 20 GRANT IN PEACE. to the business before him — the disbanding and dispersion of Lee's army. He wanted to secure that neither that army nor any of its members could ever again resist or confront the national authority; and when this was determined he was unwilling to inflict on one of those members a single unnecessary humiliation or suffering. He was, I am sure, unconscious of any special magnanimity in this course. He thought nothing of himself, and little as yet of the far-reach ing effect of his terms on the population of the South. What his hand found to do, it did, and no more ; in peace as well as in war. The corroboration of all this is the fact that the idea of allowing the officers to retain their sidearms and personal effects was suggested to him as he wrote. He wore no sword, having been summoned hastily from his own head quarters two days before to a distant portion of the field, with no opportunity of returning afterward. Lee, however, had dressed himself with care for the ceremony. His headquar ters' train had been burned by Sheridan in the pursuit, and Lee and his officers, able to save only a single suit of clothes, had secured the finest. In this way Lee was handsomely clad; he wore embroidered gauntlets and the sword pre sented to him by the ladies of Virginia. The conqueror, battle-stained, in a common soldier's coat, looked up at his foe, elaborately arrayed, and the glitter of the rebel weapon suggested to him to spare the conquered the humiliation of surrendering it. Then he wrote the line permitting officers to retain their side-arms, horses, and personal effects. This statement has been questioned, but I give it on General Grant's authority. He examined and corrected the account of the interview in my history of his campaigns. I stood near him as Lee left the room, and thus hapjDcned to be the first to congratulate him upon the result. I said something about the event being one that would live forever in history. I am sure the idea had not occurred to him until THE TERMS AT APPOMATTOX. 21 I uttered it The effect upon his fame, upon history, was not what he was considering. Fie was thinking of the cap tured soldiery returning home without their weapons, to work their little farms; of a destitute country, ravaged by law, but now to be restored. I talked with him that night when the others, tired with the marches and battles of the week, had gone to such beds as the camp provided. I had been used to sit up with him late into the night, to write his letters or to keep him com pany, for he could not sleep early. Then he always talked with greater freedom than at any other time. This night we spoke of the terms he had granted Lee. There were some of his officers who disliked the idea of the paroles, and thought at least the highest of the rebels should have been differently dealt with — held for trial. This was not my feel ing, and I spoke of the effect his magnanimity was sure to have upon the country and the world. He was not averse to listen, and declared that he meant to maintain the compact no matter who opposed. But Lincoln, he said, was certain to be on his side. The next day he met Lee again at the picket lines be tween the armies, and the two generals sat on their horses and discussed the condition of the South for hours, in sight of their soldiers. Lee assured Grant of the profound im pression the stipulations of the surrender had made upon his army, and declared that the entire South would respond to the clemency he had displayed. Scores of the captured offi cers had already visited Grant, many of them his comrades at West Point, in the Mexican war, or on the Indian fron tier, and thanked him for their swords, their liberty, and the immunity from civil prosecution which he had secured them. Later on the same day he set out for Washington. Gen eral Ord accompanied him as far as City Point, and then was directed to take command in the captured capital. Ord shared the feeling I had expressed in regard to the treat- 22 GRANT IN PEACE. ment of the fallen enemy, and learning my views he asked that I might be ordered to accompany him to represent the General-in-Chief directly in Richmond, and to report famil iarly and confidentially what could hardly be the subject of official letters. Grant was accustomed to employ his staff- officers on such errands and he complied at once with Ord's request. He informed me in a private conversation of the purpose of my orders. Ord's task, he said, was to foster a submissive spirit among the conquered population and sol diers, and to carry out the lenient policy which the terms at Appomattox had foreshadowed, and I was to assist him in every way. I was to be given duties that would lead me into contact with Southerners of importance, and among other tasks that of distributing food to the destitute was committed to me. In Richmond, at that time, every one was destitute, and when General Lee arrived from Appomattox I had learned the condition of the city, and sent at once to inquire if I could furnish him and his staff with supplies. He re plied by an aide-de-camp that he was greatly obliged, and did not know what he should have done had the oEer not been made. He wanted, indeed, to sell his horses, both to obtain money and because he had no forage. There was only one way in which the food could be supplied. Congress had pro vided for such emergencies : printed tickets were prescribed, on the presentation of which what was called the " destitute ration " was furnished. A ticket for a destitute ration was accordingly made out for General Robert E. Lee and staff. When I was returning to Washington Lee requested me to ask of Grant whether the soldiers captured at Sailor's Creek, four days before the final battle, might not be released on the terms granted to their fellows at Appomattox. There were 7,000 of these, among them General Custis Lee, a son of the Southern commander. But Grant considered that men taken in battle with arms in their hands were not as yet en titled to the same treatment with those who had surrendered THE TERMS AT APPOMATTOX. 23 in the open field ; for, it must be remembered, he held that he had been fighting rebels. Accordingly the men were not paroled at that time. Nevertheless, the terms which he refused to extend in one instance he was prompt to temper to changed conditions in another. In the summer of 1866, a daughter of General Lee fell dangerously ill in North Carolina. Lee was then living at Lexington, in Virginia, and supposed that his parole did not allow him to leave his home, even to visit a dying child. I learned the fact and reported it to Grant, who at once directed me to enclose a formal extension of his parole to Lee, but to state that at this late day he did not consider the extension necessary. General Lee acknowledged the ob ligation in the following letter : Lexington, Va., August 3, 1866. Colonel, — I Have had the honor to receive your letter of the 26th ult., enclosing an extension of the limits of my parole. I am very much obliged to the General Commanding the armies of the United States for his kind consideration. I am unable to visit North Carolina, and therefore did not think proper to apply for the favor granted. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, R. E. Lee. Colonel Adam Badeau, Military Secretary. This was the last communication between the two great adversaries growing out of the war. „ - _-- .36UJi7Si put/^ C^^ ,d^J-> c:^^^_^ CHAPTER III. GRANT AND THE SOUTH AFTER THE WAR. THE policy initiated at Appomattox was steadily main tained by Grant. He became no more vindictive after the murder of Lincoln, nor did he shrink from the applica tion of his own principles because they were carried further by Sherman than he thought advisable. The new President was anxious to treat " traitors " harshly ; he disliked the paroles that Grant had accorded to Lee and his soldiers, and steps were soon taken with his approval to procure the indictment of Lee for treason. General Lee at once ap pealed to General Grant. His first communication was ver bal, and was made through Mr. Reverdy Johnson, who acted as the legal adviser of Lee ; he came to see me to learn Grant's feeling. I ascertained that Grant was firm in his determination to stand by his own terms, and so informed Mr. Johnson. Grant, however, thought that Lee should go through the form of applying for pardon, in order to indicate his complete submission. Lee, though entirely willing to make the application, was anxious to be assured in advance that Grant would formally approve it. General Ord, then in command in Richmond, made known this feeling of Lee to Grant, through General Ingalls, and Grant directed me to assure Mr. Reverdy Johnson of his readiness to indorse Lee's application favorably. Accordingly Lee forwarded two papers of the same date, one an application for pardon in the prescribed form, and the other a statement of the proposed indictment and of his own belief that he was pro- (25) 26 GRANT IN PEACE. tected against such action by his parole. Grant indorsed both of these documents, the first with an earnest recom mendation that the pardon should be granted, the second with a distinct declaration that the officers and men paroled at Appomattox could not be tried for treason so long as they observed the terms of their paroles. He went in person to discuss these papers with the Pres ident. But Andrew Johnson was not satisfied ; he wanted, he said, " to make treason odious." "When can these men be tried?" he asked. " Never," said Grant, " unless they violate their paroles." The President still insisted, and his Attorney-General wrote an official letter opposing Grant's contention. Finally Grant declared that he would resign his commission in the army unless the terms he had granted were confirmed. I remember well the day when this occurred. He returned from the Cabinet chamber to his own headquarters and described the interview. When he recited his language he added : " And I will keep my word. I will not stay in the army if they break the pledges that I made." Then the resolution of the President gave way, for he found a will more stubborn, or at least more potent with the people, than his own, and orders were issued to discontinue the proceedings against Lee. The great antagonists met only once after the scenes at Appomattox Court House. It was in May, 1869, soon after the first inauguration of Grant. Lee was in Washington about some business connected with railroads, and thought it his duty to call on the President. He was received in the Cab inet chamber when no one was present but Mr. Motley, who had been recently appointed Minister to England. General Grant and Motley both described the interview to me. Mot ley said both men were simple and dignified, but he thought there' was a shade of constraint in the manner of Lee, who GRANT AND THE SOUTH AFTER THE 'WAR. 27 was indeed always inclined to be more formal than the Northern general. The former enemies shook hands ; Grant asked Lee to be seated, and presented Motley. The inter view was short, and all that Grant could remember afterward was that they spoke of building railroads, and he said play fully to Lee : " You and I, General, have had more to do with destroy ing railroads than building them.'' But Lee refused to smile, or to recognize the railleiry. He went on gravely with the conversation, and no other reference was made to the past. Lee soon arose, and the soldiers parted, not to meet again until their mighty shades saluted each other in that region where conquerors and con quered alike lay down their arms. Scores of Southern officers besides Lee applied to Grant for protection, and literally hundreds of civilians who wished to avail themselves of the amnesty requested his favorable indorsement. It was my duty to examine these applications and lay them before him ; and seldom indeed was one re fused. General J. Kirby Smith, in command west of the Mississippi, did not surrender with the other armies in re bellion, and even when his forces yielded he fled to Mexico. But in a month or two he wrote to Grant, applying to be placed on the same footing with those who had surrendered earlier. Grant thereupon obtained the assurance of the President that if Smith would return and take the prescribed oath, he should be treated exactly as if he had surrendered and been paroled. In September, 1865, Alexander Stephens, the Vice-Pres ident of the Southern Confederacy, appealed to General Grant in the following letter from Fort Warren in Boston Harbor, where he was imprisoned, asking for his release on parole or bail. This was soon afterward granted. 28 GRANT IN PEACE. Fort Warren, Boston Harbor, Mass., 1_ i6th Sept., 1865. ) Lieutenant-General U. S. Grant, Washington, D. C. . Dear Sir, — The apology for this letter, as well as its explana tion, is to be found in the facts herein briefly presented. I am now in confinement in this place and have been since the 2Sth of May last. Efforts are being made by friends to have me released on parole as others, arrested as I was, have been. You will excuse me for saying that I think I am as justly entitled to discharge on parole as many of those to whom I allude. No man I think in the Southern States exerted his powers to a greater extent than I did to avert the late lamentable troubles of our country — no man strove harder or more earnestly to mitigate the evils and sufferings of war while it lasted, and to bring about a peaceful solution of the difficulties than I did — no man is less responsible for the beginning or continuance of the strife, with all its horrors, than I am ¦ — and no man living can more earnestly desire a speedy res toration of peace, harmony, and prosperity, throughout the country than I do. All these things I think I can assert of myself. But of my views and feelings under a very different aspect of affairs from what now exists you are not altogether uninformed. You had them very fully expressed at City Point last February. You re ported them very correctly in your telegram from that place to the Secretary of War — upon that telegram the conference at Hamp ton Roads was granted. When I parted with you on my return from that conference, I assured you, as you may recollect, that while nothing definite had been accomplished, yet I was in hopes that good would come of it. Such was my hope and earnest desire. No one could have been more disappointed, mortified, and chagrined, at the result of his labors, in any undertaking than I was at the result of mine in that instance. I refer to this inter view between us not only because of its pleasant reminiscences of a personal character, but as proof within your own knowledge of some things stated above in regard to my views and feelings at that time. The object of this letter, therefore, is simply to ask you, if entirely compatible with your own inclination, to lend the great weight of your name and influence with the President the GRAXT AND THE SOUTH AFTER THE WAR. 20 Secretary of War, and tlie Secretary of State, for my release on parole. I have applied to the President for pardon and amnesty, but if he for any reason feels disposed to postpone the decision of that matter I am perfectl}- content. ¦\Miat I desire mainly is a release from imprisonment on parole as others, or on bail if it should be required. In no event would I attempt to avoid a pros ecution or trial if it should be thought proper for any considera tions to adopt such a course toward me. I wish a release from imprisonment on account both of my health and private affairs. I might add that I think I could render some service in restoring harmony to the country ; that, however, I leave for others to con sider. JNIy case and request are briefly submitted to you. Act in the premises as your sense of duty may direct. Yours most respectfull}', Alexander H. Stephens. In December of the same year Mrs. Jefferson Davis ap plied to Grant by letter, and in May, 1866, she went in per son to Washington to ask his influence in procuring a remis sion of some of the penalties imposed upon her husband, and Grant did use his influence, not indeed to obtain the release of the prisoner, but to mitigate the hardships of his confine ment. INIrs. Davis's letter and messages were conveyed through me ; the letter was full of respect for the conqueror, acknowledgments of his clemency, and touching appeals for further mercy. "All know you ever," she said, "as good as well as great, merciful as well as brave." " Make me," she concluded, "your respectful friend." The vindictive feeling of President Johnson continued for months, and only Grant's interposition preserved the good faith of the Government, or rescued many, civilians as well as soldiers, from imprisonment and pecuniary ruin ; for he urged the restoration of their property as well as the remission of personal penalties. In consequence there grew up toward Grant a remarkable feeling at the South. I 30 GRANT IN PEACE. accompanied him in November, 1865, when he made a tour through Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee, to investigate and report upon the condition and feeling of the population. Everywhere he was received with the greatest respect by those who had regarded him the jear before as the chief of their adversaries. The Governors of States and Mayors of cities instantly called on him ; the most prominent soldiers and private citizens paid their respects. State Legislatures invited him to their chambers, suspended their sessions, and rose to greet him formally as he entered. The man who had done most to subdue the South was universally recognized as its protector and savior from further suffering. This feeling was not purely personal. It contributed to create a loyal and submissive disposition. On the i8th of December, at the conclusion of his tour. Grant reported to the President that " the mass of thinking men of the South accepted the situation in good faith " ; and while he recom mended that a strong military force should still be retained in the Southern States, he declared his belief that "the citi zens of that region are anxious to return to self-government within the Union as soon as possible." This document Charles Sumner denounced in the Senate as a "whitewash ing" report. The statesman did not concur with the con queror in believing the South subdued. Before long Sumner was in favor of remitting restrictions which Grant wished to retain. For General Grant believed that the feeling of the South after this epoch underwent a change ; and in consequence his judgment changed as to the treatment the South should receive. But his sentiment at the close of the war is better expressed in a letter he wrote to Mrs. Grant than in any formal document. On the 24th of April, 1865, General Grant arrived at Sherman's headquarters in North Carolina, having been sent from Washington by the government to annul the conven- GRANT AND THE SOUTH AFTER THE WAR. ,1 tion between Sherman and Johnston. He at once directed Sherman to discontinue all civil negotiations and demand the surrender of Johnston on the same terms that had been allowed to Lee. While he waited for Johnston's reply, Grant wrote the following letter to his wife, which Mrs. Grant gave me as a relic twenty years ago : Headquarters Military Division of the Mississippi. \ In the Field, Raleigh, April 25, 1865. ) Dear Julia, — We arrived here yesterday, and as I expected to return to-day, did not intend to write until I returned. Now, however, matters have taken such a turn that I suppose Sherman will finish up matters by to-morrow night and I shall wait to see the result. Raleigh is a very beautiful place. The grounds are large and filled with the most beautiful spreading oaks I ever saw. Nothing has been destroyed, and the people are anxious to see peace restored, so that further devastation need not take place in the country. The suffering that must exist in the South the next year, even with the war ending now, will be beyond conception. People who talk of further retaliation and punishment, except of the political leaders, either do not conceive of the suffering endured already or they are heartless and unfeeling and wish to stay at home out of danger while the punishment is being inflicted. Love and kisses for you and the children. TJlys. This letter was written eleven days after the assassina tion of Lincoln. Grant disapproved of Sherman's terms as absolutely as Stanton or the President ; he had just revoked all negotiations for civil conditions, and insisted on the abso lute military submission of the enemy ; but he was full of pity for the people of the South, and had only harsh rebuke for the rancor that would inflict further suffering. He turned from war and its horrors to the spreading oaks of Raleigh for relief, and while waiting the answer to his inexorable summons sent love and kisses to his wife and " the children." CHAPTER IV. GRANT AND ANDREW JOHNSON-THEIR ORIGINAL CONCORD AND THE GROWTH OF A DIFFERENT FEELING. FOR a while after the death of Lincoln the relations between the new President and Grant were of the most cordial character. The only point of difference was in regard to the treatment of the South. At first the vic torious General was far more inclined to leniency than Johnson. But by degrees the President's feeling became mitigated, and by the winter of 1865 he was already more disposed to be the political partisan of the Southerners than the ally of those who had elected him. He had conceived the idea that without the aid of Congress he could recon struct the Union ; and doubtless believed that by making extraordinary advances and offering extraordinary immuni ties to the South, he could build up a national party at both the North and the South of which he would necessarily be the head. The great popularity of Grant at this period made it important to win him over to the support of the enterprise. Grant was unused to the arts of placemen and politicians, and indeed unversed in any manoeuvres except those of the field. He still retained his magnanimous sentiment toward the conquered, and was at first in no way averse to what he supposed were the President's views. He protested against the harsh measures advised by many Northerners and was far more in accord with Johnson than with Stanton. (32) GRANT AND ANDREW JOHNSON. ,, The Democrats claimed him; the Republicans distrusted him. General Richard Taylor came to me about this time and proposed that Grant should become the candidate of the Democratic party in the next Presidential election, promis ing the support of the South in a mass if it was allowed to vote. James Brooks, then the leader of the Democrats in the House of Representatives, made similar overtures, also through me. Brooks was my intimate personal friend ; he always predicted that Grant would be ' the next President, and he was avowedly anxious to secure him for the Demo crats. I invariably told my chief whatever I learned that could affect or interest him, no matter what the source, and I conveyed these messages to Grant. He sent no reply, nor did he indicate either satisfaction or displeasure at the sug gestion. At that time he had no strong political bias, and, I believe, no political ambition. Both were slow of develop ment, though both came at last. When Mr. Johnson proposed in November that Grant should make a tour of the South and report the condition and feeling of the people, the General-in-Chief was entirely willing. He performed the journey and reported in accord ance with the expectations of the President, but very much to the disgust of ardent and bitter Republicans, who were destined afterward to claim him as their representative and chief. When Congress met in December the policy of the Presi dent had been fully developed, and up to that time had not been opposed by Grant. Johnson, without any authority of law, had appointed Governors in the seceded States and allowed their Legislatures to assemble ; he had even exacted changes in their constitutions — all without the sanction or advice of Congress. He had refused to call Congress together, and as that body was without the power to summon itself before the ordinary time, this left him from April to December at liberty to prosecute his plans. Grant thought 3 34 GRANT IN PEACE. it would have been wiser had the President convoked Con gress and taken its advice ; but he held himself to be merely a military officer, and was unwilling to intrude into civil affairs. He had not been consulted in regard to the policy of the President, and as Congress was not summoned, and some system of reconstruction was indispensable, he acqui esced in the action of his superior. But he always main tained that the action was provisional ; that Congress, as the representative of the people, must eventually decide what should be done, and to that decision all must bow. I fre quently heard him express this view. During the winter, however, the President and Congress came to an open rupture. Grant had striven to prevent this. He felt the necessity of harmony between the two branches of the Government at so critical a juncture, and he used all the weight and influence which his achievements gave to bring about this harmony. But the President was obstinate, and Congress entirely disapproved his plan and reversed his proceedings. Mr. Johnson maintained that as soon as any State had formally acquiesced in the abolition of slavery its representatives should be readmitted to Congress with all the power they held before seceding. But grave objections were offered to such a course. The Constitution had origin ally provided that the number of representatives should be apportioned to the population, adding in each State to the number of the free three-fifths of those not free. By this arrangement, though the slaves did not vote, the masters had the benefit of their numbers. The anomaly had been one of the original compromises of the Constitution. But the entire Southern population was now free, and would therefore be included in the basis for representation, though still the freedmen had no vote ; so that emancipation actu ally increased very largely the number of representatives to which the South under the Constitution was entitled. To this Congress would not agree ; but Mr. Johnson insisted GRANT AND ANDREW JOHNSON. 35 that the States which had revolted should be received back into the Union with their political power increased as the result of the war. Besides this, he wished to exact no guar antees for the payment of the war debt of the nation or the repudiation of that of the South. He claimed the right to pardon every man engaged in the Rebellion at his own indi vidual will, and he took no care to protect the emancipated millions. On all these points Congress was at issue with him. Their differences extended to the entire nation. The encouragement given by the Executive not unnaturally awoke in the South a desire to recover its old ascendency. The leaders perceived and accepted their opportunity. They of course became the partisans of Johnson and assumed a very different tone from that they had maintained immedi ately after the war, while the Northern people were pro voked, fearing to lose what had been won at so much cost. Grant tried for a while to hold the balance between the two parties. He strove to preserve his original magnanimity of feeling, and never swerved from the doctrine that the officers of the Southern army were exempt from punishment for military acts committed during the war. He angered many Northern friends by his insistence on this point. But he rebuked what he deemed the offensive tone of the South ern press, and suspended newspapers that made themselves especially obnoxious. He refused to permit the reorganiza tion of the State militia at the South. He never forgot that a mighty war had just closed, and that he was dealing with those who had been the nation's enemies. Up to this time his position had been exclusively mili tary ; but the situation developed in him a political vision and compelled political action. Both parties to the contest wanted to use the prestige of his name ; both laid their arguments before him and sought to secure his support. The President was full of devices and schemes not always „ Washington, D. C, Oct. 18, 1866. i" Dear General, — Yesterday the President sent for me and in the course of conversation asked if there was any objection to you coming to this city for a few days. I replied, of course, that there was not. I wish, therefore, that you would make your arrangements to come on with me from Cincinnati after the meet ing of the " Society of the Army of the Tennessee." The Pres ident showed me a letter which you wrote to him about the ist of February, the contents of which you will remember, and stated that some people had advised its publication and asked my advice. GRANT AND ANDREW JOHNSON. 4I I told him very frankly that military men had no objection to the publication of their views as expressed upon official matters prop erly brought before them, but that they did not like expressions of theirs which are calculated to array thera on one or other side of antagonistic political parties to be brought before the pub lic. That such a course would make or was calculated to make a whole party array itself in opposition to the officer and would weaken his influence for good. I cannot repeat the language used by me, but I gave him to understand that I should not like such a use of a letter from me, nor did not think you would. Taking the whole conversation together, and what now appears in the papers, I am rather of the opinion that it is the desire to have you in Washington either as Acting Secretary of War, or in some other way. I will not venture in a letter to say all I think about the matter, or that I would say to you in person. When you come to Washington I want you to stay with me, and if you bring Mrs. Sherman and some of the children, we will have room for all of you. Yours truly, U. S. Grant. To Major-General W. T. Sherman, St. Louis, Mo CHAPTER V. GRANT'S FIRST STEP IN POLITICS. GRANT'S first political step was taken when John son's plan of reconstruction was rejected by the North. The rejection had been complete. Not only was the consti tutional amendment which Johnson opposed accepted by every Northern State, but a Congress antagonistic to the President's views was returned by overwhelming majorities. Now Grant was in some respects as absolute a democrat as ever lived. He believed implicitly in the rule of the people: when they pronounced, he submitted. He had taken no decided stand up to this time, but when the will of those who had won in the war was definitely known, he declared that their decision should be accepted. Johnson, however, had no idea of submitting. At the beginning he may have undertaken his enterprise with patri otic motives, but he persisted after it was plain, not only that he was opposing those who had been his political allies, and had placed him in the Executive chair, but that he was offending the sentiment of the faithful North. Very few supported him after the elections except those who had been hostile to the Union in the moment of its peril. Grant had, therefore, a double reason for disapproving Johnson's course; not only the deliberate decision of the people was against the President, but the voice of the vast majority of Union men had reached their leader. Johnson, nevertheless, remained as determined as ever. He had appealed to the people, but he refused to abide by (42) GRANT'S FIRST STEP IN POLITICS. 43 the result of the appeal. The amendment was still to be submitted to the Southern States, and every effort was made by the Administration to induce them to reject it. They were assured that the North would recede from its position if they held out; that the present feeling was temporary, and the President's policy in the end must prevail. Grant, on the other hand, now took a decided stand in recommend ing submission. He felt that he stood in such a position be fore the country, almost representing the Union sentiment, that it became his duty to address the Southerners. He had done nothing to induce the Northern people to come to their decision, but after the decision was made he used all his influence to prevail on the South to accept it. That influence with the South was very great. The clem ency he had shown them was not forgotten. His present power was not ignored. No Southerner of importance at this time went to Washington without presenting himself at Grant's headquarters, while many visited his house, and to all he proffered the same advice. Formal delegations came from the South to consult with public men upon the course they should pursue. These all came in contact with Grant, who was never unwilling to meet them. Among others was a very important deputation from Ar kansas, and Mr. Seward, the Secretary of State, although he was opposed to the amendment, arranged an interview for the party at his own house with Grant. The General-in-Chief spoke very plainly ; he declared to the delegates that he was their friend, and as their friend he warned them that the temper of the North was aroused, and if these terms were rejected harsher ones would be imposed. He argued and pleaded with them, and with every Southerner he met, for the sake of the South, for the sake of the entire country, for their own individual sakes, to conform to the situation. He assured them that submission to the inevitable would secure a lightening of all that was really onerous in the conditions now proposed. 44 GRANT IN PEACE. This conduct was in complete harmony with Grant's character. It was the practical man who spoke, and who saw that worse remained behind if the South failed to submit now. But besides this sagacious foresight Grant showed a warmth of feeling at this time that was more con spicuous because of his inexcitability during the war. He seemed to have a keener personal interest, an unwillingness to lose what had been secured at so much cost. Perhaps he did not want to see his own work undone, his clemency made subject for arraignment. Of course no such word was uttered to or by him, but he certainly never in his career appeared more anxious or ardent in any task than in his efforts now to induce the South to accept the terms which he believed the easiest the North would ever offer. The following letter to General Richard Taylor, the brother-in-law of Jefferson Davis, and one of the most in fluential of the Southern leaders, shows that this view is no imaginative speculation or far-fetched criticism: Headquarters Armies of the United States, ) Washington, D. C, Nov. 25, 1866. \ Dear General, — Your letter of the 20th is just received. My letter to Pride, with which this is enclosed, answers a part of yours. The day after you left here the President sent for me, as I expected he would after my conversation with the Attorney-Gen eral. I told him my views candidly about the course I thought he should take, in view of the verdict of the late elections. It elicited nothing satisfactory from him, but did not bring out the strong opposition he sometimes shows to views not agreeing with his own. I was followed by General Sickles, who expressed about the same opinion I did. Since that I have talked with several members of Congress who are classed with the Radicals ; Schenck and Bidwell for in stance. They express the most generous views as to what would be done if the constitutional amendments proposed by Congress GRANT'S FIRST STEP IN POLITICS. 45 were adopted by the Southern States. What was done in the case of Tennessee was an earnest of what would be done in all cases. Even the disqualification to hold office imposed on certain classes by one article of the amendment would, no doubt, be removed at once, except it might be in the cases of the very highest offenders, such, for instance, as those who went abroad to aid in the Rebel lion, those who left seats in Congress, etc. All or very nearly all would soon be restored, and so far as security to property and lib erty is concerned, all would be restored at once. I would like ex ceedingly to see one Southern State, excluded State, ratify the amendments to enable us to see the exact course that would be pursued. I believe it would much modify the demands that may be made if there is delay. Yours truly, U. S. Grant. To General R. Taylor. But the President's endeavors did not cease. His was one of those tempers which opposition aggravates, and he became at last violent in his obstinacy. He went over en tirely to those whom he had fought for a lifetime ; he made political bedfellows of his bitterest enemies, and of those who had been the avowed enemies of his country. He used all the authority of his office to dissuade the Southerners from accepting the amendment which the entire North had ratified. His counsels proved more than pernicious, for the Southerners were dazzled by the fallacious hope of obtaining all that he promised. They forgot that they had been con quered and were still at the mercy of the conquerors, and assumed the airs of wronged and outraged claimants ; they acted as if they were already equals in that Union which they had attempted to destroy. They, however, were far less to blame than the injudicious and ill-tempered man whom Fate had placed at this critical moment at the head of affairs. Human nature can hardly be expected to resist such overtures as he proposed, to put away the chance of escaping the penalties they had expected, and 46 GRANT IN PEACE. obtaining the prizes they had thought beyond their reach. None the less, the result was lamentable, both then and afterward. All the long series of misfortunes and dangers to the country that followed are directly traceable to the in fluence or action of one man. He perverted the inclinations and intentions of the South, and by reflex those of the North. He converted good feeling and good will on both sides into discord, and precipitated disasters almost equal to those from which the State had barely escaped — disasters the full effect of which is even yet not past. This view of Johnson's conduct was thenceforth steadily maintained by Grant. Without_ knowledge that he held this view his con duct cannot be appreciated. The President at last became, if not treasonable in intent, yet unpatriotic in action. He fostered a spirit that engen dered massacre, and afterward protected the evil-doers. He spoke, both with Grant in private and openly to the public, as if the Congress elected by the faithful States was an illegal body. He suggested to men's minds that he might be plotting to allow the Southerners to return to their places in spite of the North. He made use of his right to com mand the army in a way that awoke suspicion in Grant, and although at this time he committed no illegal act, and possi bly uttered no word commanding or directly advocating such an act, there can be no doubt that but for his knowledge of Grant's determination not. to play into his hands, he would have attempted what those who had conquered would have considered treason. Grant frequently expressed this belief to those in his confldence. Believing thus Grant acted not only with moderation and firmness, but with a tact which was hardly usual in him, but which circumstances seemed to develop because it was supremely necessary. He avoided offending, and he never disobeyed the President. There was still no open rupture, no appearance of difference before the public; and at the GRANT'S FIRST STEP IN POLITICS. 47 very time when many at the North suspected Grant of favor ing the President's views, he was in reality doing more than all the country besides to thwart Johnson's designs. But he thought it prudent not to alarm or provoke the nation by disclosing his fears. This was, indeed, far more than tact, it was political and patriotic wisdom. And his course throughout all these proceedings was entirely his own. He listened to the advice, or opinions, or persuasions of those who felt they had a right to offer either, but every decision was the result of his own judg ment, of his own instinct of what was right. He seemed to me at the time greater than in any emergency of the war, and when I look back upon both crises now, I remain of this opinion still. During these contentions Congress created, or rather revived, the grade of General in the Army for Grant. His nomination was announced to him by the Secretary of War in the following letter : War Department, ) Washington City, July 25, 1866. ) General, — The President has signed the bill reviving the grade of General. I have made out and laid your nomination before him, and it will be sent to the Senate this morning. Yours truly, Edwin M. Stanton. Lieutenant-General Ulysses S. Grant. ^;%^^^^ ~4^Aas- y^^ij.^ V- f50v)^ OV.XA>^ jU..^J^ M^jVXA^^ *IK" 'Vn^JU.. W. V^-v^ to uccc "^W^ CHAPTER VL JOHNSON'S MANCEUVRES. IMMEDIATELY before the elections which were to give the verdict of the country upon Mr. Johnson's policy a violent political discussion arose in Maryland, where it was well known that a spirit had existed as hostile to the Union as in New Orleans. There seemed danger of a collision between the State authorities, which were friendly to Johnson, and those of the City of Baltimore. The Governor appealed to the President for armed assistance, and Johnson made several attempts to induce Grant to order United States troops into Maryland. Grant's anxiety at this suggestion was acute. He held numerous conversations with the Presi dent, and though no disloyal proposition was made to him in words, he conceived a profound distrust of Johnson's designs. This feeling was shared by Stanton, then Secre tary of War. In the excited state of feeling aroused by Johnson's course the use of troops was certain to prove exasperating, and it seemed to be the President's purpose to tempt or provoke his opponents to some illegal act which would warrant a resort to arms. It was too soon after a civil war to incur such risks without alarm. Grant at once protested verbally but earnestly against sending troops to Baltimore. But the President persisted in his suggestion. He did not give the order, for he fre quently used all the weight of his position to induce Grant to act as he desired, yet failed to assume the responsibility of issuing a positive command. Grant therefore wrote an 4 (49) 50 GRANT IN PEACE. official letter to the Secretary of War, declaring that "no reason existed for giving or promising military aid to sup port the laws of Maryland." "The tendency," he said, "of giving such aid would be to produce the very result that was intended to be averted." The President referred this letter to his Attorney-General, who was compelled to con cur with Grant ; and Johnson, unable to induce Grant to send the troops without a positive order, took very good care not to give one. Grant sent both staff and general officers to Baltimore, and went thither twice in person dur ing the emergency. He saw both parties to the dispute, persuaded them to leave the decision to the courts, and averted the danger — as signal a service as he had often rendered the country in the field. This entire proceeding caused him as much solicitude as any Presidential action of the period. Occurring immediately before the elections which were to pronounce upon Johnson's policy, it had peculiar significance. For a while the Pres ident almost insisted on sending troops into a region that had been disaffected, and where the very authorities that he wished to support by arms had been of doubtful loyalty dur ing the war. He suggested to Grant in writing that there was " a turbulent disposition which might assume insurrec tionary proportions," and that it was "the duty of the Gov ernment to be prepared to act with force and decision." But he meant to act "with force" against men who had fought for the Union and in support of those who had fought against it. Grant believed that Johnson would be glad to put those who opposed his policy into the position of rebels, while the Southerners who supported it would seem to be loyal to the Government. The crafty scheme was never developed, but the watchful, skillful, anxious care of Grant may have had more to do with its prevention than any lack of will on the part of the President. General Grant never said in my hearing that he knew the JOHNSON'S MANCEUVERS. cj intentions of Johnson to be seditious at this time, but much of his course throughout the entire crisis was taken because he feared they were. He was as anxious to frustrate John son's manoeuvres as he had ever been to thwart those of Lee. In each instance he was uncertain of the strategy of the enemy, but he fought what he believed to be the enemy's plan. He never changed his opinion afterward, but remained convinced that had opportunity offered Johnson would have attempted some disloyal artifice. Of this he repeatedly assured me. The following letter to General Sheridan shows Grant's apprehensions at this time. It was written while Sheridan was in command at New Orleans : [Confidential.] Headquarters Armies of the United States, ) Washington, D. C, Oct. 12, 1866. ) Dear General, — I regret to say that since the unfortunate differences between the President and Congress the former be comes more violent with the opposition he meets with, until now but few people who were loyal to the Government during the Rebellion seem to have any influence with him. None have unless they join in a crusade against Congress, and declare their acts, the principal ones, illegal, and indeed I much fear that we are fast approaching the time when he will want to declare the body itself illegal, unconstitutional, and revolutionary. Commanders in South- em States will have to take great care to see, if a crisis does come, that no armed headway can be made against the Union. For this reason it will be very desirable that Texas should have no reason- ble excuse for calling out the militia authorized by their Legisla ture. Indeed it should be prevented. I write this in strict confi dence, but to let you know how matters stand in my opinion, so that you may square your official action accordingly. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, U. S. Grant. To Major-General V. H. Sheridan. P. S. — I gave orders quietly two or three weeks since for the 52 GRANT IN PEACE. removal of all arms in store in the Southern States to Northern arsenals. I wish you would see that those from Baton Rouge and other places within your command are being moved rapidly by the ordnance officers having the matter in charge. U. S. G. Grant's course in the Maryland matter and his outspoken advice to the Arkansas delegation had convinced the Admin istration that he could be induced to take no step at all beyond the strictest line of the law ; and when it was seen to be impossible to use him, a scheme was concocted to send him out of the country. The Government did not indeed dare remove the victorious head of the army, but they determined to suspend him from his functions for a while, and to put Sherman, who it was hoped would prove more supple, in his place. Sherman had said and written things which the President construed into an approval of his policy. So Grant was directed to order Sherman to Washington, but was not informed of the reason for the order. Grant had long exhibited a peculiar interest in the expul sion of the French from Mexico and the overthrow of the empire of Maximilian. He regarded the intrusion of foreign armies and institutions on this continent not only as a direct menace to all republican interests, but as an act of hostility towards the United States that would never have been attempted except when we were at war. His opinions were well known to the country and had been repeatedly and earnestly pressed upon the Government ; and the device of the Administration now was to make use of these sentiments as an excuse to send him on a mission to the neighboring republic and thus get rid of his presence which had become such an obstruction to many of their designs. The French Emperor, it was true, was tardily preparing to remove his army, and there was neither object nor neces sity for Grant's presence or intervention. Nevertheless, in November, 1866, immediately after the failure of the Balti more scheme, the President informed Grant that he meant to JOHNSON'S MAXOiUVERS. 53 send him to Mexico. A Minister had already been appointed to that republic, and Grant was to be given neither "powers" ¦nor authority. No special purpose for the mission was an nounced ; he was simply "to give the Minister the benefit of his advice in carrying out the instructions of the Secretary of State." It was doubtless supposed that Grant with his profound anxiety for Mexican independence would bite at the bait. But the device was too transparent ; and Grant, if ordinarily unadroit, was yet far-seeing. He usually went to the core of a thing, when immediate judgment was required. He promptly declined the mission. This was in conversa tion with the President. A day or two afterward Johnson returned to the subject and announced that he had sent for Sherman to take Grant's place in his absence. Congress was about to assemble, a Congress hostile to Johnson, and the air was full of rumors that the President would refuse to recognize the Legislature, and might even attempt to disperse it by arms. Mr. John son had recently seemed to have designs to use the military force in Maryland illegally, or at least improperly. Grant remembered this, and again declined to leave the country ; this time in writing. Nevertheless, in a day or two he was summoned to a full Cabinet meeting, when his detafled instructions were read to him by the Secretary of State, exactly as if objections and refusal had not been offered. But Grant was now aroused ; and before the whole Cabinet he declared his unwillingness to accept the mission. The President also became angered. Turning to the Attorney- General he inquired : " Mr. Attorney-General, is there any reason why General Grant should not obey my orders ? Is he in any way ineligible to this position ? " Grant started to his feet at once, and exclaimed : " I can answer that question, Mr. President, without referring to the Attorney-General. I am an American citizen, and eligible to any office to which any American is eligible. I am an officer of the army, and 54 GRANT IN PEACE. bound to obey your military orders. But this is a civil office, a purely diplomatic duty that you offer me, and I cannot be compelled to undertake it. Any legal military order you give me I wiU obey ; but this is civil and not mflitary ; and I decline the duty. No power on earth can compel me to it." He said not another word. No one replied ; and he left the Cabinet chamber. He returned immediately to his head quarters, and recited all that had occurred. I took down his words at the time, and read him afterward this account, which he approved. Even after this scene a copy of his instructions was sent to him through the Secretary of War, who was directed to request him to proceed to Mexico. But he wrote a second letter declining positively the duty assigned him. Mean while Sherman had arrived. Grant had written to him to come directly to his house, and there explained the situa tion ; he told his great subordinate of the plot to get rid of himself, and declared that he was determined to disobey the order and stand the consequences. Sherman then paid his visit to the President. He was informed that Grant was to be sent to Mexico, and that he was to command the army in the absence of the General-in-chief. But Sherman assured the President that Grant wotdd not go, and said very flatly that Johnson could not afford to quarrel with Grant at that time. He declared he could himself be easier spared than Grant. The country was full of rumors of the object of Sher man's visit ; if the real purpose, was abandoned it was neces sary to contrive some excuse for sending for him. This Sherman's own suggestion afforded. In a day or two Grant was directed to turn over his instructions to Sherman, who was sent to Mexico in his stead, on the United States ship Susquehanna, Captain Alden commanding. As the vessel left New York harbor, Sherman turned to Alden and said: "My mission is already ended. By substituting myself I JOHNSON'S MANCEUVERS. 55 have prevented a serious quarrel between the Administra tion and Grant." More than once the soldier friend thus came to the res cue when crafty politicians sought to entangle Grant. I shall have other stories like this to tell. At these crises Sherman returned with interest all the constancy and loyalty that Grant had so often displayed toward him during the war. He now cruised along the coast of Mexico, visited one or two points, performed no duty of the slightest importance, and in a month or two returned. For all that had been accomplished he might as well have remained at St. Louis. He declares in his memoirs : " I am sure this whole move ment was got up for the purpose of getting General Grant away from Washington." Grant always attributed the con ception of the scheme to Seward. About this time Grant received the following letter, which I opened and handed to him. After reading it -he threw it into the fire, but I snatched it from the flames and thus preserved it : October, 1866. General, — I feel it to be my duty to warn you to be on your guard against assassination, also to be very careful of what you eat, and where you eat, for the next sixty days. I believe that the Knights have spotted you, Sheridan, and Sherman. I have written them to be careful. My warning may not reach them. If you can warn them do so. As ever, yours, Tewandah, the Scout. Nothing more was ever heard on the subject, but the letter is curious, as showing the fears that some entertained at this time. n^yt^ L^-t Washington, D. C, August i, 1867. ) [Private.] His Excellency, A. Johnson, President of the United States: Sir, — I take the liberty of addressing you privately on the subject of the conversation we had this morning, feeling as I do the great danger to the welfare of the country should you carry out the designs then expressed. First, on the subject of the displacement of the Secretary of War. His removal cannot be effected against his will without the consent of the Senate. It is but a short time since the United States Senate was in session and why not then have asked for go GRANT IN PEACE. this removal if it was desired ? It certainly was the intention of the Legislative branch of the Government to place Cabinet Min isters beyond the power of Executive removal, and it is pretty well understood that, so far as Cabinet Ministers are affected by the Tenure of Office bill, it was intended specially to protect the Secretary of War, whom the country felt great confidence in. The meaning of the law may be explained away by an astute lawyer but common sense and the views of loyal people will give to it the effect intended by its framers. . . . In conclusion, aflow me to say as a friend, desiring peace and quiet, the welfare of the whole country North and South, that it is in my opinion more than the loyal people of this country (I mean those who supported the Government during the great Rebellion) will quietly submit to, to see the very men of all others who they have expressed confidence in, removed. I would not have taken the liberty of addressing the Execu tive of the United States thus, but for the conversation on the subject alluded to in this letter, and from a sense of duty, feeUng that I know I am right in this matter. With great respect, your ob't serv't, U. S. Grant, General. There were several interviews within the next few days at which the subordinate strove to change the determination of his superior, but Johnson remained immovable. Grant had at once made known the President's purpose to Stanton and Sheridan, as well as to others in his confidence. These last were few, for Congress was not in session, and the princi pal people whom he might have consulted were absent. He discussed, however, with Stanton the course he should pur sue in case the President persisted. It was agreed that Grant's duty in that event was to accept the position prof fered, and as far as possible prevent further mischief. He could take up Stanton's course when Stanton was no longer in the Cabinet, and thus mitigate some of the evfls of his removal. The protests of Grant delayed Johnson's action just five GRANT, STANTON, AND JOHNSON. gi days. Then, on the 5 th of August, in a formal letter, the President requested Stanton's resignation. The same day Stanton answered, also in writing, that " public considera tions of a high character constrained him from resigning before the next meeting of Congress." Again Johnson hesi tated for a week; but on the 12th of August he issued an order in strict accordance with the provisions of the Tenure of Office act, suspending Stanton and appointing Grant Sec retary of War ad interim. Grant thereupon addressed the following letter to Stan ton, of which I preserved the original draft, with. the lines struck out by Grant's own hand : Headquarters Armies of the United States, > Washington, D. C, August 12, 1867. ) Sir, — Enclosed herewith I have the honor to transmit to you a copy of a letter just received from the President of the United States, notifying me of my assignment as Acting Secretary of War, and directing me to assume those duties at once. In notifying you of my acceptance, I cannot let the oppor tunity pass without expressing to you my appreciation of the zeal, patriotism, firmness, and. ability with which you have ever dis charged the duties of Secretary of War. With great respect, your ob't serv't, U. S. Grant, General. To Hon. Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War. \ To this Stanton replied as follows : War Department, Washington City, August 12, 1867. General, — Your note of this date, accompanied by a copy of a letter addressed to you, August 12th, by the President, appoint ing you Secretary of War ad interim, and informing me of your acceptance of the appointment, has been received. Under a sense of public duty I am compelled to deny the President's right, under the Constitution and laws of the United 54 GRANT IN PEACE. States, to suspend me from office as Secretary of War, or to authorize any other person to enter upon the discharge of the duties of that office, or to require me to transfer to you or any other person the records, books, papers, and other property in my official custody and charge as Secretary of War. But inasmuch as the President has assumed to suspend me from the office as Secretary of War, and you have notified me of your acceptance of the appointment of Secretary of War ad interim, I have no alternative but to submit, under protest, to the superior force of the President. You will please accept my acknowledgment of the kind terms in which you have notified me of your acceptance of the Presi dent's appointment, and my cordial reciprocation of the sentiments expressed. I am, with sincere regard, truly yours, Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War. General Ulysses S. Grant. Grant was not quite pleased with this letter, which seemed to imply that he was in accord with the President, or at least that he should not have accepted the post, but Stanton could hardly have been in an amiable mood when he was dispossessed, even toward the unwilling instrument of his removal. But the annoyance that Grant felt made no difference in his action. The crisis was too momentous for any personal feeling to be allowed to interfere. He had been thoroughly loyal to Stanton and to the country, and he became Secre tary of War with the intention to do his utmost to carry out the policy which Stanton was removed for persisting to execute. CHAPTER Xn. GRANT AND SHERIDAN. STANTON had fallen and the next official victim was to be Sheridan. Stanton was suspended on the 12th of August, and on the 17th Grant received the President's commands for the removal of Sheridan. He at once pro tested against the execution of the order. He was indeed profoundly moved, and even exasperated ; for his regard for Sheridan had now become personal. Sheridan had almost grown up as a general under Grant's own eye, until finally the chief declared the subordinate the peer of any soldier of any time. Often have I listened to Grant's encomiums of the Soldier of the Valley ; more than once have I wit nessed manifestations of regard on both sides as touching as they were honorable to him who gave and him who received. The history of their relations is like a story from Homer. It was the friendship of chieftains, the love of strong men who had stood side by side in war, and watched each other's deeds. Soon after Shfloh Sheridan joined the army in Ten nessee and so distinguished himself that Grant at once perceived his military quality. In September, 1862, Grant was ordered to send a portion of his command to re-inforce Rosecrans. He was at the landing himself when the troops embarked, and noticed Sheridan among them at the head of his brigade. " You here, Sheridan ! " he exclaimed ; " I did not mean that you should leave me " ; for he was unwilling to lose a man of whose stuff he was so sure. But Sheridan thought that to go to Rosecrans at that time was to go (95) g6 GRANT IN PEACE. where there would be most fighting, and he showed no desire to remain. Grant was nettled at this, and aflowed his subordinate to depart ; little dreaming, either of them, then, how important they were to be to each other on grander and distant theaters. Grant told me this story years ago, to add to a sketch of Sheridan I was writing for Tke Century Magazifte. Soon, however, the chief followed the subaltern to the same field, and again, at Chattanooga, the fiery spirit and genius of Sheridan commended themselves to his superior. Grant always spoke in glowing language of Sheridan's charge at Mission Ridge, and still more warmly of the pursuit of the enemy afterward. He had already detected that quality so rare even in illustrious soldiers — the power to make the most of a victory. When Grant became General-in-Chief, he at once put Sheridan at the head of the Eastern cavalry. I remember asking him about the new commander whom at that time I had not seen, and his praise was enthusiastic when he described the energy and abflity, the promptness and per sistency of his subordinate. Grant indeed always became eloquent when he talked of Sherman or Sheridan. His tongue was loosened then, however taciturn at other times. His face was flushed with generous ardor, his eye gleamed, and he even gesticulated a little when he told of the achieve ments of the only two men who could ever by any chance become his rivals. But ignorant of the great things Fortune had in store for him, Sheridan was at this time reluctant to leave the West. Not that he was in the least unwilling to serve near Grant, but he had arrived at the command of a division ; he was attached to his men and they to him ; he would have preferred to remain in the field that he knew and with the troops he had already led. But he was too good a soldier to betray dissatisfaction, and he went without murmuring GRANT AND SHERIDAN. g^ to the theater where he was to become so renowned, and to the chief with whose fame his own was to be forever asso ciated. From that time I can testify to the confidence, the chivalrous admiration, the commendation which Grant bestowed on his cavalry commander. In the Wilderness campaign the young general (he was only thirty-two), was constantly given the most difficult and dangerous tasks. When he was sent off on a distant expedition his formal orders went through Meade, but Grant always saw him in person and added verbal instructions, explaining his views, defining his aim, but leaving all detafls of execution to the subordinate. They easily understood each other, they had so much in common. When Early advanced upon Washington Grant selected Sheridan to oppose him, against the wish of the Govern ment, which thought him too young and inexperienced for the position. But the avalanche of success crushed out all criticism of the choice. In 1878 Grant wrote me on this subject from the Hague : "Dear General, — Your letter of the 12th, with inclosure, was received before my departure from Paris. But I had no time to do more than read your letter before leaving, so brought the whole here to examine and approve, or otherwise. I have made marginal notes in pencil of all I have to say. I do not think there is anything to strike out, nor anything to add except what you can get from the notes referred to. You may recollect that when I visited Sheridan at Charleston I had a plan of battle with me to give him. But I found him so ready to move — plan and all — that I gave him no order whatever except the authority to move. He is entitled to all the credit of his great victory, and it estab lished him in the confidence of the President and Secretary of War as a commander to be trusted with the fullest discretion in the management of all the troops under him. Before that, while they highly appreciated him as a commander to execute, they felt a little nervous about giving him too much discretion." 7 q8 grant in peace. I shall never forget Grant's delight over the telegrams he received from Sheridan during this campaign. They were handed to him usually as we sat around the camp-fire at City Point, waiting for news often till late into the night, during that long and dreary autumn of 1864. No success had cheered us at the East for months. Lee still held off Grant in front of Richmond, and Hood had compelled Sher man to retrace his steps from Atlanta ; political hostility at the rear made the situation at the front seem darker even than the reality, and the first gleams of light came from Sheridan's victories in the Valley. As Grant read out the ringing dispatches : " We sent them whirling through Win chester"; "They were followed on the jump twenty-six miles " ; "I thought it best to delay here one day and settle this new cavalry general"; — his voice betrayed how wel come was the news. "Keep on," he replied, "and your good work wfll cause the fall of Richmond." The inspira tion of these successes and the encouragement they gave to Grant were the germ of one of the most beautiful friend ships in history. From that time he relied on Sheridan as completely as on Sherman. The final movement against Petersburg had no success for several days. More than one of those whose judgment Grant often heeded advised him to return. He himself was gloomy; not despondent, for that I never saw him in the field, but profoundly anxious. But one dark and rainy morning Sheridan came riding into camp, and talked so cheerily, so confidently, so intelligently of what he could do, that his mood was contagious. Grant was in his tent so that Sheridan first met the staff. The officers were struck with his temper and tone; they knew the estimate Grant put upon his judgment, and were anxious for Sheridan to say what he thought to the chief. They took the great trooper in to Grant, and when Grant perceived the spirit of Sheridan, he felt that the time had come. He gave him the task he grant and SHERIDAN. qg said he could perform, the orders he asked for, and the result was — the battle of Five Forks. That battle Grant always acknowledged made possible the final assault on Petersburg, and opened the way for the Appomattox campaign, in which Sheridan led the terrible pursuit, fought Saflor's Creek, and outmarched Lee. In all these movements he sent back suggestions daily, almost hourly, to Grant, every one of which Grant accepted. I sometimes think that without Sheridan Grant's closing triumph might have been less complete ; for it was Sheridan who by his rapid marches and incessant blows secured the enveloping, and thus the surrender, of Lee. This can be said without detracting one leaf from the laurels of Grant. The most skillful workman requires tools of finest edge ; the greatest commander cannot win without troops and subordi nates of mettle like his own. After this Grant fairly loved Sheridan. The affection was founded on admiration; the intimacy grew out of achieve ment. It was the strange, rich fruit of battle, watered by blood and ripened by patriotism into a close and tender regard. I was an inmate of Grant's house when the chief was believed to be dying, and Sheridan wrote me a letter to present to the family when the dreaded hour shoifld come. He added a line which I venture to repeat because it shows the peculiar and delicate nature of the feeling between the soldiers: "It is unnecessary for me," said Sheridan, "to use words to express my attachment to General Grant and his family. I have not gone to see him, as I could only bring additional distress to them, and I want to remember him as I knew him in good health." Grant always regarded the French attempt to establish an empire in Mexico as a part of the effort to subvert our own Republic. At the close of the war, on the very day of the grand review at Washington, he dispatched Sheridan with secret orders to the Rio Grande, to watch the frontier. X4.-. Co £>^ ¦ /^£^^^..^r'A/ci>^^:i£^ <4 ^5^ grant AND SHERIDAN. lOi He hoped to be able to bring the Administration up to his own views, if the Emperor delayed; and Sheridan was directed to be ready for any emergency. He performed his part, and when the question was settled, and the French were with drawn. Grant left him in command at New Orleans. Here he was found when the President's policy was rejected by the people ; and when the measures which John son opposed became law, Sheridan, like Grant, set himself to obeying the law. Johnson, of course, was provoked, but Grant promptly indorsed his subordinate. In July, 1866, a violent riot occurred at New Orleans in which forty Union men were killed and one hundred and fifty wounded by Southerners. Sheridan's course at the time was the subject of a warm contention between Grant and the President, the latter as usual siding with the men who had once opposed the Union. During the discussion Grant wrote to Sheridan in these words : " I am just in receipt of copy of your letter to the President in reply to his dispatch of the 4th inst. It is certainly a very clear statement of the cause and effect of the riot, and in my judgment it is due to the public, to you, and even to the President, that it should be published. I have requested from the President the pubhcation of all your dispatches on the subject of the New Orleans riot, on the ground that the partial publications which have appeared put you in the position of taking a partisan view of the matter, whereas the dispatches given in full show that you never dreamed of extenuating faults no matter which side they occurred on. One thing you may rely on, the purity of your motives will never be impeached by the public, no matter what capital the politicians may attempt to make out of garbled or partial publica tions of what you say or write officially. Persevere exactly in the course your own good judgment dictates. It has never yet led you astray as a military commander, nor in the administration of the affairs of your military division." On the 27th of March, 1867, in the exercise of the I02 GRANT IN PEACE. authority conferred on him by the Reconstruction Acts, Sheridan removed from office the Attorney-General of the State of Louisiana, the Mayor of New Orleans, and the Judge of the First District Court of the same city. Two days afterward Grant wrote to him: "I have just seen your Order No. 5. It is just the thing, and merits the universal approbation of the loyal people at least. I have no doubt but that it will also meet with like approval from the recon structed [the italics are Grant's]. It wfll at least prove advantageous to them and to the quiet and prosperity of New Orleans and of the State of Louisiana. I only write this to let you know that I at least approve what you have done." From this time the President seems to have determined on the removal of Sheridan, for the power had been left in his hands by Congress, and in May Grant wrote, to the threatened commander: " I have no doubt but that the reports of your contemplated removal have emanated from a high source. It has unquestiona bly been in contemplation, but it cannot hurt, though it may em barrass you. Every loyal man in the country admires your course in civil affairs as they did your military career. You have to the fullest extent the confidence of the Secretary, the loyal people generally, and of myself. Removal cannot hurt you if it does take place, and I do not believe it will. You have carried out the acts of Congress, and it will be difficult to get a general officer who will not. Let me say, dismiss all embarrassments on account of rumors of removal. Such an act will not reflect on you." Encouraged thus by his immediate superior, Sheridan persisted in his obedience to the spirit and the letter of the law ; and Grant persisted in his encouragement. On the 3d of June Sheridan removed the Governor of Louisiana, that official " having made himself an impediment to the faithful execution of the Reconstruction Act"; and Grant imme diately wrote to Sheridan : GRANT AND SHERIDAN. IO3 " I have no doubt myself that the removal of Governor Wells will do great good to your command, if you are sustained, but great harm if you are not sustained. I shafl do aU I can to sustain you in it. You have acted boldly and with good judgment, and will be sustained by public opinion as well as your own conscience, no matter what the result. It has been my intention to order you to Washington as soon as your command is in a condition that you can leave it for a few weeks, to give you an opportunity of taking a run up North. A little relaxation for a few weeks will do you good, bodily, and give you an opportunity of coming in con tact with people who supported the Government during the rebellion [Grant^s italics]." The axe had been hanging long, but it finally fell. On the 1st of August the President announced to Grant that he had made up his mind to suspend Stanton and remove Sheri dan. I have already quoted the language in which Grant protested against this intention in regard to Stanton. In the same letter he added these words referring to Sheridan : " On the subject of the removal of the very able commander of the Fifth Military District, let me ask you to consider the effect it would have upon the public. He is unusually and deservedly beloved by the people who sustained the Government through its trials, and feared by those who would still be enemies of the Gov ernment. It fell to the lot of but few men to do as much against an armed enemy as General Sheridan did during the rebellion, and it is within the scope of the ability of but few in this or any other country to do what he has. His civil administration has given equal satisfaction. He has had difficulties to contend with which no other District Commander has encountered. Almost if not quite from the day he was appointed District Commander to the present time, our press has given out that he was to be removed ; that the Administration was dissatisfied with him, etc. This has emboldened the opponents to the laws of Congress within his command to oppose him in every way in their power, and has rendered necessary measures which otherwise might never have been necessary." I04 GRANT IN PEACE. Grant had, however, little idea that his protest would change the intention of the President, and directed one of his staff to write to Sheridan as follows : " General Grant wishes me to write to you to tell you that Presi dent Johnson has made up his mind to remove you and also the Secretary of War. He sent for General Grant yesterday and told him this. The General said all proper for him to say against such a course, and when he came back he put his views in writing and sent them to Mr. Johnson. I send you a copy of his letter. The General wishes me to say to you to go on your course exactly as if this communication had not been sent to you, and without fear of consequences. That so long as you pursue the same line of duty that you have followed thus far in the service you will receive the- entire support of these Headquarters." On the 17th of August the order was positively issued, and Grant again protested urgently and eloquently in a letter which has already been given to the world. General Thomas was designated to relieve Sheridan, but that officer was un willing to assume the position, and was excused on the ground of ill-health. Sheridan, however, was directed to turn over his command at once to the officer next in rank in his district. He was not to be allowed to remain under any circumstances. His orders were to proceed to Fort Leaven worth and relieve Hancock, who was in turn to supersede Sheridan at New Orleans. On the 8th of September the faithful chief wrote again to his friend : " By my dispatch to you to turn over your command to the officer next in rank to yourself, as soon as you relieve General Hancock, and to come to Washington, I did not mean to hasten your arrival in this city, but meant it as an order for you to come here at your leisure. I want to see you. When you leave Leaven worth, however, make such visits as suit your convenience, only do not return to Leavenworth before coming to Washington. GRANT AND SHERIDAN. 105 " I feel that your relief from command of the Fifth District is a heavy blow to Reconstruction. Not that Griffin will not carry out the law faithfully, and Hancock too when he gets there, but that the act of Government will be interrupted as an effort to de feat the law and will encourage opposition to it. So again in the Second District, I do not know what to make- of present move ments in this capital, but they fill me with alarm. In your own personal welfare you will not suffer from these changes, except as one of the thirty-five millions of inhabitants of this republic, but may be the gainer as far as personal comfort is concerned. I felt it my duty, however, to do all I could to keep you where you were until the laws you were executing so faithfully were carried through, and your district restored to the Union. All I can say now is that I have sustained your course, publicly, privately, and officially, not from personal feeling or partiality, but because you were right. You are entitled to a little rest, and I know such a welcome awaits you as will convince you that republics are not always ungrateful." Thus Sheridan also was taken from the duty in which he had hitherto supported Grant. Deprived now of his two coadjutors, without either Stanton as a friendly superior or Sheridan as a loyal subordinate, Grant was left to bear the whole brunt of the battle with the President, which had been committed to him by Congress and the people whorn Congress represented. The prospect was arduous, and he felt the loss of his faithful allies ; but he girded himself for the task. CHAPTER XIII. GRANT IN THE CABINET. IT was August when Grant entered the Cabinet, and he remained there only until January. The President of course was aware of the views of his new Secretary of War. He had Grant's protest before him against the suspension of Stanton ; he had the knowledge of all Grant's previous acts and could hardly have doubted what his subsequent course would be. But if he had any doubts they were soon dis pelled. Within five days after Grant became Secretary, Sheridan was removed, and in his new capacity Grant objected more emphatically than ever. He was overruled, but he did not cease his efforts to perform what he believed his duty ; and his whole term of service in the Cabinet was marked by disputes and differences with the President. Nevertheless, the storm of indignation that burst from the mass of the people at the North on the supersedure of Stanton and Sheridan extended in some degree to Grant, when he was seen to take Stanton's place. Some of his stanchest personal friends regretted his course, while politi cians openly proclaimed that it indicated sympathy with Johnson's policy. Grant remained silent under the unmerit ed reproach and continued, as far as he was able, to carry out the will of those who thought he was opposing them. He made strenuous efforts to iftduce the President to retain the other District Commanders at their posts, but Sickles was soon relieved by Canby, and Pope by Meade ; both for the same political reasons which had brought about the (io6) GRANT IN THE CABINET. I07 removal of Stanton and Sheridan. The two officers who were substituted were, however, thoroughly imbued with the feeling of their predecessors and of Grant. They all believed the law paramount to the will of any one man, and proceeded to execute the law in the spirit in which it had been conceived. Hancock, who followed Sheridan, was the only one who took a different stand. He did all in his power to thwart the Congressional policy and to support the President. He issued proclamations in direct contradiction of the spirit of the Reconstruction measures, revoked important orders of Sheridan that had been approved by Grant, and defied the popular feeling of the North. Grant repeatedly overruled him, though the President made every effort to uphold him ; but the laws had by this time been so contrived that there was no possibility of frustrating their intention if Grant exercised his full authority; and this he did not hesitate to do. Hancock in a few months asked to be relieved, and his request was granted. The struggle with the President, however, continued. Johnson lost no opportunity to attempt to control events and maintain his own authority in opposition to that of Congress, and Grant steadily pursued his task of carrying out the Reconstruction measures as the recognized law of the land. All this while as Secretary of War, Grant was obliged to attend Cabinet meetings and was frequently present at dis cussions and arrangements the purpose and tenor of which he entirely disapproved. This finally became so disagree able to him that he requested the President to excuse him from the purely political duties of a member of the Govern ment. He represented that as an officer of the army he might be called upon to serve under different Presidents holding opposite views, and although he was always ready to obey legal orders or to execute legal measures, it was not I08 GRANT IN PEACE. his duty to concert policies or to assist in the arrangement of partisan plans. He was hardly, he said, a civil Minister at all; he had not been confirmed by the Senate as Secretary of War, and was only holding office until the re-assembling of Congress enabled the President to nominate a permanent successor. Johnson, with his usual policy, paid no attention to these requests, and continued in Grant's presence the discussions to which the General was averse, so that Grant might seem to sanction what he heard. Finally Grant determined not to be entangled and committed in this way against his wiU. He attended the meetings to which he was summoned, submitted the papers that required the concurrence of his colleagues or the approval of the President, but retired as soon as the business of detail was transacted ; thus plainly indicating to the Administration that he was not in harmony with its general views, and would not be identified with its schemes. It is proper to state here that when I relate what occurred at Cabinet meetings or make other declarations of Grant's action which could only have been learned from himself, the statement is in every case made on his author ity ; generally upon what he told me at the time. Not long after these occurrences I wrote out an account of them, especially of Grant's relations with Johnson, which he read and sanctioned, and which he knew was to be given to the world. This is the foundation and proof of much contained in the present volume. But although Grant was often obliged to dissent in terms from what was proposed in Cabinet, he did so as seldom and as unoffensively as possible. He was a man who never sought a quarrel, and it sometimes required downright ifl- treatment to provoke him. He was therefore courteous to the chief whom he had not sought, and to the associates with whom he disagreed ; and he succeeded as yet in preserving amicable relations with them all. The President invited him GRANT IX THE CABINET. jOg 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 be lieved that Johnson desired. It gave the appearance of po litical 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 Secre tary he sometimes gave orders to the General of the Army. He visited both offices dafly, spending a few hours in the morning at the War Department, and later in the day re paired to his old headquarters. His staff did not accompany him to the War Department ; he was determined to hold the post only ad interifti, and to give no appearance of perman ency 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 Sec retary 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 no GRANT IN PEACE. the Secretary, and Secretary Stanton would have refused. I was surprised and disappointed, and thought to myself had he been only General of the Army this would not have occurred. One day I received a letter for him from Edwin Booth, requesting in the name of his aged mother that the remains of Wflkes Booth might be privately restored to the family. The actor represented the sufferings of that family, "the most wretched," he said, "on earth," and pleaded that after the lapse of more than two full years there could be no ob jection on public grounds to the concession. Booth had been my intimate friend for many years. I could vouch for his loyalty, and knew how shocked and lacerated he had been by the act that shocked the nation. The letter was respectful and moderate though manly in tone, and I urged Grant to accede to the request. But he was immutable. He said the time had not yet come ; and the sternness was so unusual in him that I thought it proceeded from the feel ing I have described ; that he meant to do what he thought Stanton would have done ; and doubtless Stanton would have refused. In December Congress re-assembled, and Johnson was obliged by the Tenure of Office Act to report to the Senate within twenty days his reasons for the suspension of Stan ton. This he did, and on the 13th of January the Senate re solved that the reasons were insufficient. By the language of the law this decision at once re-instated Stanton. Grant had informed the President two days before that he should in stantly vacate the office if such a decision was made. The President insisted that the law was unconstitutional and urged Grant to retain fhe place ; but Grant replied that he would subject himself to the penalties of fine and imprison ment if he violated the law. Johnson offered to pay the fine and submit to the imprisonment; but of course this was pre posterous, and Grant persisted in his determination. This GRANT IN THE CABINET. jU was on the nth of January. The President still would not accept the refusal, and when Grant left the room Johnson said he should expect to see the General again. The next day was Sunday, and as it was evident that the Senate would not concur in the suspension of Stanton Grant was greatly concerned. He was not anxious that Stanton should be restored, for he felt that the Minister's power for good was now ended, and that the workings of the Government would be needlessly thwarted by the intrusion of an unwel come Cabinet officer upon the Head of the State. Stanton could hardly be expected to share this feeling ; his personal triumph was concerned in his restoration ; but this to Grant was a less important consideration than the public interest. General Sherman was in Washington at this time, and at Grant's request he went on Monday to the President to urge him to nominate a Secretary who would be acceptable to the Senate, so that Stanton might be legally relieved. Grant proposed General Jacob D. Cox, a former Governor of Ohio, who was a Republican, but not so outspoken in his hostility to the President as many of his party. Grant thought that this selection might bridge over the difficulty. He urged this task on Sherman because the President had always seemed to suppose that Sherman was more in accord with his views than Grant. The Hon. Reverdy Johnson also saw the President and recommended the same course; but the President did not accept the suggestion. Thus Saturday, Sunday, Monday passed. It was late on Monday, the 13th of January, when the Senate resolved that the causes for removing Stanton were insufficient. Grant attended a levee of the President that night, but had only formal and unofficial conversation with him. Early on the 14th Grant went to the office of the Secre tary of War, locked and bolted the door on the outside, and handed the key to the Adjutant-General of the Army. "I am to be found at my office," he said, " at army headquar- 112 GRANT IN PEACE. ters." He then immediately sent a formal letter to the Presi dent announcing that he had been notified of the action of the Senate, and that by the terms of the law his own func tions as Secretary of War ceased from the moment of the reception of the notice. When Grant parted with the President on the nth he supposed that he had given all the necessary notification to Johnson of his course. I was with him, with other staff offi cers, when he left his headquarters with this intention, and also on his return, when he stated what had occurred. He declared that he had told Mr. Johnson that on no account could he consent to hold the office after the Senate should act. The President pleaded and argued, and would not be satisfied with Grant's decision. Johnson indeed was always slow in arriving at a decision, while Grant was usually instan taneous in action when the crisis came. Johnson could even now not determine what to do ; he did not positively decline to nominate Cox; he delayed on Sunday, and on Monday; but the Senate acted, and then Grant did exactly what he had said he would do. He gave up the office, and Stanton at once took possession. This Johnson had not intended to allow. He hoped to induce Grant to retain the post so as to test the constitu tionality of the law; and Grant's prompt obedience to the law disconcerted this plan. Stfll Johnson refused to recog nize the action of Grant ; and at once summoned him to a Cabinet meeting. Grant obeyed the message and was ad dressed as "Mr. Secretary." He instantly disclaimed the title, and declared he had notified the President that he could no longer serve in that capacity; but Johnson main tained that Grant had promised to remain in office untfl a successor could be appointed. The result was a direct issue of veracity between Grant and the President. Grant positively denied the assertion of Johnson and Johnson in duced three of his Cabinet Ministers to declare that he GRANT IN THE CABINET. II3 spoke the truth, which implied of course that Grant was false. Grant never spoke to either of these men again, nor allowed his family to visit theirs. On the day when he was inaugurated as President he refused to sit in the same carriage with his predecessor, and during his Admin istration he manifested the same feeling toward Johnson's Secretary of the Treasury. IMcCulloch had returned to his old business of banking and was established in London as a partner in the house of Jay Cooke, McCulloch & Co. This firm was selected by Robeson, the Secretary of the Navy, to receive the deposits made in London for the payment of naval officers on foreign service. It was a purely American firm and its leading partners were intimate personal friends of Grant. If the McCulloch difficulty was recollected at all by the Secretary it was not supposed that it could affect this appointment. Grant, however, retained his indignant feeling, and only assented to the appointment after long hesitation, and then on account of the public considerations involved, and his confidence in the judgment of Robeson. He spoke to me of this matter years afterward and told how unwflflngly he had acquiesced. He always admitted, how ever, that though the London house was involved by the failure of Jay Cooke & Co. in this country, and bad finally suspended payment, the business was so managed that the Government suffered no loss. The heated discussion between Johnson and Grant is historical. Letters of an extraordinary character were ex changed between them, and were immediately made public. All the long series of difficulties and exasperations culmin ated now, and when Grant found his personal honor impugned he became as angry as any Hotspur in the land. He had at first been wflling to admit that the President might have persuaded himself that what he so much desired had happened, and that in another interview he could induce Grant to take the step that he asked. Johnson had con- 114 GRANT IN PEACE. stantly flattered himself that he could control Grant, and he probably had not given up the hope even now ; while Grant, with his usual subordination, his undemonstrative demeanor, his chariness of speech, having said what he intended, saw no need to confirm, or repeat, or amplify ; and when Johnson said he would see him again. Grant did not refuse. But nei ther did he assent. If Congress had not acted so promptly on Monday it is probable that he would have visited Johnson again, for he was profoundly anxious to tranquilize the situa tion. But Congress acted, and Grant with his usual decision acted also. Then when Johnson charged him with positive deception, he never forgave him. The letter which terminated their intercourse was Grant's. He had written another with less acrimony than the second, and which admitted the possibility of the President's miscon struction, but Rawlins, who was a politician by nature, and who had long foreseen the result of all the political com plications, felt that at last the time had come. He had enor mous force, and at intervals enormous influence with Grant. He took the letter that Grant had written and said: "This will not do; it is not enough;" and then prepared the draft of the important passages directly contradicting and defying the President. The language was afterward considered and somewhat modified, but the sentiment remained, and this was suggested by Rawlins. This made the rupture with Johnson personal, and reconciliation impossible. It was a stroke of political genius, for it also made any other candi date than Grant impossible for the Republicans. Of course Grant might and probably would have been President had the correspondence never occurred ; but the letter made his nomination and election certain ; and it was this phase of the correspondence that produced the result. But not a word was said by any one present of the political tendencies or results of the situation. Rawlins knew that he was expressing Grant's own sentiment, and GRANT IN THE CABINET. II5 Grant instantly perceived this fact — and acquiesced. I never in my intercourse with Grant saw another instance where another exercised so direct and palpable and import ant an influence with him. It was instantaneous and abso lute. It made him a Republican. Rawlins knew this. I could see it in his face and detect it in his tone. If Grant recognized it, he never admitted it to any one. But I believe that at the moment he felt only the assault upon his honor. CHAPTER XIV. GRANT AND SHERMAN. THE intimacy between Grant and Sherman began at the battle of Shiloh. They had been together at West Point, but in different classes, for Sherman was two years the senior ; and they never met afterward either in the army or in civil life till Grant went to Pittsburg Landing. The great struggle there in which they were so nearly worsted, and in which the splendid gallantry of the one so admirably supplemented the stubborn pluck of the other; the odium that came upon Grant afterward, which Sherman shared for a time, doubtless disclosed qualities in each to the other that the world had then not recognized ; and the companionship under danger, responsibility, and detraction made them in deed brothers-in-arms. Soon after this when Grant touched the lowest point in his career ; when the press declared, and the country believed, that his course had precipitated defeat ; when his superiors distrusted and disparaged him more profoundly even than the press or the country — the future General-in-Chief for once was despondent. He asked to be relieved from duty and to be sent to the rear. The order was given and the arrangements were made; camp chests and papers were ready. But Sherman discovered the intention and urged so strongly that Grant should remain that his advice and influ ence prevailed. It was thus he who kept Grant with that army which both were destined to lead to so many victories. At Vicksburg it is well known that Sherman disapproved (ii6) GRANT AND SHERMAN. II7 the crowning strategy, but did his best to falsify the disap proval ; and when success finally came and others attributed to him the conception of the campaign, he told the story of his own opposition which Grant had scrupulously concealed. The very letter that Sherman had written, urging a different movement. Grant had destroyed, but Sherman sent me a copy years afterward for my History of Grant's Campaigns, to testify that Grant was entitled to the credit of the victory. But for him the truth could never have been proved. When Grant was made General-in-Chief he sent me with an extraordinary private letter to Sherman in which he de clared : " How far your execution of whatever has been given you to do entitles you to the reward I am receiving you cannot know as well as I." But Sherman was not to be outdone in magnanimity, and replied: "You do yourself injustice and us too much honor in assigning us too large a share in the merits which have led to your high advance ment." Seldom in history have men holding such positions held to each other such words. The words, however, were not meant for the world. They were the interchange of intimate sentiment between closest friends. But in November, 1864, after Sherman had started on his memorable march, and disappeared for a month from the country's eager gaze,. I accompanied Grant on a visit to the North. He went to Washington, Phfladel- phia, and New York. Everywhere the most important people of the country crowded around him, all eager for his judgment of Sherman. Again and again I heard him declare to these makers of opinion that Sherman was the greatest soldier living. I remonstrated with him in private, but he repeated — that was his opinion. Indeed, I always felt for years that Grant did not do him self justice in his own thought. He was so unconscious and so uncritical of himself that he could not properly compare himself with others. The peculiar character of Sherman's Il8 GRANT IN PEACE. genius fascinated him quite as absolutely as it did anybody in the country, and made him feel that Sherman had at least as much right to the first place as he. He almost seemed sorry at times that Sherman had not attained it. But he became used to greatness. Fle began his career with a very modest idea of his own abilities, but as he grew up into prominence, he found that he could do at least as well as any one else, and he had no fear after I knew him to assume any place or undertake any task. But although he never felt overshadowed, for a long while when he looked at Sherman's achievements he was dazzled ; and when he re garded Sherman's attainments and peculiar gifts, which were just those that he did not himself possess, he felt his own deficiencies. Sherman was eloquent, animated, magnetic, learned in military history, ready to quote the examples of other commanders ; above all he was brilliant ; Grant knew that he himself was none of these; and though never lack ing in self-confidence he was often impressed by Sherman's splendid qualities till he forgot the weight due to his own soberer but more essential merits. To these Sherman however was never blind. He appre ciated fully Grant's remarkable poise, and that absolute con fidence in success which he likened to the faith which a Christian has in the Saviour. He knew that Grant's very lack of imagination was sometimes an advantage in battle; for he once said : " When I go into battle I am always think ing what the enemy wfll do, but Grant don't care a damn." He reposed on the calm strength of his friend, and the two made a combination that served themselves and the country better than if they had been counterparts. Sherman arrived triumphant at Savannah, and then the fickle crowd declared for a while that he ought to supplant Grant. The chief had lain for nearly a year in front of Richmond, and won not a single undisputed victory; whfle Sherman had fought his way to Atlanta and afterward marched GRANT AND SHERMAN. I ig across the Confederacy to the sea. A bill was accordingly meditated to make Sherman Lieutenant-General and eligible to command the Army. But Sherman wrote to his brother in the Senate to prevent the plan, while to Grant he said : " I would rather have you in command than any one else. I should emphatically decline any command calculated to bring us into rivalry." To this Grant answered simply: "If you should be put in command and I put subordinate, it would not change our relations in the least. I would make the same exertions to support you that you have ever done to support me, and I would do all in my power to make our cause win." He so little thought he was saying anything remarkable when he wrote these lines that he was about sending the letter without retaining a copy. By good fortune he showed it to me, and I took a copy before it was for warded, though he seemed to think this unnecessary. It was unofficial, he said. At this period in his career Grant was always apparently unconscious when he did great things, either in an intel lectual or a moral way. He seemed by nature utterly unob servant of the workings of his own mind and almost of the peculiarities of his own character. He never appeared to consider, much less to study, his own thoughts or emotions, unless something was done or said to call his attention to them — perhaps to disclose them to himself. One or two of his intimates were even able occasionally to utter or embody his feelings for him, so that he at once recognized and accepted them. Rawlins possessed this art, and to those who did not know all or see far, he sometimes seemed to put ideas into Grant. But he got them all first from Grant; and having a greater facility of expression could reveal them to him, or even impress them on their author. He never, how ever, claimed to originate them ; nor did he ever discuss this singular power ; he only exerted it; perhaps unconsciously, as Grant himself exerted his own faculties. The mirror in 120 GRANT IN PEACE. which a man's features are reflected may sometimes make known to himself what manner of man he is. But the mir ror does not therefore create the features. Later in Grant's career, after he had seen much of the world and had passed through so marvelous an experience of life and men, he seemed to me to become more conscious. Yet it may be that it was I who grew, not he ; that I got to know him better, and at last could see what had existed all along beneath the veil he kept so close about his intimacy. He was unwilling, it is true, that friendship, or even affection, should penetrate too far ; nevertheless, the study of his character and deeds for twenty years revealed qualities and peculiarities which he acknowledged by his acts, if not his words ; and he finally, I thought, became not only willing, but desirous, for me to know some of the workings of his spirit which few were per mitted to perceive. If I tell any of his secrets now, when he cannot be pained, his sflent shade will not reproach me, for it is to make him loved and honored by others as he was by me. But to return to Sherman. When the terrible and unjust reaction came, and the Government and half the country in one harsh burst of passion forgot all that Sherman had done, and pronounced him a traitor, Grant was as deeply wounded almost as Sherman. I met him with this news in North Carolina, as he was returning from Sherman's headquarters after the second capitulation of Johnston. He knew, for he had heard them say, what the President and Stanton thought of Sherman's terms, and he disapproved those terms as fully and resolutely as they ; but he had not dreamed that these censures would be made known. When he read Stanton's comments published to the world, his face flamed with indig nation, his fist was clenched, and he exclaimed: "It is in famous — infamous!" he repeated the word — "After four years of such service as Sherman has done — that he should be used like this!" On his return to Washington he was not chary in expressing bis indignation, and when Sherman GRANT AND SHERMAN. 12 j arrived there with his army, to share in the Great Review, the tone of public feeling was already changed, partly, no doubt, by Grant's outspoken protestations for his friend. But now came another serious trouble. Sherman was not appeased. He could not forgive the insult offered him before the country ; and the situation of public affairs was still too critical for men like Stanton and Sherman to be at odds with out creating anxiety. Sherman's army shared his feeling, and it was not thought wise to encamp it too near Washington. Grant did his best to bring the great patriots together, and Stan ton was not averse; he doubtless felt that he had been unjust. But Sherman held off. Grant advised him, sympathized with him, and sought to soothe him. But Sherman refused in public, at the head of his army, and in the presence of the President and all the great functionaries of the nation, the hand that Stanton offered him. He wrote, besides, two letters to Grant, one from Rich mond and the other in Washington, which Grant gave me to keep, directing me to seal them up, and never show them to any human being without his leave. Years afterward, with Grant's sanction, I wrote to Sherman for permission to use them in my history. This he gave, adding fresh comments full of pathos and the softening influence of time. Grant had never answered the letters, but kept the secret, so that the contents remained unknown till one of the great actors had passed away and the other had forgiven the affront. Then Sherman wrote to me : " I fully concede to you the right to use anything I ever wrote, private or public, to give the world a picture of the feelings, even passions, of the time. . . . To-day I might act with more silence, with more caution, with more prudence, because I am twelve years older. But these things did occur, these feelings were felt, and inspired acts which go to make up history ; and the question now is not, Was I right or wrong ? but. Did it happen ? and is the record worth anything as an historic example?" 122 GRANT IN PEACE. And now the two men who had stood side by side since Shiloh, in good report and evil report, in disaster and trial and in final triumph, were to be tested on another field. Andrew Johnson conceived the idea of making them rivals, of pitting the friends against each other in politics. When he found that he could not win Grant to his purposes, he be thought him that Sherman's reputation and popularity might serve him almost as well. Sherman had lived out of the strife between Congress and the President, and could not know all that Grant knew of Johnson's cunning and designs. His subordination might be counted on, as Grant's had been. Then, too, Sherman had seemed to entertain notions in poli tics not entirely dissimflar to those with which Johnson him self had started ; he might be inclined to act with the loyal men who had followed Johnson in his aberrations. Above all, he might be tempted by the chance to supplant his only superior in military position or possibly fame. So the scheme was laid to entrap Sherman and use him to further Johnsons views in antagonism to Grant. general SHERMAN TO GENERAL BADEAU. Headquarters Army of the United States, ) Washington, D. C, June 27, 1877. ) Dear Badeau, — Your letter of June 13th catches me in the act of packing up for an absence of three months, and leaves me only time to say that the marked honors paid General Grant by all classes, from the sovereign down to the masses of England, touch our people, especially his old comrades, with great force. All the papers of every shade of politics chronicle his movements and furnish the minutest detafls. We all know that he and Mrs. Grant went up from London last evening at 5 p. m., and were the guests of her most gracious Majesty, Victoria, at Windsor Castle. I esteem these marks of favor, not as mere compliments to the Gen eral and his country, but as a foreshadowing of the judgment of history on his wonderful career. Now that he is untrammeled by the personal contests of partisans, all men look upon him as the GRANT AND SPIERMAN. 1 23 General Grant, who had the courage, with Lee at his front and Washington at his rear, to undertake to command the Army of the Potomac in 1864, to guide, direct, and push it through sunshine and storm, through praise and denunciation, steadily, surely, and finally to victory and peace ; and afterwards, though unused to the ways and machinery of civil government, to risk all in undertaking to maintain that peace by the Constitution and civil forms of govern ment. There have been plenty of people trying to sow dissensions between us personally, and I feel my conscience clear that, though sometimes differing on minor points, I never doubted his patriot ism, firmness, and personal friendship. If the General and family be still with you, give them the assurance of my best love, and believe me, Most truly, your friend, W. T. Sherman. CHAPTER XV. GRANT, SHERMAN, AND JOHNSON. JOHNSON had been as violent as Stanton in his censure of Sherman's terms in North Carolina. General Grant told me at the time that the President called Sherman a traitor in the presence of the Cabinet, and that he authorized the publication of the comments of Stanton which cafled down on the great soldier the denunciations of the country he had heljyd to save. But when it became desirable to make use of Sherman Johnson could assume a different tone. He resorted to every inducement of flattery, confidence, and tempting advancement, and offered him in turn the command of the army, the brevet of General, and the position of Sec retary of War, so that he might either cope with, supplant, or surpass Grant. But Sherman was proof against all his wiles. Johnson's first attempt to pit the great comrades against each other was in the matter of the mission to Mexico. I have already told the story, but some points belong to my present theme. In October, 1866, the President ordered Grant to send for Sherman who was at St. Louis, but he did not inform the General-in-Chief of the purpose of the order. This, however. Grant suspected, and wrote to Sherman to come direct to his house. There he told his friend of the plot of the Administration to send himself out of the coun try and to put Sherman in his place in the interim. Sher man at once waited on the President and protested against the scheme. He represented the determination of Grant not (124) GRANT, SHERMAN, AND JOHNSON. 125 to leave the country, the Heedlessness of sending him, and the danger of insisting. He even offered himself to go to Mexico, and in the end he was substituted for Grant. Beyond all doubt it was the earnestness of his urging, the cogency of his suggestions, and above all the discovery of his loyalty to Grant that changed the purpose of the Presi dent. Sherman, however, like Grant at the outset, was completely subordinate in his interviews with the President and strove to express no opinions offensive to his superior. A year after these events the time came for Johnson to report his reasons for the suspension of Stanton. Sherman was then on duty at Washington as president of a board -to revise the regulations of the army. His relations with Grant were so intimate that they discussed in advance the conduct of Grant in case the Senate should disapprove the action of the President. On the nth of January, two days before the Senate decided. Grant told Sherman that he would not retain the office of Secretary of War after the disapproval of the Senate, and Sherman urged him to make known this inten tion promptly to the President. It was partly because of this urgency of Sherman that Grant went the same day to Johnson to announce his determination. It was also Sher man who first suggested the name of Governor Cox as a substitute, when Grant should give up the office, and Grant urged Sherman to repeat the suggestion to the President. They were thus in complete accord. Neither, at this junc ture, deemed it proper that Stanton should return to his office. But Stanton resumed his place, and his first act was to send a message to Grant that the Secretary of War desired to see him. This required Grant to leave his own office on the opposite side of the street to wait on his superior. It was, to say the least, an offensive method of announcing that Stan ton was in his seat, especially to the man who had treated him with so much delicacy a few months before, when their positions had been reversed. Then Grant had gone 126 GRANT IN PEACE. to Stanton's house and told him in advance what he meant to do, and afterward sent a formal and highly complimentary letter before he entered upon his functions. Grant now disliked extremely the behavior of Stanton, and said so to Sherman, as well as to his own confidential officers. The same day Grant and Sherman went together to the President. There had already appeared in the journal which served as Johnson's mouthpiece accusations of Grant's want of faith, and he was loath to enter the Executive presence, but he put under foot all personal considerations. The position of Stanton was discussed, and it was suggested that Grant should advise him to resign. The President maintained that Stanton's orders to Grant were not vahd while the Secretary held office against the will of the Head of the State, and Grant replied that if the President wished him to disobey Stanton, he should give a written order to that effect. This order Johnson did not give. He wished Grant to take the responsibility of disobeying, but was him self unwilling to take the responsibility of directing the disobedience. Grant and Sherman now held frequent conferences, neither taking any step without the concurrence of the other. Sherman, like Grant, subordinated all personal feeling at this juncture to the public interests. He forgot any remains of resentment he may have retain-ed toward Stanton, and offered to go to him with Grant to discuss the situation; but for some reason the interview did not occur. Grant, however, visited Stanton, intending to recommend him to resign, but he soon perceived that the advice would be useless, and coun seled Sherman not to offer it. Meanwhile the controversy between Grant and the Presi dent was approaching a culmination. Twice Grant received important orders from Stanton requiring immediate action, and inclosing communications from the Treasury which recognized Stanton as Secretary of War; and yet the Presi- GRANT, SHERMAN, AND JOHNSON. 127 dent had verbally instructed him to disregard Stanton's au thority. On the 24th of January Grant formally requested that the President would put into writing these verbal directions. This was not done, and Grant was placed in a very embarrassing position. It was the old device — to make some one else do the unauthorized work and take the responsibility, by which Johnson was to profit without burn ing his fingers. At the same time the imputations of bad faith were continued against Grant. Finally, on the 28th of January, Grant renewed his request for written instruc tions to disobey Stanton, and in the same letter he cate gorically denied the assertion of any promise on his part to remain in office after the Senate re-instated Stanton. This brought matters to a head. Within two days Sher man was offered the position of Secretary of War. As soon as it became certain that Grant could not and would not be used, the crafty politician turned to the next in command. On the 30th of January Sherman had a long interview with Johnson, in which the President proposed either to oust Stanton by force, or to remove him legally by submi]tting Sherman's name to the Senate as Secretary of War. But to both these measures Sherman was averse. On the 31st he wrote a let ter to the President, full of wisdom, patriotism, and eloquence, a copy of which he gave to Grant. In this he said : " To bring me to Washington would put three heads to the army — yourself. General Grant, and myself; and we would be more than human if we were not to differ. In my judgment it would ruin the army, and would be fatal to one, or two, of us." "With my consent," he said emphatically, "Washing ton, never." The next day the Board of Officers, of which Sherman was president, concluded its labors, and he set out immedi ately for St. Louis, to avoid, if possible, being caught in the political storm. Johnson cajoled him, tempted him, and flat tered him, but in vain. Repeatedly the President declared 128 GRANT IN PEACE. that he wanted Sherman in Washington, but Sherman as often declined to remain ; and Johnson did not order him to stay. On the 31st of January, the day after offering Sherman the position of Secretary of War, Johnson sent a letter to Grant, recapitulating in detail and ratifying all the charges that had hitherto been only anonymously made. On the 3d of February Grant replied, denying every one of John son's assertions, and charging the President outright with an attempt to destroy his character before the country. Johnson forthwith issued an order for Sherman to return to Washing ton, but with his usual vacillation, in a day or two rescinded it. On the 1 2th of February, however, the order was renewed, and Sherman was directed to assume command of a new mil itary division created for the occasion, with headquarters at Washington. Grant notified him of this by telegraph, and Sherman replied : " Were I prepared, I should resign on the spot, as it requires no foresight to predict such must be the inevitable result in the end." Johnson now sent to the Senate the nomination of Sher man for the brevet of General, which would enable the Presi dent to place him in command of the army instead of Grant, but Sherman instantly telegraphed to his brother in the Sen ate to oppose the confirmation. The same day he wrote a second letter to the President, which he forwarded through Grant. To Grant himself he said : " I never felt so troubled in my life. Were it an order to go to Sitka, to the devil, to battle with rebels or Indians, I think you would not hear a whimper from me. . . . My first thoughts were of resigna tion, and I had almost made up my mind to ask Dodge for some place on the Pacific Railroad, . . . and then again various colleges ran through my memory, but hard times and an expensive family have brought me back. ... If it were at all certain that you would accept the nomination of Presi dent in May, I would try and kill the intervening time and GRANT, SHERMAN, AND JOHNSON. 129 then judge of the chances, but I do not want you to reveal your plans to me till you choose to do so." It was hard to drive Sherman out of the army or compel him to oppose his friend — to force these men into such positions, who had done what they had for the country — all for the sake of enabling Johnson to triumph over the will of the people who had won in the war — Johnson too, who was only by chance, or by assassination, in his place. The strain between Grant and Sherman was terrible ; the feeling, pitiable. Sherman's letter to the President was as emphatic as that to Grant. He declared : " If I could see my way clear to maintain my family I would not hesitate a moment to resign my present commission and seek some business wherein I could be 'free from these unhappy complications that seem to be closing about me." He implored a revocation of the order, and continued : " By being placed in Washington I will be universally construed as a rival to the General-in-Chief, a position damaging to me in the highest degree. Our rela tions have always been most confidential and friendly, and if unhappily any cloud of difference should arise between us, my sense of personal dignity and duty would leave me no alternative but resignation. I shall proceed to arrange for it as rapidly as possible, so that when the time does come, as it surely will, if this plan is carried into effect, I may act promptly." He ended by pronouncing "the blow one of the hardest I have sustained in a life somewhat checkered by adversity." Neither the feeling nor the conduct of Sherman at this crisis can be fully appreciated without remembering that he did not approve the course of Congress in many respects, and would certainly have preferred a more lenient policy toward the South. But questions like these were now far in the background, and the devices of Johnson were such as Sher man never could have indorsed. There were, indeed, many honorable and loyal men who believed that the course 9 I30 GRANT IN PEACE. originally indicated by the President, would have been more fortunate for the country, and at this distance of time all can see instances in which Congress might have acted with greater wisdom ; but the crooked arts and iniquitous machinations of the obstinate, cunning, malicious man at the head of the Government can recommend themselves neither to patriots nor men of honor at the North or South, Demo crats or Republicans. They cost the country dear. The shot of Booth did more harm to the South than to the illus trious martyr who received it, or to the unhappy maniac by whose hand Lincoln fell. Grant, as well as Sherman, was tortured by the petty craft of him whom Fate had thrust into a position where he could tyrannize over natures greater than his own. Grant now appealed to Sherman to write out his recollections of the famous interview with the President, at which Sherman had been present, in order to counterbalance the assertions of Johnson's Cabinet. On the i8th of February the General- in-Chief wrote again to his friend, calling for his support in the attacks upon his honor : "Your letter to the President which you informed me by telegraph on Friday last had been mailed through me, has not yet come to hand. It may come to-day. The course you have pursued has given immense satisfaction so far as I have heard any expres sion of opinion. The dispatch you sent to Senator Sherman has not been published, but it is understood to be the ground of his action in the Senate. You see by the papers Mr. J. has been expressing surprise at your action, saying that his course was understood between you before you left, and that you did not seem to disapprove it. Of course I do not expect to make any use of the letters which you have written, in my own vindication, but I thought your letter to the President might set you right in the estimation of people who do not know you as well as I do, and might possibly suppose from the fact that you had been in Wash ington and in direct communication with the President, that you had consented to aid him in his plans to offer me an indignity. I GRANT, SHERI\L\N, AND JOHNSON. 13! would be very glad to have you here if the public was not losing by bringing you away from where you are, and if not for the annoying position it would place you in. I have heard that Mr. Johnson said to some of his intimate friends that he intended to have you and me knock our heads together. Your intimation that you would resign under any circumstances has called out an expression that you should not be placed in a position to make it necessary, even if it took legislation to prevent the contingency. This of course is an individual expression of opinion. But I would say under no circumstances tender even a contingent resignation. You do not owe Mr. Johnson anything, and he is not entitled to such a sacrifice from you. Please present my kindest regards to Mrs. Sherman and the children." The scrupulous care with which in all this crisis Grant regarded Sherman's wishes, and strove to do nothing to commit him further than he chose, is shown in the following letter of the 22d of February to Senator Sherman : '''' The National Intelligencer oi this morning contains a private note which General Sherman sent to the President while he was in Washington, dictated by the purest kindness and a disposition to preserve harmony, and not intended for publication. It seems to me that the publication of that letter is calculated to place the General in a wrong light before the public, taken in connection with what correspondents have said before, evidently getting their inspiration from the White House. As General Sherman after ward wrote a semi-official note to the President, furnishing me a copy, and still later a purely official letter sent through me, which place him in his true position, and which have not been published, though called for by the " House," I take the liberty of sending you these letters to give you the opportunity of consulting General Sherman as to what action to take upon them. In all matters where I am not personally interested I would not hesitate to advise General Sherman how I would act in his place. But in this instance after the correspondence I have had with Mr. Johnson, I may not see General Sherman's interest in the same light others see it, or that I would see it in, if no such correspondence had 132 GRANT IN PEACE. occurred. I am clear in this, however : the correspondence here inclosed to you should not be made public, except by the Presi dent, or with the full sanction of General Sherman. Probably the letter of the 31st of January, marked confidential, should not be given out at all." Johnson was deterred by Sherman's protestations, by the refusal of the Senate to confirm the brevet, and by the fear that he would damage himself if he insisted further. Doubt less, too, he suspected that Sherman would not prove very serviceable, if forced so much against his will into the uncoveted position. On the 19th of February, therefore, the President informed Sherman that he would not be ordered to Washington. Two days afterward, without consulting the Senate, Johnson removed Stanton and appointed Lorenzo Thomas, the Adjutant-General of the Army, Secretary of War ad interim. The same day a resolution was offered in the House of Representatives that Andrew Johnson, Presi dent of the United States, be impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors. On the 24th of February the resolution was adopted. Points suggested by General Sherman in answer to the President's letter to General Grant, of January 3 it 1866 : " Acknowledge receipt formally. "Regret that matters of importance should have transpired verbally when the memory of mere words in a general conversa tion is interpreted according to the bias of hearers. Will take care in future it shall be avoided. " Knew that the President on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday possessed ah the knowledge of the action of the Senate and its legal effects that you did, and as the responsibility rested with him, you presumed he would adopt his own course. " A resignation was never hinted at as necessary, as the law itself terminated the tenure of the Secretary of War ad interim. GRANT, SHERMAN, AND JOHNSON. 133 "Know your own motive and wishfes to secure as much harmony of action as possible, and to avoid as far as could be the controversy unhappily existing between President and Congress, but conscious of rectitude, forbear to question motives of others. " Question of Mr. Stanton is one of pure legality. His sitting in that particular office does not make him Secretary of War. If he is not Secretary of War, why does the Secretary of Treasury pay his drafts as such ? " The controversy as it stood then and as it stands now, is not one which the Commander-in-Chief should settle, but it is for the courts or the President by an ' order.' w. t. s." CHAPTER XVI. THE IMPEACHMENT OF ANDREW JOHNSON. GRANT had originally been very much averse to the proposition to impeach the President. Suggestions of this proceeding had been made as early as 1 866, and in May of that year Grant wrote to Washburne, who was then in Europe : " But little is heard now about impeachment. It is sincerely to be hoped that we wfll not, unless something occurs here after to fully justify it." It was not until Johnson's removal of Stanton and the appointment of Lorenzo Thomas as Secretary of War, and after his own violent differences with the President, that Grant looked with favor on this extreme measure. But when the motion for impeachment was finafly passed he heartily approved it. He took the liveliest inter est in the proceedings, and though he preserved a proper reticence in his public utterances, he did not scruple with those in his confidence to express his opinion that the action of Congress was entirely justified. He refused, however, to visit the Senate during the trial, and did nothing inconsistent with the dignity of his position. But the election for President was now only a few months off, and from the time of the publication of his final corre spondence with Johnson it was evident that Grant must be the candidate of the Republicans. He no longer declined to acknowledge this probability, or to converse on the subject; and the leaders of the party continually consulted him during the progress of the trial. Before its conclusion he was formally nominated for the Presidency, and he would have (134) THE IMPEACHMENT OF ANDREW JOHNSON. 135 been untrue to his implied obligations had he failed to sym pathize with his supporters in a matter so momentous as their battle with the President. His political coavictions, as I have shown, had been forming and crystallizing for several years, amid the changing circumstances and contingencies of the time ; but the action of Johnson undoubtedly precipitated his conclusions. For Grant was subject to all the ordinary feelings and even passions of a man, and the long series of attempts first to beguile and cajole him, and afterward to entrap and misrep resent him, had their natural effect. They went hand in hand with what he thought the President's endeavors to thwart and frustrate the law, and the will of the loyal North. Finally, when Johnson at the same juncture assailed Grant's personal honor and defied the authority of Congress, the soldier resented one action while the citizen condemned the other. Doubtless the imputations on his character sharpened his appreciation of the public misconduct of his enemy ; no one is proof against inducements and influences like these ; but the fact did not lessen the purity of his conduct or the integrity of his motives. Christianity itself mingles personal considerations with those of abstract right and wrong ; and a man who has been struck in a righteous cause is hardly to be blamed if he returns the blow with increased and indig nant zeal. Grant, I repeat, was very human; tempted in all points lik'e other men; he was made neither of wood nor stone, but of flesh and blood; and at this juncture the fervor of his public spirit was certainly intensified by his indigna tion at Johnson's behavior toward himself. But he committed no injustice. He resented his own wrongs, yet he made no display of rancor and descended to no unworthy wiles. He was at one time summoned before Congress, but he rigidly confined his testimony to what he had seen and known, and refused to exaggerate either the language or acts of the President or his own impressions of 136 GRANT IN PEACE. them; although he was certain that this very moderation would be an argument in Johnson's favor. Nevertheless, when he thought it his duty to take an important step, he did not hesitate. At the crisis of the trial it became evident that some of the Republican Senators were uncertain as to their judgment or their course, and Grant was urged to use his influence with them. The Sen ators were judges, it is true, but this was a political trial, and Grant believed that he had a right to support the weak and confirm the strong in so grave an emergency. He not only conversed with those whose action he thought he could affect, arguing in favor of the conviction of Johnson and demon strating his guilt, but he visited at least one Senator at his house with this purpose. This was Mr. Frelinghuysen. Grant told me of his intention before he paid the visit, and returned greatly gratified, for though Frelinghuysen had not disclosed his intention he had said enough to assure Grant of his views. Two or three days afterward Frelinghuysen voted in favor of conviction. The day before the verdict was rendered a remarkable scene occurred at Grant's headquarters. Benjamin F. Wade, the presiding officer of the Senate, would in case of the deposition of Johnson immediately become President. Nat urally he was considering this possibility. He was an ardent Republican, and a friend and supporter of General Grant. He came to Grant's office while I was present and said: " Genera], I am here to consult with you about my Cabinet, in case Mr. Johnson is found guilty." I was allowed to remain during the interview. Mr. Wade then went on to say that as Grant was the candidate of the Republican party and would undoubtedly be elected, he wished to make no temporary appointments that would be unacceptable to his probable successor. Grant listened attentively but offered no suggestions of his own. The matter was profoundly delicate, and yet it was not improper for these two men, who THE IMPEACHMENT OF ANDREW JOHNSON. 137 might each in turn and so soon become the Head of the State, to compare their plans. Wade mentioned several names for Cabinet positions, and ascertained that Grant would not object to them. Stanton's, of course, was one of these. But Grant made no revelation of his own purposes, if indeed they were formed, and there was no discussion of policy ; about that they would doubtless be in accord. The interview lasted perhaps half an hour. But the next day Johnson was acquitted, and Wade never made a Cabinet. He got very close to greatness ; the vote of one man in the Senate excluded him. Grant was at first very much disappointed at the result of the trial, and said so to some of his intimates ; but he was discreet, and forebore to make his feeling public or its expression in any way indecorous. After a while his judg ment changed, and he thought on the whole it was better for the country that the President should not have been removed. He believed that Johnson had been taught a lesson which he would not forget, and that the precedent of a successful impeachment would have been a greater misfortune to the State than any evil that Johnson might stfll have been able to accomplish. In addition to this I heard him say that a fear of Wade's well-known bitterness and lack of restraint reconciled him more easily to enduring Johnson a little longer. He even suggested that a similar apprehension might have influenced some of the Republican Senators who had voted for acquittal. As years went by Grant's judgment changed on several points in regard to which at this time he was very decided. He found the Tenure of Office act a great obstruction to his own authority as President, and wa£# anxious for a much greater modification of its provisions than Congress was willing to concede. Yet he had been strongly in favor of curtailing Johnson's powers. He justified this apparent inconsistency by declaring that the times had been unusual. 138 GRANT IN PEACE. the man exceptional ; and that what was indispensable imme diately after a great civil convulsion in order to prevent further commotions and possibly revolution, was unnecessary and indefensible in the ordinary years of peace. Grant indeed was never willing to let constitutional restrictions bind the State so that it could not save itself. He was full of reverence for law, but that the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath, was a doctrine to which in all things he subscribed. He was heartily glad when the turmoil of the impeach ment was over, and was entirely satisfied to have a prominent Republican like Evarts accept a seat in Johnson's Cabinet. There were many in his party who disapproved the course of Evarts at this juncture. They were indignant even that he should defend the President professionally, and still more so when he consented to become a member of Johnson's Government. But Grant himself had set the precedent, and could not condemn the man who followed it. Both he and Stanton had held places in the same Cabinet while disap proving the policy of its chief; and he thought and said that Evarts, especially as the legal adviser of the Adminis tration, might be able to act as a useful check, and thus do the country important service. He was glad also to have one man in the Cabinet with whom in most matters he could sympathize. The result of the trial was a crushing and intolerable blow to Stanton, from which he never recovered. Although there lacked but one vote of the two-thirds of the Senate neces sary to convict the President, the verdict was in some sort a condemnation of the Secretary. It implied that he should not have remained in the Cabinet against the will of his chief, and it made it imperative on him immediately to resign. General Schofield was at once nominated by the President for the position of Secretary of War. Grant still retained some of the heat of the contest and wrote to Schofield, THE IMPEACHMENT OF ANDREW JOHNSON. i3g who was then in command at Richmond: "Under the circumstances I advise you to decline the Secretaryship in advance." But Schofield started for Washington and went at once to visit Grant, who revised his opinion, and Schofield entered the Cabinet with the full concurrence of the General- in-Chief. He displayed rare ability in his difficult position. He was able to perform his duties with efficiency, so as to satisfy the President, and at the same time not offend the Leg islature nor the party that had sought to overthrow his chief. A subordinate of Grant in the army and his personal friend, owing indeed to Grant much of his advancement, he behaved to his great inferior with consummate tact and delicacy, deferring to him whenever this was proper, and nevertheless maintaining the dignity of his own position. Their relations were always extremely cordial. With Evarts and Schofield in the Cabinet, Grant was able, even as the candidate of the party that was so hostile to the President, to retain something like concord with the Government. EXTRACT FROM LETTER OF HON. EDWARDS PIERREPONT TO GENERAL BADEAU. " I knew Johnson personally ; not very well, but well enough to see that he had immense cunning and persistency ; and it seemed clear to me that in the contest with his Secretary of War the President, clothed with all the powers of his great office, would in the end prevail, and that Stanton would sometime, somehow, be ousted from his place, and our long intimacy, I thought, war ranted me in writing him the most earnest letter that I could pen, urging him to resign in the very beginning of the contest with his chief. I now have his reply in which he says that his wife warmly indorsed my letter, but that every other friend was against it; ^hat those in the Senate and the House who had stood so faith fully by him during the war implored him to remain; and that duty, patriotism, and fidelity to party all demanded that he should "stick." ... I was in Washington and dined with the Sec retary at his house in K street, on the day when General Grant I40 GRANT IN PEACE. announced to Stanton that the President had urged him (General Grant) to accept the office of Secretary of War, and that the General had accepted the offer. The day was warm, and during the early twilight we sat in the wide hall with the street door open, talking upon this very subject, when General Grant came slowly up the steps. After the usual greeting and the passing of a few words, the General said to the Secretary that he wanted to speak with him, and the two retired to the library. They were absent from ten to fifteen minutes, and both looked troubled on their return. The General went away, only saying "Good evening." Stanton, with a suppressed agitation which was very marked, but in calm language, told me the purport of the interview and of what Sumner and other Senators had said to make him " stick." He then said: "You and Mrs. Stanton are the only ones who gave me good advice and I ought to have followed it," CHAPTER XVIL GRANT AS A PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE. I HAVE already shown Grant's original aversion to poli tics. Immediately after the close of the war, the at tention of the country was turned to the great soldier as a probable candidate for the Presidency, but to him nothing could be more disagreeable than the thought. Probably no man has ever been mentioned for the place who was more unwilling to accept the honor. He was plain and unassum ing, for all his elevation, entirely satisfied with^his position at the head of the army, and gratified with his personal pop ularity. He had received no trainipg in politics, and pos sessed no aptitude for the career ; me disliked the ways and arts of politiciansNand preferred his soldier friends and his reputation as a soldier to political associates or political fame. He knew, too, that he must lose some of his popu larity when he became a candidate, must give up much of his ease and offend many of his friends when once he en tered office. Besides all this, he had tasted the bitterness of poverty, and he was now placed beyond pecuniary anxiety, while, if he became President, he must relinquish the income of ^22,000 a year that was settled on him for life. He had little to look forward to afterward, no resources to take the place of those he would lose ; and he was still young, — only forty-three when the war closed. He considered all these circumstances, and he told me afterward that he looked with positive apprehension at the probability, which by degrees (141) 142 GRANT IN PEACE. was converted into a certainty, of becoming a Presidential candidate. When he was first approached on the subject he resented the liberty and repelled alf discussion of the theme. I have often seen men who hoped to draw him out receive very mortifying and unexpected rebuffs. They would make, per haps, an elaborate little speech, devise a snare into which they thought he must certainly fall, invent a bait that must tempt him to talk; but Grant would simply look at them with no expression whatever on his face, and say not a single word. If he had uttered anything at all they might have continued or renewed their wiles, but this absolute sflence was the most embarrassing answer possible. It not only entirely baffled them, but was merciless in its way. They stammered and blushed, no matter how bold or adroit ; then they attempted to change the subject, and invariably, before many minutes, took their leave. Sometimes, as the door closed. Grant would look up at me with a quizzical expres sion that showed he enjoyed their confusion. For a man unused to the stratagems of peace he was the most skfllful and the most successful in these repulses I have ever seen. His interlocutors never returned to the charge. But the course of Johnson made it incumbent at last on the soldier to accept the political situation, however unwel come. The people whom he had led in the war naturally looked to him to guard what he had won, and for a year before the actual necessity for decision there could be no mistaking the signs. Still Grant lived in the hope that the necessity might be averted. He would not admit to himself that he must take up the new role. The approach of the crisis awoke no ambition in him. Indeed, the spectacle of Johnson dishonored, impeached, almost deposed, was not cal culated to make one who stood so near at all eager to become his successor. The struggles whose inner history Grant knew so well, the troubles with Cabinet Ministers, the dis- GRANT AS A PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE. 143 tracting fears and anxieties of Johnson, perhaps the fate of Lincoln, — all conspired to dispel the illusions which men further off might entertain. Grant saw for himself that the lot of the President was a hard one ; and I do not believe he ever admitted to his own heart before the final rupture with Johnson that he would accept the nomination for the Presidency. This repugnance doubtless helped him to conceal so long his differences with the President, and made him sub mit to more from Johnson than he otherwise would have endured. Then, too. Grant saw not a little in the conduct of Congress and of individual members of the Republican party which he did not commend. Of course, with the gen eral policy of the party he was in accord, but he disapproved many particulars and disliked many men that, as a candidate, he must in some sort indorse. Besides all this, he had many' admirers and some warm personal friends among the Democrats whom he was unwilling to lose, and the influence of his wife's family, which went for something, was decidedly hostile to the Republican policy and sentiment. Thus he deferred to the last moment taking the decisive step. But when he wrote the letter that defied the President he identified himself with the President's enemies. The country looked upon the step as signifying his willingness to be recog nized as Johnson's antagonist. Johnson himself at the time, and even afterward, hoped to be the nominee of the Demo crats. He was at this moment acting in unison with them ; his only friends were of their party ; he was their representa tive, and though he did many things that many Democrats disapproved, they were forced as a party to uphold him. Thus when Grant was thrust into a position of personal and prominent hostility to Johnson, the Republicans claimed him and rallied around him. He knew himself that the die was cast. He was nominated by acclamation at Cincinnati in May, 144 GRANT IN PEACE. 1868. Stanton carried him the news. I was with Grant at his own headquarters when the Secretary of War entered the room. I had never seen Stanton there before, but this time he did not send for Grant. He came hurriedly up the stairs panting for breath lest some one should precede him. He had ob tained the first information of the vote, even in advance of Grant, and as he rushed in he exclaimed : " General ! I have come to tell you that you have been nominated by the Re publican party for President of the United States." Grant received the intelligence as he did every important announce ment of his life. There was no shade of exultation or agita tion on his face, not a flush on his cheek, nor a flash in his eye. I doubt whether he felt elated, even in those recesses where he concealed his inmost thoughts. At that moment I believe he was sorry to leave his position in the army, and disliked as much as ever the prospect of new responsibflities and unfamiliar cares. But of course, when he was in a fight he desired to win, and since his name had been placed before the public with his tacit sanction, he would have been disap pointed had he not received the nomination. Of that, how: ever, there had hardly been a possibility. The next night he made his first political speech, in answer to the public announcement of his nomination. The address was entirely unprepared, like almost every speech he ever made, but I took it down at the time. It was in these words : " Gentle men, being entirely unaccustomed to public speaking, and without the desire to cultivate the power, it is impossible for me to find appropriate language to thank you for this demon stration. All that I can say is, that to whatever position I may be called by your will, I shall endeavor to discharge its duties with fidelity and honesty of purpose. Of my rectitude in the performance of public duties you will have to judge for yourselves by the record before you." With all his modesty Grant was conscious of his own character. He felt the weight of the services he had ren dered, and dared to allude to them without humility. GRANT AS A PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE. I4S Indeed he had been told so often that he was indispens able at this crisis that he might be pardoned if he believed it. He thought at any rate that he was as important to the Republican party as the party was to him. He had not wanted the nomination and the party had wanted the pres tige of his name at the polls. He was not now grateful to the party, for he believed that if the party leaders could have done without him they never would have nominated him. And it is true that he was not the choice of the leaders, who doubted his political ability and distrusted even yet his politi cal fidelity ; he was forced upon them by the rank and file. Stanton, Chase, Greeley, Sumner — all would have preferred a purely political man. Grant knew this. He refused from the first to take any active part in the campaign. When the trial of the President was concluded and Congress adjourned, he set out for his little home in Galena to get away from arrangements and conferences. The party managers were very much annoyed by this course. Nearly all his friends theught it unwise, and those who were intimate enough advised against it. He was now, they said, the chief of the party, and its important members desired to consult him continually during the contest. But he replied that he did not wish to consult them. He had lent his name, but he would take no part, give no advice in the struggle. He went off as far as he could from the turmofl, and directed that his letters should not be forwarded to him, nor even opened. Grant, indeed, at this time, meant to keep himself untrammeled by pledges not only about place, but even about policy. He had some idea of being the President of the people rather than of a party. He became absolutely a politician afterward, but only this idea will account for much that was extraordinary in his course, both during the canvass and even after the election. He had no thought of being untrue to those who supported him, but he had not sought the nomination, and he felt himself more free on this 146 GRANT IN PEACE. account ; and he meant to keep himself so. This is not a surmise of mine ; it is what I have heard him declare. When he went to Galena I remained in Washington writ ing a pamphlet history of his life, to be used in the political canvass. He knew my occupation and approved it, so that he was not after all indifferent to success nor to the means to insure it. He simply did not wish to use these means himself in this campaign. He wanted to feel that he had not striven for his own elevation. " When my work was complete, he wrote me the following letter : Galena, III., August 18, 1868. Dear Badeau, — As I have concluded to remain here till about the close of September, I think you had better open the letters that have accumulated in Washington. Such as are on official subjects refer to Rawlins. All others do with as your judgment dictates, only do not send any to me except such as you think absolutely require my attention and will not keep till my return. If you are not otherwise more agreeably engaged, I think you will find it pleasant here for a while and then to return with me. I have also written to Comstock to come out if he feels like it. The family are all well. Yours truly, U. S. Grant. Accordingly, I opened the hundreds of letters that had been received since his departure, answered those that required answers, and took a dozen or more with me to Galena. There I remained until the election, for Grant did not return to Washington before November. In afl this period only one or two of the political people of consequence ventured to write to him, but many letters were addressed to me the contents of which were evidently intended for my chief. Of course, I laid all these before him, and my answers were governed by his wishes ; but he still refused to advise, much more to dictate any of the strategy of the campaign. E. B. Washburne and Russell Jones were the GRANT AS A PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE. 147 only politicians of note who saw him often during the can vass ; but they were his intimate personal friends and in his confidence in many ways. Rawlins remained nearly the entire summer at the East. He wrote rarely, but was in constant communication with the political managers. He was with out orders or express sanction from Grant for this course, but Grant knew that Rawlins was acting in his interest, just as he knew that I had written his history for the campaign. Comstock, one of the aides-de-camp, was also at Galena, but he abstained scrupulously from politics. He prided himself on being a soldier, pure and simple. Two instances of Grant's persistent determination not to become a partisan I can now recall. General Frank Blair was the Democratic candidate for the Vice-Presidency, and in his speeches made repeated and offensive reference to Grant, pronouncing him a military despot, a tool of the poli ticians, etc., etc., etc. ; but Grant refused to resent the language. He had been a warm personal friend of Blair and excused the heat of his expressions in a political campaign, though there were many military and political associates of each who thought these expressions unpardonable ; for Blair had received advancement and recognition from Grant, and was thoroughly conscious of the purity of Grant's intentions. All this made no difference in their personal relations ; and when Grant first met Blair after the canvass was over, he received him as cordially as ever. The other circumstance relates to Sherman. Many of Grant's friends thought that an expression of sympathy from Sherman, the utterance of a wish for Grant's success, would have great weight with Sherman's old soldiers, as it certainly would have had ; but Sherman was determined to keep him self entirely out of practical politics. He had sympathized with those who held that the South should have been allowed to return under milder conditions; and he was un willing to say one word to imply a contrary feeling, even in J48 GRANT IN PEACE. favor of Grant. His silence provoked some caustic criticism from many who were anxious for Grant's election. But it never affected Grant. He respected Sherman's individuality; he thought Sherman had a right to his own views ; he was sure of Sherman's friendship; and Sherman's reticence in no way lessened Grant's confidence. Yet I believe that Grant was anxious for the utterance which Sherman withheld, both as a matter of feeling and because he knew the weight it would carry. He was disappointed when the expression did not come ; but I heard him defend Sherman for not giving it. Their friendship stood this test also. During the political campaign Grant went about the coun try very little. Once he visited St. Louis and once Chicago, but he stayed at the houses of intimate friends or relatives and avoided political demonstrations. There was a political meeting in Galena, but he was not present. His mornings were passed in reading and answering letters, or giving me directions or information for such as I was to reply to, though he often said : " Say nothing to that. If you do not answer, the letter will answer itself." He was always clever, and sometimes adroit, in his reticence. He read the newspapers closely, and discussed public affairs, even the chances of the election ; for with all his taci turnity, and all his apparent inaction, he would have been profoundly mortified at defeat. In the afternoon he drove or walked, paid visits to his old friends about Galena, sat in their offices and warehouses, and took tea with their families in turn. He had many transient visitors, and entertained them in the same simple fashion to which he had been accus tomed before his greatness ; perhaps with a more liberal hospitality but with as little ceremony. On the day of the election I accompanied him to the polls, where he voted for Washburne for member of Congress; and indeed cast his ballot for the entire Republican ticket, except for President. He was a citizen of Galena when the war broke out, and had not lost his franchise. GRANT AS A PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE. 14Q At about ten o'clock in the evening he went to Washburne's house, not far from his own. There arrangements had been made to receive the news ; wires were laid to connect with the office of the telegraph, and by these the messages were to come which would announce the name of the next President. There were in the room a dozen or more of the citizens of Galena, one or two correspondents of Republican newspa pers, and a few political people, but except Washburne none of national importance. Every man present seemed more excited than he whose stake was greatest of all. He did not pretend to be indiffer ent, but he would have displayed a greater anxiety if a friend had been the candidate. Once or twice the news was less favorable than had been expected, and sometimes there seemed a balancing of the chances, but I often saw him show more interest over a game at cards than on that night when the Presidency was played for. Finally, between one and two o'clock the returns were sufficiently definite for us to congratulate him on his elec tion. Then we walked up the hill to his own modest house, and standing on the door-step the President-elect of the United States addressed a little company of between fifty and a hundred citizens and friends. He was undated in spirit, calm in bearing, and simple in speech, and uttered nearly the same thoughts as on the night when he had been nominated. I was very much struck with one expression which was afterward repeated in his inaugural address. It seemed to me eminently characteristic of the man and appro priate to the occasion, though it was destined to be harshly criticised. "The responsibilities of the position I feel, but accept them without fear." CHAPTER XVIII. PRESIDENT-ELECT. A FEW days after the election Grant returned from Ga- fena to Washington. He was accompanied by his family and three staff officers, of whom I was one. There had been threats of assassination, and I had opened several letters that contained warnings of this danger, but Grant took no precau tions and made no change in his plans, though his route was known in advance. The aides-de-camp were armed, but this was without his knowledge. Twice when I had been traveling with Grant attempts were made to take his life. In North Carolina, on his return from the surrender of Johnston to Sherman, the train on which he was journeying was thrown from the rails under circumstances that left little doubt of the design. There was no one in the single car but the Union General-in-Chief and his party of two or three officers, and if some bitter and dis appointed spirit out of all the millions at the South had taken this method to avenge the lost cause, it would hardly have been extraordinary, and certainly not unprecedented. At another time, soon after the war. Grant was passing through Southern Indiana, a region where the rancor during the re bellion had been almost fiercer than in the field, and as those who indulged in it did not fight, but only talked, they cher ished their hatred when the war was ended — unlike most of the men who spilt their blood for the cause they preferred. It was night, and we were on a special train, again in a single car. Again there was no one in the party but Grant (ISO) PRESIDENT-ELECT. 1 5 1 with two of his staff, a servant, and the officers of the road. We were moving at a rapid rate, and about midnight arrived at a bridge at least an eighth of a mile in length, and that crossed a stream seventy or eighty feet below. The night was dark, and a switch had been left open at the approach to the bridge, while stanes were placed on the road in advance. The train was, of course, thrown off the rails, but the impetus was sufficient to carry us across the bridge and into a narrow cut beyond, before the car was overturned. The banks of the cut prevented a serious fall, and the speed of the engine had been checked, but Grant was more disturbed than I often saw him in an emergency. The car was violently shaken, and he left his seat and went to the door before the motion ceased. No one was injured, but had the overturn occurred twenty seconds sooner the train must have been precipitated into the river. The car was too much damaged to proceed, but we mounted the engine and in this way traveled to our destination through the night. There was no doubt in the mind of any that the interruption had been planned, but it was thought wise to say nothing on the subject, and the de tails of the incident were not made public. Only one or two miscreants had probably been concerned in the attempt, and there was no reason to cast odium on a whole region, or to arouse the indignation of the country, which was hardly yet appeased after the murder of Lincoln. Grant himself en joined silence in regard to the circumstance, and his compan ions were very willing to comply, for crime is contagious, and to announce one attempt like this is to suggest another. There was little change in Grant's outward demeanor after the election. He was as simple as ever, though some what more reserved. I fancied I saw the shadow of his coming responsibility and that it depressed him. On his arrival at Washington he was at once beset with applications for office, and advice for his own behavior and policy. One of his acquaintances, a Mr. Corbyn, who afterwards became 1^2 GRANT IN PEACE. his brother-in-law, wrote out an inaugural address for him in full, and brought it to him in my presence. As soon as Corbyn left the room Grant handed the paper to me and told me to seal it up, and be sure it was not read by any human being tfll after the 4th of March. He never knew the con tents, and I never read more than the first line : " Fellow- citizens, I appear before you at this time." There were more than six hundred letters waiting for him in Washington, all of which I opened. A newspaper corres pondent came in and saw me at this task, and the next week there was a caricature of " The man that opens the letters " sitting behind a heap of rejected applications as high as the table ; this part of the representation was not exaggerated. Grant directed me to show him no letters that asked for office. He always had an idea that the man who sought a place was unfit for it ; that the place should seek the man ; a notion that in his case might have been correct, for he lacked ordinary ambition, and yet possessed great faculties ; but most people will consider that he was exceptional in this peculiarity as in so many others. Some of the applications, however, came from people of so much consequence, or from friends of such a degree of intimacy, personal or political, that notwithstanding his injunction I did not always feel at liberty to withhold them^ and he tacitly admitted that I was right. Among the aspi rants was Henry Wilson, then Senator from Massachusetts, and afterward Vice-President, who set forth his desires and qualifications for the position of Secretary of War. Grant did not answer the letter, and the subject was never broached in conversation between them. Those who wanted foreign missions were numerous, and collectorships and other lucra tive posts were in great demand. But no applicant received an answer. While he was at Galena, Grant had said to me, that he thought Motley, the historian, would make a good Secretary PRESIDENT-ELECT. 153 of State. Motley had been Minister at Vienna, but was removed by Johnson for criticising the Reconstruction policy of the Administration too sharply, and great sympathy was felt for him by Republicans. Sumner, especially, was anxious that he should be restored to the post he had lost. Mot ley corresponded with me during the canvass, and sent me copies of the speeches he made for Grant. These were shown to Grant, and they impressed him favorably. But soon after the election. Grant visited Boston, where Motley called on him. I did not accompany my chief on this occa sion, and on his return I asked his opinion of Motley. " He parts his hair in the middle and carries a single eye glass," was the reply ; and the tone, as much as the words, indicated that the historian was too foreign in his ways to please the President-elect. At that time. Grant had not entirely rid himself .of the narrowness of his early life, some of which, indeed, lasted even through his Presidency; but after he went abroad and met so many great men in Europe and Asia, and even Africa, with dress and manners different from anything he had seen in America, he ceased to regard such peculiarities as decisive. No man ever grew or ex panded in mind and taste and character more continuously and conspicuously. During the winter of 1868-9, Seward, as Secretary of State, attempted to settle the difficulties with England aris ing out of the Alabama claims. As the new Administration was just coming into power, the Republicans were very indignant that a discredited Cabinet should assume to control the policy of the nation in so important an affair. But Seward persisted, and a treaty was negotiated at London which was extremely unacceptable to the Republicans, and, indeed, to the majority of the nation, of whatever party. Grant was especially displeased, and expressed his feeling openly. He disliked Seward, to whom he attributed not a little of Johnson's craft, and he thought the negotiation an 154 GRANT IN PEACE. unwarrantable intrusion on his own approaching prerogatives. Besides this, he entirely disapproved the concessions of the Administration to England. Before the treaty was confirmed, he took a remarkable step. I was personally acquainted with Sir Edward (then Mr.) Thornton, the British Minister, and Grant directed me to pay the Envoy a visit, and in the course of conversation, make known his objections to the treaty; in fact, to declare that I was certain Grant would use his influence to prevent its confirmation by the Senate, and if it should be ratified, would, as President, assuredly procure its revocation. I made my visit, not stating that I had been sent by Grant, but implying this as well as I was able without express words. The Minister doubtless understood my object, and knew that such a visit could not possibly have been paid by the confi dential secretary of the President-elect, without the sanction of his chief. If he did his duty, he notified his own Govern ment ; but the only result apparent was a renewed haste on the part of the plenipotentiaries, so that the treaty might be concluded before Grant came into his place. It was ratified by the contracting Governments, but almost immediately rejected by the Senate, and in less than two months the Administration that made it was out of power. The Treaty of Washington, negotiated under Grant and Gladstone, took its place. This was not the only occasion when Grant acted as if the responsibilities of government were very near. General Rosecrans was nominated by Johnson as Minister to Mexico about this time ; the appointment was known to be very dis agreeable to Grant, if not purposely designed to be offensive to him. The animosity of Rosecrans after Grant removed him from command at Chattanooga had never ceased. He had, like most of the discarded generals, joined the party that opposed the war, and had supported Johnson through all his tergiversations and aberrations. To appoint an important PRESIDENT-ELECT. 1 55 Minister immediately before the beginning of a new admin istration would have been under any circumstances discourte ous and exceptional, but when the Minister was openly and personally hostile to the probable incoming President, the nomination appeared a studied insult. After his election Grant directed me to write to his personal friend, Mr. Romero, who had long been Mexican Minister to the United States, but was now in the Mexican Government. I was to address him, not avowedly by Grant's order, but so that my authority could not be mistaken, and to state to Romero how distasteful the appointment of Rose crans was to Grant. The envoy thus would be unable in the short time that he enjoyed his honors to execute any important diplomatic business, or to thwart the policy of the incoming Government. Grant would probably not have taken this course but for his profound interest in Mexican affairs, an interest of which the Administration was very well aware. He had recommended a definite policy in regard to Mexico, and to have a man appointed as Minister there who was likely to oppose in advance whatever he believed were Grant's views, was in Grant's eyes sufficient justification for this interference. It must be remembered too, that Grant had been given by Congress an authority that made him in many matters inde-r pendent of the President. It had been declared his duty to oppose the President's acts and policy. He had seen Johnson tried for high crimes and misdemeanors, and almost deposed. He believed that his own election was the con demnation of Johnson and the fiat of the people directing him to undo much that Johnson had done. Yet Johnson was endeavoring to carry out measures in regard both to England and Mexico which he knew to be unacceptable to the people and offensive to the President they had chosen. Now, when Grant found himself on the threshold of the highest place, the sensation of power, as well as the con- 156 GRANT IN PEACE. sciousness of his own rights, was very strong. The acts I have described are evidence that he felt the importance of his position more fully than he showed. They were not known to any man about him but myself, and were never revealed by me until now. As the time approached when Grant was to enter upon his new functions those who were expecting place or recog nition at his hand became restive because he gave no inti mation of his purposes. Every effort was made to obtain an insight into his plans, but without avail. He did not disclose even to Rawlins or Washburne — who had been his trusted intimates from the very beginning of his greatness — what he meant to do for or with them. Henry J. Raymond, the editor of the New York Times, was a warm, and, of course, an important supporter of Grant ; he wrote to me beg ging for a hint of the future President's policy, so that he might be prepared to advocate it. I read the letter to Grant, but he refused to furnish any data for a reply. Horace Greeley also, I was told by those who should have known, would have been glad to be taken into Grant's confi dence, although he made himself no application like Ray mond's ; but the same silence was preserved toward him. The country was full of comment on this reticence, and many of Grant's friends became anxious, not only those who wanted place, but others from a genuine and patriotic con cern. But Grant kept every intention within his own breast down to a very few days before his inauguration. He was led to this unusual course partly by his military habits and experience, and partly, no doubt, by a belief that his own judgment was better than that of any who could advise him. He had been used in the army to appointing commanders without consulting their wishes and to order ing movements without informing his inferiors; and he kept up the practice in civil life. Many of his Cabinet Ministers were appointed before they themselves were noti fied. One of them told me he felt as if he had been struck PRESIDENT-ELECT. 1 57 by lightning when he heard of his own nomination. Mar shall Jewell went to Washington once to urge the appoint ment of a friend to the Russian Mission, but was unsuccess ful, and on his return he learned that his own name had been sent to the Senate for the post. Jewell was afterward dis missed from the Cabinet in the same peremptory way. Grant said to him one morning : " Mr. Jewell, I would like to receive your resignation"; and that was the Minister's first and only warning. But besides this, Grant was undoubtedly at this time affected by the adulation that was offered him. His head was as little turned as any man's who comes into the highest place; but he had been told for years of his greatness, of his judgment, and of his knowledge of men. All who ap proach Presidents or Presidents-elect say what they think will please them and withhold what will displease; all have something to ask, ff only recognition, for the recognition of Presidents is itself an honor; and most people want much more. Every one now was assuring Grant that the people reposed full confidence in him, that he was the sole arbiter, the judge of last resort; and in some sort this was true; but the unwillingness to ask or take any advice in this untried and most difficult of all positions — in a man who had no experience either in distributing the patronage or administer ing the affairs of civil government — betrayed a confidence in himself almost unprecedented. This is the explanation of the distance at which he kept not only the public and the press, but political and personal friends. He alone was to be President, and he alone, he thought, was responsible. But no man is so much above and beyond his fellows as to be able to dispense entirely with their aid. Had Grant called around him and consulted able and experienced states men at this juncture, many misfortunes to himself, his friends, and to the country would doubtless have been avoided. He would not, perhaps, have been obliged, in a second inaugural address, to admit the mistakes he had 158 GRANT IN PEACE. made. I wifl yield to none in regard for his memory or admiration for his achievements, but the world will more readily believe me when I recount his exceflences if I do not hesitate to portray his errors ; and this that I now point out was one of the most conspicuous in his career. One afternoon, about three weeks before the 4th of March, Grant wrote his inaugural address. I was alone with him in the room, and when he had finished he handed the paper to me. This was before the return of Rawlins from Connecticut, whither he had gone sick and almost heart broken, because Grant withheld his confidence. The address was written at the first almost as it was afterward delivered. Grant told me to lock it up carefully, and it is within my knowledge that he showed it to no one but myself until a day or two before the inauguration. I reviewed it repeated ly with him during this period, for he was used to allowing me to read his most important and secret papers, and to make what suggestions I chose as to matter or style. But in all his utterances I was always anxious that he should say his own thought, and as far as possible in his own way. On this occasion I suggested one material change, or, rather, addition. I had been greatly impressed with the sentence he ut tered at Galena on the night of his election : " The responsi bilities of the position I feel, but accept them without fear." I proposed that he should introduce this line, and pointed out where I thought it could be inserted. He approved the suggestion, and this sentence — his own — became a part of the inaugural address. There were one or two verbal modi fications besides, and these were all. The draft was never out of my keeping till it was copied on either the 2d or the 3d of March. It is in my possession now with the penciled interpolation and other alterations in my own hand. Grant gave it to me on the 3d of March after the doors were closed and all visitors excluded, when he and I together revised the address for the last time. CHAPTER XIX. CABINET-MAKING. ON the 4th of March Grant refused the company of the outgoing President on his way to the Capitol, and Johnson remained at the White House signing his last papers, until noon. Then he made room for the man whom he doubtless detested more than any other, who had done more than any other to foil his plans and thwart his wishes, and who now was to supplant him and demolish whatever of a poHcy Johnson had been able to estabhsh by obstinacy or circumstance or craft. At the Capitol another of Grant's rivals, Chief-Justice Chase, administered the oath of that office which he had himself so earnestly hoped and striven to attain. And thus the highest honor that any American can obtain was added to the military glories already heaped on Grant. He was very reserved and even restrained, colder in manner than ever before, and evidently felt the gravity of his position, the full dignity of his office. I had never seen him so impressed but once before. In the first day's battle in the Wilderness he was almost stern at times, and wore his gloves and sword ; both were unusual circumstances with him and they seemed to me to indicate his sense of the novel and increased responsibilities, for that was his flrst battle as General-in-Chief of the armies. On this first day of his Presidency there were no trappings of office to assume, but he bore himself with a distant and almost frigid demeanor that marked how much he felt he was (IS9) 1 66 GRANT IN PEACE. removed from those who had hitherto been in some sort his associates. That day there was no geniality, no famfliar jest, hardly a smfle; but the man who became the chief of a nation of fifty millions and stepped into the ranks of earth's mightiest potentates might well be grave. His personal staff attended him to the Capitol and afterward to the White House, where their military rela tions with him ceased. He desired them to meet him the next morning in the Cabinet chamber, and then returned to his private residence, which his family did not vacate for several weeks. He directed me, however, to remain at the White House and receive any communications for him during the day. In this way it happened that his first correspondence as President was with me. I give it in full : Executive Mansion, March 4, 1869. Dear General, — Mr. George H. Stuart is one of a committee, the others being the Chief-Justice and Senator Frelinghuysen, who desire to present you in the name of some religious society with a Bible. They will wait on you whenever you say — except that the Chief-Justice must be at the Supreme Court, and Mr. Stuart leaves here to-morrow night. If you will send word to me what time will suit you, I will let Mr. Stuart know. Mr. Stuart proposes to-morrow morning before ten o'clock, or if the court does not meet till eleven, before that time. With great respect, Your obedient servant, Adam Badeau. To the President of the United States. My note was returned to me, and on the back of it Grant pencfled these words, the first he wrote as President : "To-morrow before 10 a. m. at my house, or between 10 a. m. and 3 p. M. at the Executive Mansion. U. S. G. The meeting took place in the Cabinet room, and Chase presented the Bible, expressing a hope that its contents might enable Grant to fill his high office worthily. The CABINET-MAKING. igj Chief-Justice must have required a full share of Christian sentiment to enable him to perform Iiis task. Immediately afterward Grant received his staff for the last time, and announced the disposition to be made of theiru Three were nominally placed on the staff of Sherman, who succeeded Grant as General-in-Chief, but they were in reality to be on duty at the Executive Mansion. Horace Porter was to act as private secretary, with Babcock to assist him ; Comstock had some nominal duties from which he soon requested to be relieved, and ordered to duty as engineer ; Dent remained as aide-de-camp with ceremonial functions, and Parker was shortly afterward appointed Commissioner of Indian Affairs. I was assigned a room at the Executive Mansion, where I was to finish my Military History and to have some charge of Grant's unofficial letters for a while ; but when I saw the President alone he informed me that he meant to give me the mission to Belgium. He did not wish, however, to appoint me at once, lest it should provoke a charge of favoritism. A few weeks before the 4th of March, as nothing was said by Grant to either Rawlins or Washburne of their future, both became fll. Rawlins went off to Connecticut, and from there it was reported to Grant that he was dying. Grant sent for him and told him he was to be Secretary of War, whereupon Rawlins at once got very much better. But Washburne was ill of the same disease, and to him Grant now offered the position of Secretary of the Interior. Rawlins, of course, was satisfied with his promised dignity, but Washburne would have preferred to be Secretary of the Treasury. This position, however, Grant designed for Alex ander T. Stewart, the well-known merchant of New York. He thought that a man who had managed his own affairs so wefl must be successful with the finances of the Nation. Stewart was, indeed, the first of those designed for Cabinet positions whom Grant informed of his intention. It was 1 52 GRANT IN PEACE. necessary that the great business man should be apprised in advance, that he might make his arrangements in time. When Washburne became certain that he could not obtain the portfolio of the Treasury, he asked for the State Department, but Grant was unwflling to make the appoint ment. Washburne then declared that he would prefer to be Minister to France, and to this Grant consented. But Washburne again requested as a personal favor that he might hold the position of Secretary of State for a few days. The consideration this would give him afterward both at home and in his new position was something he thought Grant should not refuse. Washburne, indeed, had been a devoted friend, had made many opportunities for Grant in the days when Grant needed them, had first suggested and afterward urged in Congress every one of Grant's promo tions that required legislative action, from Brigadier-General of Volunteers to General of the Armies, and if Grant was under obligations to any human being it was to Washburne. He knew, besides, that Washburne had expected more than he was receiving, that he was a disappointed man, as he wefl might be; and Grant consented to the temporary appoint ment of Secretary of State, with the understanding that no important places were to be filled while Washburne held the position ; that he was to have the name, but not the authority. James F. Wilson of Iowa, was offered the State Depart ment permanently, but declined it, on the ground that he had no private fortune, and that the salary was insufficient for the inevitable expense that must be incurred. Wflson also probably felt that his abflities were better fitted for other posts. Rawlins had suggested Wilson's name, for after Rawlins knew that he was himself to be a Cabinet Minister he felt free to offer advice on many points, and, in fact, re gained an influence, i,f not an ascendency, which at one time seemed to have waned. Rawlins, however, was not to be Secretary of War imme- CABINET-MAKING. 1 53 diately. Schofield was to hold the place for a week. He had proved himself a friend in a position where he might have given Grant trouble, and this recognition was his reward. He sat as Grant's first Secretary of War. No other appointments to the Cabinet were made known in advance, even to those for whom they were intended. The other Ministers first read their names in the newspapers on the 5th of March. A few days before the inauguration, Adolph E. Borie, of Philadelphia was in W'ashington, and on the 3d of March he called on the Presiddnt-elect. Grant had given orders that no visitor whatever should be received ; for he had only a few hours left in which he intended to close his business as General-in-Chief. But when Borie was re fused admission he sent his card to me, and begged me to procure him two or three moments' audience. He had two friends with him from Philadelphia whom he was extremely anxious to present to Grant, and he promised not to remain nor to mention politics. Accordingly I suggested that as Borie had been so good a friend he should be accorded a moment's interview. Grant acquiesced, and Borie and his friends came in. There had been a vast deal of talk in the newspapers about a Cabinet Minister from Pennsylvania, and Grant at once inquired : " Well, Mr. Borie, have you come to learn the name of the man from Pennsjlvania .-• " Borie disclaimed any curiosity, and two days afterward, return ing to Philadelphia, he read on the train that his own name had been sent to the Senate as Secretary of the Navy. He was "the man from Pennsylvania," and that was the first he knew about it. Grant, indeed, at this time, looked upon Cabinet Ministers as on staff officers, whose personal relations with himself were so close that they should be chosen for personal reasons ; a view that his experience in civil affairs somewhat modified. If he had served a third term in the Presidency, his selections for the Cabinet would hardly have been made l64 GRANT IN PEACE. * because he liked the men as companions or regarded them as personal friends. At this juncture also, Rawlins was con stantly urging that Grant should have no men about him who could possibly become his rivals. He was always pointing to the trouble that Chase and Seward and other aspirants had made in Lincoln's Cabinet, and declared that a man who would not subordinate his own ambition to that of his chief should not be allowed to enter the Government. Grant never replied to remarks like these, but he would have been no more than human if he had remembered them. He cer tainly now took no man into his Cabinet whose Presidential aspirations seemed likely to come into conflict with his own. And Grant, from the first, I am sure, desired a re-election. He did not say so ; but no man can hold the Presidential office and not be anxious for this indorsement from the peo ple. The ambition is both proper and inevitable ; and Grant entertained it, like every President who either followed or preceded him. I have, however, no idea that he was plan ning for re-election thus early; and he certainly never admitted either at the time or afterward that such motives affected him in the selection of Cabinet Ministers. Never theless, I thought then, and I think still, that he was deter mined to have no rivals near the throne. On the 5th of March the Cabinet appointments were sent to the Senate. Washburne was to be Secretary of State ; Stewart, Secretary of the Treasury ; Borie, Secretary of the Navy; Creswell, Postmaster-General; Hoar, Attor ney-General, and Cox, Secretary of the Interior. Schofield remained Secretary of War. It was soon discovered that Stewart was ineligible to the post for which he had been named. The law declared that no person engaged in trade should be appointed Secretary of the Treasury. Grant had been ignorant of this provision, and the Senate was equaUy so, for the nomination was confirmed unanimously. As soon, however, as the disability was ascertained, Grant requested CABINET-MAKING. 165 that Stewart should be exempted by Congress from the operation of the law ; but this the Senate was unwilling to concede, and Stewart's name was accordingly withdrawn. Both Grant and Stewart were greatly mortified at the result. Stewart offered to place his business in the hands of trustees during his entire term of office and to devote the proceeds to some charity or public interest, but this was insufficient to remove the scruples of the Senate, and Grant could not delay the formation of his Cabinet. Stewart felt sore be cause Grant gave him up so soon, and their friendship was never again so intimate as it once had been. The whole occurrence provoked much harsh criticism, and it was said that if Grant had consulted men of civil experience, and not trusted entirely to his own judgment and knowledge, the blunder would never have been made. George H. Boutwell was hurriedly selected for the Treas ury, but as he and Hoar were^ both from Massachusetts, another change became almost inevitable. Hoar, indeed, remained in his place a year, and was nominated to the bench of the Supreme Court on his retirement, but the Senate re fused to confirm him. He naturally disliked to be displaced to make room in another department, and his relations with the President were in consequence somewhat strained. He knew from the first that his position was insecure, and was never the ardent friend of the President that as Cabinet Minister he might otherwise have been. At least so Grant always thought. And now, as Wilson declined the position of Secretary of State, and Washburne was not to be allowed to remain, it became necessary to find a substitute. In this emergency Grant offered the place to Hamilton Fish of New York, and sent Colonel Babcock, one of his new secretaries, to that city with the proposition. The offer was entirely unexpected by Fish, and at first he was not inclined to accept it. He would, indeed, have preferred the post of Minister to Eng-' l66 GRANT IN PEACE. land, and it required some urging before he consented to enter the Cabinet. Thus the two most important places in the new Government were filled by men who had not been originally selected by Grant. Meanwhfle Borie had read the notification of his appoint ment as Secretary of the Navy, and proceeded to Washing ton to thank the President and decline the honor. I was intimate with him, and knowing his reluctance to accept the post, I met him at the station to do what I could to change his feeling. I represented the unfortunate condition of affairs, the frequent changes and disappointments, the blunder about Stewart, the uncertainty about Fish, and Cox, and Hoar, who had all been taken by surprise, and the dis credit it would bring on the new Administration if still another Cabinet Minister delayed or declined. Borie was personally very much attached to Grant, and I urged that his acquiescence under the circumstances would be an act of positive friendship. He finally consented to remain in the Cabinet for a few months, until the President could find a successor without increasing the public dissatisfaction at these frequent changes. Of course it was his regard for Grant that decided Borie, but he often laughingly said to me that but for my urging he would not have entered the Cabinet. Cox and Hoar also finally accepted the honor tendered, but not until the former General-in-Chief discovered that he could not order eminent civilians into office as he had been used to sending soldiers to a new command. He was some what surprised that any one should hesitate to accept the position he offered, but as a matter of fact nearly every mem ber of his Cabinet but Rawlins had to be urged to accept his place. Even if their ambition was gratified, the suddenness of the summons found them unprepared ; they had their private affairs to arrange, and every man assuming a high political place desires some time to fit himself properly for his new career. CABINET-MAKING. 1 57 Thus Washburne was supplanted in a week by Fish, Stewart's name was withdrawn and Boutwell's substituted, Schofield was followed before the end of the month by Rawlins, and in less than a year Akerman succeeded Hor'.r. All of these changes came from Grant's inexperience or from the secrecy with which he had veiled his intentions, not only from the individuals most affected, but frorn others who might have predicted, or perhaps prevented what occurred. Finally, however, the Cabinet was constructed, and the new President began his administration of the Government. He was the same man who had been surrounded at Belmont and nearly crushed at Shiloh, who had plodded through the marshes of Vicksburg and fought the weary forty days in the Wilderness. He had made, indeed, a false start, but it was not the first time, and one rebuff never daunted or dis couraged Grant. He remembered that he had overcome Johnson in politics as well as Lee in war, and he felt no unwillingness or inability to cope with his new difficulties. Alexander T. Stewart was a New York merchant who had been stanchly loyal, as well as liberal with his wealth and his influence and his labor, in the cause of the Union, and he early became one of Grant's most devoted friends. The stand he took durmg the Rebellion brought him into further prominence, and first made him more than a great tradesman. It showed him, indeed, in his largest aspect ; for he was narrow in many things. The lack of early advantages was more apparent in him than in many of the self-made men of America. It was not only that he had the true merchant spirit — that he was munificent with miflions and mean about a penny ; not so much that he showed the lack of scholar ship or deficiency in other acquirements ; but there was a small ness about his ideas, a pettiness at times about his feeling, a lack of many sides to his character — all of which betrayed the life of application to business he had led for more than forty years — so close indeed, that he had time for nothing else. And yet it was this very life that resulted in his mammoth fortune and the impor- l68 GRANT IN PEACE. tance and opportunities it gave him. This fortune and his pat riotic course brought him into connection with General Grant, and thus made his name national. During the wim^r preceding Grant's first inauguration, I remem ber dining at Stewart's house with the President-elect. The com pany was composed exclusively of men, but of as much distinction, social or personal, as often meets under one roof in New York : Hamilton Fish, John Jacob Astor, Joseph Harper, Edwards Pierre- pont, Charles P. Daly, Henry Hilton, all were present, and others, perhaps as eminent. The table of course was sumptuous, and all the accessories elaborate. Mr. Stewart called especial attention to the Johannisberger wine of some famous vintage, which, at the close of the dinner, was served by the thimbleful ; he only brought it out, he said, on extraordinary occasions ; it had cost him thirty dollars a bottle. Nobody dreamed then that Mr. Stewart was to be appointed Secretary of the Treasury; but before the 4th of March the place was offered him. When the difficulties proved insurmountable Stewart lost his only chance of becoming a statesman. The President could find another Secretary of the Treasury, but Stewart had no other Pres ident to turn to. He became a plain dry goods man again, without place, or power, or pubhc career. To be so near a great position, and yet to lose it ; to be appointed and confirmed, and even con gratulated, to have made his arrangements and, doubtless, deter mined on his appointments in advance, and yet to be dashed down to private life, was hard. But besides this, Stewart thought that some of the importance or influence which had been offered him should have been allowed to remain. He even wanted to retain a little of the patronage which might have been his, had he entered office. I have more than once seen men go out of a government on friendly terms with its chief ; but after they left, they could not forget the power and position they once had held ; they seemed always to feel that they should possess some of the official privileges and relations they had enjoyed before. When this proved impracticable, their feelings were apt to change, and their friendship cooled. Something like this occurred with Stewart. I went out of the country in May, 1869, and returned in the CABINET-MAKING. 1 69 • next September. On arriving at New York I went to Mr. Stewart's great "store," as I had been used to do before Grant was President, and spent an hour with him in private talk. I was amazed at the tone of his conversation ; he did not expect, he said, to enjoy the influence he had once anticipated, but even the few favors he asked had been withheld. The personal friends he had expected to advance were overlooked, or their claims belittled, if not ignored. Judge Hilton, his life-long associate and intimate, he had hoped, would be appointed Collector of New York, and a relative of his own wife he wanted made Consul at Havre. The CoUectorship was gone irretrievably to another, and instead of Havre, his relative was offered Bordeaux. He wanted me to repre sent this to the Government. But the Government was made up ; the carriage was full; the train had started, and those who had not succeeded in entering, could hardly expect to be treated like regular passengers. Stewart was out in the cold. He saw the President occasionally after this, and entertained him when he came to New York ; but their intimacy was at an end. CHAPTER XX. GRANT IN SOCIETY. GRANT was a plain man, but those are greatly mistaken who suppose that he was a common one. His early life he has himself described as that of plain people at the West fifty or sixty years ago. He received, however, the advantages of West Point and its associations, and officers of the army in those days were considered eligible to any company. At St. Louis he married into a family that held itself as high as any in the old society of that semi-Southern city ; a society which was undoubtedly at that time provincial and narrow; its members had seen or known little of any world but their own, but the feeling they had that their posi tion was equal to any gave them a certain distinction of bearing that nothing else could confer. It was not a highly educated society, and resembled in some points the squire archy of England that Macaulay describes ; elevated in feel ing though contracted in acquirement, and if over-conscious of its own consequence, nevertheless never meeting anybody of more consequence than its own members. In this circle Grant obtained a knowledge of the sentiments and pre judices that are by some supposed to be characteristic only of gentlemen. Many of these he shared by nature, others he acquired, but others he always repudiated. He was, as all the world knows, simple in his tastes and habits, and at one time unacquainted with many of the etiquettes and requirements of an artificial society; not a few of which, indeed, he disliked after he became familiar with (170) GRANT IN SOCIETV. 171 them. Forms and ceremonies were always distasteful to him, and though he complied with such as his position ren dered unavoidable, he escaped from them in private as speed- fly and as effectually as possible. But the very simplicity of taste and feeling, the plainness of manner that he preserved in his extraordinary elevation, were proof of a native and genuine refinement. When he arrived at the capital to receive the command of the armies he was shy and reserved in general company : of course never timid, but he was aware of his deficiencies in social knowledge, and the consciousness made him con strained and sometimes awkward under the honors and con gratulations that were heaped upon him. But this very awkwardness in the Conqueror of Vicksburg had a certain charm. It indicated an absence of conceit, a lack of pre tence, and a modesty almost unexampled in a man of his achievements, and showed how sweet and gentle a nature lay beneath the sterner qualities which had won his battles and his fame. He always desired, however, to conform to the require ments of whatever place he was called upon to fill, and was now quite willing to perform his social duties. I accom panied Mrs. Grant when she made her first visit to the White House, over which she was afterward to preside, and General Grant was greatly pleased to have the visit paid. It was at an afternoon reception held by Mrs. Lincoln, and Lincoln himself was present. The President had never met Mrs. Grant, and at first he did not hear her name ; he was allowing her to pass with the customary bow that every one receives, but I repeated, "Mrs. General Grant, Mr. Presi dent"; and the tall, ungainly man looked down upon his visitor with infinite kindness beaming from his ugly, historic face; then placed both his hands on Mrs. Grant's and welcomed her more than warmly. He asked about the General, and himself presented her to Mrs. Lincoln. The 172 GRANT IN PEACE. mistress of the White House was also gracious ; she invited Mrs. Grant to visit the conservatories, and desired me to show them to the lady who was destined herself to dispense the courtesies of the nation in the same Executive Cham ber. On our way out several great political women seemed inclined to patronize the Western General's wife; not, of course, offensively, but still they acted as they would hardly have behaved among or toward themselves. But Mrs. Grant at once detected the suggestion of superiority in their court esies, and asserted herself delicately but skillfully. When they wanted to introduce fine ladies to her in the lobbies of the White House, she regretted that her carriage was waiting, but she would be happy to receive the ladies at her hotel; and when they offered seats in their boxes at the play, evidently in order to be seen with the wife of the General-in-Chief, she politely indicated that a box had already been secured for her; and for this she afterward selected her own company. Her influence, of course, affected her great husband. He had constantly the' suggestions of a woman who under stood other women, and who knew instinctively what would be said of him and to him, as well as what she wanted him to say and do in return. Naturally she was anxious about the appearance he made in what is called "society." He had been ushered all at once into the most distinguished and exacting circles; he would be watched and criticized as well as welcomed and admired; and with a feminine insight she comprehended both the petty craft and the important ambitions that underlie so many of the ceremonies of official life at Washington as well as in aristocratic capi tals. When Grant was overmodest, or willing to let himself be passed by, there was always the mentor to caution and urge and stimulate and ad'vise ; and sometimes the mentor was needed. I recall an instance in which I contended for a while GRANT IN SOCIETY. 17, against Mrs. Sprague, the daughter of Chief-Justice Chase. Everybody in Washington, Cabinet Ministers, foreign envoys. Senators, even the Judges of the Supreme Court, hurried to call on General Grant after his brilliant successes in the war; the ordinary Washington etiquette of visiting was broken down for him. But the Chief-Justice did not call. He considered himself the second person in the country, the next after the President in position, as under ordinary circumstances he certainly would have been. Besides this he was an aspirant for the Presidency and unwflling to admit Grant's precedence in any way. Mrs. Sprague spoke to me of the matter at a dance at General Grant's house. She, as a Senator's wife, had called upon Mrs. Grant, but she thought General Grant should call on the Chief-Justice. I, however, tried hard to keep the General from paying the first visit. Like all staff officers I magnified the conse quence of my chief, and I was younger then and had not seen the preposterous regaird for precedence at European courts ; perhaps in such matters I was not so good a demo crat as studying a real aristocracy has made me since. At any rate I put every obstacle in the way of the visit. But one afternoon General Grant was driving and stopped to call on the Chief-Justice. The visit was instantly returned, and the General and Mrs. Grant were asked to dinner; so Mrs. Sprague triumphed. I always suspected that the Gen eral made the visit with malice prepense, for he often used to say, "Badeau, you think too much of these things," and he would pretend to scold. Once or twice he was in earnest when he thought matters were carried too far. Nevertheless he conformed to many observances which at first he had found irksome as well as unusual. It was some little time before he consented to wear an evening coat, and the white tie especially was a disagreeable novelty. But he soon discovered that he made himself more conspic uous by avoiding the dress that others wore than by adopt- 174 GRANT IN PEACE. ing it ; and when he ascertained the importance attributed to visits in the official and high political world in which he lived, he became anxious that they should be paid and returned punctiliously. In time it was he who urged Mrs. Grant to make her calls, and those who did not know would hardly believe how particular he grew about placing people at dinner. Not that he regarded these points as important, but others did, whom he was unwilling to neglect or to offend. So too about his parties. He was always willing to open his house, and wanted no one left out whom it was proper to invite. He had indeed a genuine liking for society; not only because wherever he went he was the chief and the idol, though this might make any one fond of the world ; but he was social by nature. He not only had a pleasure in the company of his intimates, not only enjoyed the conversation of important men ; but he liked to look at pretty girls and to listen to the talk of clever women. For a long time, how ever, he was not ready in replying ; he had little small talk, and could not make conversation without a theme ; but he observed closely under his mask of silence, and I always relished his criticisms of people and manners. He gossiped very genially, and observed little points of behavior and their significance as acutely as many of long experience in what is called "the world." I had a great deal to do with his early social career. I was very much at his house and his table before he became President ; I dispensed the invitations to his receptions, and went with him to dinners and parties innumerable in half the cities of the Union. I stood by him at public receptions when thousands shook him by the hand, and every man put all his enthusiasm and all his patriotism into a single grasp, until Grant's arm became swoflen and lame for weeks, and the newspapers published a caricature of " The hand we shook so often." Sometimes in the crov^d the aides-de-camp thrust out their hands and saved him many "THE BOY STOOD ON THE BURNING DECK. GRANT IN SOCIETY. 1 75 a squeeze. He possessed the "royal " memory of faces, and when at his own house or headquarters any of the millions called whom he had met before, he always remembered the names which we who had stood beside him were often unable to recall. For years his unwillingness to make a speech was curious. WTien he was nominated for the Presidency, he declared he had neither the power of public speaking nor the disposition to acquire it. In the long series of ovations that followed him everywhere after the close of the war not more than two or three words were ever extorted from him in reply to encomiums and even adulation such as few men have ever heard addressed to themselves. I was once traveling with him by railroad during the height of his early popularity. Wherever the train stopped it was surrounded by ardent and patriotic throngs. His silence had now become celebrated, and a woman in the crowd cried out, "I want to see the man that lets the women do all the talking." At another time his youngest son, Jesse, then a boy of only seven years, came out on the platform when the cries for a " speech " were loudest and his father was as silent as the Sphynx. The lad looked first at the mass of enthusiastic people before him and then at the great soldier by his side, and inquired, " Papa, why don't you speak to them ? " But Grant remained mute and Jesse at last cried out : " I can make a speech, if papa can't." The shouts instantly went up; "A speech from Jesse ! A speech from Jesse ! " Then there was a hush, and the chfld began in his treble voice, but without a shade of the embarrassment his father would have felt, " The boy stood on the burning deck." — Jesse made another speech during the same summer that was even more felicitous. Grant and his family were at the farm near St. Louis where Mrs. Grant's father resided. One 176 GRANT IN PEACE. hot day after the two o'clock dinner, when everybody was out on the lawn, Jesse mounted a haystack and exclaimed : "I'll show you how papa makes a speech." Grant himself laughed, and we all went up to the haystack. Then Jesse made a bov/ (which his father would not have done), and began : " Ladies and gentlemen, — I am very glad to see you ; I thank you very much. Good night." Everyone laughed, but Grant blushed up to the eyes. I don't think he relished the imitation at all; it was too close. But Jesse was the baby, and we talked about something else. Years afterward I thought of this scene in Missouri when I heard Grant at a great table in the Guildhall at London address a brilliant company in felicitous language that evoked cheers of admiration from some of the acutest critics of eloquence in the world. For he certainly acquired the art of putting one or two appropriate thoughts into fitting lan guage on such occasions in as high degree as any one I ever listened to. His replies were models not only of terse and modest expression, but of epigrammatic force and fluent wit, ¦ timely in suggestiveness, personal in application, and almost always conveying a wise as well as graceful sentiment Indeed, the shyness and awkwardness that were so apparent at the beginning of his career had passed completely away before the end. Perhaps a little lingered until he became President, but the sense of the greatness of his position that came to him then took away all shyness. He was not only the first wherever he went, but the Chief of the State, and he felt that the Government was upon his shoulders. There was no personal vanity implied in maintaining or even in asserting such a dignity. In small things as wefl as great this feeling was apparent. He never entered the street-cars while he was President, although often before he had morti fied his staff and his family by using the democratic convey ance ; he was careful whom he visited, and regarded etiquette scrupulously in this matter; he selected the company and GRANT IN SOCIETY. 1 77 arranged the precedence at his dinners, frequently disap- pointing relatives and intimate friends who saw themselves displaced on public occasions for public dignitaries, though in his private life he returned to his former associates. During the first year of his Presidency I spent eight months on duty at the Executive Mansion, where, although I was no longer the official secretary, I had my own room and saw him with much of my old intimacy. I revised with him and for him his first annual message to Congress, and Cabinet Ministers came to me to have passages inserted which they did not venture themselves to propose. Thus I watched the growth of the new manner. I observed a greater dignity of feeling, a conscious and intentional gravity, an absence of that familiar, almost jocular mood which once had been so frequent. And yet he did not forget, much less repel, his former friends. They were what they had always been to him, just as worthy, perhaps just as intimate as ever, and the very few were certainly as dear; but he was the President. The great changes, however, were more apparent later. In the second year of his Presidency I was made Consul- General at London, and I saw him afterward on only two or three occasions during a short visit to this country until the close of his last Administration. In this interval had come all the storm of calumny that burst upon him, all the anxieties of the last sad year of his official life, all the falsity of friends, the attacks upon his honor, the injury he received from the association of those who used and abused his name and his friendship for their own purposes. Besides all this there was of course the increase of years, the long occupancy of the highest place, the weight of national cares, the famil iarity with autnority. I met him on the steamer that brought him to Liverpool, and saw him first in the captain's cabin, where he was waiting for me, alone. He threw his arms around me — and I kissed him. He was my chief, my 178 GRANT IN PEACE. General, my friend. From that moment dated a new inti macy, closer than the old. I was with him incessantly during his stay in England. He wrote at once a telegram to the Government asking that I might be permitted to accompany him, but I changed the message and put it in my own name, so that he who had been President should not be placed in the position of soliciting favors from his successor. But with all my intimacy I noticed now a broader man in manner and character. He was far more conscious ; he understood himself better; he knew his powers; he knew what he wanted to do and say under all circumstances. He was a greater man than the one I had left in America seven years before. I was especially struck with his poise in the new situations into which he was thrown. No one had anticipated the great popular enthusiasm that welcomed him everywhere in England ; but he was as calm and undis turbed as of old, ready to receive and acknowledge the ova tion, for such it was, gratified deeply, but not elated. His fluency of speech amazed me. He had learned the art since I had met him last. In his association on more than equal terms with the most distinguished Englishmen, at the dinners with dukes and Prime Ministers, at which he was always first, in the company of Princes and of the Queen, he preserved his com posure. The etiquette was of course unfamfliar to him, but he advised himself of it in advance, and then conformed just so far as he thought proper and dignified in his position, but no further. He was in no way neglectful of ceremonies, far less offensive, but he did not forget that he was a republican, nor that he had been a President. He said everywhere that the compliments paid to him were meant for the nation that he represented, which was a very proud sort of humflity. But it was no assumption in him to assume that he repre sented America. He remained as simple as ever in his bearing, and still almost plain, but he was seldom awkward or GRANT IN SOCIETY. 17^ embarrassed now. He was able to criticise Queen Victoria's manner, and he declared to me that he thought it uneasy. He said her Majesty seemed too anxious to put him at his ease, and he implied that the anxiety was unnecessary. With the President of the French Republic, Marshal Mac- Mahon, he was on delightful terms. They walked up and down the Champs Elysees arm in arm. Grant talking English and MacMahon French, for each understood the other's Ian. guage, though unable to speak it. He received the first visit from the King of the Belgians, and asked, as any one else might with an equal, when he and Mrs. Grant could pay their respects to the Queen. I was present at the interview, and thought of Galena and the neighbors there of this man who was exchanging visits with sovereigns. On this occa sion he was exact in his etiquette ; he went himself to the door of the room, but directed me to wait upon the King to his carriage. But his Majesty would not permit this atten tion, and said peremptorily that I must not descend the staircase. I remembered the story of Louis XIV and Lord Stair, and replied that when the King commanded I could only obey. Grant approved my behavior. CHAPTER XXI. THE FRENCH IN MEXICO. GRANT always regarded the French occupation of Mex ico and the establishment of the Empire of Maximflian as a part of the attempt to subvert our own Republic, and his indignation at the course of Napoleon III on this conti nent, was both active and outspoken even during the war. I often heard him declare at City Point that as soon as we had disposed of the Confederates we must begin with the Imperialists ; and when the Rebellion was actually crushed, it became his first object to insure the expulsion of the French from the neighboring country. On the first day of the Grand Review at Washington in 1865, he hurried Sheri dan off to Texas, not leaving him time to witness the conclu sion of the pageant, and gave him secret orders to watch the course of events on the Rio Grande. Grant, indeed, at this time, hoped that Johnson could be induced to issue a peremptory demand for the withdrawal of the French, and in case of non-compliance, that he would at once offer armed assistance to the Republicans. With this hope the General-in-Chief moved a large body of troops to the frontier, and Sheridan understood that he was not to be over-cautious about provoking the Imperial forces on the other side. But the Government of Johnson did not share Grant's views. It is probable that the President himself might have been brought to concur in them, but Seward was entirely opposed to the course that Grant recommended. It was the (180) THE FRENCH IN MEXICO. ISI difference between the soldier and the diplomatist. Grant was for prompt action, peremptory demands, menaces, and, if necessary, war, though he did not believe that war would be necessary. Seward hoped to accomplish the same object by waiting for events, by skillful management, by diplomatic notes and protocols. Besides this, Seward may have thought the province his own, that he was entitled to bring about the result in his own way and achieve the triumph that belonged to his own Department. At any rate he did his best to thwart the plan proposed by Grant, and as he was in the Cabinet, and besides in harmony with the President's domes tic policy, he won the day. His views finally controlled the action of the Government. It was some little while, how ever, before the contest was decided, and when Grant first found the influence of the Secretary hostile, he was not at all discouraged, although displeased. Since he could not have the assistance of Seward, he resorted to means of his own devising. For he was very much in earnest, and believed that dilatory diplomacy might result in the establish ment of an empire in Mexico. Three months after the close of the war he sent General Schofield, in whose ability and discretion he had great confi dence, on a peculiar errand. Schofield was nominally ordered to make an inspection of the troops on the Rio Grande, but he was furnished with a leave of absence with permission to visit Mexico. This had been granted with the concurrence of fhe President, who had full knowledge of the object in view. At the same time Grant wrote to Sheridan that there must be a large amount of captured ordnance in his com mand, as well as " similar articles " left there by discharged Union soldiers. Sheridan was directed to send none of these "articles" to the North. "Rather place them," said Grant, " convenient to be permitted to go into Mexico, if they can be got into the hands of the defenders of the only govern ment we recognize in that country." He continued : 1 82 GRANT IN PEACE. " I hope General Schofield may go with orders to receive these articles, but if he does not I know it will meet with general approval to let him have them, if contrary orders are not received. It is a fixed determination on the part of the people of the United States, and I think myself safe in saying on the part of the Presi dent also, that an empire shall not be established on this conti nent by the aid of foreign bayonets. A war on the part of the United States is to be avoided, if possible, but it will be better to go to war now, when but little aid given to the Mexicans will settle the question, than to have in prospect a greater war sure to come if delayed untfl the empire is established. We want, then, to aid the Mexicans without giving cause of war between the United States and France. Between the would-be empire of Maximilian and the United States all difficulty can easily be settled by observ ing the same sort of neutrality that has been observed toward us for the last four years. This is a little indefinite as a letter of instructions to be governed by. I hope with this you may receive these instructions in more positive terms. With a knowledge of the facts before you, however, that the greatest desire is felt to see the Liberal Government restored in Mexico, and no doubt exists of the strict justice of our right to demand this and enforce the demand with the whole strength of the United States, and your own judgment gives you a basis of action that will aid you. I will recommend in a few days that you be directed to discharge all the men you think can be spared from the Department of Texas, where they are, giving transportation to their homes to all who desire to return. You are aware that existing orders permit dis charged soldiers to retain their arms and accoutrements at low rates, fixed in orders." This letter was delivered to Schofield to carry to Sheridan. It was on the 25th of July, 1865, that Grant wrote: "It is the fixed determination of the people of the United States that an empire shall not be established on this continent by the aid of foreign bayonets " ; and on the 6th of September following Mr. Seward wrote to Mr. Bigelow, our Minister to France: "We do not insist or claim that Mexico and the THE FRENCH IN MEXICO. 1 83 other States on the American continent shall adopt the polit ical institutions to which we are so earnestly attached, but we do hold that the people of those countries are to exercise the freedom of choosing and establishing institutions like our own, if they are preferred." The difference in tone and language between the soldier and the statesman was indi cative of the difference in the means they desired to employ — to accomplish, nevertheless, the same end. Grant did not write to Schofield again for nearly a year, but on the 24th of March, 1866, he said to that officer: "I have never written to you since your departure, for two reasons : First, because I was afraid to send through the mails, lest the letter should fall into the hands of the French authorities. Second, because I could not say anything which would be agree able to Mr. Seward, and did not like, therefore, to send by his mafl. I might add a third reason and say that Mr. S. keeps the whole question between the United States and Mexico so befogged that I know nothing really to write upon the subject that you do not learn from the papers of the country. It looks to me very much as if Mr. Seward's policy was to hold the Government and let the Imperial estabhshment take its chances for success or fail ure. If he has a partiality in the matter, I think it leans to Imperial success. In this matter, however, I may do him injustice. One thing is certain, however, with the present policy, and it looks as if it was to continue, the friends of the Liberal Government of Mexico can do nothing to help it. Under these circumstances I would say there is no necessity for your remaining longer abroad, unless your instructions require it. ... If I was to try to give you any positive information in regard to our relations with Mexico, or with the man who keeps troops there, I could not do so. I could say nothing more consoling to the Emperor of the French than what I have here stated, nor nothing more distasteful to him than that the American people are united in their determination that his reign on this continent shall cease. Another election will probably bring this latter fact clear before his vision. I regret that his expulsion had not been the closing scene in the 1 84 GRANT IN PEACE. great struggle through which the country has just passed, and which he contributed largely to protract." It will be noticed that Grant speaks of the expulsion of the "Erhperor of the French," evidently regarding the Mexican potentate as only the tool of his great prototype in France. On the 20th of July, 1866, Grant wrote to Sheridan: "Your dispatch relative to selling the arms at Brownsville to the Liberals was referred by me to the President, strongly recom mended. I also saw the President in person about it, who said : 'Why can't we let them have them?' The subject wfll be up before the Cabinet to-day, and as Seward is absent, I am in hopes it will be decided to let them go. Whether this is done or not the Liberals are now getting arms. I got the Secretary of the Treas ury to give clearances for a large lot of arms for Brownsvflle, for export beyond the limits of the United States. Some are now on the way, and others will foflow. There has been entirely too much lukewarmness about Washington in Mexican affairs. I am afraid that it may yet cause us trouble. It looks to me very much as if Napoleon was going to settle the European quarrel in his own way, thus making himself stronger than ever before. If he does, will he not compel Austria to sustain the Imperial Govern ment with such aid as he will give ? This looks to me to be the danger to apprehend. You and I should, and we have done it, aid the Liberal cause by giving them all the encouragement we can. A Minister to the Liberal Government has been confirmed, but he is idling about Washington, waiting for Mr. S. to give him his instructions." On the 30th of July Grant wrote again to Sheridan: "Since the repeal of our neutrality laws I am in hopes of being able to get authority to dispose of all our surplus ammunition within your command to the Liberals of Mexico. Seward is a powerful practical ally of Louis Napoleon, in my opinion, but I am strongly in hope that his aid will do the Empire no good." On the 9th of October he said: THE FRENCH IN MEXICO. 185 "Enclosed I send you two letters furnished me by the Mexican Minister. One is from the agent of the Liberal Government of Mexico, and the other is an intercepted letter fully explaining itself. How far the agent may judge the objects of Santa Anna and Mr. Seward correctly I do not know. But I do not believe that either of these parties is favorable to the Liberal cause. My own opinion is that the interest of the United States and duty is to see that foreign interference with the affairs of this continent are put an end to. There is but one Government in Mexico that has ever been recognized by the United States, and we must respect the claims of that Government and advance its interests in every way we can. It is probable that you may have an oppor tunity of judging the designs of Santa Anna should he attempt to send a force to the Rio Grande. Should his designs be inimical to the Government of Mexico with which we are at peace, the sanie duty in obedience to our own neutrality laws compels us to prevent the fitting out of expeditions hostile to that Government that existed in the case of the Fenian movement against our Northern neighbor. There is but one party, one Government in Mexico, whose complaints or wishes have claim to respect from us. No policy has been adopted by our Government which authorizes us to interfere directly on Mexican soil with that coun try, but there is nothing that I know of to prevent the free passage of people or material going through our territory to the aid of the recognized Government. Our neutrality should prevent our allow ing the same thing when the object is to make war upon that Government, so long as we are at peace with it." It would be hard for the most accomplished doctor of laws to turn the neutrality acts both ways more skillfully to suit his own purposes. Yet who can contest the logic of Grant's reasoning or the justice of his conclusions .^ But however profoundly he disapproved of Seward's course, Grant had no desire to criticise or censure a member of the Government before the country. He had a soldier's regard for official propriety, and besides he could not but entertain a genuine admiration for many points in Seward's 1 86 GRANT IN PEACE. character as well as for his public services. On the 31st of October he wrote again to Sheridan : " Since the pubhcation of your letter of the 23d inst, to Brevet Brigadier-General Sedgwick, it may be possible that you or I may be called on for a copy of the instructions under which you gave such instructions. My letter of the gth of October contained some passages which it would not be well to give to the public, and were confidential, though it gives authority for just the instructions you have given to General Sedgwick, barring perhaps calling Maximil ian a buccaneer. I have thought it proper to renew my letter to you for official record, leaving out the objectionable passages [those referring to Seward]. Do not understand me as shrinking from the responsibility of the letter I wrote to you. On the contrary, I am delighted with your letter. It will have a great effect in sustaining the cause of Juarez both by encouraging his adherents and by discouraging other factions. In view of the fact that Max. and the French are about going out of Mexico, it might have been well to have left out the term buccaneer. If, however, the explanation is called for, I wifl be glad even of the use of that expression." Thus the matter dragged along for nearly two years, Grant doing everything in his power to hasten the result at which he was aiming, and Seward opposing Grant's measures if not his object, in every possible way. In conversation with journalists and other leaders and makers of opinion Grant constantly sought to create a public feeling in favor of demanding the withdrawal of the French. I remember on one occasion, at a reception given to him at the Union League Club in New York, he so far departed from his cus tom and did violence to his ordinary inclination as to force himself to utter a few words in public, almost a speech, indicating how strongly he desired the intervention of our Government. The country, however, did not respond very ardently to these utterances, and I have no doubt now that Seward's THE FRENCH IN MEXICO. 187 policy was more in accord with the general sentiment. The nation did not feel so keenly as Grant on the subject, nor did it apprehend the danger that he saw in delay. There was a prevalent belief that Louis Napoleon's object in Mexico had been frustrated when Lee surrendered, and that the French were certain to withdraw if allowed to do so without unnecessary humiliation. Indeed, had the nation been polled the majority would probably have endured the establishment of a monarchy in Mexico rather than have engaged at that time in another war. Nevertheless the departure of the French and the down fall of Maximilian were doubtless accelerated by the urgency of Grant and the knowledge that Napoleon had of Grant's popularity and influence. The French Minister to the United States, the Marquis de Montholon, was married to an American, and doubtless reported the situation to his master. Grant took good care that the envoy should know his views. I visited the Montholons frequently, and he instructed me to bring up the subject often and to be explicit in expressing his opinions. In 1867 the French were finally withdrawn and Maximflian was left to his fate. He was speedily captured, and then a determined effort was made to save his life. Foreign Govern ments addressed our own on the subject, and Mr. Seward made a formal application to the Mexicans in the ex-Emperor's behalf. But the Liberal Government took the ground that Imperial pretenders must learn that they carried their lives in their hands when they attempted to overthrow the Mexi can Republic, and that the traitor was as guilty who mounted a throne as if he had endeavored to overturn one. Maximil ian was tried like any other indi"vidual who sought to subdue the institutions of the State ; he was found guilty and shot — a lesson that usurpers will long remember. Grant concurred in the abstract justice and the political propriety of the act. Attempts were made to induce him to recommend clemency, 1 88 GRANT IN PEACE. for his influence would have been very great with the Mexi cans, who knew how ardently he had supported their cause, but he sternly refused to interfere. Indeed, his indirect advice to the Mexican Minister at Washington, doubtless communicated to his Government, was in favor of meting the same punishment to a crowned offender as to humbler culprits. I state this on General Grant's authority. He never forgave the Bonapartes. When he was in Eng land and a guest at my house, he received an invitation from Mr., now Sir Algernon Borthwick, the proprietor of The Morning Post, a man of political and social importance, and who had been a staunch friend of Napoleon III. The party was a breakfast in the country to meet the Prince Imperial ; Grant declined the invitation politely ; he said to me that he was unwilling to show any courtesy of a significant character to the son of the man who had so injured this country in the moment of its greatest peril. I went to the party, for Borth wick had always been civil to me, and when I was presented to the Prince he inquired very courteously about General Grant. On my return I repeated his remarks, for I always told my chief whatever was said to me about him, of what ever character; but he was in no degree mollified. He was never good at concealing emotions of a harsher character, and disliked to the last all hollow courtesies. The Empress heard some of his criticisms and retaliated in kind. In the last months, almost the last weeks, of Grant's life, when he was closing his eyes upon the dissensions and rancors of this world, after he had forgiven the South and spoken kindly even of Rosecrans and Jefferson Davis, he still retained an implacable dislike for Louis Napoleon's acts and character. In the concluding pages of his Memoirs — written under the very shadow of the scythe of the Destroyer — may be found these lines : " I did not blame France for her part in the scheme to erect a monarchy upon the ruins of the Mexican Republic. That was the THE FRENCH IN MEXICO. 1 89 scheme of one man without genius or merit He had succeeded in stealing the Government of his country and made a change in its form against the wishes and interests of his countrymen. He tried to play the part of the first Napoleon without the ability to sustain that role. He sought by new conquests to add to his empire and his glory ; but the signal failure of his scheme of conquest was the precursor of his own overthrow. . . . The third Napoleon could have no claim to having done a good or just act." CHAPTER XXII. GRANT AND SEWARD. THERE was a positive antagonism between Grant and Seward. Their characters were as unlike as their poH- cies and achievements. During the last months of the war Seward paid a visit at Grant's headquarters at City Point, and while there he told me a story which illustrates more than one point in his character. He was describing the alarm and anxiety of the North in the autumn of 1864. For months Grant had accomplished nothing in front of Richmond ; Hood had forced Sherman to retrace his steps from Atlanta, and Early had nearly captured Washington. The opponents of the Government at the North made the most of the situation for political purposes. The elections were approaching, and a Cabinet council was held. It was necessary, Seward said, to throw something overboard in order to save the ship, and Emancipation was to be the Jonah. He was selected, he told me, to make the sacrifice, and proceeded to Auburn, where he delivered the speech which many will remember, re-opening the whole question of slavery and Emancipation, when the States should return to the Union. "When the insurgents," he said, "shall have disbanded their armies and laid down their arms, the war will instantly cease ; and all the war meas ures then existing, including those which affect slavery, wifl cease also ; and all the moral, economical, and political ques tions, as well questions affecting slavery as others, which shall then be existing between individuals and States and the Fed eral Government, whether they arose before the Civil War (190) SEWARD ANNOUNCING VICTORY. GRANT AND SEAWARD. IqI began, or whether they grew out of it, will by force of the Constitution, pass over to the arbitrament of courts of law, and to the councils of legislation." So spoke the Secretary of State a year and a half after the proclamation of Emanci pation had been made. A few days later he returned to Washington, and soon the news was brought of Sheridan's victory at Winchester. Seward took the telegram to the President. It was long past midnight, and Lincoln came to the door of his bedroom in his nightgo'wn. There he held the candle while the Secretary of State read to him the great intelligence. The President was delighted, of course, at the victory, but Seward exclaimed : "And what, Mr. President, is to become of me ? " He told me this story, I suppose, to illustrate his spirit of seff-sacrifi6e, but when I repeated it to Grant the soldier looked at the act in a different light. He thought the sacrifice of principle should not have been made, and was shocked that Seward could have thought of himself at such a crisis. But Seward believed in sacrificing even political principle to the success of a great cause, or the salvation of a country. He said to me at this time : " Nations have never more virtue than just enough to save themselves." Grant's course under somewhat similar circumstances was different. He often told me of the pressure brought to induce him to sign what was known as the Inflation Act. Personal and political friends of importance assured him that his refusal would be fatal to Republican success at the polls, and although his judgment was opposed to the measure, he finally wrote out a message appro-ving the bill. He even read the message to his Cabinet, but in writing and reading it the weakness of his forced reasoning became more apparent than ever. He could not bring himself to do violence to his own con-victions. That night he tore up the message and wrote another which con tained the veto that forever defeated Inflation. Each of these men had in his own way accomplished great 192 GRANT IN PEACE. things for the State. Seward was an adroit and intellectual strategist, a man born with the instincts and used to the arts of diplomacy ; a statesman who had aimed at the highest place, but when he failed in his aim, had humbled himself to take a secondary post, in which he conceived and carried out an international policy for his triumphant rival ; a man who after the war and the success of the principles and the party with whom and for whom he had battled half a lifetime, found himself suddenly in the Cabinet of a Southerner determined to bring the defeated Southerners back to the position and the power they had enjoyed before they rebelled ; and Seward not only acquiesced in the design, but aided it with all the skill and intellect he had once employed on the other side. There was nothing in such a character or career to attract or to assimilate with Grant, who was by nature blunt and plain in word and act ;• a soldier to the core ; unused to bending when he could not break, and ignorant of any means to accom plish his purposes but the most direct and forcible. Even in war he had been less of a strategist than a fighter, and he car ried the same characteristics into civil affairs. Indeed when ever later in his political career he was induced by political associates to lay aside his own peculiar directness and attempt manoeuvring he failed. His ways were never those of diplo macy, nor even of legitimate craft. The more of a technical politician he became, the less was his hold on the people, and the less the success he achieved. When he returned to his native straightforwardness and outspokenness his influence and popularity were regained. Such a man could not appre ciate Johnson's Secretary of State. Seward had succeeded by temporizing and negotiating, by patience and subtle skifl, by submitting to what was inevitable and obtaining whatever was attainable, in at first postponing, and at last preventing, the active intervention of England and France in favor of the South during the War; and he hoped afterward to secure the withdrawal of GRANT AND SEWARD. 193 the French from Mexico by the same means. But to Grant this seemed to indicate indifference to the result, and he finally came to believe that Seward was willing for Maxi mflian to remain. Here was their first open difference. They were antagonists apparently even in aim, and certainly in means and methods and manner. The consequence was not only a marked divergence of opinion, but on Grant's part, a coolness of feeling that lasted for years and was never entirely removed. But though Grant at times could hardly force himself to be civil, and disliked even to go to Seward's house, the courteous Secretary kept up his visits and his compliments. Mr. Blaine, in his " Twenty Years of Congress," attributes to Seward the conception of Johnson's entire scheme of restoring the States, but Grant never gave Seward credit for the plan. He thought it the child of Johnson's brain, developed by the situation in which he found himself, of a humble Southerner suddenly raised to a position in which he could dispense essential favors to those who had always seemed his superiors but now courted him for their own purposes. Grant in his " Memoirs " speaks of Johnson as a "President who at first aimed to revenge himself upon Southern men of better social standing than himself, but who still sought their recognition, and in a short time con ceived the idea and advanced the proposition to become their Moses to lead them triumphantly out of all their difficulties." I remember once returning to him from the White House, and describing to him what I had seen; the antechamber of the tailor-President crowded with magnates of the South, Hunter and Richard Taylor and others of that sort, waiting for a chance to ask to be pardoned. Grant, like every other human being, was sometimes unjust in his judgments, and did not always allow the credit of the highest motives to those who opposed him. He thought Johnson was affected by the influences I have 13 ig4 GRANT IN PEACE. described, and that Seward for the sake of place and power followed in the political somersault. No word intimating a belief that Seward originated Johnson's policy ever escaped him in my hearing, either in the excited intercourse of the time or in the deliberate discussions of later years. It is needless to say that Grant thought Seward intel lectual and able ; and of course he never dreamed of denying his patriotism ; but the genius of the one was so diametrically opposed to that of the other that Grant could not do justice to the considerations, whether of legitimate ambition or lofty statesmanship, that may have actuated Seward. He was too intensely himself to be sympathetic. He could not put himself into Seward's place. He could not understand how Seward could reverse the feelings and principles of a lifetime to remain in Johnson's Cabinet. He could not perceive that Seward, once the bugbear of the slave-holders, might take an exquisite pleasure in the thought that they owed their exemption from many misfortunes to the man they had so long and so bitterly reviled. But although Grant thought Seward only a follower of Johnson in the Reconstruction policy, he certainly believed that many of the devices of Johnson were due to Seward's suggestion. He did not think Johnson clever enough to initiate all the craft that gave the country and Congress so much trouble and alarm. Many of the acutest arguments in defense of Johnson Grant thougjit were in reality perversions of Seward's intellect in an unworthy cause; and the effort to send Grant to Mexico he always attributed to Seward. The conception was worthy of the diplomatic Secretary, to whom it would fall to carry out the device if it succeeded; for if Grant had accepted the position pressed upon him he must have received his instructions from Seward, who had opposed and defeated Grant's Mexican policy. Those instruc tions, in fact, were written out, and Seward once began to read them in Cabinet, but Grant refused to hear them. GRANT AND SEWARD. igj Even after this they were forwarded to Grant through the Secretary of War, but were finally turned over to Sherman. It would indeed have been a Machiavellian triumph to have got rid of Grant at that juncture in affairs at home and at the same time forced him to carry out Seward's policy in Mexico. But though, as I have said. Grant never got over his dislike of Seward's course, either in the Mexican matter or in the general policy of the Administration, Seward was determined not to quarrel with Grant. He was never person ally conspicuous in the stratagems which Grant was obliged to contest, and even at the crisis of the relations between Grant and Johnson, when other Cabinet Ministers ranged themselves on the side of the President, Seward contrived to write a letter not entirely unsatisfactory to his chief, while yet he refrained from giving the lie to Grant. Thus their relations, although after this period never intimate, were not absolutely interrupted. Some of Seward's admirers even proposed to Grant, when he became President-elect, to invite Seward to remain in the State Department, but he never entertained the idea. I remember a dinner at the house of Mr. Thornton, the British Minister, given after Grant's election, at which Sew ard sat on the right of the host and Grant on the left ; and Seward remarked, as he took his seat, "After the 4th of March, General, you and I will be obliged to exchange places at table." But there were many even then who placed Gen eral Grant above the Secretary of State, and Grant himself, in more important matters than rank or etiquette, was assert ing his own consequence. He had endeavored, as I have shown, to prevent the host who was then entertaining them from negotiating a treaty with Seward, and he had striven successfully to lessen the influence of Seward's Minister to Mexico. Still the honors were divided. Seward had defeated ig6 GRANT IN PEACE. Grant in what the soldier had so much at heart, — the forci ble expulsion of Maximilian, accomplishing the overthrow of the empire by diplomatic means, though he risked, as Grant believed, the existence of the Mexican Republic ; but Seward himself was defeated in the great object of Johnson's Admin istration, — the Reconstruction policy; and in this defeat Grant was the principal figure and instrument. Grant's election, indeed, was the seal of Seward's and Johnson's overthrow. Up to the last their differences continued. In sending Rosecrans to Mexico, Seward must have known the affront he offered Grant, and by the rejection of the Claren don-Johnson Treaty, which Grant did so much to accomplish, the final effort of Seward's diplomacy was foiled. But, after all, both were patriots, both were indispensable to the salvation of the State. Grant's victories would have been useless, if not impossible, unless Seward's skill had stayed the hostile and impatient hands of England and France ; and Seward's diplomacy required Vicksburg and the Wilderness to be of any avail. As Lincoln once said to Sickles, when they were discussing the battle of Gettysburg, "There is glory enough to go all around." Nevertheless, it is well to tell the whole truth about great men in great emergencies. CHAPTER XXIIL GRANT AND MOTLEY. THE beginning of Grant's intercourse with Motley was brought about through me. Mr. Motley made my acquaintance at Newport in 1868. He was visiting a man whom I did not know, but who was good enough to call on me and invite me to dinner ; and I, like every one else, was charmed with the manner and conversation of the famous historian. General Grant was at that time a candidate for the Presidency, and Motley had recently returned from Vienna, after his quarrel with Johnson and Seward. He was an enthusiastic admirer of Grant, and took a lively interest in my history of the General's campaigns, the first volume of which had lately appeared. During the canvass he made an eloquent speech for Grant, and sent a copy to me at Galena, where I was spending the autumn with the General. We corresponded regularly after this, and Motley sent frequent messages through me to the President-elect, whom he did not meet until December. After the election he passed some months in Washington, the guest of Samuel Hooper, of Boston, at whose house I met him frequently, as well as at that of Charles Sumner, with whom he was extremely intimate. During this period he read and re vised several manuscript chapters of my History of Grant At the time of the inauguration it was understood that he was a candidate for the Austrian Mission, but afterward he was pressed by Sumner for the mission to England. John Jay, of New York, was a prominent rival, but Sumner's (197) 198 GRANT IN PEACE. influence prevailed, and Motley received the appointment to London. I had done my best to speak well of him to the President, and General Grant informed me of his decision immediately after it was made, and allowed me to announce it to Motley. This was a great gratification to me, and of course Motley was delighted. He at once, however, begged me to remember that despite our intimacy and my known relations with General Grant he had never mentioned the subject of his appointment to me, nor had one of his family. I took care to say this to the President, who was peculiarly sensitive on such points. He had never urged his own qualifications or claims for any promotion, and he liked better the men who followed the same course with himself. A few days afterward I got a note from Motley asking me to call cm him. During the interview he asked if I would be willing to take the position of Assistant Secretary of Lega tion under him. He said he thought me entitled to a much higher place and would not have dreamed of offering me this if it had not been suggested to him, but that it would be a great pleasure to have me accompany him. I thanked him, but said the proposition was entirely unexpected and I could make no answer without consulting the President. I was at that time, as I have before stated, on duty at the Executive Mansion, in charge of a portion of General Grant's unofficial correspondence, and also engaged on my History of his Cam paigns. I went direct to the President, who said the sugges tion had come from himself. He had already told me that he meant before long to appoint me to one of the smaller European missions, but he preferred not to do this at once ; and he had thought as I was so warm a friend of Motley, it might be pleasant for me to accompany him and learn some thing of diplomatic duty in advance, as well as obtain an agreeable introduction to English society. At any rate I could pass the summer in Europe and return whenever I chose and resume my place at the White House, I was also GRANT AND MOTLEY. igg told that though I was now offered the position of Assistant Secretary, I should be promoted to that of First Secretary as soon as I had familiarized myself with the duties. Of this last arrangement Mr. Motley was not informed. I accepted the appointment. Before the new Minister sailed he submitted an elaborate paper to the State Department which was doubtless in part drawn up by Mr. Sumner. This was proposed as the draft or basis of Motley's instructions as envoy to England. The document was written in a spirit and tone that would have been highly offensive to England ; it was entirely unaccept able to Mr. Fish and to General Grant, both of whom had conceived the idea of a pacific policy looking to an adjust ment of our differences with England that might be agreeable to both nations. Mr. Gladstone had just come into power at the head of a liberal government, including such friends of the Union as Bright, Forster, and the Duke of Argyll ; and the American Administration thought it might make terms with these without assuming an offensive attitude. The "memoir" which Mr. Motley presented was therefore rejected. At this Mr. Sumner was very indignant. As Chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs he supposed himself entitled to dictate, or at least control, the foreign policy of the Government, and he would indeed be able to thwart or advance it in an unusual degree. He had been a life-long intimate and personal friend of the Secretary of State, and Mr. Fish was inclined to strain a point to meet his views, or at least to preserve kindly relations with him. But Sumner was intolerant in temper, arbitrary in will, egotistical and conceited in sentiment, and domineering in manner. Mr. Fish, on the other hand, was stubborn, and possessed a will as determined as Sumner's ; he knew his rights, and though always ready to accord those of his compeers or subordinates, was equally resolute in maintaining his own. 200 GRANT IN PEACE. Nevertheless, for the sake of old friendship and because of the important political and international interests at issue, he was far from intolerant at this crisis. General Grant was more inflexible. He had been used to finding subordinates obedient and others deferential ; and though Motley was not as yet at fault, Sumner's course both surprised and angered Grant. In a conversation with Fish before Motley sailed, Sumner declared that if his wishes could not be carried out, he would tell Motley to resign. This assump tion of a right to dictate to the subordinates of the State Department almost provoked a rupture on the spot, and was received in a manner that did not encourage Sumner to renew or to carry out the threat. The deferred instructions to Mr. Motley were sent to the Minister in New York just before he sailed. He first read them on the voyage. I was to take the same steamer with Motley, and a few days before we started I asked the President if he had any particular or personal injunctions for me. I said I should be known to come direct from his side, and doubtless would be supposed to reflect his views, and I inquired if there was any tone in conversation which he would like me to assume. He replied at once : " Yes, I particularly wish you to say that I am anxious for a harmonious adjustment of our differences with England. I do not want any difficulty with that country, and will do my best to prevent one. The two nations ought to be friends, and one object of my Administration is to secure such a friendship. I particularly do not intend to dis pute the right that England had to acknowledge the belliger ency of the South. Say this in conversation constantly. Make opportunities to say that you know this is my position and that I authorize you to declare it." During the voyage I repeated this conversation to Mr. Motley, for I had no idea of doing anything disloyal or even disagreeable to him ; but he at once desired me to say nothing on the subject in Eng land. He declared that I should embarrass him greatly if I GRANT AND MOTLEY. 20I assumed to discuss political matters at all, or to speak in any way for the President. I was naturally amazed that he should revoke the order of the President, but I attributed this conduct to the extraordinary sensitiveness of Motley. He had shown in one or two instances a petty jealousy unworthy of him. I had intended to give a breakfast party before I left Washington and to invite the British Min ister, Mr. Motley, Mr. Fish, and Mr. Sumner to meet the President, who had consented to come, but Motley made it a point that I should not give the party. He said it would be unbecoming in me as Secretary of Legation to invite the President to meet the British Minister. He did not feel that he could invite the Head of the State, and he did not wish his subordinate to do so. Mr. Motley did not show me his instructions on his arrival, nor did he discuss with me his intercourse with the Foreign Office on any of the points in dispute with the United States ; but as Secretary I had access to the archives of the Legation and thus saw his instructions and read the account of Motley's first interview with Lord Clarendon, the Minister for Foreign Affairs. I had not known in America of his difference with the State De partment, but I said at once to Mr. Moran, the First Sec retary of Legation, that the Minister would be removed. He had disobeyed his orders, and I knew that General Grant would not endure disobedience in a subordinate. Moran agreed with me as to the disobedience. Motley indeed had said far more than he had been ordered to say. He had been charged to do everything to cultivate friendly relations, to express a desire on the part of the new Government to maintain an amicable feeling, and he had instead recited the wrongs that England had inflicted and had done this in a menacing and almost offensive tone which only the good temper of the British Government prevented it from resenting on the spot. Moran and I 202 GRANT IN PEACE. talked over the matter. I was greatly grieved, for I was attached to Motley and wanted to see him succeed ; but I could not go to my superior and tell him that he was dis obedient. He had not invited my suggestions, and I did not feel authorized to approach him on the subject. I felt all the more delicate because he knew so well my relations with General Grant. But I wrote at once to the President and told him that I thought he might be able to change Mr. Motley's course. I said the Minister was very susceptible to praise ; that he seemed to consider himself Mr. Sumner's Minister rather than that of the Government, but that this came perhaps from an excess of gratitude, because he thought he owed his appointment to Sumner ; and if he could be made to feel more pleasantly toward the Administration it might have an influence on his susceptible nature. I recited some things he had said and done which I thought the President would approve, and I urged him to write me a letter which I could show Motley commending these acts. General Grant at once complied with this suggestion.* But when the dispatch arrived in Washington reporting the interview with Lord Clarendon, the result that I had predicted to Moran occurred. The President at first insisted on the immediate recall of the disobedient Minister. Mr. Fish was equally amazed and even indignant at the extraor dinary action of the envoy, but he was less peremptory. He persuaded the President not to take the step of remov ing his most important diplomatic subordinate in the first months of his Administration ; and showed him how the necessity might be avoided. Mr. Motley was informed that he had transcended his instructions and that the further negotiation of the subject would be conducted in the United States and not at London. He was also directed to notify the British Government that the views he had presented * See this letter, page 468. GRANT AND MOTLEY. 203 were disapproved by his superiors. This, it was supposed, would induce the Minister to resign, but he swallowed his humble pie and made the declaration required to Lord Clarendon. He could not, however, bring himself to utter the words in person, and therefore wrote them, which saved him a part of his mortification, but left the record in the archives of the Foreign Office of England. I was inexpressibly pained at this situation, for I was fond of Motley, as every one was who was thrown much with him. I knew how his proud spirit must have been stung, and I thought I knew how I could have saved him some of his suffering ; but he did not offer me his confidence, and I could not intrude. About this time, only four months after my arrival in England, General Rawlins died. He had in his possession a number of important papers relating to General Grant which only he or I could arrange, as we were the only two who had made the matters to which they referred our study. It was very desirable that these papers should not fall into other hands, and I telegraphed at once to the Presi dent that unless he forbade I should return to America. This was in accordance with his permission to me when I left. I received no refusal and made ready to start, writing, however, to the President in advance, and requesting him to explain to the Secretary of State the reasons for my return, and relieve me from the appearance of disrespect in not applying to him for my leave. When I found I was to return I talked again with Moran about our chief. I was anxious to do the Minister a service, and thought if I could carry a submissive message to Wash ington I might save him further humiliation, and perhaps the loss of his place. Finally I determined to say something as delicately as possible to the ladies of his family. I told them that from my knowledge of General Grant I was sure he must be displeased, and that I believed it all-important for Mr. Motley to change his course ; but that I did not 204 GRANT IN PEACE. venture to approach him on the subject, which he had never broached to me. They at once begged me to speak to him frankly, assuring me that he would not be offended. I did so, and he took my interposition in the best possible spirit, admitting at once that he might have erred at the start, but declaring his intention now to carry out the wishes of the Government even if they were contrary to his own. He urged me to make this fully known to the President and to Mr. Fish, and to inform him of the result ; and thanked me cordially for my interposition. When I returned to America I found the Head of the Government extremely displeased, and my messages did not have the full effect desired ; the explanations were insufficient I therefore wrote to Mr. Motley and advised him to send me a letter which I might show to the President and Mr. Fish, repeating in the strongest words he could use the verbal messages he had sent through me. This he did promptly, and thanked me for the suggestion. I read this letter to the President and the Secretary of State, and they seemed to feel that there was now some probability that their instructions would be obeyed ; but they determined to risk nothing, and the further discussion of the points at issue was not resumed in London. Even this was not sufficient, high strung as Motley was, to induce him to resign; for he was fond of the accessories of etiquette and precedence attached to his place. Yet he was in smafl things as well as great utterly lacking in the diplomatic character. Lord Houghton once said of him that he was a historian, not a diplomatist ; he was used to meting out praise and blame to Governments and could not understand that he was to take orders from them. This soon became evident again. A month or two after my return I resigned my post of Assistant Secretary at London, and resumed my duties at the White House. When this was decided the Presi- GRANT AND MOTLEY. 205 dent said to me: "Badeau, I wish you would write to Mr. Motley and say I would like him to nominate as your succes sor Mr. Nicholas Fish, the son of the Secretary of State. Mr. Fish does not know of this, and might feel delicate about appointing or asking me to appoint his son. I wish to sur prise him, and Mr. Motley will have the chance to gratify both me and the Secretary of State." I wrote of course promptly to the Minister, but he declined to comply with the President's wish. He had another man whom he pre ferred for the place, and whom he had promised to nomi nate if I resigned. He had indeed already sent an informal request to the State Department which probably crossed my letter on the ocean. But Motley at the best could only nominate, it was for the President to appoint; and the statement to any friend that he could not redeem his pledge would surely have released him. But he insisted so far as he could on his nomination, and refused to oblige the two persons on earth who were most able to oblige him. I do not know that Mr. Fish ever knew of this circum stance. General Grant enjoined secrecy on me at the time, and I never spoke of it to the Secretary or his family. But the President was extremely angry ; he looked upon the refusal as another piece of insubordination, a proof that Motley was determined to do as he pleased, and not as the President desired; more than this, he regarded it, after all that had occurred, as a personal discourtesy and defiance. Mr. Motley's friend was not appointed, so that he lost what he wanted, as well as the regard of the President. A day or two after the letter arrived Grant asked his Cabinet ff any one of them had a man he wanted to send to London in my stead. The place had not been known to be vacant, and at first no name was mentioned ; but after a while Mr. Cress- well, the Postmaster-General, suggested Mr. E. R. Nadal, and that gentleman, who was utterly unknown to Motley, received the appointment. Young Mr. Fish, at General 2o6 GRANT IN PEACE. Grant's suggestion, was sent as Secretary to Berlin, where the Minister was less recalcitrant. During the winter nothing further was done about Mot ley ; but the President received from several sources reports in regard to the Minister's social treatment of Americans which displeased him. I fancy the stories were exaggerated, but it was said that Motley ignored his compatriots, and that his deference for the aristocracy was so marked that he disliked to bring democrats into contact with them. In May I returned to London, this time as Consul-General, and on the day I left Washington, I dined with the Presi dent. He went to the door of the White House to bid me good-by, and we talked a long while in the lower halls. Then and there he told me that he meant to remove Mr. Motley. This was on the 15th of May, nearly two months before the final vote on the Saint Domingo matter. He said he was persuaded that the Minister was un-American in spirit and not a fitting representative of democracy. He charged me not to disclose his intention to any human being, and declared he had not told it even to Mrs. Grant; or to any one whatever, except the Secretary of State. He even said he should like to make me Minister to Eng land, but I replied at once that he ought not to think of the appointment. I was not sufficiently prominent before the country, and the nomination would be regarded as favor itism and would injure him. He promi"6ed, however, to write me fully on public affairs, letters which I might show, and which would indicate his confidence in me ; and he kept his word.* As soon as I arrived in London, Motley asked me how the President felt toward him, and I had great difficulty in replying without betraying the President's confidence. Motley was so amiable to me personally that I felt more than sorry for him; he enjoyed his social opportunities so keenly, * See Chapter L. (, GRANT AND MOTLEY. 207 and in all social matters he so adorned his position that I should have been glad to see him remain. I told him he ought to do every thing in his power to cultivate American society; to invite Americans to his house, to make himself liked by them. He took my advice after a fashion ; held Saturday receptions for Americans and made a Fourth of July party for them. But it did no good, for he asked no English to meet them, and the Americans felt themselves excluded from the society to which their Minister was admitted as their representative. I also urged Motley, ff he was anxious to please the President, to make much of the envoys of the Central and South American Republics. I thought if he would form a democratic coterie and put himself at the head of it in London society, it would make him more of a power, enhance the consequence of the republicans, and be an advantage to himself at home. He invited the republican ministers a little, but his heart was not with them. He preferred ambassadors and royal and aristocratic connections in every way. Still he asked me to write to the President what he was doing, and I complied. But it was of no avail. In July he read in the news papers rumors of his recall, and of the appointment of Mr. Frelinghuysen in his place. He was greatly shocked, and I was myself surprised, for I had thought from the delay that the President's feeling might have been mitigated. Motley himself acknowledged that he had erred the year before, but he held that his offense had been condoned. But Grant did not often condone. The crisis finally came. Motley was living in Lord Yarborough's house, in Arling ton Street, one of the most sumptuous in London ; he was entertaining sovereigns, his halls were filled with Titians and Murillos and Van Dykes. I recollect a dinner just before he feU at which D'Israeli, the Duke of Devonshire, the Roths- chflds, and thirty or forty others of the highest position in London were present, and the grace and urbanity with which 208 GRANT IN PEACE. he received and arranged the splendid company were remarked by all. He held no memorandum in his hand, but stood at the centre of his long table which was gleaming with silver and lights, and pointed to each aristocratic guest where he should sit and whom he should place beside him. His hand some, intellectual face was lighted up with pleasure and distinction, and he felt himself at home. Poor man ! The next day his post was required of him. He was requested to resign, and, unfortunately for his dignity, refused. The Tenure of Office act was still in force under which Stanton had held on in spite of Johnson, and Motley availed himself of it now. After Frelinghuysen declined the place, it was offered to Morton of Indiana, who was also unable to accept it, but Motley remained against the wishes of his own Government ; of course discredited both in society and at court ; with no important business whatever entrusted to him ; presenting the unprecedented spectacle of a repre sentative of a country which did not wish him to represent it, a diplomatist defying instead of supporting his Govern- . ment, a gentleman retaining a position in a service that sought to discard him. He even complained in society of his treatment and thus injured his country instead of benefit ing it. It was supposed by the English that he had been displaced because of his preferences for England, whereas the fact was directly the contrary. The British Minister for Foreign Affairs said to Mr. Moran about this time, and Moran told it to me, that he would not have retained a subordinate a day after the first letter that Motley had written in dis obedience of his instructions. Finally, as the time approached when Congress would meet, and the Government could report its action, the First Secretary, Mr. Moran, was directed to assume charge of the Legation ; and as Motley still refused to resign, he subjected himself to the indignity from which the Administration had sought to save him — he was expelled. GRANT AND MOTLEY. 209 He never recovered from the effect of all this on his health and spirits. He remained a short while in England, visiting his numerous friends, who strove in every way to soften the bitterness of the situation, though I never met one who approved his course in holding office after he had been requested to resign. Some of them thought from what he told them that he had been harshly treated, but they all admitted the right of a Government to select its own Minis ter. I saw him occasionally, but our intercourse was of course painful. We reminded each other too much of the past. He soon went to Holland, where the Queen offered him a villa in which he wrote his volume of "John of Bame- veld." Then he returned to England and went about a little in the world, but his strength and vivacity were gone. To have been repudiated and dismissed by his own Government was a blow from which his proud spirit could not recover. In 1873 he had a neuralgic or paralytic fit, from which he rallied for a whfle. Then his wife died of a cruel and lingering malady. This crushed him more completely still, and in the spring of 1877 he passed away, suddenly at the last. Two days before his death General Grant arrived in England, and I was told by an intimate and mutual friend that when Motley was informed of the extraordinary reception of the ex-Presi dent he replied : " I am glad of it ; Grant is a great man and a representative American." The first Sunday that General Grant spent in London he was invited to a service at Westminster Abbey. Dean Stanley preached the sermon, and spoke tenderly of the loss to literature and to English society of the graceful and elo quent historian, who had been his intimate friend, and then turned in the same discourse to offer welcome to that other American who had been General and President in the country which Motley had represented in England. 14 CHAPTER XXIV. GRANT AND SUMNER. SUMNER had hoped to be Secretary of State under Grant. His anticipations, indeed, began earlier stiU. It was positively arranged at the time of the impeachment of Andrew Johnson that he was to have the State Department if Wade had gone into the Presidency; and even under Lin coln there was an occasion when he expected to supplant Seward. He thought himself especially fit for the post, and if acquirement and ornate eloquence were the prime requi sites for a Secretary of State he might have filled the posi tion with a certain degree of brilliancy. But though, with Sumner's consent, his friends pressed his name for the first position in the Cabinet, Grant never for a moment entertained the idea of appointing him. There was, indeed, little congruity between the plain and almost rugged soldier, used to war and actual strife, to directing armies and planning campaigns, and the polished rhetorician, the elaborate student of phrases, the man of the closet, the Senate, and of society. Sumner always felt — perhaps with many others — that the career of the soldier should have closed with the war. Arma cedant togce was always in their hearts, if not upon their lips. Chase, and Seward, and Stan ton, and some of their successors, felt themselves better equipped in the arts of statesmanship than they believed any mere warrior could be, and they were undoubtedly jealous of the civic honors given to those who, they thought, should have been content with military rewards. But the people (210) GRANT AND SUMNER. 211 did not agree with them. It was a foregone conclusion from the close of the war that Grant should be the next President. In all ages the successful commander, is the most generally popular of the aspirants for public favor, and in Grant's case the highest honors of the State were absolutely pressed upon him, not only unsought, but at first undesired. Sumner was slow in accepting the situation, but he finally fell into line and made a speech or two in favor of Grant during the Presidential canvass of 1868. After this he expected the appointment to the State Department. The world knows that he was disappointed in his expectations. Stfll, at first Grant had a high appreciation of Sumner's character and ability. They had not been thrown together intimately, but Grant admired the steadfast position of the anti-slavery champion, as he always admired steadiness whether in friend or foe. He believed in Sumner's scholar ship, which he had heard of, but could not verify ; he fancied that Sumner was a statesman; and he felt the remains of the indignation which burst out all over the North after the dastardly attack of Brooks had elevated the victim into a martyr. Sumner had been for years on intimate terms with Fish ; had dined at Fish's house weekly while they were together in the Senate ; and had been a constant visitor at Fish's homes in town and country in New York. Fish had seen Sumner often in Paris while the orator lay suffering from the blows received in the Senate chamber. Thus when Fish entered the Cabinet he naturally turned to his old associate and friend, who had been more lately familiar with high politics than himself ; for Fish had been out of the public service for twelve years, while Sumner was at this time chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs. The official relations of the two brought them at once into close companionship. Before Grant's Administration was three months old Motley was 212 GRANT IN PEACE. sent to England to please Sumner, without whose interposi tion he would at most have been returned to Vienna. But almost immediately Sumner's dictatorial disposition and imperious behavior began to make trouble. The Claren don-Johnson Treaty was still before the Senate when Grant became President, and in April, 1869, without consulting the Administration, Sumner made his famous speech, in which he claimed that the war had been "doubled in duration " by the English "intervention," and that "England was responsible for the additional expenditure " which America thus incurred. From Sumner's position in the Senate, and his well-known personal relations with Fish, the country would have a right to presume that these views were shared by the Administra tion, and this speech at once compelled the President and the Secretary of State to consider and define their own posi tion. It was very different from Sumner's. They held that though England had been most unfriendly in her prompt recognition of Southern belligerency, she was yet within her rights as an independent nation in making the recogni tion; and they were far from maintaining that she was re sponsible for all the subsequent or consequential damages. When therefore, Sumner's view was presented to the Admin istration by Motley as the basis for his own instructions, it was necessarily rejected. At this Sumner became very indig nant, and at times was almost offensive in behavior. He con sidered the rejection a personal slight to himself, and threat ened, as I have already stated, to induce Motley to resign. Nev ertheless for a while he retained a show of amicable relations with the Government. I remember that I dined with him a night or two before I left Washington to accompany Motley to England, and he was in high spirits, though I fancy he had not then seen Motley's final instructions, which were only con cluded at the last moment, and reached the Minister just as he was about to safl. Sumner wrote me once while I was in Eng land a diffuse letter defending himself against the criticisms GRANT AND SUMNER. 213 of his former English friends, who were all very indignant at the position he had assumed. He gave me leave to use the letter, and I sometimes tried to explain to one or two what seemed to them most offensive in his views ; but with little success. I returned to Washington four months later, and during the winter the question of St. Domingo came up. I was never taken into the confidence of those who originated that scheme, and I know no more of it than the public knows. The President once or twice spoke of it to me, and expressed a desire for the ratification of the treaty, and I wrote one or two articles in favor of it for the newspapers, because it was an Administration measure. I learned the general arguments that were offered from a public point of view, and I thought there were reasons why the acquisition of territory in St. Domingo was desirable; but at this time the President did not seem to me to have set his heart so much upon the measure as afterward. I believe it was the heat of the con test that made him so eager for success at last ; for he had the soldier's instinct even in civil affairs ; when he was once engaged in battle he was always anxious to win. Sumner, General Grant told me, at first acquiesced in the scheme; but he afterward opposed it bitterly. Those who surrounded Grant thought that the opposition was more on personal than public grounds. Sumner was displeased because he could dictate neither the policy nor the appoint ments of the Administration. But Grant and Fish were both men unused to dictation; they both resented it; and the antagonism between the characters of Grant and Sumner soon became apparent. Sumner's enormous conceit was evident in words and tones and acts to every one with whom he came in contact. He thought his judgment and knowledge so far superior to those of a plain soldier like Grant that he could not conceal the idea ; and he was besides utterly unpractical as a, statesman, so that not only the simplicity and modesty 214 GRANT IN PEACE. of Grant were shocked by the pompous self-assertion and conspicuous vanity of the orator, but the executive abflity and plain common sense of the President were as different as could be from the high-sounding theories and impossible suggestions of the inflated doctrinaire. Nevertheless Sumner was practical enough in the pursuit of power, and in providing for his friends. He was always a place-hunter for others, and knew as well as any man how to bufld up and maintain a personal party by finding positions and employments for his adherents. I cannot say that he could have been induced to support the St. Domingo scheme by offers of patronage ; but I do know that men in Grant's Cabinet thought and said so at the time. Sumner was especially anxious that a certain friend of his named Ashley should have a high appointment ; he was always adverting to this when important measures were discussed. " Why don't you do something for Ashley.''" was his constant cry. Grant had some reason, I never knew what, for refusing this re quest; perhaps it was in part an obstinate unwillingness to be forced or persuaded into anything; he had held out so- long, he would hold out to the end. For he was often, I thought, maladroit in the distribution and withholding of patronage. Regarding it as he did, and as everybody did at that time, as a legitimate means of party support, and believ ing that it was clearly within his province to distribute office as he chose — he might have won many important people whom he drove away ; he was not pliable enough for a politician. He thought he would not truckle to the press, and therefore he defied and fought the great journals and journalists of the country. But by a judicious use of legiti mate political advantages, and by personal advances that coming from him would have conferred distinction, he might have retained as friends many who became his bitterest enemies. I thought at first that even Sumner's friendship need not have been lost. GRANT AND SUMNER. 215 In the winter or spring of 1870, one of Grant's Cabinet said to him : " General, you can get St. Domingo and Sum ner's support if you will give him something for Ashley " ; but Grant refused bluntly and almost sternly. The Cabinet officer may have been right or wrong ; but I believe now that no concessions could long have retained Sumner as a friend. He wanted too much ; to control absolutely ; and the more that was yielded the more he claimed. Lincoln had the same trouble with him as Grant, but was more adroit. He avoided open ruptures by seeming to concede, by playing upon Sum ner's vanity, by making him believe that he suggested measures which the Administration had already deter mined on. Fish finally became assured that the St. Domingo treaty could not pass the Senate ; a private count was taken, and it was ascertained that the requisite two-thirds could not be obtained in its favor, though more than a majority would vote for it. When this was certain Fish became anxious to settle the question definitely, and begged Sumner, who as Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs could control the situation, to bring up the treaty and reject it, so as to have done with the matter ; but Sumner was determined to make the Government withdraw the treaty, a peculiar humiliation to which Grant refused to submit. Late in the spring of 1870, Fish went to Sumner's house. It was night, and the Secretary was returning from a dinner ; he was ushered into Sumner's library and found him in tears. The domestic relations of the Senator, the world knows, were very unhappy, and he was depressed and probably con templating them. He was not rich, and confessed that the state of his affairs also troubled him. Fish remembered their old time friendship and sought to console him. He said: "Reject this treaty, Sumner, and let the Senate adjourn; then go abroad for the summer ; get away from your cares and think of something else." Sumner was at this time 2i6 GRANT IN PEACE. preparing an edition of his speeches or some simflar work, and Fish urged him to apply himself to this as a distrac tion. But Sumner said he could not afford to go abroad, and Fish in the effusion of the moment, and knowing that Motley was to be recalled, exclaimed : " How would you like to be Minister to England } " The moment he heard his own words, he recognized his mistake. He perceived that the offer might be misconstrued, and regretted what he had said. But Sumner simply replied : " No, I cannot disturb Motley," and Fish eagerly acquiesced; "No, I see," he said, "you are right, you could not supplant Motley." Not another word passed between them on the subject, yet this has been called an attempt to bribe Mr. Sumner into the support of the St. Domingo treaty by the offer of the English mission. In this very interview Fish had already urged Sumner to bring up the treaty and rej ect it ; for the Administration had fully made up its mind that the measure was lost. Twice before this Grant had told Fish that he meant to remove Motley; once when Motley's report of his first inter view with Lord Clarendon arrived ; next when it was discov ered that Motley had submitted his account of the interview to the Foreign Office in London, and thus made it a part of the British archives ; but on each occasion Fish had inter posed to save the envoy. I have already stated in a previous chapter that in May when I was leaving Washington, the President told me he had certainly determined to remove Mr. Motley. On the 30th of June, the St. Domingo treaty was rejected, and on the i st of July Motley was requested to resign. The determination was executed then which had long before been arrived at; but I have no doubt whatever that the decision of the Senate accelerated the action of the President. The axe had been hanging, but now Grant let it fall. It was on the night of July ist that General Grant desired Mr. Fish to request the resignation of Motley; but the President sup- GRANT AND SUMNER. 217 posed that the Secretary would telegraph, and a week or two later when he discovered that Fish had merely written, he requested him to telegraph ; and the Secretary of State of course complied. For some months all personal relations between Sumner and Grant had ceased. Sumner had used language highly disrespectful and injurious to the President ; not only attack ing his acts but impeaching his motives, and making himself personally as well as politically offensive, and Grant was not . the man to endure this without resenting it. He did not measure his own language in commenting on that of the Senator. Nevertheless, Mr. Fish had continued his inter course with Sumner, though it was of course constrained ; for Sumner criticised the Secretary with a contemptuous sort of condescension, saying that Fish meant well, but was used by others. Fish was aware of the language, but it was so important to preserve a sort of concord in their official rela tions that he overlooked what otherwise he might have con sidered unpardonable. He was in the Senate Chamber shortly after the nomination of Motley's successor was sent in, and went up as usual to Sumner's desk ; Sumner almost provoked a rupture then, but finally thought better of it ; and things went on for awhile as before in spite of the Motley imbroglio. When the Senate re-assembled in December the new com mittees were formed ; but though the treaty of St. Domingo had been rejected in July, principally through Sumner's efforts, no attempt was made by the Administration to pro cure the deposition of Sumner from his place as Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs. If the Government had wished to avenge itself in that way for Sumner's opposition to the treaty, now was the time, for his imperious behavior had made him many enemies as well as rivals in the Senate, but not a step was taken, not a word uttered by the President or one of his Cabinet in that direction. Motley was finaUy '2 1 8 GRANT IN PEACE. and peremptorily removed in December, and in January the Senate called for the entire correspondence on the subject In this correspondence Motley had, with very bad taste, referred to the rumor that he had been removed because of Sumner's opposition to the St. Domingo scheme, and Fish replied with some severe strictures, which, however, in no way reflected on Sumner. The Senator, nevertheless, at once resented them for his friend ; he refused at a dinner at General Schenck's house to speak to Mr. Fish, and after ward announced in the Senate that he had " cut the Secretary of State." At that very time negotiations for the Treaty of Wash ington had begun. Sir John Rose had been sent out from England to prepare the way for the Joint High Commission that followed. Mr. Fish, a night or two before, in spite of all that had occurred, had visited Sumner and consulted him in regard to the Treaty, which of course must go to the Senate for confirmation. Sumner had, however, stipulated for some provisions that would have put a stop to all nego tiations whatever with England. He sent Fish a written memorandum in which he declared that " the withdrawal of the British flag from this hemisphere — including the prov inces and islands" — must be a "condition preliminary " to any settlement. This preposterous proposition was of course never entertained for a moment by the Administration, for no statesman on either side of the Atlantic could conceive of its acceptance by England. Before Mr. Fish could reply to the note, however, the dinner occurred at which Sumner declined the acquaintance of the Secretary. Sir John Rose was present at the dinner, which, as I have said, was given by General Schenck, then recently appointed Minister to England ; so that in the midst of the negotiation on so grave a question, on which he was himself officially to act, Sumner refused to associate with the principal representative and spokesman of his own Government. GRANT AND SUMNER. 210 The conferences with Rose, however, continued, and he at last returned to England, the bearer of information which resulted in the dispatch of three Commissioners from the British Government who negotiated with our own representa tives the Treaty of Washington. The British Commission ers arrived in this country in the last days of February; the new Senate assembled on the 4th of March, and then the Administration, with whom it was evident that Mr. Sumner could not or would not work, exerted itself to procure the selection of another Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs. Sumner would speak neither to the President nor to the Secretary of State, and it was impossible to carry on public business without such communication between these high officials. Neither the President nor the Secretary would resign, and Sumner was less powerful than they. He was deposed. Not only his manner but his doctrines contributed to his downfall. It was impossible to negotiate or even prepare a Treaty with the stipulations which he had declared indispens able. It was absurd to suggest or suppose that England would think of withdrawing her flag from this continent; the bare mention of such a proposition would have been an insult ; and the idea was as Quixotic and unstatesmanlike as ever entered the brain of a sane politician ; it alone demon strated the unfitness of its author for the conduct of foreign affairs. Sumner felt the blow that was dealt hira almost as keenly as the strokes of Brooks ; both were delivered in the Senate Chamber. Following on the heels of his domestic troubles this later misfortune affected, not only his feeling, but his judgment and his political consistency. When the next elec tions came on he joined hands with those who had been, not only his enemies, but those of his country, in order if possible to overthrow Grant. This completed his political destruc tion. He was censured by a vote of the Massachusetts 220 GRANT IN PEACE. Legislature, and though the censure was revoked he never regained his influence. His health and spirits soon gave way. He was deposed in the Senate in 1872. The same year Grant was re-elected by a triumphant majority. Sumner lingered a year or two in physical and mental suffering and in 1874 he died. The physicians called the disease angina pectoris ; it was rightly named, the anguish of a disappointed heart. CHAPTER XXV. GRANT AND GLADSTONE. GRANT and Gladstone achieved each his highest eleva tion at about the same time. The British Premier went into office in December, 1868, the American President in March, 1869. The elections which gave them place occurred within a few weeks of each other. There was even a further parallel. Gladstone had grown into the position of a Liberal by successive conversions, while Grant, from a man without pronounced political preferences, had gradually become a decided Republican. The new Government in England looked to the new people in America as likely to become allies. Sumner was known personally to the promi nent members of the Liberal party, and Motley from his Uterary reputation was welcome to the cultivated classes. There was, it is true, a shade of distrust because of Sumner's speech delivered only a month before Motley's appointment ; still the reception of the new Minister was more than friendly ; there seemed a feeling that now was the time to begin a new era and cultivate a sincerer amity. I remem ber in my own conversations with Forster, Lord Halifax, and other prominent Liberals, a very decided effort on their part to prove that the action of the British Government during the war had not been so hostile as Americans sup posed. They especially claimed that the recognition of belligerency had not the significance attached to it on this side of the ocean. Doubtless their eagerness was partly because they knew the stress Motley had laid upon the (221) 222 GRANT IN PEACE. recognition in his communications with Lord Clarendon — a stress in which, as I have already shown, he exceeded his instructions. The speedy interruption of negotiations after Motley's insubordination became known was doubtless remarked by the British Cabinet, and in the autumn, when I returned to Washington, I received a letter from Lord Halifax, so full of significance that I laid it before the President and Mr. Fish. It was followed by others all breathing the kindest spirit on the part of the English authorities. My answers were sub mitted to the President, and when I returned to England the next year I told Lord Halifax that I had shown his let ters to General Grant. He admitted having written them with the hope that they would be seen by the 'President and his Government. About this time also I wrote an article on " Our Relations with England," which appeared simultaneously in Harpers' Magazine in New York and McMillan's in London. This paper, bearing the signature of an officer at the Executive Mansion who had so recently served in the American Legation at London, was recognized as sanctioned by the Administration. It was of course read in advance by both the President and the Secretary of State, and was intended to indicate the good feeling of Grant's Government and its desire for amicable relations with England. It had now become very desirable that this feeling should be generally known, both because of the rejection of the Clarendon-Johnson treaty in April, and the effect of Mr. Sumner's speech demanding consequential damages ; as well as because of what only those in interior circles knew, the purport of Motley's first communication to the British Foreign Office. It was also important to neutralize the out givings in society, for word had been brought from several sources to the State Department that the tone of the Minis ter's conversations was at variance with his instructions. GRANT AND GLADSTONE. 223 In the first months of Grant's Administration Sir John Rose, then the Canadian Premier, was in Washington acting as commissioner under a previous treaty to settle certain dis puted points between the United States and Canada ; and in this international character he often met the Secretary of State. Fish from the first had conceived the idea of an arrangement between the two countries almost identical with that which in the end was arrived at. On this account, per haps, he was all the more dissatisfied with Motley's course, though he bore with him untfl it became indispensable to appoint a successor. In conversation with Rose, who was a shrewd, long headed man, the idea was thrown out that an accommodation between the two countries was practicable. Fish said that England had on two occasions shown great tact, and even wisdom, in sending special envoys to negotiate with the United States ; that the Americans had been pleased with the compliment and especially gratified by the selection of Lord Ashburton and Lord Elgin as plenipotentiaries. Not, he said, that Americans thought more of lords than of other men, but they knew that the English did, and that therefore it was a compliment for the English Government to send a peer to Washington. Rose took the idea at once ; and then Fish developed the points on which he thought the two Administrations might agree. He said he was sure that an expression of regret on the part of England for the escape of the Alabama would be indispensable. He was the last man, he declared, who would consent to the humfliation of his own country, and the last to ask of another statesman what he would himself refuse under similar circumstances ; but this he thought England might fairly concede, and the weight of the concession in the subsequent discussions would be enormous. He also suggested arbitration, and indicated the line on which he thought negotiations might proceed. Rose left for England shortly afterward and soon returned armed with 224 GRANT IN PEACE. authority to discuss more definitely the informal propositions he had conveyed. He was in America in the autumn and early winter of 1870 for this purpose. At first negotiations went on without the apparent inter vention of Thornton, the accredited British Minister. Rose, it is true, communicated to the Minister all that occurred ; but the preliminaries were purposely contrived so that the Govern ments should not be compromised if the matter fell through. Nothing would necessarily appear on the records of the Lega tion. But when all was arranged, and Rose's course had been approved by telegraph from London, Thornton went to the State Department officially. The four letters stipulating for a Joint High Commission, which were afterward published with the treaty, were drawn up and signed by him and Fish. They were dated so as to give the appearance of the compact having been made in the usual way, between the envoy and the State Department, but the arrangements made were in reality those of Fish and Rose. It was at this time that Fish consulted Sumner, and the Senator laid down the impossible but indispensable stipula tion that England should withdraw her flag from this conti nent as a preliminary to any further negotiation. Needless to say no such proviso appeared in the compact or was ever proposed to any British representative. Rose returned to England, and immediately afterward Lord de Grey, Sir Stafford Northcote, and Professor Mounta- gue Bernard, of Oxford University, together with Sir John MacDonald, at that time Canadian Premier, and Sir Edward Thornton were appointed commissioners on the part of Great Britain to settle all outstanding difficulties with the United States. Fish had suggested that Rose should be one of the commissioners, but Rose thought he could do better service in London. It was also at one time proposed that John Bright should join the British representation, but to this Fish objected, because he said Bright was so committed to the GRANT AND GLADSTONE. 225 American view that his action would have less weight in England. Lord de Grey, afterwards Lord Ripon, was a member of Gladstone's cabinet, and Northcote, afterward Lord Iddesleigh, belonged to the opposition. The American commissioners were the Secretary of State, General Schenck, the newly appointed Minister to England, Judge Nelson of the Supreme Court (a Democrat), ex-Attorney-General Hoar, and the actual law officer of the Government, Attorney- General Wflliams. It was at this juncture that the Adminis tration requested its friends in the Senate to select another chairman for the Committee on Foreign Affairs, as Sumner's impracticable doctrines, as well as his refusal to speak to either the President or the Secretary of State made the treaty an impossibflity if he remained in the place. Sumner was removed, and the negotiations proceeded successfully. In less than two months the British commissioners returned to London, carrying the treaty with them. I had been sent to Spain by the State Department during this winter, and it was while I was absent from London that the British Commissioners started for America. After Mot ley's removal there was no American Minister in London untfl Schenck should arrive, but the Secretary of Legation, Mr. Moran, was acting Charg6 d' Affaires. My own position was that of Consul-General, entirely without diplomatic func tions, and without any right to know the secrets of the Lega tion. Moran, therefore, though my personal friend, very prop erly did not communicate to me what was going on ; but as soon as I returned from Spain Lord Halifax called on me and told me of the negotiations. He asked me to his country house and afterward made a dinner in town that I might have an opportunity of meeting Mr. Gladstone. The Prime Minister then communicated to me his views on several of the points at issue. He particularly desired to indicate his anxiety for the success of the negotiations and his intention to do all in his power to further this end. He talked at 226 GRANT IN PEACE. length and confidentially, and with the expectation that I would make known his opinions to the President. Of course I wrote them out that night and forwarded them to Washing ton. Forster and Halifax also communicated to me very fully their views, all of which I duly transmitted either to the President or the Secretary of State, or sometimes to the Assistant Secretary, Bancroft Davis, with whom, as well as with his two superiors, I was in close and constant correspondence. If nothing more, the messages I sent served to show how anxious Gladstone and his colleagues were to arrive at a happy understanding with America. The treaty was promptly ratified by the Senate. Its stip ulations provided that the principal points at issue should be submitted to a Tribunal of Arbitration composed of five members of different nationalities, to sit at Geneva. In De cember, 1 87 1, the Tribunal met, and the parties to the dispute put in their statements. Bancroft Davis was the agent of the United States. William M. Evarts, Caleb Gushing, and Morrison R. Waite were counsel on the American side. In the American " case " the question of consequential damages was proposed. The claims were not elaborately maintained, but the inquiry was made whether they could not be considered. At first their presentation met no disapproval in England. The claims themselves were scouted, and Sum ner's original advocacy of them in the Senate had almost cost him the acquaintance of his warmest English friends ; but it was supposed that they would be thrown out as a matter of course, and for nearly two months after the presentation of the "case" the English people and Government offered no objection to the consideration of the claims. But after a while the Opposition party discovered that a weapon might be made of them against the Government, and the Tories set themselves dfligently to work to injure the Administration by representing that it had yielded to outrageous Yankee inso lence and "bluff." The press took up the cry and the whole GRANT AND GLADSTONE. 227 English nation soon fell into one of the most absurd and hysterical fits of passion that sober John Bull ever suffered from. The Liberals became frightened at the hubbub, and when Parliament met the Government felt that its fate was trembling. The press proclaimed that arbitration must not go on unless the claims were withdrawn, and such a storm was raised that the Government almost yielded. It was " On to Richmond " over again. But there were two parties to the question. The Ameri can Government held that the English had agreed to submit all the points at issue to the arbitrators. There was a solemn treaty which had been ratified and confirmed by the contend ing parties. If the English should now withdraw from the arbitration, America would hold that they had violated the treaty, and war might be the consequence. The greatest anxiety prevailed among those who knew how imminent the danger was. I was stiU in London and on intimate terms with the Minister, General Schenck, and I suppose as much in his confidence as it was proper I should be. How hard he worked to avert a war, how fertile he was in invention, how faithful to his country's interest, how dignified yet courteous in his attitude toward England, how anxious to discover some means of avoiding a rupture, nobody living knows better than I. No finer diplomatic services were ever rendered the United States ; not even those of Adams during the Rebellion were more arduous or indispensable. A single false step, a maladroit expression, an ill-tempered or insufficient act, might have precipitated war. For the feeling in England ran very high. At times it was positively offensive to Americans, especially official ones. More than once at clubs and dinners I had to resent remarks that no good American could listen to in silence, and yet I, too, in my sphere was bound to be courteous and reserved. But we had our friends. The members of the Government were as loyal as they dared to be ; they were driven to bay 228 GRANT IN PEACE. by their enemies, charged with deserting their own country, but they did not give up ; they desired as earnestly as the Americans to avoid a war, and were undoubtedly anxious to fulfill the stipulations of the treaty. Mr. D'Israeli, to his credit be it said, did not one thing, uttered not one word to distress or embarrass the Government or to precipitate a rup ture. He passed no harsh strictures on America just as he had refrained during the Rebellion itself from injurious or offensive utterances ; in this more self-contained and politic than his great rival. In the Government, if one may say so, Lady Waldegrave, whose husband, then Mr. Chichester Fortescue, had a seat in the Cabinet, carried herself manfully. She would not aban don hope when everybody else said hope was gone. She went about in society purposely to excite an influence favora ble to peace, and her cleverness was great as well as her social influence. I remember more than once her language at her Sunday afternoons in Carlton Gardens, where the ablest and most distinguished men in London used to congre gate ; how she insisted that a way out of the difficulty could and must be found; that England and America must not differ seriously. I doubt whether Americans except in Government circles knew how near we were to a tremendous conflict. The Government, of course, was greatly concerned, Grant and Fish especially so ; for their glory would be lessened by the failure of arbitration. They were incessant in their efforts and anxieties. The labor, however, fell particularly on the State Department, and the Secretary of State at this time performed a patriotic service even greater than when he pro posed and negotiated the treaty. He did not yield one iota of his country's dignity, and yet he skfllfuUy pfloted the ship of State among dangers such as it had not more than once incurred since America had been a nation. For surely there could be no greater evil to either country than for Eng- GRANT AND GLADSTONE. 229 land and America to go to war. The contest would have been bitterer and longer after, than during, the Rebellion. Perhaps with the South on our hands we could not have coped with England ; but with the South as our partners the conflict would have been one of the most stupendous that the world has seen. This danger was avoided with dignity and credit by the skill and sagacity of the State Department and its servants, and the steady support and judgment of the President. Arbitration went on. Some ingenious brain suggested that the arbitrators should decide without consulting England that the consequential claims were out of court, so that neither nation need recede frOm its contention ; this proposition was adopted, and the firebrand lighted by Sumner was quenched before it kindled one of the mightiest conflagrations of modem times. Then all proceeded peacefully. The arbitra tors awarded damages to America for what direct injuries the Alabama and her consorts had inflicted ; England had already expressed her regret ; a new proviso was inserted in the code of international law between England and America, and the two nations were friends. Years afterward when Grant visited England Gladstone was out of power and it fell to the Tories to entertain the ex- President. They did it with good taste and ungrudging cor diality ; but it was hard that the man who had made it possi ble for Grant to receive these honors in England should have no share in extending them. Everywhere the English people greeted Grant as the statesman who had initiated arbitration, as the warrior who preferred peace with England to war. Addresses teemed with plaudits on this account, and orators vied with each other in their enthusiastic comments; but Gladstone, who as much as Grant was entitled to the credit of arbitration, was in disfavor then ; his enemies invited him to none of the banquets to the American soldier, and I do not remember that the ex-President and the ex-Premier ever ' 230 GRANT IN PEACE. met except at the reception given to Grant at the house of the American Minister. There the crowd was so great that no especial conversation was possible, so that Grant never got a chance to see much of his great English compeer. Among Gladstone's highest claims to honor hereafter will be the fact that he avoided war with America by con senting to atone for a national wrong, while the glory of settling peacefully a tremendous difference with to us at least the most important of modern nations will be Grant's great est proof of statesmanship. For given all the honor they deserve to Fish and Schenck and Evarts and Bancroft Davis and Gushing and Waite — and no other Americans have earned equal credit in our day for any single act of civil life — stiU Grant was the head ; it was for him always to decide. If he had been backward or uncertain, if he had failed in judgment or nerve or sagacity or decision — the achievement would have been impossible. If there were no other measure of his Administration worthy of praise, this one makes it well for America that Grant was President GRANT MEETING GLADSTONE. CHAPTER XXVL GRANT AND FISH. FISH was the one member of the Cabinet who served during the entire eight years that Grant was President. He entered the Administration on the nth of March, 1869, and remained until March, 1877, even delaying a few days under Hayes. He had not been Grant's original choice for Secretary of State, but before Washburne's brief term was over, when Wilson declined to take the post, and it was dis covered that Stewart, of New York, was ineligible to the Treasury, the President appealed to Fish to help him out of his dilemma. From the day of his election, Grant wrote, he had deter mined to offer Fish the appointment of Minister to England, - but in the re-arrangement of his Cabinet, which was unavoid able, he invited the ex-Governor and Senator to accept the position of Secretary of State. Fish promptly declined the proposition. He had been requested to telegraph his answer and did so of course, but he also wrote, posting the letter with his own hands, because of its importance. On his return to his house he was met by a telegram announcing his nomina tion and confirmation as Secretary of State ; Grant had not waited for the refusal. The dispatch requested Fish not to reply, but to await the arrival of Colonel Babcock, who was bearer of a personal message from the President. Babcock arrived the same day with instructions to urge the acceptance of the post. Still Fish hesitated, or rather refused, until finafly Babcock communicated a confidential (231) 232 GRANT IN PEACE. message from the President which he had been ordered to reserve for a final effort. Upon the receipt of this Fish con sented to become a member of the Government. Grant at this crisis was more than glad to have Fish enter his Cabinet ; and no man had more permanent influ ence with him in all his public policy than the Secretary of State, but it is nevertheless true that when the offer was made Grant had by no means so high an appreciation of Fish's ability as he afterward acquired. He was not then familiar with the personal political history of his time ; and knew little of the career of civflians who had not held the highest national positions. Fish had been twelve years out of the public service, a longer period than Grant himself had been of importance. He selected Fish rather on account of his character and private position than because he knew him for a man of first-rate capacity. He confessed to me more than once that he had been surprised at the quality and calibre of Fish's ability; not only at his judgment and energy, but at his downwright power to deal with men and affairs. But when Grant's public career was over he looked upon Fish as the ablest of the men who had entered his Cabinet and as worthy to stand in the line with any of his predecessors in the State Department. There were certain traits which the two possessed in com mon — a natural plainness, almost a ruggedness of character, in Fish's case doubtless inherited from his Dutch ancestors and not entirely softened even by courtly associations or innate breeding; a stubbornness of disposition that was aggravated by opposition, and an unforgiving temperament when affronts became personal, for each resented insults not only quicker, but longer, than injuries. But besides and rnore than all, there was in each an unwillingness, if not an inabflity, to express in manner or words the warm regard that lay beneath an undemonstrative exterior ; this gave them, I doubt not, an undefined fellowship of feeling, and yet threw Gl^NT AND FISH. 233 a certain constraint about their intimacy. They knew and liked each other better, I believe, than either ever said to the other. But such natures understand and appreciate per haps as well as if they expressed more. Two grave questions, the English and the Cuban, were at once presented to the State Department. The story of the English imbroglio, the quarrel with Motley and Sumner, in which Fish fully sympathized with Grant, the Treaty of Washington, and the Arbitration at Geneva — all this I have attempted to record. The subject profoundly interested the Secretary of State, and all the adjustment was left to him. Grant approved of every step that was taken, though some times he required to be convinced ; but he was in accord with Fish at every critical moment. In the personal phases of the controversy the feelings of both became enlisted, and they were brought into closer relations because they received and repelled the same assaults. Grant had the soldier's feeling of camaraderie very strong for those who shared his dangers, and Fish was always sturdily loyal. Even when Grant determined on a course that Fish would not perhaps have advised, the Secretary stanchly supported his chief; not, of course, against his developed convictions, but more than once without any personal interest of his own. The Cuban danger, however. Fish fought from the begin ning. Rawlins was very anxious to take sides with the Cubans in their struggle for independence, and others in the Cabinet followed his lead. He looked to the eventual annex ation of Cuba by the United States and did everything in his power to precipitate steps that could not be reversed. He was even willing to risk the possibility of war with Spain, but Fisl thought we had too recently emerged from a contest at home to engage in another abroad. He was not averse to acquiring Cuba under other circumstances, as I shall show, but he did not want the island at the expense of war, espe- dally at this time. He therefore frowned upon all attempts 234 GRANT IN PEACE. to aid the insurgents. Grant at first leaned very strongly to the views of Rawlins, and there were many of the President's friends and advisers who concurred with the Secretary of War. At one time the issue was almost decided in favor of Rawlins, but the development of the English question gave Fish a powerful argument. He urged that with trouble on our hands with Spain, we could not possibly deal frankly and fearlessly with England ; that the claims against England were the result of our own war and should be settled definitely before we turned to the acquisition of further territory at the price that Cuba would at that time inevitably cost. This view was one that would be apt to affect Grant, and Fish thought that it convinced him, as it certainly did one or two of the Cabinet ; and just when the cogency of the argument was felt by the President, Rawlins died. His mantle as the friend of Cuba fell on no Elisha. The insurgents never found another friend so powerful or earnest ; the insurrection languished without the aid of America, and Spain remained firm in her seat on the unhappy island. The St. Domingo scheme shared the fate of the Cuban enterprise, although the former was accepted as an Adminis tration measure. There was a great outcry at the time that improper motives instigated the urgency of the President and his friends for the acquisition of St. Domingo. I fancy no one now believes that Grant was corrupt in his earnestness, and I have never known any proof that others were; but Cuban bonds were certainly distributed with a lavish hand among those who it was thought could aid the purpose of the Patriots. Men high in position and public estimation accepted these bonds and afterward advocated the recognition of Cuban independence. Even a foreign Minister was at one time the custodian and dispenser of four million dollars' worth of them, and the fact came to the knowledge of the Government. The Minis ter was summoned and informed that the Administration was GRANT AND FISH. 235 aware of his complicit}-, and that if the oonas remained in his keeping four and twenty hours his excellency would re ceive his passports. His excellency made haste within the appointed time to place the papers where they could never again be of use to the insurrectionary party ; and during the remainder of his mission he was careful not to dabble in the affairs of stranger nations, nor to foment as a foreign Minis ter troubles between other governments and that to which he was accredited. After the English question was disposed of Fish deter mined to leave the Cabinet. Grant's first term was approach ing a close; the President had been re-elected, and the Secre- tar)' felt that he could with honor withdraw from the cares of state, having achieved a great diplomatic success and relieved his chief from the anxieties that pressed so heavily when the subordinate accepted office. Grant was unwilling to part with his Secretary of State, but Fish persisted in his intention, and one day when they were alone together he handed the President his resignation in a closed letter. This was just before a Cabinet meeting, and Grant took the letter but said nothing. When the other members of the Cabinet entered, he asked each in turn for his budget, but omitted Fish, who according to etiquette should have been first addressed. Then the President said : " I have a letter from the Secretary of State. I suppose I know its contents, and I am very sorry to receive it." But he had a matter, he con tinued, upon which he desired to consult the other members of the Cabinet. Fish accepted this as his own dismissal, and took his leave, not expecting to enter the Cabinet chamber again as Secretary of State. But the next day he received a letter signed by every member of the Senate except three, urging him to remain in his position. This was the business which the President desired to discuss with his ministers ; and the dismissal, as Fish thought it at the time, was a 236 GRANT IN PEACE. waggish design on the part of Grant to surprise his friend. He was always fond of surprising those whom he liked by his favors or his acts of friendship, and the vein of humor that ran through his character was very perceptible in incidents like these. Fish remained in the Cabinet. In the year 1870 Mr. Paul Forbes, a man prominent in the business and social circles of his time, made known to the Government his intimacy with General Prim, then Premier of Spain. He also communicated certain intima tions that the Spanish potentate might not be averse to negotiate for the disposal of Cuba to the United States, if the terms could be made advantageous, and the Castilian pride should not be inopportunely aroused. There were some pourpaf lers on the subject, and it was finally determined to send Forbes to Madrid in such a way as not to commit the Government, but to sound the Premier further as to his views. General Sickles, the Minister to Spain, was informed of the plan, and was directed to assist in its execution, but to be careful that the relations of the two countries should not be compromised. The Spanish temper was known to be hot and suspicious as well as arrogant, and Prim must manage his part of the affair with consummate delicacy. Forbes started for Europe, but was unable to restrain his elation at being intrusted with so important a business. When he arrived at Paris he had the indiscretion to reveal his errand, and before he reached Madrid the story of the proposed sale of Cuba was noised abroad. This at first almost balked the enterprise. Prim was frightened for his hold on power ; he had not yet prepared the minds of his country men for the abandonment of the Faithful Isle. Still Sickles took up the negotiations and with great skill mended the broken threads; there seemed a fair prospect of success. The offer was absolutely made by Spain that the Cubans should be allowed to purchase Cuba, the United States to guarantee the purchase bonds, and the matter was under GRANT AND FISH. 237 consideration by the United States when Prim was assassin ated. I was repeatedly assured in Cuba that he had been shot because he contemplated the sale. Be that as it may, with his death the scheme fell through, and it has not since been revived. Cuba remains to-day the most miserably oppressed bit of soil on earth under what is called a civilized government. No further matter of equal importance in our foreign relations arose during Grant's Administration. Amid the disasters and calumnies that clustered around the last years of his second term. Fish remained stanch to his chief. He was opposed to Grant's standing for a third term immediately after a second, perhaps as much because he thought the Presi dent would be defeated if he appealed to the country then, as on account of any disapprobation of the principle. He cer tainly in 1880 supported the renomination of Grant ; but at the close of Grant's second Administration Fish recommended his retirement. During all the anxieties and doubts in regard to the election of a successor Fish was in the full confidence of his chief; and he was by Grant's side when he left the White House. From the Executive Mansion the ex-Presi dent and Mrs. Grant were driven to Fish's house, and re mained for several weeks his guests, as eight years before he and Mrs. Fish had been guests of General Grant, little dream ing then of the relations they were destined to assume. While Grant was engaged upon his memoirs he wrote some passages of a political character which seemed to me of so much consequence that I urged him to discuss them with his most important political friends, and he determined to read them to Fish, but for some reason this intention was not carried out. Months afterward, when Grant thought he was dying, and his family were gathered around him to receive his last words, he stammered : " I suppose I have not more than half an hour to live, and I wish to say that I want the political passages in my book submitted to 238 GRANT IN PEACE. Governor Fish to see if there is too much acrimony. He may correct them or strike them out altogether as he chooses." General Grant, however, revived after this and lived several months longer, during which he was able to resume his work, but in what he believed were his dying moments he gave this great proof of confidence and respect to his friend and counselor, his Secretary of State. CHAPTER XXVII. LIFE AT THE WHITE HOUSE. AFTER Grant became President he did not for some weeks occupy the Executive Mansion as a residence, but of course the official business was transacted there. His first official reception was one for the Diplomatic Corps. It was not very formal. I had called on the various chiefs of legation at his request and notified them that the President and Mrs. Grant would receive the members of the corps and their families on a certain afternoon. It was desirable that the new President should make their acquaintance, and this was the democratic substitute for what in Europe would have been a "court." I went in the President's open carriage, which was a conspicuous, light-colored vehicle, and when I visited the Haytien representative my arrival created a com motion. I suspect that preceding administrations had hardly accorded the same recognition to the fellows of the freed- men, and the dusky democrat had perhaps not long been used to considering himself an ambassador. At any rate, when I entered and made known my errand, the diplomatist rose and dusted my chair. Soulouque himself began life as a servant. Washburne, the Secretary of State for a week, had already given up his place to Fish, who had not lived in Washington for many years and was therefore unacquainted with the foreign representatives. As I knew them all, I was selected to introduce them to Mr. Fish, who then made the presentations to the President. They came, many of them, (239) 240 GRANT IN PEACE. in morning dress, and some I thought were rather too home spun in their attire. In fact, more than one member of the British Legation affected an indifference to etiquette in regard to the President and his family that was more democratic than even democrats approved. I remember Lady Thornton say. ing to me at a party at Mrs. Fish's, when Mrs. Grant was present: "How different all this would be in England! There nobody would dream of being seated while the Queen was standing." Yet "my lady" remained in her chair when the wife of the President entered the room, and a good many Americans rose. I doubt, however, if at that time Lady Thornton had ever been at court in London. I was assured in England that this wife of a diplomatist once declared she had met only two ladies in all America; whereupon a gen uine aristocrat exclaimed : " But Lady Thornton is hardly a judge — she has known so few at home." Her ladyship, you see, was born in the middle class. General Grant, however, as President, desired to be rec ognized as Head of the State ; he was always served first at his own table, and of course preceded everybody. He him self determined the precedence at his dinners, for he assumed as much as any foreign sovereign or any host at home the right to place his guests as he chose. He insisted always on making a distinction for personal reasons if he pleased; though he regarded public station and public services, he yet held that if he preferred to pay any one a compliment he was at liberty to do so. At a bridal dinner I have known him place the newly-married man on the right of Mrs. Grant, although the Secretary of State was present, while he him self took in the bride from among a company that included the wives of Senators and Cabinet ministers. So, too, he sometimes regulated the precedence of foreign ministers without regard to the Almanach de Gotha or the Congress of Vienna, but according to a certain code of his own. This, it is true, was before he had been abroad. Had there been a LIFE AT THE WHITE HOUSE. 241 third term after his European experiences I am inclined to think he would have deferred more to the diplomatic idea. But he had a feeling that as President it was for him to determine, and he acted even in etiquettes without fear or anxiety. He thought that he made the etiquette, and I don't see why a President has not this right as well as any poten tate of another sort. Up to his time Presidents bad never visited or dined out or gone to any private parties, but Grant declared at once that he did not intend to be caged because he was Chief Magistrate. He accepted the invitations of his Cabinet and of a few others, either especial friends or persons whom he wished to honor. Yet he refused to return the visit of the son of the Queen of England when Prince Arthur, as he was then called, the Duke of Connaught now, was in Wash ington. I was in America at the time and was anxious that Grant should make the visit. I proved to him that sover eigns abroad paid such compliments to members of royal houses; but he did not think the democratic Head of the State should recognize a royal boy of only nineteen in this way. The British Minister especially desired that the cere mony should be performed, but Grant persisted in his re fusal. He went, however, to a ball given in the Prince's honor, and he invited the youth to a dinner, on each occasion giving him Mrs. Grant for a partner, but he maintained that democratic dignity would not allow him to make a formal call. He seemed to think this would be a recognition of the royal principle which it was imperative on him to deny. I remember that afterward in England this same young man fafled to call on General Grant. 'Tis true he was not in London, but he was not a day's journey away, and having been so warmly received in America, the absence of the civility seemed significant. Lady Augusta Stanley, a warm personal friend of the Queen, corresponded with me while the Prince was in America, and, knowing that I was on duty 16 242 GRANT IN PEACE. at the White House, she asked me to do what I could to make the visit successful. After the Prince had left I wrote to her stating that he had made a good impression, and Lady Augusta replied expressing Her Majesty's gratification, so that I fancy the lack of the President's visit gave no umbrage. Still, it may be that Jesse Grant's experience at Windsor was the corollary of the Prince's visit unreturned. I remained at the White House during the first three months of Grant's Administration, after which I spent four months in England, and then I was on duty again at the Execu tive Mansion from October until May. After that I was there as a visitor on only a few occasions in 1875 ; so that my recollections of the life at the White House are mostly those of the first and second years of Grant's Presidency. I saw the first Cabinet in power and their families in position. Some of these, people of undoubted ability and character, yet long unfamiliar with the life of the great world, never ac quired that ease of manner which is so exquisite, whether the gfft of nature or the result of art ; but others were per sons early used to elegant associations and fitted to adorn as well as worthily occupy the positions they enjoyed. But Mrs. Grant was like the General, a good deal of an autocrat in a certain way. If she liked the suggestions made by such women as Mrs. Fish or Mrs. Robeson she accepted them, but she felt that she herself was responsible for the result, and en titled to decide the means ; and they of course deferred to her decisions. Whatever the etiquette or the custom, it either had the sanction of the President or of Mrs. Grant, or it was not introduced at all. I fancy indeed that most of the usages were those that had long prevailed, or else were the sugges tion of one of the heads of the establishment themselves. Those usages must have been generally acceptable, for the greater part of the people who had lived longest in Wash ington, and had been familiar with society there under many administrations, found themselves very much at home at the LIFE AT THE WHITE HOUSE. 243 White House during General Grant's official terms. A few with bitter memories stayed away and criticised; but that charming element — the old Washington famflies, made up for the most part of the survivors and relatives of military and naval and other official people of the past — all gathered around Mrs. Grant, and liked the geniality and simplicity of the General. Some of the political opponents, and I believe not a few strangers who came for a while to Washington and found no immediate access to the intimate circle and life at the White House, carped a little, or censured what they heard of but did not see; but the "good company" of Washington, — by far the best company in America, — made the White House its center while Grant was President and Mrs. Grant its mistress. The old army people found themselves with a com rade; the soldiers of the war and their families were always welcome, and when the children of the President grew up there were young people and their visitors to make the house gay. There was a brilliant wedding for "Nellie Grant," and the eldest child of Colonel Grant was bom in the Executive Mansion. For the home life went on under all the pressure of pub lic business and all the demands of public ceremony. I passed a few days at Long Branch in 1875, and saw much of my old chief in his family life. I found it nearly the same as before he was President. The step, indeed, was not so great for him as for others ; from the position of General-in-Chief, at that time the most important but one in the country, he merely passed to the President's chair. I think, too, that as he became used to his station some of the formality which at first I thought I observed wore away. I recollect dining with him more than once in Washington in 1875. His table was always laid so that half a dozen unexpected guests might be entertained, and one Sunday we lunched informally in the library, no one but himself and me. He had just finished writing the letter in which he declined a nomination for a 244 GRANT IN PEACE. third term. The paper had not been read as yet to any of his Cabinet, and Mrs. Grant did not know of his decision. He asked my opinion of the letter, and I told him that I thought it was a good one if he had determined to with draw from the contest, but I had supposed he would not so determine. The letter was sent to the press the same day without Mrs. Grant's knowledge, for the General was sure it would be disagreeable to her, and he wished his decision to be irrevocable before she learned it. Years afterward, when I told her I had heard that letter before it was sent, she re proached me, more than half in earnest, for not striving harder to prevent its issue. It was a simple domestic life that went on in the upper part of that historic house during those eight years. The business half of the mansion is connected closely with the famfly rooms. The Cabinet chamber is next the library, which in Grant's day was not used for official purposes, but more as a family parlor. Many informal discussions of important affairs have occurred in that library, and many scenes that would interest the world, if the survivors would tell what they know. The few bed-chambers were always occupied ; now and then a guest could be invited to sleep, but the demands of the family prevented as much hospitality of this sort as either the General or Mrs. Grant would have desired. Below, the State apartments were often used ; the East Room of course on grand occasions, and the Red parlor was open of an evening to many personal visitors. All the State dinners were given that custom requires, and sometimes the State dining-room was opened for a family party at Christmas or an entertainment to personal friends, while the ordinary dining-room was hardly ever without a guest of importance. For Grant liked to discuss informally with a Senator or Cabinet Minister or even with a political opponent the affairs in which he was peculiarly interested. Cigars always fol- LIFE AT THE WHITE HOUSE. 245 lowed dinner, and sometimes billiards or cards with a few intimates. Grant spent more than his income during his first Administration and saved very little in the last four years, when the salary was doubled. Mrs. Grant introduced at her receptions the custom that still prevails on these occasions of inviting women of distinc tion to assist the mistress of the White House — Senators' wives and the wives and daughters of Cabinet officers or personal friends. Before her time the President's wife re ceived without this graceful surrounding. Indeed, the White House had hardly been so popular in a long while as in the days when I knew it under the Grant regime. During the war Mrs. Lincoln saw few besides the political adherents of the Administration, and for various reasons " society," as it is called, was greatly interrupted. Under Mr. Johnson also the acerbities and acrimonies of politics prevented many from visiting the White House, and there was at that time no absolute mistress to preside ; Mrs. Johnson was never visible, and her daughters were not women with a taste for the duties of their position. When Mrs. Grant came to her place the dissensions of the war period were abating ; people of great military and naval and civil eminence with their families crowded around the new Administration, which became the nucleus of the most distinguished and delightful society that has been seen at the capital in at least a quarter of a century. The attractions of such a society have since induced many people of wealth to make Washington their home, some of whom have only wealth to offer as a claim to admis sion there. In the days I tell of nobody cared who was rich or who was poor. Power was so much more important than money; great fame, great deeds, so much more distinguished than fine houses or fine clothes, that society was " good " in the best sense of the word. What did a mere mfllionaire amount to in a company that included Sherman or Farragut or Seward or Sumner, a Chief Justice, a General of the Army, 246 GRANT IN PEACE. a Secretary of State or of the Treasury ? Some of the great est people had the humblest houses ; even diplomatists lived over cooks' shops and gave dinners to the Cabinet on china that they saw every night in the week at each other's tables. Women with names that wifl never die wore the plainest gowns, and breeding and wit and elegance went about on foot to parties that were finer in all the elements of real society than can be seen to-day in Washington or New York. The life at the White House under Grant had something to do with this. CHAPTER XXVIII. GRANT AND HAVES. GRANT and Hayes first met in 1865, at the time of the Grand Review in Washington, when Hayes was a Congressman-elect. During the next few years they were always on friendly terms, and after the nomination of Hayes for the Presidency Grant gave him a cordial support. Until the nominations were made, however, all Grant's influence had been thrown in favor of Conkling, and against Bristow and Blaine. He had declined to allow his name to go before the convention, but he naturally took a keen interest in the selection of the candidate who might succeed him. Conkling had been his especial advocate and defender in the Senate during the period when many fell away, while for Bristow he entertained an especial bitterness. He looked upon Bristow as a Cabinet Minister who had become not only the rival of his chief, but the instigator of all the fierce and personal attacks directed against himself during the concluding years of his Administration. I was out of the country and had no personal knowledge of the matter. I am far from declaring that Grant's feeling was justified by facts; I simply record the sentiment, which was one of the most intense he ever knew. But for Blaine at this time Grant had no animosity ; he opposed him because he was the competitor of Conkling. When, however, Hayes became the candidate by a com promise. Grant was loyal to his party and to the decision of its representatives. No one suspected him, and few accused him, of using his office illegitimately in behalf of Hayes ; but (247) 248 GRANT IN PEACE. he made his preference known, and urged his friends to sup port the new Republican standard-bearer. His action was fully appreciated ; Hayes, in his letter of acceptance, had pledged himself not to become a candidate for a second term, but afterwards feared that this might be regarded as a criti cism of Grant's course in accepting a renomination in 1872. He therefore wrote to Grant, and explained that he intended no reflection on the conduct of his predecessor, but that, by making a second term for himself impossible, he hoped to secure the support of other and expectant candidates, who would perceive that they also had their opportunities. When the first announcement of Tilden's election was made, a day or two after the vote. Grant, like a good citizen, was prepared to acquiesce in the defeat of his party, but the uncertainty as to the result which immediately arose made him, of course, anxious. He invited important persons of both parties to visit the disputed States, and to investigate and report the situation ; but their statements were so con flicting that he determined it would be improper for him to form a conclusion, much more to offer a judgment. The position he held during the crisis, which at times almost threatened civil war, was extremely delicate, and he resolved in no way to attempt to affect the result after the election had occurred and while the decision was yet contested. The election occurred on the 7th of November, and on the 1 8th he wrote to me at London: "I expect to be in Eng land early in July, when I shall hope to see you, if my suc cessor has not decapitated you before that. The question of successor is not yet fully determined, nor can it be until we get the official canvass of the States of Louisiana, South Carolina, and Florida." As the contest waxed furious he was approached on one side and threatened on the other, but could not be induced to swerve from the line he had marked out for himself. He held that he was in no way the judge of the elections, but he was determined to preserve the peace GRANT AND HAYES. 249 of the country, and watched every step and every indication of feeling. North and South, with the closest solicitude. Finally, Congress concluded to appoint the Electoral Commission and to abide by its decision, and then Grant felt that he had a definite duty to perform. He approved the appointment of the commission as the only means to avoid fierce strife, and in spite of the probability that its decision would be in favor of the Democratic candidate; but when, by a change in the composition of the Commission, the choice of a Republican became almost inevitable, he was equally inflexible in the determination that the decisisn should be enforced. In the dilemma into which the country was thrust Congress was the only authority that could determine any thing, and the President, Grant held, was the executive of the Congressional will. Accordingly, he made every prepa ration to carry out that will, whichever way it turned. Had Tflden been declared President by the Commission, Grant would assuredly have taken every step to inaugurate him which he afterward took to inaugurate Hayes.* As to the exact legality of the Commission I doubt if Grant ever expressed an opinion. He did not profess to be a law yer, and was certainly unversed in technicalities and abstruse reasonings ; but he felt now as he had felt about the consti tutionality of several executive acts during the war — that * I never met Mr. Tilden until he went abroad after the inauguration of Hayes. I was then Consul-General at London, and called on him as on a man under whom I might perhaps have served, or who, more probably, would have used his power to remove me. He received me cordially, and was evidently pleased at the mark of respect from a political opponent. He said that he rec ognized all of the American representatives abroad who had served under Grant. They had been appointed by a President ; but he visited none of the nominees of Hayes. He spoke with respect of General Grant and of his services, although he must have known that, after the result of the Electoral Commission was declared. Grant was determined to place Hayes in the Presidential chair. But he was probably equally certain that if the decision had been different Grant would just as certainly have done all in his power to install him. 250 GRANT IN PEACE. they were essential to the salvation of the country, and that the Constitution was devised to secure that end, not to sub vert it. He believed that there was no other practicable way of settling the question at issue in which both parties would acquiesce ; no other arbitrament but arms, and this he was de termined to avert. Therefore, when Congress laid down the law he executed it. I remember talking with Motley on the subject at the time in London. Like most of the disappointed or disaffected Republicans, Motley held that Tilden had been elected, but he said bitterly that made no difference, for Grant was in power, and he would certainly put Hayes into place. It was an unfair accusation, but not unnatural, I suppose, in one who thought he had himself suffered unjustly at Grant's hands; still, it showed a belief that Grant would execute his deter mination. The country at home had the same belief in his inflexibility, and felt that he would carry out whatever policy he might adopt. Thus after it was known that he had accepted the decision of the Commission both sides breathed freer: they knew that whatever happened there would be no war. All Americans abroad. Democrats as well as Republicans, ex pressed this confidence ; I often heard political opponents de clare they were glad that Grant was in power, for at least he would preserve peace ; and perhaps there were some who were not sorry to be restrained. It was no reproach to their courage to submit to what Grant was sure to enforce. His presence in the Presidential chair at this time doubtless did much, not only to allay the anxietyof the country, but to pro duce and preserve that peace which he and all patriots desired. He had, indeed, a few foolish friends, personal or political, who talked about his holding over, retaining the Presidency himself and ordering a new election, assuming a sort of dicta torship ; but Grant never for a moment contemplated any un constitutional step, and when the Commission decided that Hayes had been elected, he made ready at once to secure his GRANT AND HAYES. 251 inauguration. He conferred with his Cabinet and with Sher man, then General-in-Chief of the army. But there were no serious indications of resistance to the verdict of the court created by the representatives of the people, and no need arose for extensive military preparations. There was not more than the complement of a single regiment in Washing ton on the 4th of March. There were troops enough within reach to be summoned if required, but no show of preparation was made to invite or provoke disturbance. The 4th of March that year fell on a Sunday, and Mr. Hayes arrived at Washington only the Friday before. Grant telegraphed in advance and invited him to dinner on Satur day. The President-elect was requested to name any persons whom he would like to be asked to meet him ; he availed him self of the courtesy and mentioned about a dozen. General and Mrs. Grant selected the other guests, and the company numbered altogether about thirty. It was a critical moment in the history of the country, and the party that met on that 3d of March was not without a certain excitement of feeling, though none appeared on the surface. The election of Hayes was stfll denied by immense numbers of citizens. The Democratic leaders, with marked and elevated patriotism, had accepted the decision and recom mended acquiescence to their followers, but there was a sul- lenness abroad that made many feel uneasy. It was not so long since the country had emerged from civil war. Mr. Tflden had been publicly recommended to take the oath of office at New York, and thus raise the question of the legality of Hayes's inauguration at the Capital. This possibility was known, and to meet the contingency the Chief Justice of the United States was invited to the dinner at the White House. During the day Mr. Fish approached Mr. Hayes, by the desire of Grant, and reminded him that the public inauguration could not with propriety take place on a Sunday. But it was ex tremely important that no opportunity to dispute the legality 252 GRANT IN PEACE. of any of the proceedings should be allowed ; the Secretary of State, therefore, inquired whether Mr. Hayes would take the oath of office then (on Saturday), or on Sunday, the 4th of March. Mr. Hayes replied that he could not possibly be sworn in on a Sunday. Accordingly, in the evening, before dinner, the President-elect and the Chief Justice, and one or two others, went into the Red room, apart from the rest of the company, and on the 3d of March Hayes took the oath of office before the Chief Justice and was inaugurated President On the 5th of March he renewed the oath formally at the Capitol. Grant accompanied him thither and returned with him to the White House, where a large party lunched together, after which Grant made way for Hayes. Grant had done all that was proper in his position to assist in the election of Hayes, and very much indeed to facilitate his installation, and Hayes appreciated this course. A few days after the 4th of March, the new President invited Grant to say if there were any personal friends in office whom he would like to have retained. Grant named about half a dozen, among them his brother-in-law, Mr. Cramer, the Minister to Denmark. My own name as Consul-General at London was also mentioned. These requests Mr. Hayes religiously observed, though in my case, at least, great press ure was brought to induce him to break his pledge. My place was wanted by two Cabinet Ministers for their own friends, and was actually offered to Chester A. Arthur, then collector at New York, by Sherman, the Secretary of the Treasury. Arthur declined it, and I never heard that Sher man's offer was authorized by Hayes. Mr. Sherman, how ever, was under no obligation to me, nor indeed to Gen eral Grant, beyond that which every citizen of the country shared. The new Administration showed Grant all proper civihties during his stay abroad. Naval vessels were placed at his disposal in European and Asiatic waters, and diplomatic and GRANT AND HAYES. 253 consular officers were instructed by the State Department to pay him every honor in the countries to which they were were accredited. But the policy of Hayes's Government Grant always thought reflected on his own. An avowed and personal enemy of the ex-President was made Secretary of the Interior, while the Secretary of State and the Secretary of the Treasury were men for whom he had no personal preferences. He also disliked many of Hayes's inferior appointments, and never professed any admiration for his Administration. He was especially mortified at the appoint ment of Schurz as Secretary of the Interior ; but he was out of power, and the influence of an incoming Secretary was greater than all the authority of the ex-President. I suppose this feeling on Grant's part was not unnatural ; after having been so long the Head of the State he could hardly share the partialities or prejudices of an Administra tion which had its own aims and ambitions to foster, its own friends to appoint, its own loves and hates to gratify. It was Hayes's Administration, not Grant's; and Grant, who had more than a spice of human nature in his composition, liked it less than if it had consulted his wishes or views instead of its own. He felt, beside, whether justly or not I do not venture to decide, that his assistance having been indispensable to the instaUation of Hayes, he should have been more considered afterward. He thought that the reversal of much of his own policy was not only unwise but offensive, and he endured his share of the mortification that comes to every man who has filled high public place and descends to a position in which he has no longer honors or emoluments to dispense, and loses the obsequious homage which foflows only power. But he offered no more than an occasional criticism of Mr. Hayes or his Government, and never opposition, except to Schurz, his dislike for whom was doubtless returned in kind. Schurz was indeed one of the men for whom Grant 254 GRANT IN PEACE. conceived a violent hate, yet even Schurz called at Grant's house to inquire for him while the great soldier lay dying. Mr. Hayes also went to the house of his predecessor on a visit of sympathy at the same sad time, and he attended Grant's funeral CHAPTER XXIX. LEAVING THE WHITE HOUSE. THE close of Grant's Presidential career elicited a remark able comment from the great French statesman Thiers, who was at that time, though no longer President, perhaps the most important personage in France ; almost controlling parties in his own country and watching with an acute and intelligent interest the great political crisis on this side the seas. General Sickles was then residing in Paris and in the habit of meeting the ex-President frequently. To him Thiers declared that no country in Europe could have passed through the situation which agitated America without a seri ous disturbance of the state. He thought it possible that France or Germany or England might have weathered storms equal to those of our War of the Rebellion, and even have passed through the difficulties of the Reconstruction period, but he knew of no other country that could have withstood the dangers of a disputed election, when the parties were so nearly matched, and so soon after a civil war. Thiers did not hesitate to attribute much of the good fortune of the United States in this emergency to the wisdom and courage and moderation of Grant. I have indeed heard it doubted whether General Grant's course at this crisis had much to do with the result; but let any one suppose that the Head of the State had acted with indiscretion or indecision, had shown undue partiality, had instigated on one hand or aroused on the other the passions of either party, each only waiting to be started into a blaze ; (255) 256 GRANT IN PEACE. let it be supposed that Buchanan or Johnson had held the reins, or any one of half a dozen prominent men on either side — Sumner, or Wade, or Stanton, or Toombs — how easily the horrors of civil war might have been brought home — this time to the North. The quarrel then would have been, not between two different sections of the Republic, but between enemies in every city and street and household. It is quite as much by what he left undone in civil affairs, as by what he did, that Grant is to be judged. His singular power of restraint, backed by his acknowledged energy and force, was of enormous advantage to the country at times like those in which he performed the duties of the Executive. And although his Presidental career is often harshly criticised by some who admire his military abflity, though he was supported, and sometimes seemed to be surrounded, by many whose association conferred neither honor on himself nor benefit on the country : though there were acts in his Administration which he publicly admitted were blunders, history will be far from recording his political career as a failure. He took up the cares of state not only immediately after a convulsion that was one of the greatest in history, but after the situation had been complicated to the very verge of rev olution by the struggle between two coordinate branches of the Government ; after the disruption of a party, the impeach ment and trial of a President, the revival of much of the bitterness of the war. No task could be more difficult or delicate than his, at such a juncture, and it can at least be said that after eight years of power he handed over to his successor the Government of a country so far pacified and reconciled that even the awful shape of a disputed election had been appeased. The States were all restored to the Union, and Reconstruction, whatever its merits or demerits, was accomplished. That measure was not initiated by Grant, nor were all its provisions or results those which he would LEAVING THE WHITE HOUSE. 257 have recommended or desired, but Congress laid down the law and General Grant as President executed it. During the twelve years of his civil career, for in reality this began with Johnson's accession to power, he performed a task fully equal in importance to the country to whatever he achieved in war. A man with less sense and patriotism, or more ambition, might in his position, and with his immense popularity, have undone much that he had accomplished in the war. But Grant's self-abnegation was fully equal to Washington's at the close of the Revolution. It is true no crown was ever offered him, and the country would certainly have hurled him into insignificance or worse had he attempted to seize one ; but there were a thousand op portunities to increase his prerogative and confirm his power which he steadily refused. All who knew him closely at the times when temptation might have been strong with other men, will assuredly testffy that the thought of self-aggrandize ment was always furthest from his mind. He had, indeed, an apparent lack of ambition, and even of aspiration, that amount ed almost to indifference; a singular moderation running through his whole character, which some considered stolidity ; but which tempered what without it would have been harsher qualities, and produced all the results of wisdom, patience, judgment, and even far-sighted patriotism. He saw, even plainer than his political friends, the possibilities that told in his own favor and he put them away. Shortly after the close of the war I was present when Charles Sumner proposed to him that a painting should be placed at the Capitol to represent the surrender of Lee ; but Grant declared that he was unwilling that any commemora tion of the defeat and disaster of one section of the country should be perpetuated at the Capitol. Again, a few days be fore his first inauguration, Mr. Blaine, then Speaker of the House of Representatives, formally suggested that Congress should allow Grant a leave of absence from the army for four 17 258 GRANT IN PEACE. years, so that at the expiration of his Presidential term he could resume his place as General-in-Chief, with the rank and position created especially for him. But Grant said he could not sleep at night if he kept Sherman and Sheridan and all the other officers lower down out of the promotion which his retention of office would prohibit to each of them. He declared that they had won their promotion as rightfully as he had his own, and he gave up his rank and appointed Sher man the day after he was inaugurated. People have forgotten his popularity after the close of the war, but at that time almost anything that could have been proposed to honor him would have been approved, and it was his very unselfishness, his purity in public matters that after ward made his private misfortunes possible. But during the last years of his Presidency the reaction that comes so inevitably to the most fortunate of men almost overwhelmed him. Political friends became enemies, private and personal ones used their connection with him to advance themselves and their interests illegitimately ; and the public believed far worse things of him and of them than there was cause for. I was away from the country during all this period, but I know how keenly he felt the loss of his popu larity, of the change in the public feeling toward himself. After it was decided that he was not to become a candidate for a third term, he was extremely anxious to lay down his responsibilities and his duties, wearied of public life and pub lic cares. But then came the great trouble of the closing months of his Administration, the disputed election, carrying danger, anxiety, and the possibility of strife into the very last hours of his Presidency. Finally this was averted, and he was able to transfer his great office to a successor without difficulty or disturbance. He and Mrs. Grant retired with dignity from the place they had filled, and performed their last social duties at the Executive Mansion gracefully. I have already told that they LEAVING THE WHITE HOUSE. 259 gave a dinner to the President-elect on the 3d of March ; and whfle Grant attended to the grave political complications of the hour, and arranged for the private inauguration of his successor in advance of the public one, Mrs. Grant dispensed her parting hospitalities under these delicate and unwonted circumstances. She did not accompany her husband to the Capitol to see another man installed in the place which he had held; and it may not be improper to say just here, that as perhaps any wife in her situation would have been, Mrs. Grant was unwilling to have her husband retire ; she had desired him to become a candidate for another term, and the dignity with which she relinquished her own honors and place receives to my mind an added illustration when this senti ment is known. She prepared a suitable entertainment for the new occu pants of the Executive Mansion, on their return from the Capitol to take her place from her. She invited the members of General Grant's Cabinet and their families, her own especial associates during the years of her pre-eminence, as well as others whom she thought it would be agreeable to the new President to meet. She directed the establishment to be put in complete order so that its future mistress might find all that was necessary even to supply her table for at least a day ; and having superintended the removal of the personal effects of her own family, the lady who had presided so long at the White House was ready to receive her successor and the new President when they arrived from the inauguration. Then Mrs. Grant took the arm of President Hayes, and considering herself still the hostess, as she actually was, she sat at the head of the table. Ex-President Grant of course took in Mrs. Hayes, and after the luncheon, which was an entertainment befitting the occasion. General and Mrs. Grant bade good-bye to the house where they had spent so many proud and happy hours. Several of the ladies of the Cabinet told me of this scene, and confessed that they themselves 26o GRANT IN PEACE. shed a few natural tears ; but Mrs. Grant kept up her spirit, and General Grant of course showed no more emotion than if he had been in the Wilderness. They drove in their own carriage to the house of Mr. Fish, where they remained nearly a month, the recipients of courtesies and invitations from the most distinguished mem bers of that society of which they had so long been at the head. People could not do enough to honor them. States men of all parties combined to show General Grant respect, and this was only the presage of the outbreak of admiration that swept over the land. Wherever the ex-President went he was the object of personal attention and popular demon strations; and when his countrymen learned that he was going abroad, that the man who had so long been pre-emi nent both in civil and military affairs was to leave them for a while, their enthusiasm became unbounded. Thousands can remember the scenes in Philadelphia at his departure; the dinners and banquets that succeeded each other for days; the illustrious party that accompanied him down the Dela ware ; the crowds of vessels of every character that escorted his own steamer for mfles — an ovation such as no American had ever before received. Now that he was out of politics the country seemed determined to show to itself and to the world that it could appreciate the man who had done so much, not only to save it, but afterward to secure that result which ' more than any other one man he had assisted to achieve. If deeds are taken into account General Grant will be recognized hereafter as a statesman as well as a warrior. History may be searched in vain for an instance of pacifica tion on so grand a scale and after so tremendous a convulsion — accomplished so completely and in so short a while as under Grant; and two other great achievements of his Administration can never be blotted out. The country was saved from the dishonor and misfortune which it is now universally admitted would have followed financial inflation — LEAVING THE WHITE HOUSE. 261 saved by Grant's courage in vetoing the measure against the advice of a majority of the most prominent of his political friends; and the United States came out of the long and at times dangerous diplomatic struggle with England with dignity and yet with peace assured, having won indemnity and apology from the foremost of modem nations. Results like these of a pohtical Administration will be remembered when the petty squabbles that once seemed so important have sunk into their natural oblivion. On the day that I met General Grant in England, not three months after his retirement from the Presidenc}', he told me of the revulsion in pubhc feeling at home in regard to himself. He spoke with a warmth and an evident satis faction most unusual in him, from which I learned how acutely he must have felt the storm of unpopularity through which he had passed. "WTiy, Badeau," he said, "it was just as it was immediately after the war." He expressed besides a feehng of great relief at the freedom from public cares for the first time in sixteen years. He was glad, he declared, to be rid of the responsibilities and anxieties of office, to escape from the importunities and criticisms that are the shadow of prerogative. He soon forgot any provocations he thought he had received from a few in the recoUection of the love and regard with which the people had welcomed him again to their more immediate feUowship. Ha had always hated the trammels of high position, and now enjoyed the freedom from restraint which a private life secures ; and he looked forward with the eagerness of a boy to the pleasures of foreign travel and fresh experience. general grant to general badeau. Executive Mansion, > Washington, Nov. 19, 187 1. ) Dear Badeau, — As I have before assured you your letters are received and read with great pleasure, though I may not find- 262 GRANT IN PEACE. time to answer many of them. The information asked for by you from the War Department Porter undertook to get, and has obtained so far as the clerks in the Department could work it out. But it does not satisfy Porter, and he now intends to go to the Department himself and work it up. This accounts for the delay. I have not yet written a line in my message. Will commence to-morrow, and hope to make it short. Everything in the country looks politically wefl at present. The most serious apprehension is from the awards that may be made by the Commissioners at Geneva and in Washington. Should they be largely in favor of the English it would at least cause much disappointment. In speaking of political matters, I do not of course aflude to my own chances. It will be a happy day for me when I am out of political life. But I do feel a deep interest in the Repubhcan party keep ing control of office until the results of the war are acquiesced in by all political parties. When that is accomplished we can afford to quarrel about minor matters. My family are all well and send you their kindest regards. Fred sailed for Europe on Friday last. He will be in England about May next and will stay there, I hope, long enough to do up the island pretty well. Yours trifly, U. S. Grant. CHAPTER XXX. GRANT IN ENGLAND. WHEN General Grant determined to visit England after the close of his Presidency, I asked him to make my house his home as long as he remained in London. But he thought his party would be too large, and, as he expected to pass the summer in London, the risit might be too long. He promised, however, to stay with me ff I would allow him to share the expense. He said we had messed together in the field, and there was no reason why we should not do it again. I was only too glad to have him with me on any terms, and told him he should decide. Circumstances afterward changed this arrangement. He passed only three weeks under my roof, and for this period he consented to become my guest, for he knew the great pleasure it would give me ; but he left America intending to go direct to my house, and to mess with me. Before he arrived at Queenstown, Mr. Pierrepont, the American Minister, who had also been Grant's Attorney- General, determined to ask the ex-President to stay with him. This would be so advantageous from a public point of view that I could offer no opposition. I met General Grant at Liverpool, and he agreed with me that it was more appro priate for him first to visit the Minister. Accordingly, he divided his time between us. Mr. Pierrepont had taken every step in advance to secure for his former chief a fitting reception. He often said to me, that if he had any influence General Grant should not be (263) 264 GRANT IN PEACE. treated as the ex-Presidents were who had previously visited England. Mr. Fillmore and Mr. Van Buren had received little or no attention, because of the position they had held. They were both invited by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, but each was sent in to dinner without a lady and at the tafl of the procession. They were Mr. Fillmore and Mr Van Buren, and nothing more. Mr. Pierrepont said, that in a country where such matters are regarded as important, he was not willing that General Grant should suffer what might seem like an indignity. But at first the English were not inclined to make any dis tinction in favor of General Grant. They said : " Americans give their ex-Presidents no rank, why should we ? " When Pierrepont pointed out that ex-Kings received peculiar honors, he was told that they were born in the purple ; the ex-King of Hanover was the Queen's own cousin. They forgot that the ex-Emperor of the French, the veriest of pretenders and interlopers, was treated as an equal by Queen Victoria after his downfall ; yet he had not even served out his term, but was deposed by the people who, he claimed, had elected him. It was besides incorrect to say that no provision is made in America for honoring ex-Presidents. The regulations of the Navy prescribe that the same salute shall be given to an ex-President as to a President, and although no rules for pre cedence exist in the United States, except at Washington, there could be no occasion, public or private, when General Grant would not receive the first place, after the actual President. Mr. Pierrepont discussed these points with Lord Derby, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, who finally agreed in behalf of the British Government that General Grant should be received as an ex-sovereign ; he was to make the first visit to the members of the royal famfly, but every other EngHshman was to yield him precedence. There was, however, stfll a question of etiquette with the foreign representatives. The GRANT IN ENGLAND. 265 Government could give General Grant precedence over envoys, but the Ambassadors represented the persons of their sovereigns, and would not yield. "There would be a war," said the Foreign Minister. But even this difficulty was finally disposed of by diplomatic skifl. Lord Derby was to give a dinner at the Foreign Office on the night after General Grant arrived in London. It was the Queen's birthday, when there is always a dinner to the foreign representatives. Now if General Grant went to this dinner the great question of precedence would at once arise ; so Lord Derby determined not to invite General Grant on this occasion, but to ask him afterward and then leave out the Ambassadors. Mr. Pierre pont was obliged to go to the dinner, for he was an envoy, and to stay away would be a slight to the Queen ; but the Duke of Wellington asked General Grant for the same night, and had no Ambassadors. All this was arranged before General Grant arrived in London, and without his knowledge. Had he been consulted he would probably have said that he wished no question raised, but I am not ,sure that he was sorry afterward that the point was made. The precedent set in England was followed all over the world, and the success of his wonderful tour was certainly aided by the character of the reception he met from the important personages of England. The distinctive recog nition of his consequence as ex-President was due to the efforts of Mr. Pierrepont. Without those efforts General Grant would doubtless have met with the same enthusiastic welcome from the English people, and from other peoples afterward, but he might not have received the distinguished treatment from sovereigns that made his journey around the world unprecedented in history. Some republicans have thought there was too much consequence given to etiquette at the time, but the incidents that happened to Fiflmore and Van Buren show what might have occurred to Grant ; and some of the good feeling which at present exists between 266 GRANT IN PEACE. England and the United States 'might not have been aroused, had the representative American been slighted or officially ignored. The difficulty Mr. Pierrepont had in arranging the matter shows that such an event was not impossible. But the English Government was as good as its word. Grant had precedence of all Englishmen at every house in England but one, and that house was not the Queen's. Lord Beaconsfield, the Prime Minister, set the example. He invited Grant to dinner before the General had called on him, and attended the party made by the American Minister in Grant's honor. This party was also attended by the foreign Ambassa dors, who conceded so much as this, but insisted that their presence should be considered a visit, which was to be punctfliously returned, and I went about with the poor Gen eral half the next day leaving cards. When Mr. Pierrepont gave a dinner to the Prince of Wales for General Grant, the same question came up again ; for as Pierrepont was a Minister he could not invite the Prince of Wales without asking the Ambassadors, while they, if they wanted to, could not stay away. The matter was duly considered by the Lord Chamberlain and the envoy and the Ambassadors, and I am not sure that the Prince himself was not consulted, for he is a great authority on etiquette. Finally it was agreed that for this occasion General Grant might precede the Ambassadors ; and as there were only two ladies present the Prince took in Mrs. Pierrepont and Mr. Pierrepont took Mrs. Grant. The Ambassadors fol lowed, and there was no war. Mr. Pierrepont constantly gave up his place to General Grant, for this was necessary according to court rules. No American can properly precede the American Minister at the court to which he is accredited. Mr. Lowell did the same thing in Spain, and General Read in Greece, and others whenever the occasion arose ; for Pierrepont's difficulties were presented to other Ministers. GRANT IN ENGLAND. 267 The first dinner General Grant attended in London was at Apsley House, the residence of the Duke of Wellington. The son of the great English soldier said that it was proper for him to welcome the first of American soldiers. He descended to the door to receive General Grant, according to the etiquette maintained with royal personages, and escorted him in the same way on his departure ; but I can remember no other occasion when this ceremony was performed by Englishmen. At Lord Derby's dinner General Grant had precedence of the Prime Minister ; at Lord Houghton's he went in before several dukes ; and so on. The point was settled and no one questioned it afterward ; although in advance I more than once heard English men and women scout the idea that an ex-President could precede a duke. Every one, of course, was polite. The General was incessantly invited by the highest nobility, and during the three weeks that he stayed at my house three thousand cards were left for him. It came to such a pass that people could hardly afford not to cafl, lest it should be supposed they were not of sufficient consequence. I had a party myself for the General, and English people of rank who didn't know me went down on their knees to my friends, imploring invitations. This sounds preposterous ; nevertheless it is true. All this was very pleasant to those who were fond of the General, and agreeable to any Americans who regarded him as an especial representative ; he did not himself pretend to be indifferent ; but the aristocratic courtesies were insignifi cant compared with his reception by the common people of England. The high society has its sensation every season ; there is always a Czar, or a Shah, or some other potentate who is the lion of the hour ; and that year it was General Grant. For their own sakes the important people paid him compliments ; the Government for political reasons, the fashionable sort because they like to know and to say that they know all the great ones of the earth ; they are not like 268 GRANT IN PEACE. American exclusives, civil only to their own kind. A great democrat was to them even more of a curiosity than a king ; and their breeding compelled them to show such a stranger the courtesy it had been decided to accord. But the common people were not included in the diplo matic arrangements, and they took the matter into their own hands, without consulting the Lord Chamberlain. To them the coming of an ex-President was an event. It was the realization of what they had heard of but never seen — that a jilain man, without rank, or birth, or fortune, with only native ability and character to back him, could become one of the potentates of the earth. He was the incarnation of Repub licanism. He was Democracy itself in the house of Aristoc racy. Besides this, many of the working people had sympathized with the Union in its struggle for existence. They knew that the high society was almost universally on the side of the South, not because it loved the South any better than it did the North, nor in fact as well, but it wanted the Republic destroyed because the Republic was a reproach to aristocracy ; for the same reason the workingmen wanted the Republic saved. They knew that Grant had led the Union armies, and they greeted him as the champion of the cause in which they too were interested. All this is not the partial fancy of a friend, nor the rhapsody of a republican ; it was said again and again in my hearing, in public speech and private conver sation, and repeated in scores of the provincial newspapers. General Grant was met when he touched English sofl by the Mayor of Liverpool. Now a Mayor in England is not an aristocrat ; he is usually a tradesman, probably a success ful one, but still not of the upper class. The prosperous part of the population of Liverpool is not aristocratic ; it is con nected with trade. But the ovation General Grant at once received in that city was prodigious. He was taken to the Custom House, and ten thousand respectable citizens crowded GRANT IN ENGLAND. 26q into the hall to give him the first promise of what was to follow all over the land. The next day the scene was repeated ; and so it went on. At Manchester he was the guest of the city and lodged in the Town Hall, which had never been occupied by State guests before. Banquets and processions were made for him, orations delivered ; he was taken to the places of public interest — always by people of the great middle class. Not a lord appeared until he reached London. WTien he entered a theatre the orchestra played "Hafl Columbia," and the actors stopped the performance while the audience rose as they would for a sovereign. He had the same sort of reception in every one of the great towns of England. In each place he was the guest of the civic authorities, who, in every one of the large cities, are men of the middle class. In this way he saw more of that great class which constitutes so much of the strength, and owns so much of the wealth, and makes so much of the great ness of England ; for lawyers, merchants, manufacturers, edi tors, artists, literary men, — all that we are in the habit of regarding as constituting the best elements of society — in England belong to the middle class. The cities are filled with a mercantile or manufacturing population, and the aris tocracy never live in any city except London. If a person resides in a city in England, you may almost know that he is not an aristocrat. But it was not only the leaders of the middle class, the wealthy merchants and great manufacturers, the liberal writ ers and thinkers, who delighted to do General Grant honor, it was those who, in that country, are lower still in the social scale, — the working class. At places like Sheffield, and Sunderland, and Birmingham, and Manchester, and Newcas tle, the popular demonstration equaled any in America imme diately after the war. Towns were illuminated because of his presence, triumphal arches were erected in his honor, holidays were proclaimed when he arrived, hundreds of thousands 270 GRANT IN PEACE. turned out to meet him, the banks of the Tyne were covered with working people for twenty miles. The horses were taken from his carriage more than once, and the crowds gath ered around to shake his hand, just as if he had led their armies or fought for their cause. They felt, indeed, that the cause was the same, that he was a leader in the same battle in which they have stifl their fight to make. Then, too, here was a ruler of a great people, and they could shake his hand ! Here was a President who was not inaccessible. It was Democracy in the flesh. No wonder the poor who had lived under lords and sovereigns for centuries felt that, whereas they had been blind, now they saw. While General Grant stayed at my house, I remember two visits that were paid him, peculiar in character. One was from the Comte de Paris, who wrote to me in advance to ask when it would be agreeable to General Grant to receive him. The services of the Orleans Prince in our armies were, of course, known to General Grant, but the two had never met in America. Grant's star had not risen very high when the Comte de Paris was on McClellan's staff, and when Gen eral Grant was brought East to command the armies, the descendant of St. Louis had returned to Europe. Of course, the visit was a compliment, and General Grant was gratified. He conversed pleasantly with the Prince and performed the proper etiquettes. But afterward, on the same day, he received a deputation of English workingmen, and, though he had all respect for the gallant gentleman who had offered his sword in our behalf, and perhaps a shade of personal pity for a discrowned Prince, his livelier interest was excited by the British mechanics and artisans who came to offer their less elegant greeting. There were forty of them, each representing a different trade, and they presented a formal address, assuring him of their deep regard for the welfare and progress of America, where British workmen had always found a welcome. Grant's reply showed •FJ?" ^?i» GRANT IN ENGLAND. 27 1 that his republican sentiments had not been disturbed by the aristocratic grandeur and ceremony that had surrounded him in London. "Since my arrival on British sofl," he said, "I have re ceived great attentions, which were intended, I am sure, for my country. I have had orations, hand-shakings, and pre sentations from different classes, from the Government, from the controlling authorities of cities, and have been received in the cities by the populace, but there has been no reception which I am prouder of than that of to-day." General Grant left England with a profounder impression of the people than of the statesmen or the aristocracy. And well might that be ; for many have been received as cordially as he by the upper classes ; but I doubt if any foreigner ever awoke such enthusiasm throughout the land among the com mon EngUsh people as Grant. CHAPTER XXXI. GRANT AND THE PRINCE OF WALES. GENERAL GRANT arrived in London at the time of the Epsom races, and the Prince of Wales at once offered him a car in his train for the " Oaks," the second of the great events of the week; the "Derby" had already been run. The invitation was accepted, and the General and the Minister and one or two others went down in the Prince's train. A special box had been provided, and after the General's arrival it was proposed that he should be pre sented to the Prince of Wales. But the Prince said that General Grant was too distinguished a man to be received in this informal manner; he would prefer that the first visit should be paid at Marlborough House. Nevertheless, the Prince came with several of his suite into General Grant's box and made his acquaintance there. Thus the first visit was in reality paid by the Prince of Wales. This was on Friday, and on Saturday General Grant made his formal visit at Marlborough House, according to appoint ment, and then wrote his name, as the etiquette is, in the books of the other members of the Royal Family. These visits were not returned ; the Duke of Cambridge alone left his card. A few days afterward General Grant attended a levee held by the Prince of Wales, at which he was treated with no more ceremony than many others. He was presented by the American Minister, and afterward stood in the diplo matic circle facing the Prince during the levee. This indi- (272) GRANT AND THE PRINCE OF WALES. 273 cated that he was not recognized as of rank approaching that of the Royal Family. He was a distinguished person age, but far below those magnificent beings, the Guelphs and Mecklenburg-Strelitzes and Tecks and other connections and cousins of the Queen, who were all placed in the same line with the Prince of Wales, and General Grant had to make his bow to each of them in turn. He did not suffer acutely from the distinction thus marked out between him self and royal clay; nevertheless this ceremony made it certain that the court ignored the arrangement that had been made by the Government. The Royal Family did not regard General Grant as an ex-sovereign, and refused to treat him as such ; he was nothing but an ex-President. It was amusing to observe the determination of the descendants of George I. and II. and III. to draw the line between themselves and democratic dignity. They did it as courteously and unoffensively as possible, but the line was there and never to be passed. Poor shows and shams! .Their etiquette is all that is left them in these days; if they yield that where would they be in the presence of the reafly great of the earth, of men of achievement and reputation and power, who have conquered armies and governed states? This whole matter of the levee was doubtless considered in advance. The courtiers insisted that General Grant should go to court, where the distinction they desired to make would become apparent. His popularity by this time was conspicuous, and to have an ex-President going about and receiving the attention due to a sovereign or a semi- sovereign was undesirable, perhaps dangerous. It showed the world that there was nothing in royalty after all. If one Head of a State is as good as another, what becomes of birth and rank and kings and crowns and all the antiquated frippery ? Beef-eaters and gentlemen-at-arms would be out of business. So the Lord Chamberlain and the Prime Min is 274 GRANT IN PEACE. ister assured the American envoy that it would be discourt eous in General Grant not to attend the levee. There was no other way in which he could pay his respects to the Queen, who was at Balmoral, and Her Majesty had already, they said, invited General Grant to a ball without waiting for him to be presented. They did not remind the Minister that this courtesy is often shown to persons of distinction far below the royal grade. The courtiers were cunning and said nothing in advance about the place General Grant was to take at the levee, and the Republican envoy, unversed in such devices, doubtless supposed that his great countryman would be invited to a place at the Royal side. So General Grant put on his uni form and stood like any lord or lordling in His Highness's presence till the levee was over. The Prince graciously gave his hand to the ex-President, as he did to dukes and ambassadors, and then the General fefl back into the posi tion assigned him. All of which is of no earthly con sequence except to illustrate royal snobbishness and the insolence of courts. But if George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and General Grant could all return to earth and attend a levee at the same time with the King of some cannibal island and his barbarous cousins, the royal savages would be ranged in a line with the Queen and the Prince of Wales, and the democrats would be expected to pass before them. The next occasion when royalty and democracy met was at the house of the Marquis of Hertford, the Lord High Chamberlain and the successor of Thackeray's Marquis of Steyne. His lordship was giving a dinner to the Princess Louise and the Marquis of Lome, and had asked a few friends to come in afterward and meet Her Royal Highness and her noble husband. General Grant was not invited to the dinner but was asked to the reception afterward. We arrived before dinner was over, and were not received. GRANT AND THE PRINCE OF WALES. 275 A royal guest could not be left by the Lord Chamberlain because an ex-President was in the drawing-room ; so Gen eral Grant waited till dinner was over, when Lord and Lady Hertford came out in attendance on Her Royal Highness. Then they welcomed their democratic guests and General Grant was presented to the Princess Louise. The Princess was gracious, and when Mrs. Grant expressed her regret at not having seen the Queen, she replied: "But you will be sure to see her. Her Majesty will come to Windsor before you leave." The next of these ceremonies that I remember was a court bafl. General Grant, like every one else, was expected to be present when royalty arrived. No place was assigned him, but he was allowed to find room with the diplomatic corps. He stood with Mr. Pierrepont below the Ambassadors) who were on the steps of a dais nearer the Royal Family. When the Prince entered he offered his hand to General Grant as he passed, which was a great distinction, conferred only on two or three. Later the General was invited to take part in one of the royal quadrilles, but declined the honor, which was not extended to Mrs. Grant. No other notice was taken of him by host or hostess, and after an hour or two the General became tired and left before supper. What arrangement would have been made had he remained was not indicated, but probably none until royalty had been served. A week or two afterward General and Mrs. Grant had the honor of being invited to dine with the Prince and Princess of Wales, "to meet their Imperial Majesties, the Emperor and Empress of Brazil." I accompanied them on this occasion. The Minister and Mrs. Pierrepont were also present. When General and Mrs. Grant arrived they passed first into a large ante-chamber in which the Prince of Wales happened to be playing with his two boys. The other guests 276 GRANT IN PEACE. had not arrived, and the Prince may not have expected to be in this hall when General Grant came in ; or he may possibly have planned the accidental reception. He came forward at once, like any other gentleman in his own house, and gave his hand to General Grant, who presented Mrs. Grant, and mentioned my name, which the Prince had known before. Then the Prince called up his sons, lads then of ten or twelve, and said he wished them to know General Grant. He was extremely genial and affable. After this he disap peared through a side door, and an equerry ushered the party into a long waiting-room, where we remained nearly half an hour. The dinner party was large; I should think there were thirty people present, including several dukes and duchesses, and other of the nobility; the Brazilian Minister and his wife had been asked out of compliment to the Emperor, for whom the dinner was given. After a while a gentleman-in- waiting appeared and said the Princess desired the ladies to range themselves on one side of the room and the gentlemen on the other; so General and Mrs. Grant took their places four or five from the head of the line. After apparently ten minutes' further waiting in this position, all standing, for no one had been seated or had been asked to sit since we entered, the great doors at the top of the line on the right were thrown open and the Empress of Brazil came in on the arm of the Prince of Wales. Next came the Princess with the Emperor. They passed directly between the two lines to the dining-room, which was opposite the apartment from which they had entered ; the Empress of Brazil however, had known Mrs. Grant in America, when the ladies had each been the wife of a great ruler, and she stopped short when she came to Mrs. Grant and greeted her, but the other royal and imperial personages, including the hostess, passed in without recognizing anybody. Then a number of dukes and lesser nobles were told off to their partners and followed the GRANT AND THE PRINCE OF WALES. 277 Empress and the Prince. After every noble person present was thus assigned General Grant was requested to go in with Mrs. Pierrepont, and Mrs. Grant with the Brazilian Minister, whom the Emperor of Brazil looked upon as his servant. The British Government had agreed with Mr. Pierrepont that the ex-President of the United States should have precedence of dukes, but the Prince of Wales deliberately put him as near as possible to the foot of the table. There was no English person of noble rank who followed General Grant. He sat within three or four of the Comptrofler of the Household, who was at the extreme foot; the Prince and Princess were at the middle with the Emperor and Empress. The Duke of Cambridge, the Duke and Duchess of Man chester, the Earl and Countess of Derby, the Earl of Dudley, were afl placed higher than General Grant When the ladies left the table every one rose, of course, and the Empress and Princess passed out, while Mrs. Grant was left to find her way like any other person of insignificance. Then the Prince of Wales changed his own seat, according to the English custom, and took that by the side of the Emperor, which the Princess had vacated. In a moment or two he sent an equerry or a footman, I forget which, to ask General Grant to sit by the other side of him in his new place, and General Grant left his seat and walked - around the table and accepted this high honor, just as any other private gentleman might have done. The Prince then was very gracious in his talk and manner. After a while the gentlemen rejoined the ladies in the order in which they had come in, the dukes and earls taking care to assert their rights of precedence. In one of the drawing-rooms there was music; here the Princess and the Empress sat apart and listened or talked, and the Emperor remained near them. Neither General nor Mrs Grant was invited to join this select company. The Prince came out of it once or twice and talked with some of his guests, among 278 GRANT IN PEACE. others with General Grant; but he said no word to Mrs. Grant, and neither the General nor Mrs. Grant was presented to the princely hostess. The Prince presented General Grant to the Earl of Dudley, one of the worst-bred men in any company in any country ; and his lordship was worthy of his reputation on this occasion, for he almost tumed on his heel. He put his hands behind him and simply acknowledged his Prince's introduction with a slight bow, almost a nod, said not one word, and left the group. It was by far the most marked impertinence General Grant had received in sixteen years. When the Empress had heard enough of the music, she and the Princess arose and bowed to the company. Every body else made profound salaams, and the whole imperial and royal party disappeared and did not return. Mrs. Grant now desired also to leave, but the ladies-in-waiting assured her that the Princess would return. They appeared to appreciate- the behavior of their mistress, and thought it could not possi bly be carried further. Mrs. Grant, therefore, delayed four or five minutes longer. Then finding that her hosts had no idea of continuing their hospitality, she took General Grant's arm and retired. I followed them. After we had reached the ante-room and were moving toward the cloaking-rooms, one of the courtiers came up and said that the Princess desired to bid Mrs. Grant good-night. Accordingly we delayed in the ante-room till the Prince and Princess came out. The royal hosts smiled graciously, bowed and courtesied grace fully, and wished their democratic guests good-night, and that was the end of General Grant's dinner with the Prince of Wales. General Grant, of course, perceived the intention of all this etiquette, but was determined not to resent or admit the slight. He was receiving great hospitality and kindness from the English nation; he had been cordially treated by the Government and the high aristocracy, who could not control GRANT AND THE PRINCE OF WALES. 279 the court, and he desired us all to say nothing on the subject of the conduct of the Prince and Princess of Wales. His course reminded me of Froissart's story of the great Norman nobles whose breeding was so famous that a certain prince determined to test it. He asked a large party to a banquet, and took care that the tables should be filled before the Normans arrived. They, however, made no remark, but folded their cloaks and sat on these on the floor, where they were served. After the repast they paid their parting com pliments and went away, leaving their cloaks behind them. Their host, however, sent the garments to them on the road, but the Normans replied that they were not in the habit of carrying about with them the seats that they used at enter tainments. It seemed to me that General Grant's silence was as fine as the answer of the Normans He rather pitied the Heir Apparent, whose notions of hospitality were so pro vincial. Indeed, he looked on the whole proceeding as he would ^on the antics of some half-civflized Asiatic, who announces that the Khan of Tartary has dined, and now the kings of the earth are at liberty to satisfy themselves. The Prince probably did not desire to be rude. At this very dinner he requested the General to keep a night for a public banquet at which he wished him to be present, and so far as mere manner was concerned, he had been perfectly affable and genial. It was the point of etiquette he was determined to maintain. General Grant was not royal, and the Prince was determined not to treat him as if he were. In accordance with the wish of the General none of his party mentioned the circumstances I have described. Prob ably some of the English present were not so reticent, for the story got about, and there were comments on it in the American newspapers. Upon this the Prince wrote to the Minister and expressed his concern. He said he could not have given precedence to General Grant over the Emperor, and tried to explain. But there was no necessity to invite 280 GRANT IN PEACE. General Grant at the same time with the Emperor. There was in fact no necessity to invite him at all if he could not receive in the house of the Heir to the Throne the same dis tinction that was offered him in every other house in England, and which the Prince of Wales must have known that the English Government had promised to accord. One can understand that a prince might feel that he must maintain the principle which underlies his princehood ; but the Prince of Wales put General Grant below everybody at his table of even the rank of an earl ; and there is no rule recognized in any etiquette, royal or democratic, which forbids a hostess to speak to her guests. In less than a month after this dinner General Grant was invited by the King of the Belgians, who took Mrs. Grant to table, while the General was requested to give his arm to the Queen. The etiquette of the Prince of Wales was all his own. It was not even that of his own sovereign. CHAPTER XXXIL GRANT AT WINDSOR. THE Queen was at Balmoral when General Grant arrived in London, but soon after Her Majesty's return to Windsor a card was sent to General and Mrs. Grant with these words, partly written and partly engraved : " The Lord Steward has received Her Majesty's commands to invite General and Mrs. Grant to dinner at Windsor Castle on Tuesday, 26th June, and to remain until the following day. Windsor Castle 25th June, 1877. See other side." On the other side was engraved : " Buckingham Palace, " Should the ladies or gentlemen to whom invitations are sent be out of town, and not expected to return in time to obey the Queen's commands on the day the invitations are for, the cards are to be brought back." This is not exactly the form in which ex-sovereigns are invited to Windsor, but it is the fashion in which Her Majesty commands the presence of her own subjects. The American Minister and Mrs. Pierrepont were summoned in precisely the same way, and a similar card was sent to me. The invitations were accepted according to the ordinary etiquette : " General and Mrs. Grant had the honor to accept (281) 282 GRANT IN PEACE. Her Majesty's most gracious invitation, etc." The General's youngest son, Jesse, a youth of nineteen, was traveling with his father at this time, and Mrs. Grant naturally desired that he should receive all the attention which the circumstances would allow. Jesse himself did not share this feeling. He was not anxious for royal or aristocratic invitations, and when it was explained to him that so extraordinary an opportunity of meeting distinguished people could hardly happen to a young man again, he replied that the honor was meant for his father, not for him, and that if he should return to England alone, none of these important personages would remember him or invite him. He did not value compliments paid to himself on account of his father. Notwithstanding this I was desired to send a message to Sir John Cowell, the Master of the Queen's Household, with whom I had been personally acquainted for several years. I telegraphed to him in these words : " Personal and confiden tial to yourself. I would not, of course, make such a sugges tion unauthorized, but ff it could be proposed to invite General Grant's son, Mr. Jesse Grant, a young man of nine teen or twenty, if would be a great gratification to General and Mrs. Grant. If this is contrary to etiquette, please con sider this telegram not sent." A card like that addressed to General Grant was immedi ately forwarded to Jesse, and on the afternoon appointed we set out by train for Windsor. The party included General and Mrs. Grant, the Minister and Mrs. Pierrepont, Jesse and myself, with four or five servants. The Queen's carriages were in waiting at the station, and the Master of the House hold received us at the Castle. The Queen was out driving and would not be visible until dinner, so that all the nonsense that was published about Her Majesty welcoming General Grant at the foot of the grand staircase, as she would have done the Shah of Persia, or any other black or white monarch who visited her, was without foundation. Such potentates GRANT AT WINDSOR. 283 are allowed to greet their sister sovereign with a royal kiss, but the Queen was not in the house when the ex-President arrived. Undoubtedly Her Majesty's absence was planned. The General was shown to his rooms, which were the same, we were told, that had been occupied by the Czar as well as by the Duke of Edinburgh, immediately after his mar riage. Jesse and I had apartments by ourselves, where Sir John Cowell at once visited me and said with a little embar rassment that Mr. Jesse and I were to dine with the House hold and not at Her Majesty's table ; but that immediately after dinner we should be taken in and presented to the Queen. The royal Household is always served in a separate room and usuaUy only one or two of the ladies and gentlemen- in-waiting are invited to join Her Majesty's party. Foreign Ministers, the members of the Government, even the Prime Minister, when he is in attendance, all dine with the House hold, unless specially invited by Her Majesty. Jesse and I, however, had been specially invited by the Queen, and the invitation was now modified, if not withdrawn. As soon as Sir John had left the room Jesse declared that he would not dine writh the Household. He had been invited by the Queen and ff he could not sit at her table he would return to town. We descended to General Grant's apart ments and found the Duchess of Roxburgh, one of the ladies- in-waiting, paying S. visit to Mrs. Grant. The Duchess was explaining the arrangements for dinner, and stated that the Queen was unable to receive large parties at table, as the number produced giddiness. This explanation was evidently considered necessary, although it was not offered as an excuse. The Duchess also took pains to say that the ladies and gentlemen-in-waiting were all persons of distinction, and then withdrew. The Minister and Mrs. Pierrepont were now present, and Jesse at once repeated that he preferred to return to town rather than dine with the servants. After this a long discussion took place, during which some of the 284 GRANT IN PEACE. real servants were in the room ; these doubtless heard and repeated the wonderful remarks of the democratic youth, for shortly afterward another of Her Majesty's ladies-in-waiting was announced. This was the Marchioness of Ely, who came on the same errand as her predecessor, ostensibly to pay her respects to Mrs. Grant, but in reality to explain that she her self was to be of the party with which Jesse was to dine, and to repeat the story of the Queen's dizziness and inabflity to receive a large company at table. Of course all this was only gracefully and casually introduced, but when the inform ation was communicated the courtier retired. Then the democrats resumed their discussion. Jesse insisted on going home at once ; he said he had not cared to come to Windsor at all, which was true, and that he certainly would not dine with any one but his hostess. The General was, of course, unwflling for the lad to leave, but he thought that his son should dine at the same table with himself. The Queen, however, had not yet returned, and none of the courtiers could decide the question. Finally General Grant desired me to see the Master of the House hold, and to say that he had of course no wish to suggest any change in the arrangements, or to ask any innovation in etiquette ; but that the invitation had been misunderstood ; he had supposed that his son was to dine at the same table with himself, and since this was not to be, he requested that the invitation to Jesse should be withdrawn, so that he might return to town. Sir John was extremely well- bred and simply said that he would convey the message to Her Majesty immediately upon her arrival from her drive. I asked if he wished to see General Grant, but he replied that he would not trouble the General. Then we waited for an answer. I suppose such a message had never been sent to Her Majesty before since her coronation. If the Queen had been ifl-tempered or lacking in taste or tact there might have been an unpleasant compli- GRANT AT WINDSOR. 285 cation. It was possible that the entire invitation might be withdrawn, or a message might be sent that would make it impossible for General Grant to remain, and thus necessi tate the return of the whole party to London. Even interna tional feeling might be aroused. But General Grant had been assured that he should be treated as an ex-sovereign, and it seemed to him, with his democratic notions, that he was not treated as a private gentleman. Certainly no private gentleman bidden with his son to the White House would have expected that son to dine at a different table and in a different room from himself. As for me, I was acting as General Grant's aide-de-camp, and could not complain because I was to dine v/ith the aides- de-camp of Her Majesty. Still I felt that I had been invited by a lady and on arriving at her house was requested to sit at a different table from that to which I had been asked. This might be royal etiquette, but it was not good breeding, and it never happened to me at another court. However, I was determined that no question affecting me should complicate the affair or interfere with General Grant's success. Besides this, I was a pubUc officer, accredited to the Queen, and bound perhaps to accept her decisions in the etiquette of her own palace. So no question whatever was made about me. Finally we afl dressed for dinner to be ready for whatever might happen, and before I returned to General Grant's drawing-room the Master of the Household came to me. He had delivered the General's message, and Her Majesty commanded him to say that she would be happy to have Mr. Jesse dine at her table. So the difficulty was obviated by the good sense and good breeding of the Queen. The party that dined with Her Majesty were all assembled before she entered the room. After speaking with each guest separately the Queen took the arm of her son. Prince Leopold, afterward Duke of Albany, and General Grant was asked to give his arm to the Princess Christian. The 286 GRANT IN PEACE. General and the Princess followed the Queen, and the Prince Christian with the Princess Beatrice went next. Thus General Grant preceded the Queen's own daughter and her son-in-law ; which was a distinct concession to him of rank equal to royalty, and as different as possible from the etiquette observed by the Prince of Wales. Mrs. Grant, however, did not receive the same recognition ; two duchesses preceded her and she went in with a lord-in-waiting. Jesse was placed nearly at the tail. The idea seemed to be to give General Grant a place that should indicate extraordinary deference according to royal rules, but not to recognize his democratic family further than courtesy required. The Queen, however, was gracious to all, and the dinner passed pleasantly enough. At table General Grant was not placed next Her Majesty. She had Prince Leopold on one side of her and Prince Christian on the other ; then the two Princesses. General Grant was next to the Princess Christian, which brought him below all the royal famfly and two places from the Queen. His conversation with Her Majesty was therefore not animated. I went to dinner with the Household in another room. I remember that Sir John Cowell, Lady Ely, Lady Susan Melville, and others of the Queen's ladies and gentlemen were present. My companions were extremely affable, and I thought they seemed to wish to make up for my disappoint ment, so far as they could. Almost immediately after we rose Sir John disappeared, but came back at once and announced that I was to be taken in and presented to the Queen. I had gone through the forms of presentation at levees and drawing-rooms, but had never exchanged a word with Her Majesty. She was standing with her dinner company at one end of a long gallery when I was led up to her. She bowed with extreme graciousness, and said immediately that she had to thank me for a book I had once sent her. This was the first GRANT AT WINDSOR. 287 volume of my " History of General Grant," which Dean and Lady Augusta Stanley had presented to the Queen for me seven years before. It had been acknowledged at the time by a courteous note, but with the royal faculty the circum stance was recalled and the acknowledgment repeated now. Of course I was impressed by the courtesy, and thanked Her Majesty for recollecting my present after so many years. The Queen then went on to ask me how General Grant was enjoying his visit to England. This gave me an opportunity to speak of his reception throughout the country, which I was courtier enough to say "culminates to-night." At this the Majesty of England positively dropped me a courtesy and was evidently gratified ; so that we were equal on one point at least. I think she felt sorry that she had left me out and wanted to atone ; at any rate she made me feel very pleasant for a moment or two in spite of my disappointment. General Grant had received, since his arrival at Windsor, a telegram from the Grand Army of the Republic, which was holding its annual re-union on that day, and had sent its con gratulations to its ancient chief. I took the opportunity to speak of this as indicating the satisfaction which a million of Americans felt at the compliment the Queen was paying to their representative; and the royal features beamed again. There is indeed a charm of expression, a winning smile that comes over Her Majesty's countenance, a grace of demeanor when she means to be gracious, which is more than ordinary. It was not because she was a queen, for I have been well- received by other queens ; and at this moment, as may be supposed, I was not altogether in the mood to admire ; but the plain little woman conquered me with a sweetness of look and smile which I had heard of before but had never seen at court. It is of no imaginable consequence, but I for gave her my dinner. She remained in the room only a few moments longer. I remember that she talked with Mrs. Grant, who told me 288 GRANT IN PEACE. afterward of a good thing she said to Her Majesty. Con sidering the etiquette of the dining-room, it seemed to me a perfectly fair reminder between the two women. The Queen said something about her own labors or duties, and Mrs. Grant replied : " Yes, I can imagine them : I too have been the wife of a great ruler." Mrs. Grant was not to be put down, and I was glad she said it. As for Jesse, he did not say to his father, as the news papers declared, "Pa, introduce her," but behaved with pro priety and like a young gentleman. He had held out for his point of etiquette, as well as the royalties, and had won. He could afford to be polite. After a while, the Queen looked around, and two duch esses approached and laid a lace shawl about her shoulders. Her Majesty courtesied, every one else bowed or courtesied very low, two great doors behind her were opened, and the Queen of England and the Princesses vanished, backward. The remainder of the party were now scattered in two or three of the drawing-rooms. There was music in the dis tance, according to a printed programme. Some of the com pany. General Grant among them, played at cards, others talked, and at eleven the ladies retired. Prince Leopold then invited General Grant to the billiard-room, which seemed to be beneath the castle, we descended so far. This is the only place where the Queen allows smoking. I accompanied the General, and Prince Leopold came down in a smoking suit of gorgeous purple and yellow satin, and played a game with the conqueror of Vicksburg. They are both in Hades now. General Grant sat up late, as usual, and it was two o'clock before I got to bed. But I had often sat up with him later stifl in camp. Next morning the Queen sent her album for the auto graphs of the whole party (Jesse's included), and two of her ladies were directed to show us the most famous pictures and the great porcelain. Afterward Her Majesty's carriages and equerries were at General Grant's service. We drove GRANT AT WINDSOR. 289 about in the Home Park, visited the mausoleum of the Prince Consort, but saw nothing more of the Queen or the Royal Family. By two o'clock we were back in town. The intention certainly had been to pay a great compli ment to the ex-President of the United States, and I make no doubt that the Queen stretched her conscience or her eti quette when she gave him her daughter to take in to dinner, and put him before the nobility. The episode of the invita tions I account for by supposing that at flrst she intended to have me at her table. She was good-natured, and when the invitation for Jesse was asked, acquiesced, but doubtless then said, " Let them both dine with the Household." Then, when the question of the table was raised, she admitted Jesse ; so that, from her own point of view, she was extremely gracious throughout; and from anybody's point (but mine) she was amiable. I suffered for others, which is, of course, very much to my credit. But I certainly think the Queen should have left out some of her own courtiers on an international occasion, rather than a foreign gentleman whom she had thought it became her dignity to invite to her table. The Queen of England never saw General Grant again. When he was dying she was on the Continent, and from Aix- les-Bains she sent a telegram by Lady Ely to Mrs. Grant, expressing her sympathy and making friendly inquiries. Upon General Grant's death, she directed her Minister in the United States to present her condolences, while the Prince and Princess of Wales made known to the American Minis ter in London their regret, and the "advantage" they should always consider it had been to them "to have made his acquaintance." The Prince had called on General Grant in Paris after the English experience. Indeed, there was a sort of sympathy between them on certain points ; for the Prince of Wales, when he chooses, can be cordial and as unaffected as General Grant himself was ; and, like all people used to the flatteries and diplomatic arts of courts and fashion, he appreciates directness and the beauty of simplicity. 19 CHAPTER XXXIIL PALACE AND PRESIDENT. THE first country that General Grant visited after leav ing England was Belgium. Here he was received as an equal by the sovereign. At Ostend messages met him from the King inquiring when he would arrive at Brussels, and the royal railway carriage was placed at his disposal to convey him to the capital. In that city the members of the Government immediately paid their respects, and the royal equerries brought invitations for the General and his entire party to a dinner at the palace. The King's carriages were offered to the ex-President, and an aide-de-camp was ordered to report to him during his stay. General Grant, however, availed himself of this courtesy only when he paid official visits. In calling on the members of the Government and the foreign ministers, he went in the royal carriages, attended by the King's officer, and also in his visit to the palace, but at no other time. The invitations to the dinner were in French, and, trans lated, they read as follows : " By order of Their Majesties, The Grand Marshal of the Court has the honor to invite Their ExceUencies, General and Mrs. Grant, to dinner at the palace of Brussels, Sunday, 8th July, 1877, at 6^ o'clock. Frock dress." The words "frock dress" (en frac) signified that court costume was not required. The notification was written, not (290) PALACE AND PRESIDENT. 29 1 engraved, on the card, and was doubtless intended to make the etiquette as little onerous as possible for the democratic ex-President. Invitations were also sent, not only to the American Minister and his family, but to Mr. Sanford, the former Minister and his wife, and to afl the American officials in Brussels, down to the vice-consul, who was an Englishman, and nev€r went to court at home. On the day of the dinner the King himself called on General Grant at his hotel. The visit had not been pre- announced and there was not time after the carriages drew up for the General to descend the staircase to welcome His Majesty, but in every other way the King was received with the usual honors. He was attended by several gentlemen of his court, who remained standing during the interview, and when they were presented to General Grant they made him the same obei sance which they were accustomed to offer to their sover eign. The visit was short, as such ceremonies usually are among persons of exalted rank. Mrs. Grant was present and the King conversed with her as well as with the General. His Majesty speaks very good English, so that there was no difficulty about the language. Perhaps just here I may repeat a story that James Russell . LoweU once told me about Mrs. Grant. When General Grant was at Madrid Mr. Lowell was Minister to Spain and made a dinner for the ex- President. Mrs. Grant was placed between two personages who like herself spoke only their own lan guage, but Lowell described her ease and self-possession as quite inimitable. She appeared to converse continually, was bowing and smiling all the evening, and was apparently as much interested in her companions as any one at table — a bit of fine breeding worthy of a Queen, — or of the wife of an ex-President. But to return to Belgium. The King's visit was made on the day of the dinner, and as such civilities are to be 292 GRANT IN PEACE. returned Immediately General Grant inquired when he and Mrs. Grant could pay their compliments to the Queen. His Majesty knew that General Grant was to leave Brussels the next day, and accordingly proposed that the ex-President and Mrs. Grant should come to the palace a few moments before the hour for dinner, when the Queen would be ready to receive the formal visit. In the evening the royal carriages were sent for the party, which consisted of the General and Mrs. Grant, Jesse Grant and myself. On arriving at the palace we were shown through what seemed an interminable suite of lofty rooms and finally entered one where several of the ladies and gen tlemen of the court were already present; the other guests of the evening had not arrived. It was July, and the win dows overlooking the park were all open ; the sun had not yet set, and, of course, the candles were not lighted; the effect of the great rooms in the warm afternoon, with only a few people in evening dress and half costume, scattered here and there, was peculiar. The men were either in military uniform or frock dress, that is, dress coats, knee- breeches, black stockings, and low shoes, with buckles, chapeaux, and swords. Full dress would have required white stockings, gold lace, and embroidery, and other par aphernalia. General Grant and all the American gentle men wore plain evening clothes. We remained in this apartment while the company was assembling. No one seemed authorized to receive formally for their Majesties, though the guests greeted each other as they arrived. Every one remained standing ; indeed, I can not remember that there were any seats in the room. After a few moments the King entered to conduct General and Mrs. Grant to pay their visit to the Queen. He gave his arm to Mrs. Grant, the General followed, and they disap peared, but soon returned, the King now coming only to the door, which was immediately closed upon him. PALACE AND PRESIDENT. 293 Shortly afterward the company were requested to take positions to await the entrance of their Majesties. General and Mrs. Grant stood next the doors by which they had come in from the Queen. These doors were now again thrown open, and a courtier announced in a loud voice : Le Roi et la Rcine — ("The King and the Queen"). Their Majesties entered bowing, every one else, of course, making obeisance. The King was in uniform ; the Queen, except for her jewels, was no better dressed than Mrs. Grant. The royal pair spoke first to General and Mrs. Grant, as if wel coming them for the first time, the previous visit being con sidered a separate occasion from the dinner. Then their Majesties passed around the circle and each in turn addressed every one of the guests, talking a few moments with each, although the party was large. There were about thirty people present, members of the Government and other high functionaries, besides the Americans. After every guest had received some courtesy from the sovereigns the King approached Mrs. Grant and offered her his arm, and then requested General Grant to take the Queen to dinner. The King and Mrs. Grant preceded the General and the Queen ; then the other guests followed in the order assigned them. I had the honor of going in with the wife of the Minister for War, I suppose out of compliment to my mflitary title. A curious little question of etiquette arose among the American ladies. The American Minister was fll and his wife was not living, but his daughters were invited to the dinner. Now, according to the etiquette of courts the daughters of diplomatic personages cannot enjoy the rank of wives, and Mrs. Sanford, the wife of the former Minister, was, therefore, placed above the daughters of the actual envoy. The Queen spoke of this to Mrs. Grant. She said she was fond of the young ladies, but the rule was rigorous. I believe there were some heartburnings ; but Mrs. Sanford is known as one of the most famous beauties of her time. • 294 GRANT IN PEACE. She was then at the very zenith of her charms, and no American could be unwilling to accept such a representative. I had myself not very long before been appointed Minister to this very Court, and had even visited Brussels with my credentials, prepared, if I chose, to present my letter to the King ; so that I looked upon these ceremonies with a more curious eye than if I had been an ordinary stranger, and thought of the different part I might have borne on this occasion. But I had preferred a lesser rank at a more important place, and remained as Consul-General at London rather than take the post of Minister to Brussels. I went in to dinner lower down in the line, but I lived at the core of the world instead of on the outside; for Brussels and Belgium exist only by permission of the greater Powers. This sufferance, however, according to European theory, detracts in no degree from the ceremonial importance of the sovereign. In fact, at many of the smaller courts the etiquette is more exact than that which surrounds imperial potentates. At Brussels there seemed a happy mingling of that regard for forms which in the Old World is still con sidered essential, with a courtesy which it cannot be said that every palace breeds. There was music during dinner, far enough off not to interrupt conversation, and as the twilight faded, the great chandelier, with its hundreds of candles, that hung over the table, was lighted by a peculiar contrivance. A sort of thread of slow match connected the candelabra, and the fire was seen to travel from one to another till all were illumin ated. When the dinner was over the whole party arose according to Continental fashion: the King took out Mrs. Grant, and General Grant the Queen ; the others foflowed with their dinner partners, and the separation that is com mon in England, and often here, did not occur. The men all accompanied the ladies to the drawing-rooms and remained there. PALACE AND PRESIDENT. 295 Again neither the royal hosts nor their guests were seated. The company stood in a circle, and the King and Queen passed around within it, as before. The conversation now was more prolonged and animated, but still there was a certain formality. The courtiers did not mo"e about freely in the presence of the sovereigns. All the guests were pre sented to both General and Mrs. Grant. About half an hour after dinner the King and the Queen retired, taking especial leave of the ex-President and his party, whom they were not to meet again. General Grant left immediately afterward. He was accompanied to his hotel by a royal equerry, and went, as before, in a royal carriage. The careful courtesy that marked every circumstance of the evening was in striking contrast with the offensive etiquette of Marlborough House, or even with the strained ceremonial of Windsor. The King of the Belgians is a Bourbon, just as blue in blood as a Guelph, and, according to all the rules of precedence, just as much of a sovereign as any named in the Almanach de Gotha; but he did not fear to lessen his dignity or disturb his throne by treating an ex- President of the United States with the same courtesy he would have offered to Isabella of Spain or Bomba of Naples. The next Head of a State by whom General Grant was entertained was the President of the Swiss Republic, and, although the courtesy could be no more marked than that displayed by the King of the Belgians, I was struck not unfa vorably with the democratic sim.plicity coming so soon after regal parade. A fortnight after the dinner in Brussels Gen eral Grant arrived in Berne. It was understood that the President preferred to receive the first visit, and I therefore promptly ascertained when the republican magistrate would be at home to his democratic compeer. The visit was no more formal than many that had been paid to General Grant in Washington, and, indeed, hardly differed from the ordinary 296 GRANT IN PEACE. reception of one private gentleman by another. The Presi dent referred to the sittings of the Council of Arbitration at Geneva, of which a Swiss statesman had been a member. He declared that Switzerland was honored by the selection of Mr. Staempfli, and he complimented General Grant upon the adoption of the principle of arbitration during his Presi dency. Then the representatives of the smallest and the greatest of republics exchanged salutations, and General Grant withdrew. The visit was returned within half an hour. The same night the President gave a dinner to a few gen tlemen in General Grant's honor. As he was unmarried, the invitation was not extended to Mrs. Grant. The com pany included Mr. Staempfli, the Swiss arbitrator, and sev eral members of the Government. The etiquette was ex tremely simple, like the service ; indeed, neither differed from those at the houses of private gentlemen in America, unless in their greater simplicity. But the taste that reigned was absolute ; the conversation was animated and intensely interesting, and the dinner was equal in all essentials of courtesy and refinement to any ever given to General Grant It confirmed me in my democratic preference for the reality of hospitable but unassuming elegance to all the forms and spirit of that ceremony which so often tramples upon cour tesy. For courtly paraphernalia and parade, I have discov ered, may be the symbols of an insolence just as vulgar when it is royal as if republican. CHAPTER XXXIV. GRANT AS A TRAVELER. GRANT was undoubtedly the greatest traveler that ever lived. Not of course, the greatest discoverer or ex plorer, though he was admitted to probably more secret and exclusive recesses and haunts than any other one man ; but he also visited more countries and saw more people, from Kings down to lackeys and slaves, than anybody who ever journeyed on this earth before. Others, of course, have made the tour around the globe; the Prince of Wales did something of that sort ; but he went not so far and saw only the upper strata of society; others have had triumphal pro cessions; some have ascended higher mountains or pene trated nearer to Ethiopia ; but no other man was ever received by both peoples and sovereigns, by savans and merchants, by Presidents and Governor-Generals, by Tycoons and Sultans and Khedives, and school children and work-people and statesmen, like Grant. For him the Pyramids had a special door, and Memphis and Thebes were thrown open as to a successor of the Pharaohs; for him the Pope dispensed with the usual etiquette and welcomed a Protestant and a democrat who did not kneel. With him the King of Siam contracted a personal friendship and kept up a correspondence afterward ; while the Emperors of Russia and Germany and Japan, the Viceroy of India and the Magnates of Cuba and Canada and Mexico talked politics to him and religion from their own several standpoints. The greatest potentates of earth laid aside their rules and showed (297) 298 GRANT IN PEACE. him a courtesy which was due of course in part to the nation he represented ; but who ever so represented a nation before ? not only the Government, but the plainest people in it from whom he sprang, whom he claimed as his fellows, whom he believed in as his political peers. The multitudes that thronged around him in Birmingham and Frankfort and Jeddo all knew this, and perceived, though dimly, that they were honoring the democratic principle in honoring him; while the sovereigns thought they were acting as became their own dignity in placing him by their side. It was my fortune to accompany General Grant in many of his journeys on both continents. I traveled with him first of all when he visited his armies. I was of the party when he passed from the Tennessee to the Potomac to lead in person the great forces that were destined to conquer Lee. I marched by his side from Washington to Richmond in i864-'5 ; and that journey took us a year. I recollect in the Appomattox campaign, after Richmond had fallen, he once asked a rebel woman something about the Yankees, and she replied, " Oh, we are all Yankees now, I guess," with a marked emphasis on the guess. I was with Grant also in his tour through the South dur ing the winter after the war, when he was received, as few conquerors ever were by the people whom they had subdued, looked upon as their best friend, their protector, their savior from the bitterness of successful enemies. Everywhere the most important Southerners, the soldiers who had surrendered last, the civflians who had been most stubborn, as well as the scattered loyalists and the emancipated blacks, greeted Grant In Charleston General Sickles gave him a dinner, and the party was made up of men like Orr and Aiken and others who had been his enemies. I went with him also on his first visit to Richmond, a year after it fell, for he had not time to stop and enter in the hour of triumph like other victoi;s, but pushed on after Lee. GRANT AS A TRAVELER. 299 So too I accompanied him in his joumeyings over the North amid the ovations which this generation hardly re members, but which equaled any ever paid to an American. I went with him when he left his country for the first time — it was to pass through Canada in 1865. We spent a day or two at Montreal and Quebec, and then came the first premonitions of the honors destined to be heaped upon him abroad twelve and fourteen years afterward. The Governor- General of Canada offered him a dinner, and pu'v. him in the royal pew; the Canadian towns welcomed him almost as if he had saved their country or led their armies. I met him when he landed in England in 1877, and accompanied him, by permission of the Government, wher ever he went in Great Britain. I was with him in Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and France. Always he was the same simple, impassive man, the genuine democrat. The compliments of Kings did not disturb him ; the adulation offered by whole populations did not elate him unduly that I could ever discern. After his departure from England and his short visit to Belgium he proceeded up the Rhine. At Cologne he was met by two officers of the army sent by the Emperor to welcome him to Germany. He visited the cathedral like any other traveler, and was interested in the villages and the ruins of the Rhine ; but he cared more for the fortresses of to-day, for Ehrenbreitstein and the bridge of boats than for the legends and castles of romance. We stopped for a night at Bingen, and after dinner he and I walked out into a fair and saw all the vfllage shows ; he liked them quite as well as any palace with a history. He questioned the people through me and was curious about their ways, but he had never heard of Mrs. Norton's poem of "Bingen on the Rhine." At Frankfort he fell in with some of his Jewish friends, and was quite as much at home with the Seligmans as if they had been princes, though his last host had been the 300 GRANT IN PEACE. King of the Belgians. Here he was taken to two famous wine-cellars, and tasted in each on the same morning twenty- eight different brands of Rhenish wine, of course only sipping from each glass. We began with ordinary wine and ascended in quality to the Johannisberger, so rare that it is reserved for the Emperor on holidays. The glasses were never filled with this precious liquid, and what was left was passed to the less important people in the party after the guests had been served. At Geneva for a change he laid the corner-stone of a Protestant church, and dined with an American, Mr. Barbey, at his charming villa. From the piazza we looked up at Mt. Blanc and watched the rose-tinted hues of the sunset as they fell on the distant snows. From Geneva we went on to Mt. Blanc. I was curious to discover what interest my chief would display in the world-renowned landscape. I fancied he might be indifferent to the marvels of mountain scenery, for I had never been with him in such regions before. But I was wrong. We traveled from Geneva to Chamounix and then by the Tete Noire to the Valley of the Rh6ne, in one of the ordinary open Swiss carriages. General and Mrs. Grant, Jesse and myself ; and from the moment when we first approached Mt Blanc so as to perceive its majesty. General Grant was as profoundly impressed as any of the party. He betrayed what to me was an entirely new side of his nature. At Chamounix we remained three days because he was so interested. I ascended with him the Montan Vert and crossed the Mer de Glace ; and he was full of appreciation. It was not only the crevasses that he wondered at and the glaciers that he admired, but all the stupendous grandeur of the scene was as apparent to him as if he had been a poet When we were up there together alone with no one but the guide, whose language the General could not understand, I found my chief susceptible to emotions of the sublime to a GRANT AS A TRAVELER. 301. degree that was a revelation of his character. I kept the alpenstock he carried that day, as a memento of my surprise. It stands in my library now — I can see it as I write, — by the coat that he slept in at Shiloh. At Chamounix a St. Bernard dog was presented to him, only six weeks old, but he could not carry the creature with him around the world and ordered it sent to my house in London. There two months later the noble brute arrived. It has been one of my most constant companions since ; it crossed the ocean with me, and even went to Cuba, far enough from its native snows ; and more than once, as friend after friend proved false, the fond fidelity of Ponto has recafled the bitter words of De Stael : " The more I see of men, the better I appreciate dogs." Chamounix was hung with flags for the ex-President, and Mt. Blanc was illuminated. At night away up at the chalet where the climbers rest we saw a light gleaming over the snows which told that the Swiss mountaineers greeted the American democrat. We descended, as I said, by the Tete Noire, and all through the great mountain gorge the plain, unsentimental soldier was fully alive to the majestic character of the landscape. From Vemayaz we had intended to return to Geneva, but after reaching the Gorge du Trient, we went up the vafley of the Rh6ne to Brieg. Then we ascended the Simplon, and again Grant was deeply impressed and in terested. He often left the carriage to walk, so as the better to drink in the grandeur. At the hospice of the Simplon the monks had heard of him ; they got out their choicest home-made wine and spread their frugal lunch for the American commander. So we went on to Italy, over the road built by another general : Grant everywhere enjoying the novelty, appreciat ing the scenery, studying the people. But he liked people always more than scenery, and the common people best 302 GRANT IN PEACE. of all. At every town or village, as soon as we stopped for the night, he wanted to stroll out with me and watch the crowds returning from work, or in their shops, or on their little farms ; or at play or festival. At Domo d'Ossola there was a charming fete, with fireworks, dances, and music for " Our Lady of the Snows." He made me ask the peasants questions in their own language, for he was no linguist, as the world knows ; but he got at the people quickly and often was himself his own and best interpreter. Noth ing in all his travel delighted or interested him more than this going direct to the people themselves. It was Antaeus touching earth. But he was sufficiently courteous to those who thought themselves " the great," when they came to offer him civilities. He was by no means indifferent to the evidences of his distinction. At a charming spot on one of the Italian lakes, where we staid for a day or two, one even ing after dinner a Princess was announced — a handsome, sumptuous woman, with a famous Russian name. She came across the lake in her boat through the twflight, with attend ants and a female friend, and was dressed in black, with a lace shawl thrown over her head and a blush red rose in her hair. She came to ask the General and his party to visit her villa in the neighborhood, called after herself, the "Vifla Ada." The Princess was an American, she explained, but had married a great Russian, and was living away from home to educate her boys. The Prince unfortunately was absent, but she hoped to receive her great countryman at a mid-day dinner. General Grant accepted the invitation promptly, for he always availed himself of pleasant opportunities, like a true traveler ; but Mrs. Grant could not say at once if she was disengaged. With a woman's instinct she wanted to find out more about her hostess. We learned, however, that the lady was in reality a Russian Princess, though an American by birth, and Mrs. GRANT AS A TRAVELER. 303 Grant accompanied the General to the luncheon. The villa was charming, the situation perfect; scenery, sky, terraces, flowers — all Italian. The Princess was stately; her man ner became her rank ; she was not more than forty, if so old ; very handsome and especially amiable to Jesse, for Mrs. Grant always awed even Princesses if they paid too much attention to her great husband. We noticed many portraits of the Princess in theatrical costumes, Lucrezia, Semi- ramide, Norma; and her highness explained that she was fond of fancy balls, and had been painted often after going to one. From the villa we returned to the hotel where a tenor singer wanted General Grant to patronize his concert. The General did not think this worth his while, and then the tenor spitefully exclaimed that General Grant might as well go to his concert as to the house of a former prima donna. The Princess was indeed an American girl who had come to Italy to study for the opera ; she had sung at La Scala and San Carlo, and pleased the fancy of the Prince, who married her. But she could not go to court, nor be recognized at St. Petersburg. This was why she lived in Italy. This accounted for the portraits of Lucrezia and Semiramide. There was no harm done ; the Princess was married ; but she had kept back her story when she invited Mrs. Grant. Her companion had an engagement at the time at the Neapolitan opera. Nevertheless the villa was beautiful, the lake was Italian, and the Princess was real, like her lace and her red rose. At Thusis there was another incident. One Sunday morning after the late Continental breakfast we were wait ing for the vetturino, and sat in an arbor without the inn, looking up to the Via Mala. There was a little gate that opened on the arbor, and to this there came a short but stately woman of sixty years or more, dressed in black with out a bonnet, but holding a parasol. She walked, straight up to the group and looking over the gate asked if this was 304 GRANT IN PEACE. General Grant ; then made a profound courtesy such as they offer in Europe to sovereigns. Her face and voice seemed strangely familiar to me, but I could not recall where I had known either. I rose, however, of course, and opened the gate, thinking she might be some duchess come to ask General Grant to dine with a Queen, and the visitor entered. She was invited to a seat, but did not tell her name. She had just come from the Engadine, where she had been greatly interested in a Swiss peasant who had served in the American army, and madame had promised if ever she met General Grant to implore him for a pension for her prot6g6. General Grant had no more power than I had to obtain a pension, except according to the rules ; and as a consular officer I was familiar with the methods. I endeavored to explain this, but the beneficent stranger did not care for rules, she wanted the interposition of the ex-President ; the deus ex machina. Finally, however, she learned just how much or how little General Grant could do in the matter, and turned to take her leave. As she rose she said she had had the pleasure of knowing General Grant's daughter in England ; young Sartoris, who had married " Nellie Grant," was her nephew. Then I knew where I had seen the low forehead and stately air and heard the deep rich tones ; for this was Fanny Kemble. The connections exchanged a few further remarks, and the dramatic person age made another courtesy such as Catharine of Arragon performed to Henry VIIL, put up her black silk parasol again, and sailed away. At Heidelberg Grant met Wagner. The King of Music came to call on the man whose deeds were greater than any the other had ever celebrated in song or orchestra. The interview was peculiar ; neither of these who had so affected their feflows in so widely different ways could speak the other's language. Wagner, master as he was of expression, was mute in Grant's presence, and Grant, whose character is GRANT AS A TRAVELER. 305 akin, perhaps, to that of Wagner's heroes, was able only to reach the musician through an interpreter. Yet the meet ing at this historic place, under the shadow of the ruined palace with its memories — of the latest master of modern art with the greatest warrior of American history — was an event worth chronicling. If Wagner had written an opera upon the " Wilderness " the grim and terrible fighter might have inspired an utterance equal to any of Tristan or Sigis mund. If they have met since it is in that region where bards and heroes perhaps are equal; where the laurel is bestowed alike on deeds and thoughts. I was with General Grant in Rome, but there is no dis guising the fact that he did not appreciate pictures or statuary. He refused to admire the Marcus Aurelius at the Capitol, though I took him to see it especially because it was equestrian : I thought he would like the horse. I went with him to the Vatican, but he passed straight through the wonderful gallery of marble and never wanted to linger ; he did not care for the Apollo or the Laocoon. He got tired of the Sistine Chapel, and poked fun at me when I wanted to look once more at the Last Judgment of Michael Angelo. He would not pretend. He was blind always to the beauties of art. I don't think he could ever tell a good picture from a bad one. In the same way he was utterly deaf to music. He never knew one tune from another; he thought he could dis tinguish " Hail to the Chief," it was played so often for him ; but if it was changed for Yankee Doodle he did not know the difference. I more than once heard him say at balls, he could dance very well if it wasn't for the music ; that always put him out. He took no interest even in Venice, and never wanted to see its famous " Stones " a second time. He had some slight appreciation of architecture, but not a keen one- The grandeur and form of the great cathedrals made an impression on him, but he liked Thebes better than Milan, 3o6 GRANT IN PEACE. the Pyramids than Cologne. The preference was typical. It was the colossal character that impressed him, not the artistic elaboration or effect ; just as in Nature it was the Alps rather than the smiling villages of the Rhine. Delicate beauties always were too small for him to grasp, both in literature and art. But it was more important for his country that he should be what he was than that he should appreciate the Venus of the Capitol or the Cathedral of St. Mark. CHAPTER XXXV. THE WANDERINGS OF ULYSSES. THE modem LTysses traveled further than his classic namesake ; and his Penelope accompanied him. They once came upon the course of the ancient hero, and sailing along the Italian and Sicilian shores the stor}' of the Odys sey was told again.' Mrs. Grant liked to be shown where the son of Laertes had landed, where he escaped from Cal\"pso, or avoided Scylla or Charj^bdis. But the practical General was more curious about geography than mythology. The coasts and channels he inspected closely, but cared nothing for the fables of Homeric origin. Ancient history itself hardly interested him I remember that in Rome, when I talked of the Forum and the Capitol, he replied that they seemed recent to him after ^Memphis and the Sphinx, which he had seen. Remote antiquity impressed him; but the venerable associations that scholars prize had no charm for Grant. There was little room in his nature for senti ment, though abundance of genuine feeling. At Homburg they dug up the grave of a Roman soldier for the American who had fought in a region the Romans never heard of, and Grant was attentive to the coins and the weapons in the tomb, but unmoved by the strangeness of the spectacle — the exhuming of a forgotten warrior for the inspection of another still in the prime of his renowiL So, too, on Lake Luzerne, though he was never indifferent to mountains, the railroad on the Righi interested him far more than the famous scenery, and he examined the highway of (307) 308 GRANT IN PEACE. the Axenstrasse more carefully than the chapel of William Tell. At Cadenabbia he refused to visit the Villa Carlotta to see the marbles of Canova and Thorwaldsen, and at Berne he was vexed with his son, Jesse, and with me, because we insisted on viewing the Cathedral. He said we had seen Cologne and Mayence and Brussels, why should we waste our time on any more architecture. He was indeed a little unreasonable at first, as a traveler. If he could not discern the beauties of a cathedral or a gallery, he would not befleve that others did. But later he became more catholic; he found out that there might be things in heaven and earth he had not dreamed of in his earlier philosophy. In that same Berne he made me walk for hours with him, turning away from the Cathedral and the Bernese Oberland, to stray till we got lost among the narrow streets and the Swiss citizens. It was always indeed in men that he took the keenest interest; in the people, the peasants, the citi zens, "greasy" though they often were. For without being coarse or ever in any way vulgar, he still was not over- refined. He had a healthy naturalness that affiliated with plain people, though it was not offended with princes. Yet he did not like these last because they were princes, as so many democrats do. He found out their human traits and touched them there. In this way he liked the Prince of Wales, despite the discourtesy of Marlborough House, because there is in the Prince a vein of heartiness which Grant discovered. If Albert Edward had not been royal he might have been a good fellow; and Grant and he could have played cards or billiards together and enjoyed them selves. Grant's own naturalness was always as refreshing as a breath of mountain air or the smell of the pine woods. Once, in the Brunig Pass, on the way to Thun, we stopped at a chalet where we dined. It was just beyond the great rock, which travelers will remember, that overhangs the THE WANDERINGS OF ULYSSES. 309 Pass. General Grant, Jesse, and I strolled on after dinner in advance of the vetturino, and the carriage came up to us empty. Mrs. Grant was not within. Her maid was called, and, almost crying, said she had not seen her mistress for nearly a quarter of an hour. We searched and called, but could not find her. The General became anxious, fearful lest she might have fallen over the precipitous sides of the road. But she did not leave us long in doubt. It was a game of hide and seek in the Alps between the Conqueror of Vicksburg and the woman he had wooed and won more than a quarter of a century before. When we went up from Interlachen to Grindenwald he and Mrs. Grant flirted nearly all the way. They half quar reled as to how they should sit, and wanted always to be by each other's side. Mrs. Grant once changed her seat so as to get a better view of the Wetterhorn ; this placed her opposite her husband, and General Grant, who was a grandfather and nearly sixty years old, didn't like it at all. Mrs. Grant per ceived this, and coquettishly refused to return till we arrived at a certain point in the valley; and the hero was uncom fortable until Grindenwald was reached, and he coudd sit by the side of the mother of his grown-up children. Then he was happy again under the snows and the shadows of the Jungfrau. Neither the compliments of palaces nor the plaudits of two continents had lessened his simplicity or his domesticity. Sometimes, however, he made use of his greatness rather oddly. At a little town in Norway, I think it was Christiana, as soon as he arrived he went out alone to walk, and wan dered away till he was lost. He could not speak a word of the language, and found no one who knew any more English than he did Norwegian. His topographical sense, which rarely deserted him, on this occasion was quite at fault ; and he was an hour or more trying to find his way. At last he approached an intelligent-looking man of the humbler sort; 3IO GRANT IN PEACE. and said to him distinctly and several times, " General Grant, General Grant." Then by signs he indicated that he wanted to go to the hotel where General Grant was staying. The citizen did not suspect for a moment with whom he was speaking, but he knew, as every one did in the town, that General Grant had arrived ; he could not suppose that so great a personage would be walking unattended, but thought this was one of his party who was lost, and took him to the hotel to rejoin General Grant. There he found out whom he had led in the streets of Christiana; and doubtless in his family the tradition will long be told how their ancestor went about with the republican Haroun al Raschid. Once, at least, in America his name was of use to him. It was while he lived at Long Branch. He was taking the steamer that sails down New York bay, when a poor woman came aboard with two small children whom she wished to send to Long Branch. She could not herself accompany them, but they were to be met by friends on their arrival. The General was always fond of children, and seeing her anxiety, stepped up and offered to take charge of the little ones. But the mother hesitated to trust her children to a stranger. He delayed a moment, and then, blushing up to the eyes, he stammered: "I am General Grant." The woman looked at the features that were known to every American, and exclaimed : " Why, so you are ! " And he took her babies to Long Branch. All his experiences were not like these. I had a score of letters from him telling of his reception by Asiatic sovereigns and Egyptian and Indian Viceroys, for I did not go with him further than Marseflles. Some curious things occurred in his Asiatic journey. In India the Governor-General and all the subordinate officials were profuse in courtesy and hospitality, and General Grant never failed to appreciate and remember their behavior. But there were indications after a while that they must have received instructions from home not to pay THE WANDERINGS OF ULYSSES. 3" too much deference to the ex-President. He believed that the British Government was unwilling to admit to the half- civflized populations of the East that any Western Power was important, or that any authority deserved recognition except their own. At least on several occasions in the Chinese waters and around Burmah, Siam, and Japan there were marked faflures in those compliments which were paid him everywhere else in Asia. I was then in England, but kept up a constant correspondence with him. Reading of the honors offered him in India, I suggested that when he left the British dominions in the East he should request the American Minister in London to thank the Government for the peculiar distinction with which he had been treated. But this was his reply : " I received your letter suggesting that I should write to Mr. Welsh on my departure from the last British colony, in time to have written from Hong Kong. But I did not do so because I did not feel like making acknowledgments to the Government for any exhibition of respect on their part, while I gratefully acknowledge the most marked hospitality and kindness from all British officials in the East. I do not care to write the reasons for distinguishing the people, official and unofficial, of England and the Government, but I will tell you some day." He told me fully afterwards. In December, 1878, he wrote to me : " Before your letter suggesting a letter of condolence to the Prince of Wales for the death of the Princess Alice and a letter of thanks to the President for his tender of a ship to take me East, I had written such a letter as the latter, but to the Secretary of the Navy, from whom the tender came, without allusion to the Presi dent. On the whole, I thought it out of place, in the estimation of the American citizen, to write to the Queen, or for her." Nevertheless, a few months before he had said to me : " I wrote the Duke of Argyll a letter of condolence the very 312 GRANT IN PEACE. moment I heard of the death of the Duchess, day before yesterday, I think." And so he went on from one potentate and people to another. At Bombay he wrote, four days after his arrival : " The reception here has been most cordial from the officials, foreign residents, Parsee merchants, and the better-to-do Hindoo natives. Myself and party were invited to occupy the Government House, where we are now staying, and where we have received princely hospitalities." From Cal cutta a month later he wrote to me : " We have now done India from Bombay to Delhi and back to this place. We leave here to-morrow morning for Singapore. The English people have exceeded themselves in hospitalities. Nowhere but at one place have we been permitted to stop at a hotel, and there — Jubulpore — it was because no official had the spare room for our accommodation." The impression made on him in China was profound. I quote a few lines on this theme : " My visit through China was a pleasant one, though the coun try presents no attractions to invite the visitor to make the second trip. From Canton to Pekin my reception by the civil and mili tary authorities was the most cordial ever extended to any for eigner, no matter what his rank. The fact is, the Chinese like Americans better, or rather, perhaps, hate them less, than any other foreigners. The reason is palpable. We are the only Power that recognizes their right to control their own domestic affairs. My impression is that China is on the eve of a great revolution that will land her among the nations of progress. They have the elements of great wealth and great power too, and not more than a generation will pass before she will make these ele ments felt." Grant often said to me that the four greatest men he met abroad were Beaconsfield, Bismarck, Gambetta, and the Chinese statesman, Li Hung Chang. Japan, however, inter ested him more than any country in the world, except his THE WANDERINGS OF ULYSSES. 313 own and England, where, indeed, he never felt as a foreigner ; for he loved England after he knew Englishmen at home. Of Japan he said : " We have now been in Japan for nearly a month. My recep tion and entertainment has been the most extravagant I have ever known, or even read of This is a most beautiful coun try and a most interesting people. The progress they have made in their changed civilization within twelve years is almost incredi ble. They have now, military and naval academies, colleges, academies, engineering schools, schools of science, and free schools for male and female, as thoroughly organized and on as high a basis of instruction as any country in the world. Travel in the interior is as safe for an unarmed, unprotected foreigner as it is in the New England States. This is marvelous, when the treatment these people and all Eastern peoples receive at the hands of the average foreigner residing among them [is considered]. I have never been so struck with the heartlessness of nations as well as individuals as since coming to the East. But a day of retribution is sure to come. These people are becoming strong, and China is sure to do so also. When they do, a different policy will have to prevail from that imposed now." During this time Grant conceived many and large ideas in regard to an Oriental policy for this country, especially toward China and Japan ; and had he reached the Presidency again, it would have been a principal object of his Adminis tration to inaugurate this policy. On the 28th of August, 1879, he wrote to me : " My visit to this interesting country and abroad is now draw ing to a close. On the 2d of September we sail for San Francisco. Our reception and entertainment in Japan has exceeded anything preceding it. At the end of the first year abroad I was quite homesick, but determined to remain to see every country in Europe at least Now at the end of twenty-six months I dread going back, and would not if there was a line of steamers between here and Australia. But I shall go to my quiet little home in Galena and remain there until the cold drives me away." 314 GRANT IN PEACE. No man enjoyed ordinary travel, the seeing strange sights and different countries and nations more than Grant; and no man ever had his extraordinary opportunities. Under these his mind and character grew and enlarged ; he received all the benefits of contact with so many minds, of witnessing so many civilizations, of studying so many inteflectual and moral varieties of man. He had not in his youth the advan tage of what is called a liberal education, but no man ever trod this earth more highly educated than Grant by events and experiences and opportunities, and attrition with the highest natures, and association with the grandest companies in the grandest sense of the word. He kept up his connection with his great compeers after his return. He corresponded with more than one King, and when the history of his campaigns, on which I had been engaged for fifteen years, and in which his interest had been almost equal to my own — was at last complete — he sent a copy to every potentate all over the world by whom he had been entertained; to the Mikado of Japan and to Bismarck; to the Viceroy of India and the Kings of Siam and Sweden and Greece; the Prince of Wales and the Presidents of Switzerland and the French Republic; and every one ac knowledged the present except the Prince of Wales. The collection of these letters was of course peculiarly interesting to me, and he allowed me to keep it for years ; but I returned it to him unasked, for his family, whose claims upon it I thought superior to my own. In June, 1882, he wrote me a letter from which I copy the postscript : " The mail lying before me when you were in had the acknowledg ments from Lytton [Lord Lytton, then Viceroy of India], the first received. Next I believe was from the King of Siam." It was the reward of my labors that I was allowed to share these congratulations with the conqueror of Lee and the guest of the nations and the rulers of Europe and Asia. CHAPTER XXXVL THE THIRD TERM. GRANT'S relief at being freed from the cares and en tanglements of political life was at first so great that any reference by his friends to the possibility of his re-enter ing office was extremely distasteful to him. Nevertheless when the great railroad strikes of 1877 occurred, in the first year after his retirement, his letters from America abounded with allusions to the situation, and not a few expressed the wish that a " strong man " fitted to cope with the emergency had been at the head of the Government. Of course there was no possibility of his returning to place at that time, but if the crisis had lasted and there had been a general demand for his services, I think he would not then have hesitated to perform what he might have considered a public duty. The idea of some such possibility was certainly presented to his mind ; and although he was always the last man to prepare for unlikely contingencies, he still was revolAdng what might be incumbent on him in case the gravity of the situation increased. He admitted to me on more than one occasion that it might become his duty to return to public life. Of course he had not the slightest thought of taking any such step except in accordance with constitutional provisions, and he certainly had no desire to resume the cares which he had so recently laid aside. He simply did not mean to shrink from any of the responsibilities which his past career and the appreciation of his countrymen might impose. But the crisis passed away, and he felt a genuine satis- (31S) 3l6 GRANT IN PEACE. faction at this result ; first, because of the relief to the coun try, and next, because the shadow of further public station had faded from his own future. After this, he was more averse than ever to the thought of again becoming a Presi dential aspirant. But his triumphal tour abroad suggested the idea to his friends at home, many of whom were anxious that he should be kept out of the country in order to avoid premature political complications. As early as March, 1878, he wrote to me from Rome : " Most every letter I get from the States, like Porter's to you, asks me to remain abroad. They have designs for me which I do not contemplate for myself. It is probable that I will return to the United States either in the fall or early next spring." This remark was meant for me as much as for any one else, for I had not hesitated to let him know that I thought the country would desire his return to power ; but at that time he had said no word to warrant me in supposing that he entertained the idea. He did not, it is true, return to America so soon as he had expected, but this was because of an improvement in his financial circumstances. When he first arrived in England, he told me that he had only ^25,000 to spend in foreign travel ; if that would last two years he could stay abroad two years, but if it became exhausted sooner he would be obliged to return. He was treated so much like a sovereign that his expenses were proportionally increased, and of course the sum that he mentioned did not hold out nearly as long as he had hoped ; but his son Ulysses, then living in California, was able to make certain investments for his father which resulted in placing nearly ^60,000 at his disposal, and then General Grant was enabled to travel as far and as long as he pleased. Accordingly, he extended his stay. I wrote to him in the latter part of 1878, repeating some thing that had been said to me about the possible effect of my history of his campaigns upon his political prospects, and THE THIRD TERM. 317 suggesting that the concluding volumes should be delayed until his return to America ; but he replied : " I do not see what the publication of the book at any particular time can have to do with the formation of public opinion as to political objects. It has been a long time in preparation, and the public has known all about it. If the work should be with held, the public might say that there was an object in that. I would go on as fast as possible, and when the book is ready publish it. Let the public say what they please." In the early part of 1879 he left Europe for the last time. I accompanied him as far as Marseilles, where he took a steamer for the East, and up to that day he had said no word to me, nor, I am confident, to any other human being, defining his intentions or desires in regard to a third term. Mrs. Grant often assured me that, so far as she could judge, he had formed no determination in the matter. I believe that at this time he had neither expectation nor ambition to return to power. He showed this very plainly by insisting, against the advice of nearly every political friend he had in the world, on returning to America. Every one who knew anything about American politics could foresee an immense enthusiasm on his arrival, which, if it was developed opportunely, might sweep him into the Presidency, while, ff time were allowed for it to cool, all the opposition and efforts of rival candidates could, of course, be concentrated, and render even his renom ination diffictflt. This was said or written to him in a hun dred forms by the men who wished his renomination and thought themselves sufficiently intimate or important to offer their views. But he paid no attention to the advice, and returned to America in the autumn of 1879, nearly a year before the Presidential election, and more than six months sooner than his supporters desired. The reason he always assigned for this was that Mrs. Grant wanted to see her chil dren. He himself was far from being tired of travel. On 3i8 GRANT IN PEACE. the 1st of August, 1879, he wrote to me: "At the end of twenty-six months I dread going back, and would not if there were a line of steamers between here and Australia. But I shall go to my quiet little home in Galena, and remain there until the cold drives me away. Then I shall probably go South — possibly to Havana and Mexico — to remain untfl April." On the 30th of the same month he wrote to me: "I do not feel bad over the information gave you. I am not a candidate for any office, nor would I hold one that required any manoeuvring or sacrifice to obtain." The enthusiasm that attended his welcome was greater than the most sanguine had anticipated, and gave him the keenest gratification. In December he wrote me a long account of it from Philadelphia. In this letter he said: "To-day I start for Cuba and Mexico." But he continued: "I expect to be back in Galena as soon as the weather gets pleasant in the spring, and to remain there until time to go to Long Branch. I will then have the summer to arrange for a permanent home and occupation. It may be the [Nica ragua] canal, in which case I shall live in New York City. It must be employment or a country home. My means wifl not admit of a city home without employment to supplement them." I replied that I thought the country would find an employment for him that would require him to live in Wash ington. But to this he made no response. In April I returned to the United States and found that he had already arrived from Mexico and gone as he intended to his little home in Galena. The country was at this time in the full flood of excitement that precedes the Presidential nominations. Grant's stubbornness in returning had pro duced exactly the result that his friends had foreseen. Time was given for the opposition to crystallize ; his rivals recov ered from their first shock of astonishment at his popularity ; the dislike entertained in many quarters for a third term was worked up vigorously, and the political world was in the THE THIRD TERM. 3ig midst of a battle. Whether the instinct of fight was aroused in him, whether he felt after prolonged rest a willingness for new labors, or whether after so wide and varied an experience, abroad as well as at home, he was conscious of a greater fitness than ever for high place — it is hard to say. All these considerations may have influenced him ; the advice and persuasion of most of those who had been closest either as political or personal friends may have told ; the pressure of his own family, naturally eager to regain the position they had once enjoyed, was incessant ; and Grant allowed every step to be taken to present his name to the country and the convention without one sign of disapproval. Delegates were chosen pledged to vote for him ; important statesmen known to have always been in his confidence openly advocated his nomination ; yet with that singular reticence which he some times displayed, he made neither public nor private utterance on the subject, and men like Conkling, Cameron, and Logan declared in intimate conferences that Grant had never said to either that he would be a candidate. He always had a superstitious feeling, which he describes in his memoirs, that he would fail in any effort made by himself to secure his own advancement. He had done nothing whatever to promote his first nomination, and nothing directly for his second ; and he determined now to follow the same course in regard to a third. He finally, however, became extremely anxious to receive the nomination. In May I went out to visit him at Galena ; but before I reached that place he had arrived at Chicago, at the home of his son, Colonel Grant. At Chicago, I saw him constantly, either at Colonel Grant's house, or more fre quently at General Sheridan's headquarters ; for his son was on Sheridan's staff. I accompanied him on a visit to Elihu B. Washburne, and dined with him at the house of Russefl Jones, his former Minister to Belgium. Both these gentle men were avowed supporters of General Grant, and in their 320 GRANT IN PEACE. presence conversation was unrestrained, and the prospects were discussed as freely as they would have been before any other expectant candidate. It was now only a few weeks before the convention, and Grant manifested as much anxiety as I ever saw him display on his own account ; he calculated the chances, he counted the delegates, considered how every movement would affect the result, and was pleased or indignant at the conversion of enemies or the defection of friends, just as any other human being naturally would have been under the same circum stances ; only it was hardly natural in him, who was used to concealing his personal feeling in all things. Of course this freedom was only with his especial intimates, his family, and a very few other tried friends whom he chanced to meet at this time. But that he disclosed his interest at all showed how profoundly it must have stirred him. I had not met him for more than a year, during which period he had gone through his wonderful experience in the East, had obtained his knowledge of China and Japan, and con ceived an Oriental policy for this country which he believed so important that a desire to achieve it was certainly one reason why he was so anxious to return to power. All who met him were impressed with his views in regard to those Asiatic countries, the relations with them which he thought might be developed, the trade we might create, the immense advantage both they and we might receive from an intimate understanding. His opinions were very broad, and he talked with a knowledge of the subject that made him fluent, and an interest which at times almost inspired him to eloquence. Once or twice he addressed a party of twenty or thirty men of importance in business or affairs, and enchained their atten tion for hours while he laid before them his information and his views. Mexico also was a favorite theme, and a Mexican policy was already germinating in his brain. As a rule I do not consider that General Grant's intellect was remarkable for THE THIRD TERM. 32 1 originality ; he absorbed the best points in the views of others and constructed out of them his own finest schemes and suc cesses, making them, however, completely his own; but in these Oriental and Mexican measures he seems to me to have been entirely original. He had become a profound thinker and an international statesman during his travels. He had seen other countries, both the peoples and the rulers; the emperors and tycoons and sultans, and the ministers and parliaments and the nations themselves ; his views were widened, and his whole character changed ; but at the same time his national feeling and his democratic preferences were intensified. He was never so fit to be President as when his party rejected him. I am sure, from what he said, that he was conscious of most of his former errors in political administration, and intended to rectify them. He was large and generous in his feeling for the South, and had, indeed, become as popular in the region where he had fought as among the soldiers who had followed him thitker. It was believed by his adherents that he wotfld have polled a large vote in the Southern States and broken down the line of a solid South as no man yet had succeeded in doing. Of course these are surmises, but I recite them because they affected him, and because consider ations of this sort were prominent motives of his conduct at this time. After a stay of a few days in Chicago, I returned to the East, and shortly afterward Mr. Russell Young, who had accompanied Grant during the greater part of his European and Asiatic tour, went out to visit him at Galena. Young was opposed to Grant's third nomination, principally, per haps, because he thought he could not be elected. He had long and repeated conversations with the General, in which he represented the views of those of Grant's friends who were averse to his standing again. Mrs. Grant suspected Young's purpose, and tried tc thwart it ; and the discussions 322 GRANT IN PEACE. between Young and the General were usually carried on in her absence. This was only a few days before the conven tion was to meet at Chicago. General Grant had even yet made no outspoken declaration of his intention, though, of course, having allowed his friends to use his name without objection, he could not in honor withdraw it without their consent. But Young induced him to write a letter, addressed to Senator CamerSn, authorizing his friends, if they saw fit, to withdraw his name from the convention. This was a most extraordinary influence for any one man to exert with Grant, and I have known few parallel instances. Young, however, doubtless appeared as the spokesman of others whose opin ions backed his own, though his fidelity and friendship gave weight to what he said. But the letter was sent, in opposi tion to the views of Mrs. Grant and without her knowledge, and was calculated, of course, to dampen the enthusiasm and bewilder the counsels of Grant's most devoted adherents. I can conceive of no step more unlike General Grant's ordinary character or behavior than this half-way reversal of what he had previously countenanced. But it was too late to recede ; his friends had committed both him and themselves, and they were not influenced by this phase of irresolution which had passed over him. They made no use of the letter. Gen eral Grant kept no copy of it, nor did Young, and those to whom it was submitted have never made it public. Grant never censured them for the fidelity that disregarded his suggestion of withdrawal, and all the remainder of his life he remained more than grateful to the men who supported him so faithfully at Chicago, just as he never forgave any who he thought betrayed him at that time. He never afterward spoke except with bitterness of his lifetime friend Wash burne, who, he believed, I know not how rightly, had played him false ; and he remembered the violence of some who supported Mr. Blaine with an acrimony that was not confined to them, but was extended to his great rival. Even former THE THIRD TERM. 323 followers who did not support him in the concluding political effort of his life never held the same place in his personal regard. His failure embittered his feeling toward all who contributed to it. This remark has no reference to Young. Grant followed Young's counsel, and in the end perhaps wished that others had done so too. It was at his urgent advice that Mr. Young was afterward appointed by President Arthur, Min ister to China. But though Grant's disappointment was acute it was not manifested with any loss of dignity. The world knows how soon he accepted defeat and fell into line as a follower in that party of which he had so long been the head ; how he supported Mr. Garfield, and though an ex-President, attended pohtical meetings and made pohtical speeches in behalf of the man who aspired to the place he had held and had again expected to fill. On the 23d of June, two weeks after the result of the convention was known, he wrote to me from Galena : " I am glad you are getting on so well with your book. Hope to see it out before you return to England. It wfll not probably have so great a sale at once as it would have had the result at Chicago been what many thought it would be. But it will have a long run, finding a market long after you and I are gone." This was all that he said to me on the subject tfll we met in October, when I accompanied him on his political tour. CHAPTER XXXVIL GRANT AND GARFIELD. UNTIL June, 1880, there had been nothing at all remark able in the relations of Grant with the man who out stripped him at Chicago. The most prominent of the Western generals was not likely to see much of the chief-of- staff of a distant commander, and in 1 863, when Garfield was promoted to the rank of major-general, he had served only a few months under Grant. In the second year of the war he was elected to Congress, and after the battle of Chickamauga, Garfield resigned his military commission and applied him self to civil duties, in which he was destined to rise to greater eminence. He was in Congress during the entire period of Grant's Administration, and was always a loyal political supporter of the head of his party ; but there was no approach to intimacy between them. After the nominations at Chicago, Grant remained for a while entirely undemonstrative. He sent no congratulations to his victor and gave no intimation of the course he intended to pursue. The result of the Convention was entirely un anticipated by him, and his disappointment was certainly keen. In July he went off to Colorado, where he remained for a month or more, and his silence was so prolonged that many believed he intended to support Hancock ; but of this there was never a possibflity. At last in September he made known his acceptance of the decision of his party. Up to that time the prospects of Garfield had not been brilliant. He was comparatively (324) GRANT AND GARFIELD. 325 unknown to the country and lacked the peculiar elements of popularity in illustrious service and national reputation, which Grant and Blaine and Sherman, his three competitors before the Convention, all enjoyed. His friends soon found that there was need to enlist the aid of the great soldier of the country; for the adherents of Grant were chagrined at their defeat and many still held aloof, while the followers of Mr. Blaine, who had thrown their votes for Garfield rather than consent to the nomination of Grant, were not sufficient to secure the election of the unlooked-for candidate. Repre- ¦ sentations were accordingly made to Grant of the necessity for his support ; and he himself felt that having allowed his name to be presented to the Convention, it was in good faith incumbent on him to acquiesce in its decision. Besides this he was thoroughly convinced that the interests of the country required the election of a Republican Presi dent. It was at a political meeting in Indiana that he first made public his intention to support his former subordinate. This utterance was followed by a demonstration from Conk- hng, not only Grant's most prominent champion at Chicago, but himself only four years before a popular candidate for the Presidency. When these two had spoken it was plain that the entire Republican party would be united under Garfield as its chief and standard-bearer. But Grant was not content with a simple expression of opinion. At Garfield's urgent request he consented to pay him a visit ; at Mentor, the home of the candidate, he was met by Mr. Conkling, and the two were entertained by the man who had overtopped them both. After this Grant took a stfll more unusual course. He attended numerous political meetings, at nearly every one of which he made a short address, setting forth his reasons for desiring Republican success. No ex-President had taken such a step before, and it was still more remarkable in Grant, who had not been a partisan before becoming President, and had never shown an 326 GRANT IN PEACE. aptitude for political or hardly for public speaking of any sort. But having made up his mind that patriotism and party loyalty required him to do what he could for the election of Garfield he stopped short of no effort within his power. He put away his mortification and disappointment, became a subordinate instead of a chief, and went about delib erately and continually as a faithful member of that party he had himself so often led to victory. I saw him constantly during all this period, and used to marvel at his magnanimity; but he never made any allusion to the especial sacrifice his action must have cost him ; that he felt it to the core, I am sure. The influence of his presence and his popularity contri buted greatly to the success of the campaign. Garfield was elected by a small majority, and it is not claiming much for Grant to say that he controlled votes enough to make up this majority. I was present with him at public meetings in New York, New England, and New Jersey, and I saw the enthusiasm he evoked. I stood by him during the great procession of the Boys in Blue in New York a few nights before the election. The pageant lasted from nearly mid night till four in the morning, but he remained upon the platform until the last man had passed ; Chester A. Arthur, the candidate for the Vice-Presidency, stood by his side, reaping the benefit of Grant's popularity. Grant even be came so much interested during the campaign that he made remarks about Hancock which not only the adherents of the Democratic candidate, but Hancock himself, resented keenly. There had been a coolness between them ever since the days of the Andrew Johnson imbroglio, when Hancock, against Grant's urgent advice, accepted the place of Sheridan at New Orleans. This feeling was increased by the tone of Grant's utterances now. Apart from this, however, there was no bitterness aroused, even among Democrats, on account of Grant's course. I was GRANT AND GARFIELD. ,27 present on half a score of occasions when he was traveling by train and the car that carried him chanced to stop near the point where a Democratic meeting was in progress. Again and again it happened that the meeting adjourned temporarily whfle its members marched in a body to the station to salute General Grant. They cheered him, their bands played " Yankee Doodle " and " Hail to the Chief " for him, many shook him by the hand, and then they returned to their meeting in favor of Hancock. That the friend of a rival candidate and the representative of a rival party could draw crowds of his opponents to greet him in the midst of an excited canvass was a singular proof of his hold on the affections of his countrymen. It showed that they separated the soldier and the patriot from the politician, and admired and approved the one while they opposed and condemned the other. After the election and until the inauguration of Garfield, Grant was in no way in the counsels of the incoming Administration. He took, however, a lively interest in the formation of the new Cabinet, but was not invited to offer his views. When Robert Lincoln's name was mentioned for Secretary of War it was reported that Grant objected to the appointment. I knew to the contrary and asked permission of the General to say this to Lincoln. He was more than willing to assent, and I wrote to Mr. Lincoln that so far from objecting. General Grant would be very glad to see him Secretary of War ; and added that he was at liberty to use the information. Lincoln replied, expressing his thanks and his appreciation of Grant's good wishes, but he never said either to Grant or me that he found the indorsement valuable. When it was first announced that Blaine was to be made Secretary of State, Grant would not believe the appointment possible, and after it became certain that the man he regarded as his most prominent enemy was to be chief of Garfield's Cabinet, his mortification was extreme. At first he declared 328 GRANT IN PEACE. that he should withhold all support from the Administration if Blaine became a member ; but he soon thought better of this and went to Washington a few days after the 4th of March. He visited the President and was invited to breakfast. On his return I spent several hours with him and he told me that Garfield had assured him of his gratitude and of his desire to regard Grant's wishes so far as possible in his policy and appointments. On the 22d of March I went to Washington, having passed the previous evening with Grant ; I carried a letter from him to the President requesting that I might be retained at London, where I was still Consul-General. I went, how ever, first to the Senate Chamber to visit Senator Conkling, who informed me that my name had been sent to the Senate that very morning as Charg^ d' Affaires at Copenhagen. The change in the Custom House of New York had been made which brought about the famous political contest between Gar field and Blaine on one side, and Grant, Conkling, and Arthur on the other. Robertson, whose course at Chicago had secured the defeat of Grant, and who was therefore the man in the whole country most objectionable to Grant and his partisans, was made Collector of New York, although according to afl the recognized rules of political courtesy, Conkling should have been consulted ; and Merritt, the friend and appointee of Sherman, was ousted to make room for Robertson. I was removed from London in favor of Merritt ; General Grant's brother-in-law, Mr. Cramer, the Charg^ d' Affaires at Denmark, was displaced for me, and Mr. Nicholas Fish, the son of Grant's Secretary of State, was removed from the position of Charg6 at Berne to make room for Cramer. Merritt, Cramer, and I were each placed where we had no desire to be, and Fish lost his position altogether. Afl this had been done without any premonition or warning to Grant, who had seen the President two days before and received his assurances of friendship and deference. GRANT AND GARFIELD. ,29 Of course the President had the right to make what changes he pleased in the public service, but Grant thought that after what he had done to secure Garfield's election he should have been consulted in the disposition made of his personal friends, and he felt that the changes were intended to be offensive to him. But although greatly amazed he at first withheld any public expression of opinion. He tele graphed to me on the 24th of March in these words : " See the President at once with my letter. Ask him to withdraw your nomination, and if he cannot leave you in London, ask him to give you either Italy or Naval Office in this city. Show him this dispatch as my endorsement of you for either place." At the Executive Mansion I met Merritt, who had come on from New York to save himself from taking my place, and as we walked up the stairs — to the American salle des pas perdus — we laughed at each other, and each declared he did not wish for a change. The President and I were old acquaintances. He had been my guest more than once in Washington. He said he had supposed I would like the new arrangement, which was a nominal promotion so far as I was concemed ; I was to have a pleasant and easy diplomatic post instead of a busy consular one ; it was higher in rank and would leave leisure sufficient to prosecute my literary pursuits. He disclaimed any intention of disapprov ing my services or displeasing General Grant ; but he gave me no reason to suppose he would change his plans. When I reported the result of my interview to General Grant he telegraphed me again : " I advise you to decline Copenhagen and stick to London, unless you can get Naval Office or Italy, or some equally good place. Advise with Conkling and Piatt. It would be better to come here with out Government appointment than to take Copenhagen." My relatives and personal friends gave me different advice and thought I would do better to accept the mission to \ Denmark ; but I considered myself bound to defer to General 330 GRANT IN PEACE. Grant, and finally requested the President to withdraw my nomination as Charg6 to Copenhagen. This he did, but offered me no other appointment, and he did not recall that of Merritt, so that if Merritt should be confirmed I would be out of office altogether. I remained a few weeks in Wash ington, consulting not only with Senators Conkling and Logan, but constantly with Vice-President Arthur, and once returning to New York to take the advice of General Grant I saw the President several times and he sent his secretary to me more than once to urge me to accept the appointment to Copenhagen, as that would relieve him from the appear ance of disregarding General Grant's personal wish ; but I could not disobey the injunction of my own chief. General Grant's urgency in the matter was by no means solely on my account, although he admitted in letters that were published at the time his interest for me and for his brother-in-law; but the instinct of fight was aroused in the soldier. He thought too that he had deserved different treatment at Garfield's hands, and he felt the nomination of Robertson more keenly than the removal of Cramer, or Fish, or my own. Garfield, however, remained firm, but as the nominations were all opposed in the Senate, I returned to my post in England to await the result, whfle General Grant went to Mexico on business. From there he wrote to me : " I will never again lend my aid to the support of a Presidential candidate who has not strength enough to appear before a convention as a candidate, but gets in simply by the adhe rents of prominent candidates preferring any outsider to either of the candidates before the convention save their own." In June, however, he sent me word that he thought after all I might as well accept the Copenhagen mission, and I replied that if I had his full sanction I should like to do so rather than leave the public service. Accordingly the matter GRANT AND GARFIELD. 331 was arranged through General Horace Porter and Robert Lincoln, the Secretary of War. Mr. Lincoln obtained a promise from the President that I should be appointed again to Copenhagen, if I would pledge myself in advance to accept the post. But before this arrangement could be carried out Garfield was struck down by the assassin. General Grant had in the meantime returned from Mexico and gone to his house at Long Branch. Both Conkling and Piatt had resigned their positions in the Senate, and after a long struggle at Albany their successors were elected. Grant's feeling, however, had by this time become somewhat mollified, and when Garfield visited Long Branch, Grant called on him and the President expressed great satisfaction at the courtesy. Nevertheless General Grant had fully sympathized with the feeling of Mr. Conkling and Vice-President Arthur, and had come in for his share of unpopularity with those who supported Garfield, as well as with that large portion of the community which always worships power. I remember that my publish ers assured me that the sale of my History of Grant's Cam paigns, which appeared at this time, was greatly injured by the course that General Grant took at this crisis : the people said they wanted no more of Grant. When Garfield was shot the public indignation in some quarters was even turned toward his predecessor, and there were found those who were willing for a day or two to believe that General Grant was not displeased at the awful fate of the President. Of course this unjust clamor was only momen tary and never genuine, but it was strange to see any portion of the public directing such suspicions toward the man who not a year before had been the object of ovations greater than any other American had ever received. It would be preposterous to offer to vindicate his fame from such asper sions now, but a letter that he wrote me on the subject will nevertheless be interesting. On the 27th of July, he said : " I am just this day in receipt of two letters from you of the 332 GRANT IN PEACE. latter part of June. Why they have been so long coming I cannot conceive. A few days after your letters were written, as you know, the dastardly attempt was made upon the President's life. This of course has put a stop to all communications on the subject of foreign appointments — in fact all Presidential appointments. I had told Porter before this trouble came that I thought probably you had better after all accept the Copenhagen appointment for the present. Whether Porter had an opportunity to mention the subject before the wounding of the President or not I do not know. This attempt upon the life of General Garfield produced a shock upon the public mind but little less than that produced by the assassination of Lincoln. The intensity of feeling has some what died out in consequence of the favorable reports of the patient's condition from day to day ; but now more alarm is being felt for his safety. I myself have felt until within the last three or four days that there was scarcely a doubt about his recovery. Now, however, I fear the chances are largely against it. But by the time this reaches you more certainty will be felt one way or the other. The crime is a disgrace to our country, and yet cannot be punished as it deserves. I have been very busy, though not accomplishing much, which must be my excuse for not writing sooner.'' In September Garfield died, and Grant had the strange fate of following the coffin of another of his great opponents. He had been at the funerals of Chase, Sumner, Motley, and Greeley, and now of Garfield. In every instance the disputes of earth were hushed in the awful presence of that antagonist who overcomes each of us in our turn ; but in Garfield's case the solemnity was greater still, for the pall of the dead President reminded his predecessor of that other and even greater martyrdom which had occurred in the same capital, and of that funeral in which he had followed another and greater President. The next obsequies at which the Nation mourned were destined to be his own. I cannot close this chapter without reminding the reader that these pages are professedly based upon my personal GRANT AND GARFIELD. 333 knowledge, and that therefore my own experiences and such relations as I may have borne to the events I describe may seem unduly prominent. But in no other way can I teU what I witnessed or prove the trustworthiness of my reports. I give nothing at second-hand except upon such authority as cannot be gainsaid — the authority always of other witnesses. Only in this way can I offer the material for history which I venture to believe this volume will become. And if at times I seem to disclose secrets which show that men are human, even men whom the country has wished to deify, I believe that in the end, when the greatest are seen to be made of flesh and blood, their countrymen will feel a keener and profounder sympathy with the real beings I describe than with any fanciful creations fit only for the stories of mythology. The very faults of great men ally them to us, and Grant himself wrote to me at this very time : "You give true history in regard to them and furnish the proof as you go along. While I would not wish to detract from any one, I think history should record the truth." I believe if he knows what I write now he approves my course. CHAPTER XXXVIIL GRANT AND ARTHUR. GRANT'S first important relations with Arthur were in 1 87 1, when he appointed the friend of Conkling Collector of the Port of New York. Arthur was retained in this position during the subsequent years of Grant's two Administrations and was always a warm and faithful supporter of his chief. There was, however, no approach to intimacy, personal or political, between them at this time. The Col lector was too far off from the President for the idea to occur to either. In 1880 Arthur went to Chicago a fervent adherent of Grant, and was steadfast under Conkling's lead in the advo cacy of a third term. When Garfield was nominated the Vice-Presidential place on the ticket was tendered to him as a sort of propitiatory reparation to Conkling. The nomina tion for the Presidency had itself been suggested for Conk ling by some who were willing to support him, though they would not accept Grant ; but Conkling declared that he had gone to the convention to nominate Grant, and rather than receive the prize he was pledged to obtain for another he would cut his right arm from his body. Arthur, however, stood in a different relation ; he was under no such pledge to Grant, stated or implied, and there was no reason why he should not accept the nomination. Grant found no fault with the candidate, though like every body else at the time he thought Arthur little fitted for the second position in the country ; but there seemed no proba- (334) GRANT AND ARTHUR. 335 bflity that his abflities would be specially tested ; and when Grant signified his adherence, he accepted Arthur as willingly as he did Garfield. Neither was in any way personally objectionable to him. He at once treated Arthur with all the consideration due to a candidate for the Vice-Presidency; he had a certain regard for official position not unnatural in one who had held so many important places himself, and who of late years had passed so much of his time with personages of high political consequence. During the campaign I chanced to enter Delmonico's cafe one evening with Jesse Grant and found the candidate for the Vice-Presidency sitting at one of the tables. It was the first time either of us had met him since his nomination, and we went up to congratulate him. I remember that he said to Jesse : " I wish you would tell your father that I went to Chicago to work for his nomination. I was a Grant man and a third term man to the last; and whatever occurred there was no compensation to me for my disappointment." He was doubtless sincere at the time; but he felt fully compensated afterward and quite forgot his digappointment, as probably any other human being would have done in his place. Arthur was in complete accord with Grant and Conkling in their dispute with Garfield, and even took a more conspic uous part than Grant in the struggle, visiting Albany to aid in the re-election of Conkling and incurring the severest criticism of Garfield's supporters. The ex-President and the Vice-President did not meet very often in the months suc ceeding Garfield's inauguration, but they held frequent cor respondence, not indeed by letter but by the messages they exchanged through important or intimate friends. Their political relations at this juncture were closer than ever, and Grant felt a warmer regard and a higher admiration for his former subordinate after Arthur became Vice-President than he had before supposed he could entertain. 336 GRANT IN PEACE. When the assassination of Garfield culminated in his death Grant met Arthur at the funeral; the whilom Custom House Collector was now the Head of the Nation, and pre ceded the ex-President in the procession that followed Gar field's remains. Almost immediately afterward they were traveling together by train on some occasion before Arthur had taken any step of importance in his new situation. Grant told me repeatedly that Arthur especially asked his advice and assistance in the composition of his Cabinet, and it was at Grant's suggestion that Frelinghuysen was selected as Secretary of State. General Grant also strongly urged Governor Morgan for Secretary of the Treasury, and that nomination was made. But Morgan declined the appoint ment, and then Grant suggested the name of John Jacob Astor. I was at the General's house on the evening of October 25, 1881, conversing about the situation after the family had gone to bed, and I mentioned the return of Mr. Astor, who had come over in the same ship with me from England a week or two before. Grant at once said that Astor would^ie an excellent man for the Treasury, especially in the crisis created by Morgan's refusal to serve. I urged him to present his views promptly, and that night he sent this dispatch to the President : "Astor has returned from Europe. Might not he accept temporarily ? " A day or two afterward he told Mr. Astor of his action ; that gentleman was greatly surprised, and while expressing his gratification at General Grant's good opinion, declared that he had no desire to enter the Cabinet. The recommen dation, however, was not taken, and Folger was eventually appointed Secretary of the Treasury, a selection which at the time^ was entirely acceptable to General Grant ; although afterward Folger became so hostile as to order Grant's picture taken down from his room in the Treasury. Just here it GRANT AND ARTHUR. 337 may not be amiss to say that General Grant also recom mended Mr. Astor for the position of Minister to England, but Arthur prefered to retain Mr. Lowell, who had been one of his own most caustic critics and outspoken opponents. These suggestions were all made at the instance and invi tation of the President, but after a whfle Arthur ceased to defer to General Grant or to desire his advice. The new ruler did not refuse to listen to his predecessor, but he seldom fol lowed Grant's counsel after the first months of his Adminis tration. It was not unnatural that the man who had become Chief Magistrate should think himself fully capable for all his duties, and prefer after a very short trial to carry out his own ideas and follow his own purposes. The change indeed was almost inevitable from the follower — suddenly elevated to so dizzy a height and at first willing to be counseled and guided by one whom he had so long looked up to as chief — to the actual potentate distributing offices and emoluments and honors, and able to grant favors or refuse them to the very man who had once benefited and promoted him. It was perhaps just as natural that the other should mark the change and feel it acutely, and should find a bearing more imperious than he thought necessary or appropriate in the new President toward the old. Their relations very soon became strained. Nevertheless Grant was invited to pay a visit at the Exe cutive Mansion, and in the first winter of Arthur's Presidency he returned as a guest to the house from which he had once directed the affairs of the nation, and had issued the commis sion of Collector to Chester A. Arthur, of New York. The circumstance could hardly have been without a disagreeable suggestion now, and Arthur had not the tact to disguise it. He maintained all the consequence that once had been Grant's but was now his own, and more than once his etiquette made the ex-President remember the change in their positions. Grant's situation was in different ways unpleasant at this time. He had several especial requests to make of the Presi- 338 GRANT IN PEACE. dent in regard to Cabinet appointments, foreign missions, and other matters of importance, but besides this he was beset during all the period of his visit by office-hunters without either consequence or intimacy, who were anxious to engage what they supposed, his influence with Arthur in their own behalf. Army officers, personal friends, old political adher ents, needy relatives, all came to him. It was impossible to do a tithe of what they asked, but their importunities forced him to say more than he wished to Arthur. Doubtless this increased the delicacy of his relations with the President, tifl finally Arthur actually evaded the company of his guest ; and the visit terminated with a less degree of cordiality on either side than had existed at the beginning. The change in their feelings, however, was not purely per sonal. It soon became evident that Mr. Arthur did not in tend, as President, to hold the same relations he had once maintained, not only with Grant and Conkling, but with the wing of the party which they led. For this change the other side of course applauded him, but it was not to be sup posed that the approbation could extend to those who thought themselves deserted. What was called impartiality by some seemed to others abandonment of principle ; and when Arthur, the third term advocate, called into his Cabinet William E. Chandler, the man who had done most at Chicago to defeat the third term, the climax was reached. Grant's disappoint ment at this selection was greater because he had recom mended his personal friend. General Beale, for the place. But his recommendations by this time had ceased to carry any weight with the President. As early as February i6, 1882, Grant wrote to me: "To this time the President has seemed averse to making any re movals, no matter how offensive the parties in place have been to him and his friends. I hope this will not continue." On the 23d of February, 1883, he wrote to me of the Presi dent : " He seems more afraid of his enemies, and through GRANT AND ARTHUR. 330 this fear influenced by them, than guided either by his judg ment, personal feelings, or friendly influences. I hope he will prove me wrong in this judgment." The months went on and the time for making Presidential nominations approached. On December 24, 1883, Grant wrote to me : " It is now understood that there is no concealment of Mr. Arthur's candidacy. At this time no other person turns up, so that unless there is a change within the next sixty days he will be renominated without much opposition. I feel, however, that he will not get the nomina tion, although it is impossible to predict who may." On the 30th of March, 1884, he said : " The President is now openly a candidate for the nomination in June next and knows well that I am opposed to it." In the same letter he said : " Judging from the past I doubt much whether any appoint ments will be made until after the action of the Chicago Convention in June is made. There are now many vacancies existing, some of which have existed for a year and over, and among them very important offices for which no nominations have yet been sent to the Senate — offices such as judges of United States Courts for the States and Territories, United States Marshals, etc., which must cause great inconvenience to the public service and the States and Territories where these vacancies exist." On the 8th of April in the same year he wrote to me from Washington : " The Administration has seemed to me to be a sort of ad interim one, endeavoring to offend no one and to avoid positive action which would draw criticism. Probably the Administration has fewer enemies outspoken than any preceding it. It has fewer positive hearty friends than any except Hayes's, probably. But Arthur will probably go into the Convention second in the number of supporters, when he would not probably have a single vote if it was not for his army of officials and the vacancies he has to fill." Arthur was not nominated, and I cannot recollect that 340 GRANT IN PEACE. Grant ever met him again. They had, however, one other difference which increased the bitterness of Grant's feeling. In 1883, General Grant came to the conclusion that as Presi dent, he had done Fitz John Porter a wrong in not allowing him a second trial ; he accordingly set himself to studying the papers, and after careful examination became convinced that Porter was innocent of the charge of which he had been convicted. He at once determined to do whatever he could to right the wrong he thought he had helped to inflict. His course provoked much opposition ; he risked the friendship of Logan and incurred the disapproval of many of his closest political and military associates ; but he persisted in what he had undertaken, and doubtless his efforts contributed largely to the reversal of Porter's sentence, which was finally accom plished. Then the effort was made to restore Porter to the army, and a bill passed both houses of Congress, authorizing the President to replace him in his former rank. Grant took the liveliest interest in this effort, writing in its favor in the public press, and addressing the President himself on the subject, as well as members of the Cabinet. But Arthur vetoed the bill, on the ground that his dignity was infringed by the action of Congress in designating a person by name whom he was to appoint. Grant was extremely disappointed, and criticised both the action and the motives of the Presi dent with acerbity. Soon after this followed Grant's financial misfortunes, and a bfll was introduced in Congress to restore him to his former rank in the army ; but Mr. Arthur made it known that he should oppose the measure on the same grounds as those on which he had vetoed the bill restoring Fitz John Porter. General Grant was incensed at this action on the part of the President; he said that he had not been court- martialed, and his remarks upon the dignity that Arthur was so anxious to protect were not complimentary to the Chief Magistrate. Nevertheless Arthur had no desire to prevent GRANT AND ARTHUR. 34I Grant's restoration to the army of which he had so long been the head ; he simply was more anxious to preserve his own consistency than to relieve the mortification or retrieve the misfortunes of the dying hero. After a long wrangle and a delay of months. Congress and the President came to terms, and a biU was passed which gave Arthur the right to name whom he chose for the posi tion of retired General of the Army. This was signed by the President in the last hours of the expiring Congress, and the nomination of Grant was the closing act of Arthur's official existence ; but it came too late to relieve the anxieties of the suffering soldier, and it was so long deferred that the new commission of Grant was signed by Cleveland. Arthur and Cleveland both attended the funeral of their great predecessor ; and as in so many instances Grant had foUowed to the tomb those whom he had opposed in hfe, it was now his turn to be home before the soldiers he had con quered and the politicians whose principles he had contested or whose careers he had disapproved. CHAPTER XXXIX. GRANT AND BLAINE. GRANT'S relations with Blaine were always amicable, up to the time when the two became rivals for the Presi dential nomination in 1880. Blaine was Speaker of the House of Representatives when Gen. Grant was first elected President, and as one of the leaders of the Republican party, he proposed the passage of a bill authorizing Grant to take a leave of absence, as General of the Army, for the term of his Presidency. During both of Grant's Administrations Mr. Blaine gave him a loyal support ; he was in favor of Grant's renomination in 1872, and did not himself become an avowed aspirant for the succession until Grant had formaUy announced that his own name was not to be presented to the Convention in 1876. In that Convention Grant's influence was thrown for Conkling, but he had still no hostility for Blaine, and if Blaine had received the nomination, the Administration would un doubtedly have done whatever it could, legitimately, for his election. It was Bristow whom Grant especially opposed, and he and Blaine were united in this opposition; for Bristow's friends attacked Blaine as fiercely as they did Grant. While the Convention was in session, Mr. Blaine and Mr. Fish, Grant's Secretary of State — were seen driving together in an open carriage, in the streets of Washington, and Fish was too loyal to his chief to afford this indication of friendship to any man with whom the President under whom he served was at enmity. (342) GRANT AND BLAINE. 343 I had personal knowledge of the early relations of the two great men, who were destined afterwards to be so bitterly opposed. In the first years of Grant's Presidency I was offered the position of Minister to Uruguay and Paraguay, but learning that a change was to be made at the Consulate- General in London, I asked the President for the latter appointment instead. He replied that he was pledged to nominate a friend of Mr. Blaine for the London Consulate, but added that I might consult the Speaker, and if he was wiUing, I should be sent to London. Accordingly, I went to Mr. Blaine, who was quite ready to oblige General Grant through me. His friend was sent to South America, and I was appointed Consul-General at London. Of course, the courtesy was intended for the President, although it gratified and benefited me. In 1877 I accompanied General Grant in his first visit to Switzerland, and at Geneva, a son of Mr. Blaine was often in his company, and always welcome in his apartments or at his table. The young man bore civil messages from his father to General Grant, which were cordially reciprocated in my hearing. It was not until the return of Grant to this country, in 1879, th^t there was any ill feeling between the predestined rivals. But the especial opposition to General Grant's candi dacy for a third term came from the friends of Blaine ; and in the preliminary canvass all the ordinary resources of politi cal warfare were called into play. Many things were said of General Grant that were disagreeable to him, and personal accusations were made against his character that touched him keenly; perhaps he felt them more acutely after the lavish compliments that had been offered him abroad, and the demonstrations that had followed him around the world. During the contest I did not perceive that he suffered from the sting of these assaults, and if he had succeeded, I doubt whether he would have remembered them ; but as the arrows came home, and he was, for the first time in his career, 344 GRANT IN PEACE. flagrantly defeated, the wounds rankled for a long time. He always held Mr. Blaine responsible, not, indeed, avowedly for his discomfiture, but for the personal attacks to which he attributed it. I more than once asked him the cause of his especial bitterness toward Blaine, and he invariably gave this reason. Yet I thought at the time that he deceived himself, and that it was because Blaine had been the instrument and agent of his overthrow, that Grant maintained so persistent a resentment. I could not see that Blaine was more respon sible for what his supporters said of Grant, than Grant was for many of the attacks his friends directed, without his knowledge, against Blaine. Still the sentiment was not un natural. But here comes in a singular phase of his anger. Al though Grant had been extremely disgusted at Blaine's intro duction into the Cabinet, and though he certainly attributed the subsequent course of Garfield to the influence of Blaine, I never thought his soreness so great toward the Secretary of State as toward the President. He not only looked upon Garfield as responsible, but he felt that it was Garfield whom he had obliged, and who should have remembered the obliga tion. Blaine was an avowed antagonist, and at liberty to fight with whatever weapons Fortune or his own ability had en dowed him. Thus, though the action of Garfield's Adminis tration undoubtedly increased Grant's hostflity to Blaine, I never heard him speak of the Minister as bitterly as he did of the President. Grant's implacability, however, was in no way shared by Blaine. That statesman was very willing to come to terms with his great antagonist, and manifested this disposition frequently. But of course, it was easier for him to be mag nanimous, for it was he who had succeeded. If not President, he was Secretary of State, and rightly or wrongly, he was credited with directing Garfield's policy. After 1880 there was no intercourse between Grant and GRANT AND BLAINE. 345 Blaine, until the time approached when another nomination for the Presidency was to be made, and then the friends of Blaine became extremely anxious for an accommodation. But Grant was still unwilling to be propitiated. He certainly preferred Blaine to Arthur, as a candidate, but he refused to take any step, or make any public utterance in Blaine's favor, in the months preceding the nomination. In October, 1 883, he wrote to me as follows : " Dear Badeau, — I have your letter of yesterday. I write because of your allusion to hearing a rumor that Blaine and I had formed a combination politically. You may deny the statement most peremptorily. I have not seen Blaine to speak to him since a long time before the Convention of '80. We have had no com munication in writing through other parties nor in any direct or indirect way. The Republican party cannot be saved, if it is to be saved at all, by tricks and combinations of politics. I read yesterday a circumstantial account of Blaine and I spending a week together recently, when without doubt we had fixed up matters for '84, Blaine to be President and I to be Senator from this State. The Republican party, to be saved, must have a deci sive declared poUcy. It has now no observable policy except to peddle out patronage to sore-heads, in order to bring them back into the fold, and avoid any positive declarations upon all leading questions." This declaration was probably stronger because Grant knew that I was anxious for him to take ground in favor of Blaine. General Beale, who was an intimate friend. Sena tor Chaffee, the father-in-law of one of Grant's sons, and Stephen B. Elkins, all desired the same result, but were un able to bring it about at this time. In the late winter or early spring, after the accident which compeUed him to make use of crutches for months. General Grant was in Washington, and Mr. Blaine called on him at the house of General Beale, where Grant was a visitor. The opponents of Mr. Blaine declared that the visit was not returned; but Grant authorized a 346 GRANT IN PEACE. denial of the statement. He explained to me that he had left his cards himself at Mr. Blaine's house, but being a cripple, had not alighted from his carriage. He said, indeed, that he paid only one or two personal visits during his stay in Wash ington, because of his infirmity. At the same time he told me that though he would not sanction any formal dinner made to bring himself and Mr. Blaine together, he certainly would not refuse to meet him socially. In fact time had undoubtedly somewhat mellowed or mod ified his feeling, and as it became evident that the choice of the party had almost narrowed down to Blaine or Arthur, Grant admitted that he desired the success of Blaine as an alternative. After the nomination he often said to me that he had no doubt Mr. Blaine would make an excellent Presi dent ; and on the first occasion when the candidate was in New York, General Grant called on him at his hotel. I was out of town at the time, and wrote to say how glad I was that he had taken this step, for his own sake as well as for the effect it might have upon the election ; for it seemed to me that one who had received so much from the Republican party was bound to sink his personal feeling and to do all in his power for its success. After I went to stay at his house, in the early autumn, I talked in this vein whenever I thought it advisable. He never disputed the suggestion, but said that he had thought it proper for him as ex-President to call on the nominee of his party for the place he had himseff once held. I thought for awhile that he would make some more expUcit declaration of his views, but there were influences persistently and incessantly at work to induce him to withhold his support from Blaine. No opportunity was omitted to revive bitter ness or to recall the events which he had attributed to the hostility of Mr. Blaine, and though Chaffee, Elkins, Beale, and others did their best, the counter current was too strong. I very much hoped that at the last he would cast his vote for Blaine, but the wily enemies of Republicanism were awake GRANT AND BLAINE. 347 at the critical moment, and General Grant did not vote for the Republican candidate. During the winter Mr. Elkins ascertained that Grant would not refuse to accept a copy of the first volume of Blaine's history, and accordingly one was presented to him, with an autograph inscription from the author ; and Grant acknowledged the compliment in a note of more than his ordinary suavity. I read to him the few pages in which there was occasion for the political writer to discuss General Grant's military career. They were acceptable to their subject, but the account of Grant's civil administration did not appear until he who was judged was beyond the influence of criti cism. Blaine, however, had been a faithful supporter of Grant's Presidential policy, and his comments over the tomb of his great rival contained nothing at which that rival could himself have caviled. General Grant left a list of the names of those to whom he wished his own memoirs presented, and Mr. Blaine's name was among them. The exchange of courtesies upon the presentation of Blaine's book took place only a few months before the death of the soldier, and was the concluding incident in the inter course of Grant and Blaine. In those last hours, when the hero declared, as he did to me on Easter Sunday, 1885, "I would rather have the good-will of even those whom I have not hitherto accounted friends " ; when he forgave Rosecrans and Jefferson Davis — he did not include Blaine among his enemies. CHAPTER XL. GRANT AND MEXICO. GRANT always took a peculiar interest in the Republic of Mexico. His experiences during the Mexican War left a lively impression with him, and there was no portion of his " Memoirs " in which he manifested a keener interest than in the pages describing, not only the campaigns in which he participated and the adventures that befell himself, but the peculiarities of the country, the climate, and the inhabitants of Mexico. I remember well the composition of these chapters, and how impressed I was with the clearness of his memory and the vividness of his youthful perceptions, recalled after so long an interval. At the close of the Rebel lion all this interest was intensified; for the conversion of Mexico into an empire seemed to Grant a sequence, or rather an incident, of secession, and his concern did not abate untfl the expulsion of the French and the re-establishment of the republic. Upon Grant's assumption of the duties of President, Rawlins at first exercised great influence with him, and all that influence was in favor of an extension of territory. St. Domingo, Cuba, and the northern portion of Mexico — all — Rawlins would have been glad to incorporate into the Union. It was with a view to the acquisition of a large slice of territory on the northern frontier of Mexico that the mission to that country was offered in 1 869 to General Sickles. The acquisition was intended to be peaceful, by purchase, and with the entire consent of the neighboring state, for Grant (348) GRANT AND MEXICO. 349 would have been the last man to unfairly appropriate the domains of the friendly republic; he had disapproved the forcible extension of territory in the days of the annexation of Texas, and his relations with the statesmen of Mexico were loyal, his regard for the interests and honor of that country, genuine. But aftWi^due deliberation it was deemed unad- visable to attempt at' that time the absorption of Mexican territory. The Administration concluded that there were other and more pressing matters to be decided then; the Reconstruction of the Union itself and the pacification of the South were still incomplete ; there was the condition of the emancipated race to adjust; and to introduce other and foreign elements into the population at this crisis would pro pose new problems and provoke additional and inopportune difficulties. So the Mexican question, as it was presented to Grant in the early days of his Presidency, was allowed to drop, and was not revived in the same form during his career. On his return from his European tour Grant revisited Mexico, and it was at this time that ideas of business rela tions with the sister Republic were first broached to him. Everything, however, was in abeyance until the result of the Chicago Convention of 1880 was known. Immediately after his defeat, Grant visited Colorado, and from Manitou Springs he wrote to me : " I think now I will be in New York City soon after my return to Galena. The probabilities are that I shall make my home there. But this is not entirely certain. I am obliged to do some thing to supplement my means to live upon, and I have very favorable opportunities there. Fortunately, none of my children are a tax upon me. If they were, we would all have to retire to the farm and work that. " I have been looking at the mines in New Mexico and in this State, and flatter myself that I have obtained something of an insight into the resources of the two — the State and Territory — and a large insight in the way mines are managed. Without going 350 GRANT IN PEACE. into detafls, I would not buy stock in any mine in the country where the stock is thrown upon the market, any more than I would buy lottery tickets. The mines are producing largely, but those quoted pay no dividends to the stockholders, unless it is to put up the price of the stocks, so the knowing ones can sell out. Porter & Co. have a magnificent mine, managed by a thoroughly compe tent and honest man. It is so opened that they wfll get out all there is in it in the most economical manner, and the dividends will be regular, subject to no vicissitudes except strikes, epidemics, or earthquakes. I go on Saturday to the Garrison and from there to the San Juan region. That visit over, I will have seen a large part of the mining region." On the 1 2th of August he wrote me again : " I have been away from here for ten days visiting parts of Colorado I had never seen before. The trip was a very hard one, though full of interest. I am satisfied this State has a great destiny before it. The new region that I visited will show greater mineral resources than all that has been heretofore discovered in the State, besides considerable agricultural resources. But I will see you in September, when I shall be in New York ; and then I can tell you more than I can write. When I go to New York it will be determined whether I accept the Presidency of the mining company to which I have been elected. One thing is certain ; I must do something to supplement my income, or continue to live in Galena or on a farm. I have not got the means to live in a city. With kindest regards of Mrs. Grant, Fred, and Buck (the latter has just left), I am, as ever, yours truly, U. S. Grant." During this winter, however, Grant turned his attention almost exclusively to Mexican affairs. He soon became president of a railway company whose road ran south from the City of Mexico, and he was also actively engaged in furthering the enterprise of connecting the two republics by railroad. In 1881 he went again to Mexico, and from there, on the 7th of May, he wrote to me : " My business here pro gresses favorably so far as the President and departments are GRANT AND MEXICO. 35 1 concerned. I have heard nothing yet of any opposition in [the Mexican] Congress. Before this reaches you I will be on my way home." I find a few passages in his letters after this that fllus- trate his character, and show in what matters he was occupied. On the nth of March he wrote : "Dear Badeau, — The story about my failure was all pure fiction, invented with many lies in the stockboard to depress stocks. I have nothing to do with these speculators, and I think it great presumption to use my name in any way* to effeet their purposes. Very truly yours." On the 2 1st of July, 1882, he said to me : " I shall take no notice of Shepherd for the present He stated truthfully in a published interview that I had no interest in the Peruvian Company, and never had. I do not recognize the right of reporters and sensational writers to call upon me for an explanation whenever my name is mentioned." In 1882 Grant was appointed, entirely without his own solicitation or expectation, head of a commission to negotiate a commercial treaty with Mexico. This was doubtless at the instance of Secretary Frelinghuysen, who retained his per sonal and friendly relations with Grant after the ex-President had altogether broken with Arthur. At the very time when Grant's most urgent applications and recommendations in behalf of political adherents or personal friends were rejected or ignored, his own nomination was sent to the Senate. This was a very adroit move on the part of the Government, for Grant was known to take a keen interest in our commercial relations with Mexico, and he could hardly refuse the appointment, although to accept it would give the appearance of a friendly feeling for the Administration which he was far from entertaining. He saw the design, but the great public interest was paramount with him to any personal 352 GRANT IN PEACE. feeling. He delayed some little while, but finally accepted the appointment. This, of course, brought him into closer relations with the State Department, but those relations did not extend to the Head of the Government The commissioners negotiated a treaty to which he refers in the following letter of February 4, 1883. In the winter of 1882 I had gone to Cuba as Consul-General, and soon after my arrival the English Vice-Consul at Havana was transferred to the City of Mexico. The English had maintained no diplo matic or consular representation in Mexico for nearly twenty years — not since the tripartite invasion of 1862, and I heard in Havana that this embassy, if such it could be called, was an attempt to forestall General Grant's treaty, and prevent the United States from obtaining advantages which the English hoped to secure for themselves. I wrote this to General Grant, and he replied : " I had heard before that the English had sent their Vice- Consul to Cuba to Mexico, ostensibly to renew intercourse with that government, but more particularly to co-operate with the Germans and French to defeat a commercial treaty with the United States. I sent your letter, with one from myself, to the Secretary of State. You should by all means write to the Secretary of State, saying to him substantially what you say to me in your letter of the 3d of January. Of course I cannot send that letter. We were successful in negotiating a commercial treaty, which is practically ratified so far as the Mexican Government is concerned. We will see what our Senate will do with it if the President sends it in. It was delivered to the Secretary of State two weeks ago, with report but so far it has not seen the light." Again, on the 28th of February, 1883, he wrote me a let ter which sufficiently explains the purport of mine, to which it was a reply : " I was much pleased to receive your letter of the 22d inst. I was tempted to give what you say about the use of Mexican tobacco, its use in Cuba, the feeling of Cubans in regard to the GRANT AND MEXICO. 353 effect of the treaty, etc., to the press. Of course, I should only have given it as from a friend of mine, writing from Havana. But, on reflection, I concluded that the public would know who my friend in Cuba was, so concluded not to. I wish, however, you would write the same thing to the State Department. . . . You will learn by the mail that carries this that consideration of the treaty has been deferred until December next. This, I fear, will defeat the treaty in Mexico, where there will be untiring efforts by foreign merchants and diplomats to prejudice the Government against it. . . . Mrs. Grant tells me to say that she is just reading your history, and thinks more of you than ever. She is now in the second volume." The treaty was not confirmed. In one of General Grant's letters during this period he wrote : " I never would have undertaken the work I am now engaged in for any possible gain that could accrue to myself. But I have been much impressed with the resources of this country [Mexico], and have entertained a much higher opinion of these people than the world at large generally does, and of their capacity to develop their resources, with aid and encouragement from outside. I felt that the development must come soon, and the country furnishing the means would receive the greatest benefit from the increased commerce. I wanted it to be ours. Besides, we want to encour age republican government, and particularly on this continent. Then, too, it is an advantage for us to pay for our imports with the products of our soil and manufactures as far as possible. This we do not now with countries from which we receive tropical arid semi-tropical products. Mexico can furnish all these commodi ties, and will want in return what we have to sell." This is an epitome of Grant's Mexican policy, and seems to me fuU of far-reaching political wisdom and large patriotic views. It shows, too, how his mind took in the widest pur poses and most various aims ; for this same letter contains comments on the Administration of Garfield that indicate how keenly Grant resented the conduct of the Government 23 354 GRANT IN PEACE. of that day toward himself and his political friends. But just as he turned, in the moment of defeat at Chicago, to the con sideration of the resources of the country at the West, so, whfle suffering what he considered slights and rebuffs at the hands of his successor, he was devising a great international scheme to exchange benefits and productions with the neigh boring republic ; and later, at the very moment when another Administration refused his applications, he nevertheless ac cepted an appointment under it, for the sake of advancing the same enterprise. To my mind there is a greater magnanimity in his course because it was so difficult. He deserves infinitely greater plaudits because he felt keenly and stifled his feelings than if he had been a block, and insensible or indifferent to emo tions or circumstances. Grant was full of emotion when his own interests, or passions, or pride was concerned. His appetites were fierce, his temptations strong. If he rose superior to them, he merits and will receive a higher meed of praise. His nature was not stolid although it was restrained, nor unimpassioned because undemonstrative. He was no marble statue, that could feel neither heat nor cold, but a live man, human to the core. If you tickled him, he would laugh ; if you pricked him he would bleed. For such a man to subdue his emotions, to conquer his appetites, to master his passions, and perform the work that he achieved for his country and his time was as much grander than the dull per formances of those who are not tempted as humanity is greater than mechanism, or flesh and blood than wood or stone. CHAPTER XLI. THE GRANTS AND THE LINCOLNS. THE account of Lincoln's love-making, in his history by Nicolay and Hay, seems almost ominous when read by the light of later knowledge. The anxieties and forebodings and absolute agony of the future President on the eve of marriage — the most incredulous might say — presaged the destiny that impended. For no one knows the character of Abraham Lincoln, his godlike patience, his ineffable sweet ness, his transcendent charity amid all the tremendous wor ries of war and revolution and public affairs, who is ignorant of what he endured of private woe ; and no one rightly j udges the unfortunate partner of his elevation and unwitting cause of many of his miseries, who forgets that she had "eaten on the insane root that takes the reason prisoner." The country knows something of the strangeness of Mrs. Lincoln's conduct after her husband's death; but many of the most extraordinary incidents in her career were not revealed at the time, out of delicacy to others and tenderness to one who had been the sharer of Abraham Lincoln's for tunes and the mother of his family. Enough, however, was apparent to shock and pain the public sense, when finally the conflict with her own son, so highly respected, the dragging of their affairs into a public court, the necessary supervision of the poor lady's finances, the restraint of her actions, if not . of her person, disclosed the fact that her mind had been dis eased. This threw a light on circumstances until then inex plicable. It relieved Mrs. Lincoln herself from the charge of (355) 356 GRANT IN PEACE. heartlessness, or mercenary behavior, or indifference to her husband's happiness. It approved the action of the son, which, in some quarters, had been gravely misunderstood; and, above all, it showed the suffering Abraham Lincoln must have endured all through those years in which he bore the burden of a struggling nation upon his shoulders, whether he knew or only feared the truth, or whether he went on calmly in the sad thought that his worst forebodings before the marriage were fulfilled. The first time that I saw Mrs. Lincoln was when I accom panied Mrs. Grant to the White House, for her first visit there as wife of the General-in-Chief. The next occasion that I recall was in March, 1864, when Mrs. Lincoln, with the President, visited City Point. They went on a steamer, escorted by a naval vessel of which Captain John S. Barnes was in command, and remained for several weeks in the James River under the bluff on which the headquarters were estab lished. They slept and usually took their meals aboard, but sometimes both ascended the hill and were entertained at the mess of General Grant. On the 26th of March a distinguished party from Wash ington joined them, among whom I remember, especially, Mr. Geoffroi, the French Minister. It was proposed that an excursion should be made to the front of the Army of the Potomac, about ten or twelve miles off, and Mrs. Lincoln and Mrs. Grant were of the company. A military railroad took the illustrious guests a portion of the way, and then the men were mounted, but Mrs. Grant and Mrs. Lincoln went on in an ambulance, as it was called — a sort of half-open carriage with two seats besides that for the driver. I was detailed to escort them, and of course sat on the front seat facing the ladies, with my back to the horses. In the course of conversation, I chanced to mention that all the wives of officers at the army front had been ordered to the rear — ¦¦ a sure sign that active operations were in contem- THE GRANTS AND THE LINCOLNS. 357 plation. I said not a lady had been allowed to remain, except Mrs. Griffin, the wife of General Charles Griffin, who had obtained a special permit from the President. At this Mrs. Lincoln was up in arms, " What do you mean by that, sir ? " she exclaimed. " Do you mean to say that she saw the President alone ? Do you know that I never allow the Presi dent to see any woman alone .-' " She was absolutely jealous of poor, ugly Abraham Lincoln. I tried to pacify her and to palliate my remark, but she was fairly boiling over with rage. "That's a very equivocal smile, sir," she exclaimed : " Let me out of this carriage at once. I will ask the President if he saw that woman alone." Mrs. Griffin, afterward the Countess Esterhazy, was one of the best known and most elegant women in Washington, a Carroll, and a personal acquaintance of Mrs. Grant, who strove to mollify the excited spouse, but all in vain. Mrs. Lincoln again bade me stop the driver, and when I hesitated to obey, she thrust her arms past me to the front of the carriage and held the driver fast. But Mrs. Grant flnally pre vailed upon her to wait till the whole party alighted, and then General Meade came up to pay his respects to the wffe of the President I had intended to offer Mrs. Lincoln my arm, and endeavor to prevent a scene, but Meade, of course, as my superior, had the right to escort her, and I had no chance to warn him. I saw them go off together, and remained in fear and trembling for what might occur in the presence of the foreign minister and other important strangers. But General Meade was very adroit, and when they returned Mrs. Lincoln looked at me significantly and said : " General Meade is a gentleman, sir. He says it was not the President who gave Mrs. Griffin the permit,' but the Secretary of War." Meade was the son of a diplomatist, and had evidently inherited some of his father's skill. At night, when we were back in camp, Mrs. Grant talked over the matter with me, and said the whole affair was so dis- 358 GRANT IN PEACE. tressing and mortifying that neither of us must ever mention it ; at least, I was to be absolutely silent, and she would dis close it only to the General. But the next day I was released from my pledge, for "worse remained behind." The same party went in the morning to visit the Army of the James on the north side of the river, commanded by Gen eral Ord. The arrangements were somewhat similar to those of the day before. We went up the river in a steamer, and then the men again took horses and Mrs. Lincoln and Mrs. Grant proceeded in an ambulance. I was detailed as before to act as escort, but I asked for a companion in the duty ; for after my experience, I did not wish to be the only officer in the carriage. So Colonel Horace Porter was ordered to join the party. Mrs. Ord accompanied her husband ; as she was the wife of the commander of an army she was not subject to the order for return ; though before that day was over she wished herseff in Washington or anywhere else away from the army, I am sure. She was mounted, and as the ambu lance was full, she remained on her horse and rode for a while by the side of the President, and thus preceded Mrs. Lincoln. As soon as Mrs. Lincoln discovered this her rage was beyond all bounds. "What does the woman mean," she exclaimed, "by riding by the side of the President.' and ahead of me ? Does she suppose that Ae wants /ter by the side of Aim ? " She was in a frenzy of excitement, and language and action both became more extravagant every moment. Mrs. Grant again endeavored to pacify her, but then Mrs. Lincoln got angry with Mrs. Grant; and all that Porter and I could do was to see that nothing worse than words occurred. We feared she might jump out of the vehicle and shout to the cavalcade. Once she said to Mrs. Grant in her transports : " I suppose you think you'll get to the White House yourself, don't you .' " Mrs. Grant was very calm and dignified, and merely replied that she was quite THE GRANTS AND THE LINCOLNS. 35^ satisfied with her present position; it was far greater than she had ever expected to attain. But Mrs. Lincoln exclaimed ; " Oh ! you had better take it if you can get it. 'Tis very nice." Then she reverted to Mrs. Ord, while Mrs. Grant defended her friend at the risk of arousing greater vehemence. When there was a halt Major Seward, a nephew of the Secretary of State, and an officer of General Ord's staff, rode up, and tried to say something jocular. "The President's horse is very gallant, Mrs. Lincoln," he remarked; "he insists on riding by the side of Mrs. Ord." This of course added fuel to the flame. "What do you mean by that, sir.'" she cried. Seward discovered that he had made a huge mistake, and his horse at once developed a peculiarity that compelled him to ride behind, to get out of the way of the storm. Finally the party arrived at its destination and Mrs. Ord came up to the ambulance. Then Mrs. Lincoln positively insulted her, called her vile names in the presence of a crowd of officers, and asked what she meant by following up the President. The poor woman burst into tears and inquired what she had done, but Mrs. Lincoln refused to be appeased, and stormed till she was tired. Mrs. Grant still tried to stand by her friend, and everybody was shocked and horrified. But all things come to an end, and after a while we returned to City Point. That night the President and Mrs. Lincoln entertained General and Mrs. Grant and the General's staff at dinner on the steamer, and before us all Mrs. Lincoln berated General Ord to the President, and urged that he should be removed. He was unfit for his place, she said, to say nothing of his wife. General Grant sat next and defended his officer bravely. Of course General Ord was not removed. During all this visit simflar scenes were occurring, Mrs. Lincoln repeatedly attacked her husband in the presence of officers because of Mrs. Griffin and Mrs. Ord, and I never suffered greater humiliation and pain on account of one not a 360 GRANT IN PEACE. near personal friend than when I saw the Head of the State, the man who carried all the cares of the nation at such a crisis — subjected to this inexpressible public mortification. He bore it as Christ might have done; with an expression of pain and sadness that cut one to the heart, but with supreme calmness and dignity. He called her "mother," with his old-time plainness ; he pleaded with eyes and tones, and endeavored to explain or palliate the offenses of others, till she turned on him like a tigress ; and then he walked away, hiding that noble, ugly face that we might not catch the full expression of its misery. General Sherman was a witness of some of these episodes and mentioned them in his memoirs many years ago. Cap tain Barnes, of the navy, was a witness and a sufferer too. Barnes had accompanied Mrs. Ord on her unfortunate ride and refused afterward to say that the lady was to blame. Mrs. Lincoln never forgave him. A day or two afterward he went to speak to the President on some official matter when Mrs. Lincoln and several others were present. The Presi dent's wife said something to him unusually offensive that all the company could hear. Lincoln was silent, but after a moment he went up to the young officer, and taking him by the arm led him into his own cabin, to show him a map or a paper, he said. He made no remark, Barnes told me, upon what had occurred. He could not rebuke his wife ; but he showed his regret, and his regard for the officer, with a touch of what seemed to me the most exquisite breeding imaginable. Shortly before these occurrences Mrs. Stanton had visited City Point, and I chanced to ask her some question about the President's wife. "I do not visit Mrs. Lincoln," was the reply. But I thought I must have been mistaken ; the wife of the Secretary of War must visit the wife of the President ; and I renewed my inquiry. "Understand me, sir.?" she repeated ; "I do not go to the White House ; I do not visit Mrs. Lincoln." I was not at all intimate with Mrs. Stanton, ^;^^aiSi5<«i^^ yy^Z^s^^^>y^ (^ ^ ^.^^ c^^^ y. ty ^ / ... ^ 362 GRANT IN PEACE. and this remark was so extraordinary that I never forgot it ; but I understood it afterward. Mrs. Lincoln continued her conduct toward Mrs. Grant, who strove to placate her, and then Mrs. Lincoln became more outrageous still. She once rebuked Mrs. Grant for sitting in her presence. "How dare you be seated," she said, "until I invite you." Altogether it was a hateful experience at that tremendous crisis in the nation's history, for all this was just before the army started on its last campaign. But the war ended and the President and Mrs. Lincoln had already returned to Washington when General Grant arrived from Appomattox, bringing Mrs. Grant with him. On the 13th of April, Washington was illuminated in honor of the victories, and Mrs. Lincoln invited General Grant to drive about the streets with her and look at the demonstra tion ; but she did not ask Mrs. Grant. The next night, April 14th, was the saddest in American history. Not only General and Mrs. Grant, but the Secretary of War and Mrs. Stanton, were invited to accompany the President and his wife to the theatre. No answer had yet been sent when Mrs. Stanton called on Mrs. Grant to inquire if she meant to be of the party. " For," said Mrs. Stanton, " unless you accept the invitation, I shall refuse. I will not sit without you in the box with Mrs. Lincoln." Mrs. Grant also was tired out with what she had endured, and decided not to go to the play, little dreaming of the terrible experience she was thus escaping. She determined to return that night to Burlington, in New Jersey, where her children were at school, and requested the General to accompany her. Accordingly a note of apology was sent to Mrs. Lincoln, and Mrs. Stanton also declined the invitation. These ladies thus may both have saved their husband's lives. After the murder of the President, the eccentricities of Mrs. Lincoln became more apparent than ever, and people THE GRANTS AND THE LINCOLNS. 363 began to wonder whether her mind had not been affected by her terrible misfortune. Mr. Seward told me that she sold the President's shirts with his initials marked on them, before she left the White House ; and learning that the linen was for sale at a shop in Pennsylvania Avenue, he sent and bought it privately. She lingered at the Executive Mansion a long while after all arrangements should have been made for her departure, keeping the new President out of his proper residence. Afterward she made appeals to public men and to the country for pensions and other pecuniary aid, though there was no need for public application. She went abroad doing strange things and carrying the honored name of Abraham Lincoln into strange and sometimes unfit com pany, for she was greatly neglected, and felt the neglect. While I was Consul-General at London, I learned of her living in an obscure quarter, and went to visit her. She was touched by the attention, and when I invited her to my house, for it seemed wrong that the widow of the man who had done so much for us all, should be ignored by any American representative, she wrote me a note of thanks, betraying how rare such courtesies had become to her then. The next I heard of the poor woman was the scandal of the courts in Chicago, when the fact was made clear that she was insane. It was a great relief to many to learn it, and doubtless the disclosure of the secret which her son must have long suspected — though like the Spartan boy, he cloaked his pain — was to him a sort of terrible satisfaction. It vindicated his conduct ; it told for him what he had con cealed ; it proved him a worthy son of that great father who also bore his fate so heroically. The revelation not only showed these two as noble suffer ers, but redeemed the unfortunate woman herself from the odium for which she was not responsible. The world had known that she seemed to defy and malign her son, that she had appeared to do things unworthy of the wife or widow of 364 GRANT IN PEACE. the great martyr of our history, and even seemed to blot the nation's fame ; but the pitiful story of Miramar casts no reflection on Maximilian's Empress, and the shadow of insanity thrown across the intelligence of Mrs. Lincoln, relieves her from reproach or blame. Instead of a mocking figure, disgracing her name and station and country, she too becomes an object of commiseration, not knowing the purport of her own words or the result of her own deeds, or perhaps vainly struggling to restrain them both, and regretting in her saner intervals the very acts she was at other times unable to control. And Lincoln — who that reveres and loves his memory will not respect his character more profoundly, and feel that he has another and a tenderer claim upon our sympa thy and honor, since we know that even this cup did not pass from him. Amid the storms of party hate and rebellious strife, amid agonies — not irreverently be it said, like those of the Cross — for he also suffered for us — the hyssop of domestic misery was pressed to his lips, and he too said: " Father, forgive : they know not what they do." CHAPTER XLII. GRANT AND LOGAN. THE relations of Grant and Logan began almost with the war. Grant tells in his " Memoirs" of his anxiety about Logan's position in the early days of the great struggle. The future General-in-Chief was commanding a regiment which had yet not marched to the front, when he was approached by important people who wished him to allow Logan and McClemand to address his troops. As both these orators had been prominent Democrats, Grant hesitated at first to give the permission ; but he found Logan's speech full of fiery patriotism, and Logan's action at this crisis. Grant often declared, had prodigious influence with the people of the southern portion of Illinois. His personal popularity un doubtedly contributed to keep "Egypt," as the region is called, loyal to the Union. The occasion of Logan's speech was the first meeting between these two men, destined after ward to be so closely associated in politics as well as war. When I first went to Grant the praises of Logan were constantly on his lips. I had never met the great volunteer general at the time, and Grant never tired of telling me his history. So, too, when I wrote a volume on Grant's early campaigns, I got all my information in regard to Logan, first hand from Grant. He traced for me Logan's entire career, by his own side at Belmont, Donelson, Corinth, and in the Vicks burg campaign; and always said that Logan and Crocker were the two best generals from civil life that the war produced. (36s) 366 GRANT IN PEACE. On the death of McPherson, Sherman nominated Howard, the junior of Logan, to the command of the Army of the Tennessee, which Logan was holding temporarily. Grant did not agree with Sherman's estimate of the relative abflity of Logan and Howard, but he refused to interfere with Sher man's choice. Logan was bitterly disappointed, yet he re mained and served with unflinching zeal under the man who had been his junior, though Hooker at the same time, and for the same cause, requested to be relieved. This was not the only instance of magnanimity in Logan's career. In December, 1864, when Grant became impatient at what he thought the needless delay of Thomas at Nash- vflle, Logan was directed to take command of the Army of the Cumberland, and started to obey the order. This was the greatest promotion he had yet received and offered that opportunity for separate distinction which every soldier covets ; but when he arrived at Louisvflle, on his way from City Point, he received the news of Thomas's great victory, and instantly telegraphed to Grant, proposing that he should now himself return to his subordinate command. Such greatness of soul always recommended itself to Grant. But Logan was also capable of intense bitterness, and on one or two occasions his course was very different from what Grant could either indorse or admire. In General Sherman's " Memoirs " he described Logan and Blair as political gen erals, and assigned that as the reason why he had nomi nated neither to command the Army of the Tennessee. His language was unfortunate and gave great offense to both those officers. I have no doubt that Sherman himself afterward regretted its use ; but once uttered, the mischief could not be undone. Logan was as firm in his enmities as his friendships, and he never forgave Sherman this slur upon his mflitary reputation. In the course of time he be came a member of the Senate, and in all military matters his influence was almost controlling. It was his voice GRANT AND LOGAN. 367 which decided that Sherman should be retired from the com mand of the army at the age of sixty-four, though Sherman's friends, and many, or rather all, who were simply grateful for his transcendent services, strove earnestly for his retention. But Logan prevailed. It was a bitter revenge to set aside so eminent a man, his old commander, in the prime of his powers, and in the face of the world, as punishment for a few hasty words of ifl-judged criticism. I talked with Grant more than once on this subject ; he differed entirely with Logan, and although he considered Sherman's language injudi cious, he was stifl more earnest in condemning Logan's course. So, too, Logan was unrelenting in his pursuit of Fitz John Porter. He came nearer quarreling with Grant on this point than at any other stage of their long intimacy. I hap pened to be in Washington a day or two after Grant's first letter in behalf of Porter was made public, and Logan spoke to me very bitterly on the subject ; more harshly indeed than I ever cared to repeat to Grant, though doubtless what was said was meant for repetition. But I did not wish to be the means of creating a mpture, and merely told Grant that Logan felt very sore. Each maintained what he thought the proper course, and after a whfle Logan's asperity, at least towards Grant, was softened, though he never ceased to condemn Grant's action. But their relations were hardly interrupted, and finally became as warm again as ever. On Grant's side there had never, indeed, been any coolness, nor perhaps is coolness the word for Logan's feeling; it was heat; heat towards Porter, that boiled over even on Grant. There was also a time while Grant was President, when a difference arose between them that threatened to provoke antagonism, but this was no difference of principle, it was personal purely; and when the occasion passed, the temper of each was ap peased, and they became better friends than ever. Grant, indeed, was very grateful to Logan for his political as well as military services. In the final effort for a " third 368 GRANT IN PEACE. term," Logan's action was as important and as steadfast as that of any other man ; and Grant never forgot those who stuck by him in this critical emergency. When he wrote his "Memoirs," he took unusual pains to say what he thought would gratify Logan ; he enlarged the passages that described Logan's excellences, and was de termined to paint him in the liveliest colors. His heart was in the tribute that he paid his friend, and all the more because of the shade of difference that had passed across their life. time intimacy. Logan in return was loyal to Grant when business misfortune and calumny came. Grant would have preferred Logan to succeed Hayes, to any other man ; and in the last months of his life he often spoke of Logan, always with warmth and admiration and affection. Logan, like Grant, attempted to write his "Memoirs," and he, like Grant, was mortified at his political failures ; he too was tortured by financial troubles ; and he too was cut off before he reached old age. He did not stay long behind after Grant had departed. He had followed his chief in his cam paigns of conquest, in his political life, in his literary attempts, and kept step with him at last in that great march from which there is no return. CHAPTER XLIII. GRANT AND HANCOCK. HANCOCK and Grant were at West Point together. They were good friends there, and Hancock used to call his future chief by the familiar nick-name of "Sam Grant." Long afterward, during the Wilderness campaign — it was the day after the great attack at Spftttsylvania, when Hancock reported : " I have finished up Johnson and am now going into Early " — Grant nominated Hancock for brigadier- general in the regular Army. Hancock remembered the old relationship of the cadet time, and said to the brother-in-law of the General-in-Chief, who told him the news : " I love Sam Grant." The regard was mutual. At one moment in the battle of the Wflderness things looked very dark ; Warren had been driven back at the center, and a rush of stragglers came bur. rying in towards Grant's headquarters with the news that Hancock was routed. Grant was seated on the ground whit tling a stick ; he simply turned the stick around and whittled the other end ; and when it was again reported that Hancock had been driven, he said grimly, " I don't believe it." In a few moments word came directly contrary to the earlier rumor. Instead of retreating, Hancock had pushed the enemy. Then Grant looked up and said with as much enthusiasm as I ever knew him betray : " Hancock's a glorious soldier." He never changed this opinion. Hancock was always given the advance, or the exposed position. He bore the brunt of the battle of the Wilderness ; he made three terrible 24 ( 369 ) 370 GRANT IN PEACE. assaults at Spottsylvania; he led the march to the North Anna ; he was in the thickest at Cold Harbor. His troops were the first of the Army of the Potomac to come up before Petersburg, and in the subsequent movements on both sides of the James, at Deep Bottom, and at the explosion of Burn- side's mine^ — always, until the opening of an old wound com pelled him to leave the field, Hancock was given the command which required the most superb daring, the clearest head, the most sustained military ability. More than once I heard General Grant say that if Meade were removed he should give the command of the Army of the Potomac to Hancock. In the march from Cold Harbor to the James, Grant's headquarters came up with Hancock at the point where Long Bridge had once crossed the Chickahominy. Whfle the troops were passing, the commanders dismounted, and Grant, Hancock, and Meade were stretched on the grass together with their officers around. Never were three great soldiers more in complete personal accord. There was no assumption on the part of Grant, and the feeling of camaraderie was per fect. They chaffed each other; they told stories of West Point and the frontier ; they discussed the movement in which they were engaged ; and finally Meade referred to some resolutions of a Pennsylvania convention nominating Hancock for the Presidency. Both Grant and Meade poked fun at Hancock for this, and he good-naturedly received it afl. Indeed, it rather tickled him. He was not appointed a brigadier in the regular army for Spottsylvania, but Grant was persistent and in August nomi nated him again. This time the promotion was conferred. In 1866 the grade of general was created for Grant. This made Sherman lieutenant-general and left a vacancy among the r»ajor-generals, to which Grant promptly nominated Hancock, who thus received both his promotions from his old cadet comrade. But during the Reconstruction period, they took different GRANT AND HANCOCK. 371 sides. Grant believed that Congress was right in the long struggle with Andrew Johnson, but Hancock espoused the views of the President. Grant at first had no suspicion of the leaning of Hancock, and when it became apparent that Johnson was determined to remove Sheridan from command at New Orleans and substitute Hancock, the General-in- Chief sent a staff officer to warn him of the purpose of the President, and of what he considered its mischievous tendency. Hancock, however, was ordered by Johnson to report at Washington before he went to New Orleans, and Grant, who was now convinced that Johnson's course was full of danger to the country, went in person to visit Hancock at his rooms in Willard's Hotel to put him on his guard. But Hancock had already determined on his conduct, and was not to be affected by Grant's advice or urging. From this time their relations were strained. Hancock proceeded to New Orleans against the wish of Grant, deter mined to carry out Johnson's policy, which the General-in- Chief believed to be almost treasonable, and which he had been directed by Congress to thwart. Hancock constantly issued orders in conformity with the views of the President, which Grant as constantly overruled. Finally Hancock asked to be relieved, and the request was granted. There never again was any pleasant intercourse between them, and there were times when each supposed the other had been discourteous. Grant was told that Hancock came to his headquarters and wrote his name without paying the General- in-Chief the courtesy of a further visit ;. and remarks of each were repeated to the other, not calculated to encourage amiable sentiments. But there was no positive hostility. When Hancock was nominated for the Presidency, Grant, in the privacy of his own house at Galena, uttered some caustic criticisms to an indiscreet visitor, which the same day were telegraphed to the entire world. Among other things he said that Hancock was "ambitious, vain, and weak." 372 GRANT IN PEACE. Hancock at first refused to believe that Grant had used the words ; but, though they had not been meant for the public, Grant could not and would not disavow them when the reporters rushed for confirmation or denial. Then Hancock was very much hurt, and I doubt whether a reconciliation could ever have been effected. In his last days General Grant more than once spoke to me of this circumstance and regretted the pain he had given Hancock. He was generous in his praise, and, though he criticised what he thought foibles and even graver faults, he declared that he ought not to have used the words which Hancock disliked. This Hancock never knew; but with equal nobility he bore his part in the great funeral over his ancient chief and comrade. The majestic character of those rites that attracted the attention of the world was greatly due to the tender care and chivalrous punctilio of him who thought the dead chieftain had wounded him. The soldiers had fought their last fight and ended every difference. Each at the last was full of soldierly and brotherly generosity for the other. CHAPTER XLIV. GRANT AND CATACAZY. IN the first year of Grant's Presidency, Mr. Constantine de Catacazy was appointed Minister from Russia to the United States. I was a Secretary of Legation at London at the time, and Andrew J. Curtin, of Pennsylvania, had just been made Minister of the United States to St. Petersburg. The new American plenipotentiary passed through London, and when I called on him he said he was not ready to pro ceed direct to his post, and asked me to signify to Baron Brunnow, the Russian Ambassador in London, whom I knew, that the delay was not occasioned by any disrespect or dis courtesy. Accordingly, I called on the Ambassador, who was a per sonage of distinction in European diplomacy. He was then full seventy years of age, had participated in the negotiations and discussions that preceded the Crimean War, and been prominent in all the international affairs of the Continent afterward; a courtly, stately, wily, clever old diplomatist. He received me cordially, and, when I made known my errand, promised at once to advise his Government of what Curtin had desired. He knew that I had been the private secretary of Grant, for it is -the business of diplomatists to know everything that relates to governments or their mem bers, or even subordinates ; and he seemed to think at once, "I may make use of this young man; I can say things to him I could not say to his Minister." Perhaps, also, he thought he could extract things from the young man which ( 373 ) 374 GRANT IN PEACE. he could not extract from the Minister ; but this design was not so conspicuous as the apparent desire to be confidential. He evidently wanted to convey certain information to the American Government. He first told me that Russia was about sending a new envoy to the United States, and then the crafty old fox of an Ambassador, full of his diplomatic and aristocratic pride, took the arm of the democratic secre tary, and walked up and down the long rooms of Chesham House, giving what he hoped I would report, — his opinions of Catacazy. He did not like his cofleague, that was clear. He said Catacazy was not high-born, was even of obscure origin, but clever, after a fashion, had led a somewhat scan dalous life, though that didn't hurt him in Brunnow' s esti mation, and that he was a favorite and prot6g6 of Gortchakoff, at that time the Russian Prime Minister; all of which in formation I carefully garnered up and forwarded to Washing ton in advance of the arrival of the plenipotentiary. This was in the summer of 1 869. In the autumn I returned to Washington and found Cata cazy already established. He was a man of effusive manners, professing great friendship and admiration for most of those he met, saying the most agreeable things, but without the art to make his hearers believe that his utterances were sincere. His flatteries were too fulsome, his falsehoods too plain. He was easy, but not elegant in behavior, smirked too much to be dignified, and there were few who admired, though many perceived, his phase of cleverness. He tried to make himself acceptable to everybody, entertained liberally, paid all his visits and social duties punctiliously, yet was unmistakably vulgar. His wife, though long past the freshness of youth, was still beautiful, — a tall, golden-haired, graceful German woman; whfle he was short, ugly, and scrubby. Madame Catacazy had been sold — married they call it in Europe — when she was the merest girl, to an Italian prince, who was in diplo- GRANT AND CATACAZY. 375 macy, a man of fortune as well as rank, and old enough to be her grandfather. She was very averse to the bargain, but that mattered little to those who made it, and she became a princess and an Ambassadress. After a while the diplomatic pair appeared in Brazil, where the young Catacazy was then a Secretary in the Russian Legation. He pleased the eye or the fancy of the unwilling wife, and one day there was a great scandal in Rio Janeiro. The Italian Ambassadress was missing, and no one could account for her disappearance. Search was made in every direction, for it was feared she had been kidnapped or had committed suicide. In the con fusion which so great a social event created the simultaneous absence of the Russian Secretary was not at first observed, they had concealed their liaison so cleverly. But, in a week or two, the couple were discovered living in a cottage in the outskirts of the Brazilian capital. Catacazy was recalled from the court of Dom Pedro, and his princess went with him. In due time there was a divorce or a death, I forget which, and madame was free, and married the Russian Secretary. Such little episodes do not affect the diplomatic career of a rising Russian, especially if he has a Prime Minister for a patron, and Catacazy was pushed in his profession. He went about to various courts and countries, and was at one time Secretary of Legation at Washington. But his chief forbade him to bring his partner to the capital, and the lady was not at that time introduced into American society. After twenty years, however, Catacazy was made Minister to the United States. It was, perhaps, supposed that his his tory had been forgotten. But the ladies remembered it, and those who were in power held a consultation as to whether the envoy's wife should be received. Of course, none of the austere would have dreamed of visiting her had they and she been in private station ; but in public life things are differ ent, and it was decided to ignore her past, lest to notice it 376 GRANT IN PEACE. might complicate international relations. So Madame was visited. It was not the only time in the history of the Repub lic when diplomatic women have obtained a position or an absolution, which as private persons they might have failed to secure. There have been cabinet councils of the ladies under other Administrations on similar points, and with the same result, and doubtless there will be again, so long as women are frail and men betray. The newcomer was declared fascinating by the men. She dressed with gorgeous taste, and her superb neck and arms, long, golden hair, and melting eyes made many think that Catacazy's sin had not been without its provocation. Their house was attractive, after a fashion ; gay, but not elegant. There was high play, and the tone was, as might have been expected from the rank and antecedents of its mistress, courtly, but not gM. Catacazy's colleagues complained that the Minister and his wife played against each other. She staked high, and he low, and Madame's partners always lost. They do such things in Paris, too, but not, as a rule, in di plomatic circles. Catacazy once thought it worth his while to attempt to win my good will, and asked for a copy of my History of Grant, which he wanted to have translated into Russian. I am ashamed to confess that I was elated at this proof of the popularity of my book, and told it to General Grant. " Why, Badeau," said the President, " do you believe him .? " From which it may be judged that Grant had begun to fathom the character of the plenipotentiary. I never heard any more about the translation ; but Catacazy was not the only foreign minister who wanted to translate Grant's his tory when he was President, and afterwards forgot to carry out the plan. The next summer I returned to Europe, and remained abroad for several years, so that I can only tell this part of my story at second-hand. Catacazy being a born intriguer, GRANT AND CATACAZY. 377 soon got into complications of a personal character with the State Department. It is an intricate story; there was a claim of Americans against the Russian Government, on account of arms furnished during the Crimean war. The claim was not pressed very earnestly by the State Department, yet Catacazy seemed very much concerned ; it was the only important business intrusted to him by his Government. At any rate, he resorted to the newspapers, and published attacks on the State Department, and even on the President and his family, which were traced directly to his pen. Sworn affidavits proved the authorship. When he was called to account, his denials were so lame, and his excuses so transparent that they could not be received. Still he persisted in annoying and even maligning the Government to which he was accredited, and finally the American Minister at St. Petersburg was directed to procure his recall. In the meantime, both the President and the Secretary of State refused to receive him at their houses. But Gortchakoff was his patron, and Catacazy was unwill ing to be removed in disgrace. Just at this time the Grand Duke Alexis, son of the Czar, was about visiting America, and it would have been inconvenient to insist on a change of ministers at such a juncture. The Russian Ministry was fuUy aware how disagreeable Catacazy's presence was to the American Government, and nothing is better established than the right of a Government to refuse to receive an unacceptable Minister ; in private life gentlemen may decline communications borne by unwelcome messengers, and for Gortchakoff to persist in retaining an envoy displeasing to another Government, was in itself a discourtesy. At any other time the objectionable representative would have been peremptorily dismissed. But the Administration was unwill ing to take this step on the arrival of the son of the Czar. The conduct of Russia during our civil war had not been' forgotten, and the Government shared the grateful feeling 378 GRANT IN PEACE. which the entire country entertained. It was a personal feel ing, too, for the Autocrat directs the policy of his empire absolutely ; and the obligation was to the Emperor himself. So Catacazy was allowed to remain. The Grand Duke arrived, and Catacazy presented him to the President. But the Secretary of State first informed the Minister explicitly that his words and actions must be limited to the most formal ceremony. He was not to offer his hand to the President, for it would be refused ; he must merely say : " Mr. President, I have the honor to present, etc., etc." If he attempted any further conversation, Mr. Fish assured the Russian he would himself interrupt and expose the situa tion to the company. Thus warned, the envoy submitted ; he did not deviate from his instructions, but performed his ignoble role to the letter. It was also signified to the suite of the Grand Duke that although rather than offend the majesty of friendly Russia, the President had tolerated the presence of Catacazy on this occasion, it would be impossible to invite the envoy to dinner. The President would be very glad to entertain the Prince in this way, and to offer him every courtesy, but he could not in clude the offensive Minister. The invitation was declined, doubtless through the influence of Catacazy. In this way the son of the greatest Imperial friend that America ever had was precluded from receiving the hospitalities which the Govern ment was most anxious to extend ; and while the whole country was preparing him banquets Alexis quitted Washington with out dining with either the President or the Secretary of State. Immediately after the Grand Duke's departure Catacazy was recalled. He had produced a diplomatic embarrass ment and was therefore in disgrace with his own Government. The Emperor exiled him for a time; he was ordered to remain in Paris, and not to write to the newspapers; but he disobeyed and published an open letter in this country on the subject of his difficulties with the State GRANT AND CATACAZY. 370 Department; for this his pension was stopped by his Gov ernment. The sons of Czars, however, are not used to any circum stances but those that are agreeable, and the memory of the Grand Duke's visit rankled. A year and a half afterward, Marshall Jewell was appointed Minister of the United States at St. Petersburg. He himseff described to me his reception. Upon his arrival at the capital, it was much longer than usual before any arrangements were made for his presenta tion to the Czar. The delay was so marked, and the bearing of the courtiers so constrained, that neither could have been accidental. Finafly, the Minister was informed that the Czar would receive him. He was kept waiting half an hour in the ante-chamber, before His Majesty appeared, with his gloves on, and ready for a drive or a ride. The Minister was taken up to him, and Alexander, without extending his hand, simply halted for a moment, as he was passing, and exclaimed " Your Government did not treat my son Alexis well;" and then moved on; and this was the greeting from the majesty of Russia to the representative of the United States. Years after this when General Grant went to Europe, it was thought that the feeling of the Imperial family had still not been dispelled ; and the American Minister of that day, Mr. Boker, was anxious that the ex-President should not visit Russia, lest unpleasant circumstances might occur.* *0n the 4th of May, 1887, Mr. Boker wrote to me: " I did advise General Grant against going to Russia, because on my presentation to the Emperor, he used this language ; ' I am grateful to the American people for their treatment of my son Alexis ; but not to your Government not to your Government, Sir.' These words Alexander uttered in a towering passion. I asked Prince Gortchakoff, as was my simple duty, for an explana tion of these words ; but from him I obtained more words than satisfaction. " You may remember that I saw General Grant in London while you were there. He informed me that he intended to visit 380 GRANT IN PEACE. General Grant often talked the matter Over with me, and always said that he was not going to Russia for the pur pose of visiting the Emperor. If his Majesty chose to welcome him, he should be happy to receive his courtesies, but if otherwise, he would not be uncomfortable. He wanted to see the country, and study the people and their institutions. Accordingly he determined to go. Upon his arrival the successor of Mr. Boker waited upon Prince Gortchakoff, and was informed that the Czar would be happy to receive General Grant. An interview was arranged; the General went to the palace accompanied by the Minister, and was met by Prince Gortchakoff, who ushered him into a room where the Czar awaited him. Alex ander at once came forward, gave General Grant his hand and led him to a sofa, where they sat for half an hour discuss ing the politics and characteristics of the two countries. The Czar spoke tolerable English, and when he was at a loss for a word, Gortchakoff, who stood behind the sofa, came to his master's aid. Alexander seemed very curi ous. General Grant told me, to know how an American President made his Cabinet, and how he dealt with trouble some subordinates, and the two exchanged experiences. The Russia, and I then advised him against doing so, fearing that he might be coldly received, or not received at all by the Emperor. From London I returned to St. Petersburg ; and on mentioning to Prince Gortchakoff General Grant's proposed visit, Gortchakoff advised against it in a manner that was almost menacing. Before General Grant reached St. Petersburg, I was on my way home, and I was glad to read in the newspapers that his visit passed off with out any serious result. " On public occasions it was the custom of the Emperor to ask the Ambassadors and the Ministers after the health, etc., of the Heads of their respective Governments. These questions the Emperor never asked me, although I as regularly said, before the Emperor could get away from me : ' I am happy to inform your Majesty that the President is in excellent health.' " GRANT AND CATACAZY. 381 Czar evidently desired to show the greatest respect to the ex-President of the United States. He treated him with a freedom from forms which showed that he thought Grant's position almost, if not quite, on a level with his own; but there was no subsequent invitation. The palaces and gal leries were thrown open to the General, but he was not invited to dinner. CHAPTER XLV. GRANT AND SICKLES. THE career of Sickles came in contact with that of Grant on several interesting occasions. They met for the first time when Grant visited Washington to receive his commission as Lieutenant-General. It was at a levee at the White House. Lincoln, Stanton, and Grant stood in a group at the south end of the great East Room ; and Grant, all suffused, looked like a lion at bay, as the crowd pressed up and passed him, shaking his hand. The experience was new to him then, and it was his first visit to the capital, "Besieged by friends, even you must surrender. General," said Sickles, as he was presented by Stanton. "Yes," re plied Grant, " I have been surrendering for two hours, until I have no arms left." He could be humorous in his way, though he did not often attempt a pun. Prior to Grant's arrival at the East, the reorganization of the Army of the Potomac had been determined by Stanton, Halleck, and Meade, and among the changes which then occurred was the consolidation of the Third corps with the Second. It was a cruel and unnecessary act, wounding the pride of the members of the corps, and striking at the very basis of soldierly enthusiasm; for the Third corps had a brilliant record, and it was hard to lose its identity in that of another organization. Sickles, the commander of the corps at Chancellorsvifle and Gettysburg, had lost a leg in the last-named battle, and was of course unfitted to return to the field; but he went at once to the new General-in-Chief to protest against the absorption of his old command. (382) GRANT AND SICKLES. 383 Grant, however, thought it wise not to interfere in the organization of the Eastern army, for he had determined to leave matters of administration to Meade. He was always careful to commit as much executive power as possible to his immediate subordinates; and to overrule both Halleck and Meade in this matter would have provoked ill-feehng at the moment of assuming his own new functions, besides being contrary to all his usual course. Sickles appreciated the situation, and though he would have been glad to procure a re -institution of his historic corps, he bore no malice to Grant because he was unsuccessful. In September, 1865, Sickles was placed in command in South Carolina. He had been a Democratic Congressman before the Rebellion, and intimate with many Southern poli ticians, as well as conversant with important civil affairs. His appointment to supervise this portion of the conquered territory was therefore appropriate. When Grant visited the South by Johnson's orders in the first winter after the war, he found Sickles with his headquarters at Charleston, busily engaged in the endeavor to build up the prosperity of the State. Grant at this time hoped that pacification would proceed with rapid steps, and was in favor of manifesting the most lenient spirit toward the fallen enemy. He had long discussions with Sickles, that lasted late into the night, receiving the opinions of his lieutenant, and basing his own directions upon them, for the two were in complete accord. I accompanied Grant on this tour and remember well with what warm approval he spoke of Sickles's course. Sickles gave General Grant a dinner during his stay and asked many important Southerners to his table to meet the Commander of the Union armies ; among them ex-Governor Aiken ; Orr, who had been Speaker of the House of Repre sentatives, and an intimate friend of Sickles in other times ; Trenholm, the Confederate Secretary of the Treasury; Magraw, the last of the rebel Governors of South Carolina, 384 GRANT IN PEACE. and Trescot, the rebel diplomatist. All were animated by a grateful feeling toward the hero of Appomattox; all were submissive, and anxious to conform to the terms which he had proposed ; and Grant himself was still in harmony with the President. There were stanch Union men also present and several prominent soldiers of the command, among whom I remember General Devens, afterward Attorney-General under President Hayes. Altogether it was a remarkable company. One little circumstance connected with the dinner be trayed the straits to which the most important Southerners had been reduced by the war. When Aiken received his invitation he at once called on Sickles and said he should be happy to avail himself of the courtesy, but his wardrobe would not allow him to show proper respect to the General- in-Chief. He did not possess a coat such as gentlemen wear at dinner ; he had nothing indeed but the homespun suit made in the Confederacy during the Rebellion ; for all sup plies from abroad had been intercepted by the blockade ; and thus one of the greatest landholders at the South, the owner once of a thousand slaves, a man at the very head of the aristocracy of South Carolina, was unable to appear at dinner, without, as he feared, displaying disrespect to the illustrious guest, by his attire. Sickles, however, assured the Governor that General Grant would be happy to meet him in his every-day suit; and the courtly gentleman came in gray and discussed with the Union Chief the affairs of the country, the prospects of the South, the amehoration of the condition of the blacks and whites. The table and the fare were both impromptu and smacked of the camp and the results of war almost as much as the garb of the company. Grant was never punctflious in dress, and at this time in his career even less so than afterward; he wore no epaulettes and his uniform coat was unbuttoned; but the interest and grace of the occasion and the importance of the conversation equaled any of the GRANT AND SICKLES. 385 later entertainments offered him abroad, surrounded by the elegance and glitter of a court. Sickles carried out his instructions faithfully. He was, as I have said, fully inspired with Grant's own desire to treat the conquered with magnanimity ; but as time wore on, and the policy of Johnson was developed, with all its unfortunate results upon the temper and ambition of the South, he, like every other Union soldier of importance on the ground, determined to do what he could to enforce the measures enacted by Congress. He shared the sentiment of Grant and Sheridan and Pope and Meade and Halleck and Canby, all of whom believed that the law was to be obeyed. Efforts were made by the Administration to obtain his support. It was remembered that he had been a Democrat before the Rebel Uon, and when it was perceived that he seemed inclined to follow Congress rather than the President, he was offered first the collectorship of New York, and then various diplo matic positions, which would of course take him from South Carolina and leave his place to be filled by an adherent of the Administration. The mission to the Netherlands was proposed to him with the suggestion that after a while he should be sent to France. But Sickles before replying to the proposition wrote to Grant, and declared that unless the General-in-Chief desired a change he would prefer to remain in his military command. Grant had no wish to supersede Sickles by any successor, and so informed him, and Sickles declined the diplomatic appointment. As the difference between Grant and Johnson ripened, he became a still more active coadjutor of Grant in carrying out the Congressional policy. Though not offensive in conduct or language, he made it apparent that he considered the de clared will of Congress the law of the land, and when Con gress had definitely pronounced and been endorsed by the people, there was no one more resolute or efficient than he in his obedience both to the law and to Grant to whom the en- 25 386 GRANT IN PEACE. forcement of the law was especially committed by the Legis lature. In consequence the President became as hostile to Sickles as to Sheridan or Pope. Sickles had been appointed a Colonel in the regular army by Johnson on the recommenda tion of Stanton and Grant, after the visit of the General-in- Chief to his command ; and he was one of the District Com manders under the Reconstruction system ; but he was also one of those removed by the President during the period when Sheridan and Stanton became the objects of Johnson's hostility. But Grant stood by Sickles as he did by Sheridan. When the two generals arrived in Washington from their commands, the General-in-Chief held a reception at his house to mark his approval of their course. The party was largely attended by officers of the army and navy and the diplomatic corps, and was almost the first public expression of Grant's antag onism to President Johnson. But he did not confine his demonstrations to social courtesies. One of the first execu tive acts of Grant as President was to offer to re-instate both Sheridan and Sickles in the positions from which his prede cessor had removed them. In the meantime, however, the situation had changed. The Congressional policy was trium phant, and there was no need for Sickles's return, while Canby, his successor, had proved as faithful as he, and a re-instate- ment might seem a reflection on one who rather deserved reward. Sickles, therefore, did not desire to be restored. Grant did not insist and the ex-Congressman was made a full Major-General on the retired list of the regular army, — one of the highest honors paid to any soldier after the war, whether a graduate of West Point or from the Volunteers. The relations of the United States with Mexico, I have already shown, were always a matter of keen interest to Grant ; and when he entered upon his Presidential functions he hoped to negotiate a cession of territory from the sister Republic. With a view to accomplishing this design, the GRANT AND SICKLES. 387 mission to Mexico was tendered to Sickles through the State Department in the first month of Grant's Administration. It is within my personal knowledge that Grant particularly desired that Sickles should accept the post, for he had a high idea of his intelligence and of his dexterity in dealing with political problems ; but, after deliberate consultation, in which Sickles was included, it was decided that no effort should be made at that time for an extension of territory in the direction of Mexico. The independence of Cuba and Porto Rico and the emancipation of the slaves in the Antilles, both Sickles and Rawlins held, were worthier objects of Grant's foreign policy. Rawlins, indeed, not only advocated intervention in the dispute between Cuba and the Mother Country, but was anx ious to acquire the Island, and Grant himself was by no means averse to the idea. With these views, Rawlins sug gested to Sickles the position of Minister to Spain, and the Secretary of War even went in person to New York to urge the proposition, which, according to etiquette, should have proceeded from the State Department. Sickles, however, was unwilling to give up his rank in the army ; and it was arranged that he should be retired for the purpose of receiv ing the diplomatic appointment. Officers on the active list were at that time prohibited from holding diplomatic posi tions, but the law did not apply to retired officers. This point was very fully discussed by the President, the Secre tary of State, and the Secretary of War ; and finally Sickles consented to be retired and to accept a leave of absence from the War Department, which would enable him to serve under the Department of State as Minister to Spain. In all this arrangement Grant took the liveliest interest. I have explained in earlier chapters the difference of opin ion between Secretary Fish and General Rawlins in regard to the policy that Grant should pursue toward Spain. While Rawlins was for recognition of the independence of Cuba and the speedy acquisition of the Island by the United States, Fish thought the difficulties with England should 388 GRANT IN PEACE. have precedence. Nevertheless, a negotiation was begun under Sickles at Madrid that promised to accomplish the peaceful purchase of Cuba while Prim was Prime Minister of Spain. A document was forwarded by Sickles to the State Department — not as a part of the public archives, but for the confidential knowledge of the Government, in which Prim declared himself ready to treat for the sale of the Island to the Cubans, the United States to become security for the purchase bonds, and to take a mortgage on the Island in return. This, it was supposed by all concerned, would result in the transfer of Cuba to this country. Prim especiafly stipulated with Sickles that his part in the agreement should not be made known during his lifetime ; the proposition must seem to proceed from other sources ; for he declared that not only his political position and influence, but his very life, would be endangered if the jealous Spaniards discovered pre maturely that he was arranging for the cession of Cuba under any circumstances. He saw, however, that Cuba was a drag upon Spain, that both the Island and the Mother Country would be benefited by the arrangement, and that it was only the stupid pride of Andalusia and Castile that stood in the way. But his assassination put an end to all these schemes. Rawlins also died in the first year of Grant's Administration, and the loss of his influence and advocacy was fatal to the policy he had so much at heart. There was no one in the Cabinet to uphold his views with equal energy, and Grant conformed to those of the Secretary of State. Cuba was not acquired; and when Sickles perceived that the object pro posed for his mission was not to be attained, he resigned. But General Grant told me during the last months of his life that if Rawlins had lived, he believed Cuba would have been acquired by the United States during his Administration. While Grant was in Europe circumstances again brought Sickles into peculiar relations with his former chief in war and politics. The ex-Minister was living in Paris after his departure from Spain, and had become interested in French GRANT AND SICKLES. 380 affairs and intimate with Thiers, the famous ex-President of the re-established Republic. Thiers, however, had fallen before Grant went abroad, and MclMahon was President, with a strong leaning toward legitimacy. In June, 1877, the situation in France was complicated. The real Repub licans were out of power, and an election was approaching which might overthrow McMahon's allies. Upon General Grant's arrival in London it was at once seen that his pres ence in Paris might be used by the McMahon party as an opportunity to pose as friends of the great republican general of America, and the more radical Frenchmen became very anxious that his visit should be postponed until after the elections. \^'ashburne, once the intimate friend of Grant, was then Minister to France, and he wrote to the ex-President advising that he should not make his visit at this juncture. But the counsel made little impression, and was not, indeed, very ur gent. The relations of the two had not of late been close, and whether the French politicians had learned this fact or no, Thiers addressed Sickles and asked him to proceed in person to London and explain the situation to Grant. For Thiers took it as certain that Grant's sympathies would be with the Republicans, and that he would conform to their wish and delay his visit to Paris ff he understood the circumstances. Sickles at once undertook the mission. He traveled to London, and explained to Grant the belief of the French republicans that his presence might be made a weapon in favor of the re-actionists. Mrs. Grant was present at the interview. It was she who had hitherto been anxious to visit Paris at this time, but she at once consented to defer her shopping and her sight-seeing, so as to spend the sum mer in Switzerland and Germany. General Grant accord ingly changed his plans, and in a day or two left London for Belgium. His visit to Paris took place some months later. The elections had occurred in the meantime, and the Liberal 390 GRANT IN PEACE. party had triumphed. If McMahon cherished any of those intentions which afterward brought about his downfall, they were postponed ; and it is possible that General Grant's action contributed to the stabflity of the Republic in France. At least, the greatest of French statesmen at that epoch thought it worth while to commit the mission to Sickles which I have described. Sickles returned to Paris, arriving late in the day, and as soon as possible made his way to the residence of Thiers to communicate the result of his embassy. The ex-Presi dent was living at the mansion rebuflt for him by the Government after the destruction of his house by the Com mune. He dined early, and later in the evening was accus tomed to receive the world in a stately salon of this building in the Rue George. But there was always an interval after his simple dinner before the crowd arrived, and often the old statesman seized this moment to snatch a little sleep. Thus, when Sickles was announced, Thiers was lying on a sofa behind a screen at the further end of the salon, sleeping ; but Madame Thiers received the envoy. She wished at once to waken the ex-President, but this Sickles would not allow, and he remained in conversation with the old lady, until Madame Doche, her famous sister-in-law, entered. Of course, he paid his compliments to this lady, and while they were talking, Madame Thiers also dozed. Then came in Barthelemy Saint Hilaire, once the private secretary of Thiers, and after ward a member of his cabinet. He also wished to waken Thiers; but still Sickles said, "Let him sleep"; and during this discussion Madame Doche fell into a doze. The three old people were used to this little refreshment before the entrance of the general company; and thus the American plenipotentiary, entrusted with a political errand that was thought important to the peace of France, found the ex-Presi dent and his venerable family all asleep when he went to communicate the result of his journey. CHAPTER XLVL GRANT AND ROMERO. NO account of General Grant's career would be complete that left out a relation of his intimacy with Mathias Romero, so long the Mexican Minister to the United States ; — an intimacy that began in public and international affairs of the highest consequence to their respective countries, and reached into their private relations, that connected them in business and diplomacy, that was marked by instances of generous feeling and personal appreciation on both sides, and lasted till death broke the bonds which had attached them for more than twenty years. Their friendship was the more remarkable because Grant, as a rule, was not fond of foreigners ; in the early part of his prominence he was not at all a cosmopolitan, and with rare exceptions all through life he confined his intimacies to men of his own nationality. His own peculiarities were so marked and his identity with his country-people so strong that he could not readily share the feeling of those of an entirely different race, nor throw himself into the situation of men bred under entirely differ ent institutions. But Romero, though of the Latin blood, was an American and a republican, the representative of a country that had been attacked at the same time, and, as Grant believed, in the same interest as the Union ; and these circumstances first created and then fostered a very genuine sympathy between them. General Grant first met Romero in the autumn of 1864, whfle the national armies were lying at City Point investing (391) 392 GRANT IN PEACE. Richmond. The Mexican Minister arrived at the headquar ters with his countryman. General Doblado, bringing letters from the Secretary of State; and the two foreigners spent several days in the camp of the General-in-Chief. Grant paid them every courtesy and sent me with them to visit first General Meade at the front of the Army of the Potomac, and afterward General Butler, who commanded the Army of the James. The peculiar interest which Grant had always felt in the success of the Republic in Mexico made him especially glad to receive these representatives of the Republic. He assured them of his sympathy and good wishes, discussed the situation in their country very fufly, and interchanged views upon the steps that should be taken to hasten the expulsion of the French and Maximilian. After this Grant and Romero were not thrown together until four or five months later, when the end of the Southern Rebellion enabled the victorious general to convert some of his views in regard to Mexico into action. When Grant arrived in Washington, after the surrender of Lee, Romero promptly called on him, and Grant informed the Minister of the purport of his orders to Sheridan, for the cavalry general had been sent at once to the Rio Grande to watch the Mexican frontier. From this time the Northern soldier and the Southern diplomatist worked in harmony. Grant, as I have earlier shown, was extremely annoyed at the delay in the action of our own Government and thought the French Emperor should have been notified at once to withdraw his troops from Mexico. He had many conferences with the Mexican Minister on the subject; even expressing a desire to go at the head of an army himself and assist the Mexicans in driving out the invader. Doubtless the patriots got new courage when they heard through their representative how stanch a friend they had in the head of the Union armies, and their efforts were redoubled with the knowledge of his sympathy and the hope of his support. GRANT AND ROMERO. 303 I was present at many of the conversations of these aflies, and had especial charge of those of their papers which Grant was unwflling to expose to ordinary official inspection. Some of them it would hardly be proper even now to make public. Romero furnished Grant with constant information from his own Government and country, and many an intercepted dis patch have I translated, predicting or discussing events in Europe as well as in Alexico that were thought likely to affect the destiny of the neighboring State ; letters describing the failing health of Napoleon III, the anxieties of Carlotta, the manoeuvres of Maximilian, and even the intrigues in the United States which complicated our own politics with those of Mexico. When at last the end of the feeble empire came Grant often told me his views. He was very stern, and thought that the pretender to a throne should be punished as severely as any other traitor. Because Maximilian was of royal blood did not lessen his offense, and that he was of foreign origin intruding his ambitions into a country where he was unwel come heightened in Grant's eyes the enormity of his crime. He more than once said in my hearing that Maximilian ought to die; and he told me that he made the opinion known to Romero, who he supposed found means to communicate it to his Government; not of course in official documents, for diplomatists are not in the habit of entrusting such secret matters to public dispatches ; they have other channels than those accessible to Congressional resolutions. But although neither Grant nor Romero chose to commit himseff by recorded expressions. Grant always believed that his tacit condemnation o*f the invader had its weight. It is certain that had he raised a finger Maximilian would have been saved. But it was pollice verso ; the thumb was turned breastward. This apparent harshness, however, was due to public considerations, not to hostility toward an individual. Grant 394 GRANT IN PEACE. believed it necessary to show European monarchists that they could not with impunity attempt to set up institutions on this continent menacing to our own ; he thought the blow offered to Mexico was in reality meant for this country ; and he considered that no such effectual lesson could be taught imperial enemies of this republic and of all republics, as the punishment of a princely offender. He had been lenient, as the world knows, to his own countrymen when they had rebelled, and never in his career was he cruel with any per sonal reason; but now, as in the Wilderness and in the Valley of Virginia, grave public considerations overcame the natural softness of his nature. Such action may be as truly magnanimous in the original meaning of the word, as the clemency that is more admired ; and had Grant not pos sessed the quality of a Brutus he would not have achieved what he did for his country and his own renown. But there are few Americans with whom it is necessary to defend his action toward the unfortunate Maximilian. When the Mexican Republic was reestablished, Romero was recalled to a place in the Home Government — a fitting reward of his services, which were indeed the most arduous, and perhaps the most effectual rendered to his country in her time of trial. For this representative had the true diplomatic talent ; he perceived the influence of General Grant at this crisis, as well as his sympathies, and did his best to increase the one and avail himself of the other. The intimacy he established with the victorious General was of vast import ance to his own country, and the use he made of it was both patriotic and legitimate. General Grant not only shared but enjoyed the intimacy, and was anxious that it should be tumed to the account of Mexico. Romero had been constantly recognized as the Mexican representative by our own Govern ment, but of course he exchanged no courtesies with the Ministers of France and Austria and England; his diplomatic consequence was therefore lessened, but Grant took every GRANT AND ROMERO. 305 opportunity to show him deference and attention, and thus enhance his consequence; and Grant's own position was so peculiar at this time that any civilities from him possessed unusual importance. Before Romero left the United States he had the gratification of presenting the family of the Mexican President, Juarez, at Grant's house. The French Minister, with his wife, was present on this occasion, and Grant took pains to treat his republican guests with signifi cant distinction ; a fact doubtless reported to the Tuileries by the imperial envoy. As soon as Grant was elected President he opened a correspondence through me with Romero, who had now returned to his own country ; the nature of this I have else where described ; but during the period of Grant's two administrations Romero remained in Mexico, and each was engaged in the affairs of his own nation. They exchanged no direct communications for eight years. Subsequently, however, the Mexican was again sent to the United States as Minister, and then resumed his inti macy with General Grant. In 1880 the ex-President paid a visit to Mexico and Romero took pains to ensure him such a reception as it was fitting the re-established Republic should pay to the man who had been its stanch and power ful friend when it most needed friends. Whfle in that coun try General Grant conceived the idea of developing the resources of Mexico in her own interest and that of the United States, and on his return to the North Romero naturally became interested in such views and plans. At this time General Grant organized a company in New York for the purpose of building a railroad from the City of Mexico to the frontier of Guatemala, with branches both to the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific ; he even returned to Mexico to make the necessary arrangements with the Government there. Romero was connected with this enterprise. His relations at home enabled him to procure important conces- 396 GRANT IN PEACE. sions from the Governor of one of the Mexican States, and these he transferred to the company of which Grant was President. But neither the General nor the Envoy was im properly interested in the business. Their connection was patriotic and public, and pure in every way. The enterprise proved unsuccessful at the time, but I never heard that any one was injured financially by the temporary failure. During this period, while General Grant was pressing upon the business community and upon statesmen the im portance of developing both political and commercial rela tions with Mexico, President Arthur appointed him Commis sioner to negotiate a treaty of commerce with that country. Romero was appropriately designated by the Mexican Gov ernment to meet him, and the two were thus associated in a work conceived in the fairest spirit to both countries, and which both believed would result in large benefits to the United States and Mexico. The treaty, however, met with opposition from parties in each country who thought their own prospects would not be benefited by the prosperity of all. Accusations were made of personal and illicit advantages sought by both Grant and Romero, which both repudiated. Indeed it is within my personal knowledge that the ap pointment of Commissioner was unexpected to Grant, and for a while he hesitated whether to accept or refuse the position. His relations with Arthur were not agreeable at the time ; he was displeased with the President's course, and had criticized his Administration freely. He always thought the offer was made to please or placate him at a time when he was indignant at other actions of the President. He accepted the appointment from public motives purely. The Government, however, showed scanty interest in the treaty, and exerted itself only feebly to procure its confirma tion, whfle the opposition from interested quarters was persistent ; General Grant himself had no longer power or patronage to exert or offer to stimulate support, and the GRANT AND ROMERO. 397 treaty never became international law. Its failure was a source of disappointment and mortification to Grant. He was pained to find that his influence was so insufficient and his views so unimportant with those who controlled affairs ; and that neither the weight of his past services nor the gravity of his arguments, enforced by so wide and varied an experience, could bring his country to approve the policy that he proposed. He had many notions in regard to an American system on the American continent which one would suppose would have attracted the approbation both of statesmen and the country. His desire to increase the influ ence of the United States, to extend her territory, and to develop relations with all the sister republics was incessant : but the time seemed not ripe. He was not destined to achieve so much additional renown as the inauguration of a Continental policy would have insured. It was enough for one man to play the most important part in the salvation and reconstruction of the Union. But in the future, when some other statesman shall elaborate and carry out his views and accomplish the unity of relation and interest of all the American republics, it should be remembered that Grant foresaw the result and was anxious to bring it about in his time. Those who belittle his statesmanship wfll then, perhaps, recognize its far-reaching character and lofty in tentions. In all this Continental policy Romero was the worthy colleague of Grant. No diplomatist has ever been accredited to this country who established more intimate relations with the important personages of the State ; who appreciated bet ter the national institutions and character ; who played the legitimate rdle of a foreign minister with greater skill or success. For he had everything against him ; even for a while, it seemed, the indifference of our own State Department, certainly the listlessness of the people, the antipathy of race, and the difference of creed and language. 398 GRANT IN PEACE. But he conquered some of these prejudices first in Grant himself, and then with Grant's aid was able to do a great work for his own country and to attempt the binding of the two republics with closer ligaments of mutual prosperity. When General Grant fell into misfortune and for a whfle even his good name was assailed in many mouths, when he was tortured by the apprehension of absolute want, and hosts of rich and powerful and intimate friends of his pros perous hours forgot to enquire if he needed money — the man of another race was the first and almost the only one to offer pecuniary assistance. Those who had benefited by Grant's success — not only the men who like the whole country owed the existence of their wealth to the triumph of his arms, but others whose individual advancement and fortune were directly traceable to their connection with him — neglected to say, "General, can we help you.'" But Romero, the Mexican, came to him at once and insisted on lending him a thousand dollars. If he had not so insisted. General Grant would have suffered for want of money. After this their relations became almost tender. Grant accepted the temporary assistance, and was grateful. Romero was much with him in the last summer the General spent at Long Branch, and when Grant became seriously fll, Romero was one of the first to whom he confided his situation. After this the latter was frequently by the side of the friend of his nation. He sat quietly by the sufferer for hours, anxious to indicate his sympathy, and Grant was always pleased to have him there. Romero even visited the dying General at Mount McGregor, and in the midst of his suffer ings and anxieties the hero turned from his pains or his liter ary labor, to write when he could not talk, on Mexican affairs, and to manifest his interest even then in that country for which they had striven so earnestly together. The faithful diplomatist followed his great coadjutor in the procession that conveyed the remains of Grant to their GRANT AND ROMERO. 300 last resting-place at Riverside. Nothing in the entire and varied story of the soldier-President is more characteristic, although exceptional, than this friendship begun in public and international affairs, continued into a personal intimacy, and lasting through disasters and successes alike unexampled in American history, down to the moment when the great shadow fell that divides in one moment the closest friends and leaves of the warmest affection nothing but a memory. CHAPTER XLVII. GRANT AND HIS FRIENDS. GENERAL GRANT'S friendships were like everything else in his life — various in character and result, some times adding to his dignity and happiness and renown, some times unfortunate in the last degree. He was the friend of General Sherman and of Ferdinand Ward, of Dr. Newman and Hamilton Fish, of George Child and the King of Siam, of Rawlins, Belknap, Babcock, Sheridan ; of a man named Hillyer, now forgotten, and of Abraham Lincoln ; of Roscoe Conklin, Fitz-John Porter and John A. Logan. Many of his early friendships were not with distinguished people, but the manner in which he adhered to these was characteristic of the man, and explains some of the circum stances in his career that have been most criticised. Grant, as every one knows, stepped very low in his fortunes after leaving the army. He bought a farm, but did not succeed in farming ; he cut wood and drove it to St. Louis ; he tried collecting money ; he sought petty office and failed to obtain it ; and altogether was more unsuccessful than most men who have had the advantages of education and position which a graduate of West Point enjoys. Yet at this time he must have displayed some very lovable qualities ; for among the ordinary men with whom he associated there were many who did him kindnesses. Hillyer was especially able, and willing, to befriend him ; he lent him small sums of money ; and others stuck to him when the world looked askant. In Galena a year or two later his friends were also numer- (400) GRANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 401 OUS, though he was still obscure. They were themselves of the plainer Western sort, but not like some of those whose company he fell into at St. Louis. They, perhaps, had not the opportunity to do him the same service ; indeed, at this period he did not need the same assistance, for he had become a clerk for his father and brother, with the prospect of part nership in a somewhat prosperous business. Earlier than these associations of St. Louis and Galena was his army life ; not perhaps very different from that led by most young soldiers at that time, in California, Oregon, Mexico, among the Indians, and on the Canada frontier. As an army officer he was of course thrown among the better class of citizens everywhere, and in the army itseff he met most of the men who afterward became famous on the North- em or Southern side in the great war. When Grant grew into fame and importance — after he had led the armies that destroyed the Rebellion, when he became prominent as an almost certain candidate for the Presidency — most of these earlier associates of every sort revived, or sought to revive, their relations with him. Some of his firmest friendships were with his former West Point comrades. Though he was absolutely free from the pedantry of West Point, I have never known a man whose associations there affected afterward his relations with men more remark ably. A chum at the Academy, a tent-mate in Louisiana or Mexico, always had a claim upon him that he recognized. He preferred West Point men as soldiers, he loved them as friends. Whether it was prejudice or partiality, or what not^ he thought higher even of Sherman and Sheridan because they were graduates of the Academy; and all through the war and afterward men like IngaUs and Wallen and Dent had peculiar relations with him because of this earlier intimacy. Some richly deserved the retention of the tie ; others not at afl ; but whether they deserved it or not the camaraderie of the cadet Iffe and of camp lasted with Grant to the end. In 26 402 GRANT IN PEACE. the concluding months of his life General Tower, whom he had seldom met during the war, and not very often afterward, went to his house and discussed the Mexican campaigns, and Grant at once mellowed toward him in an unusual way. The St. Louis friends of the inferior sort were among his worst enemies. These men traded deliberately on the little services they had been able to render him when he was in need ; they reminded him of those services, not always in words, but by their presence : sometimes they went further, to my knowledge, and he was not wflling when he became prominent 'to turn his back on those who had befriended him in his adversity and obscurity. He did not say this in words, but it was very evident. Men and sometimes women came to him for benefits who did not deserve what they asked for, who did discredit to him and to the country if they were thrust into important positions ; but he refused to forget their former conduct, and unfortunately the association did not always prove creditable in his new position. There was a certain nobflity in this gratitude, although it might perhaps have been better shown in another way. But he would not consent to thrust aside the people who once had done him kindnesses ; and they being mean, or being human, and discovering his feeling, availed themselves of it fully. I do not think, however, this was always gratitude in Grant, so much as a pride in not doing the ordinary ignoble thing of turning away in the hour of success from those whose friendship he had once been glad to claim. This he could not stoop to. The burden of the obligation seemed heavier in these instances than for far greater services ren dered afterward. Later in his career he felt, I think, that the distinction of association with him and the benefits he was able to confer, compensated for any service his friends per formed for him. He was glad to aid or advance his friends, as the world knows, but he was fully conscious of all the advantages or honors he bestowed. He never spoke of these ; GRANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 403 but in his inmost soul he felt the full weight of every obliga tion he imposed, and after his greatness became conspicuous I am not sure that he thought what was done for him was any more than he deserved, whether from the country or from individual friends. Of course, he made no display of such a sentiment, and there are many who will not consider it a fault or even a failing in a man like him to be conscious of the importance of his own services, whether to the State or to his friends.Grant's friendships were divided and distributed in a very pecuflar way. He had military friends, political friends, per sonal friends, and did not confound the different varieties. He gave one man his entire confidence in one phase of life, but kept him utterly aloof in another. He used one man's qualities in a certain direction, but ignored them altogether in a different business. Sherman was certainly during the war his most intimate military friend, and very dear to him personally, but he and Sherman differed constantly on politi cal subjects, sometimes almost to the brink of dispute. When the third term movement was at its height, Sherman refused to say one word in favor of Grant and thought Grant felt the silence ; yet neither Sherman's silence nor Grant's feeling affected their relations one particle. Then, Grant had political intimates who never got near to him at all as a man ; he acted with his Cabinet, he consulted them, he kept often from others the secrets he shared with these, but, except with Rawlins, he had no personal relations with any of them, such as he maintained with several other friends ; perhaps I should except Borie from this category ; and certainly Grant had a profound personal regard for Fish, but he never confided to his Secretary of State, details of intimate thought and feeling such as Rawlins and possibly Borie shared. Borie was very close to Grant personally. He played cards, and whoever of Grant's intimates did this, had a peculiar hold upon him. For cards had a singular fascina- 404 GRANT IN PEACE. tion for him. He was extremely fond of all games in which skill and chance are combined ; perhaps they suggested war ; and when a man whom he liked in other affairs or for other reasons played with him, that man could become very intimate. But very few of his important or personal associates liked' cards as he did ; so that most of his comrades at the whist or poker table were men to whom his political or military or personal secrets were unknown. The fellowship in one direc tion was dropped entirely in another. I think that after the death of Rawlins I knew Grant as closely as any one except Mrs. Grant ; but there were whole phases of his life if not sides of his character that were rarely revealed to me ; some, it may be, I never learned. He never discussed his business relations with me, though I saw much of him in the years in which he was a business man. He used to tell me what -enormous profits he drew as a member of "Grant & Ward" ; how rich he thought his son Ulysses had become ; how much money Ferdinand Ward was making; but he never described the details or the ventures by which and in which the money was accumulated ; and I never asked. He even invited me to invest with the firm, and promised unusual interest, but how the interest was derived he did not disclose. We know now that he did not know himself ; but I thought it strange at the time that he was so reticent. I fancied he was silent because he doubted my business judgment. Alas ! if he had had more business judgment of his own there would have been no need for silence.So, too, there were many details of his family affairs of which I was unapprised. It is true I avoided the knowledge ; after his sons became grown men I did not desire to intrude upon either their or his affairs, and even while I lived at his house and was working with him on his " Memoirs " I sought to keep aloof from the minutiae of his business and of that of his family. All mention of the Vanderbilt correspondence was thus at first withheld from me ; but finally the General him- GRANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 405 self took me into his confidence on this subject, though the family very naturally had not desired to do so. There were, on the other hand, matters which he confided to me that he did not disclose to Mrs. Grant or to his sons, though at times I begged him to impart to them the intelli gence which only I had shared ; but he still declined. He never, I believe, gave all his confidence on every subject to any human being. Of course, however, his wife and family and his closest friends saw more in him than he supposed they observed ; and perhaps discovered points in his charac ter which were less apparent to himseff than to those whose eyes were sharpened by affection and Iffelong intercourse. But though General Grant had the apparent wisdom to select the side that he wished to show to any man, he was not always wise in selecting the individual to whom he showed it. The greatest mistakes in his career, the greatest misfortunes of his life, came from his mischoice of friends. He sometimes seemed to know men marvelously well ; he detected the aims and wishes and characters of many who were close or sought to be close associates ; but at other times he was absolutely blind to arts and traits that were apparent to many lookers on. Those who professed admira tion and devotion could win their way very far, and some times very easily with him ; and many of these used him for their own purposes and to his harm. Ferdinand Ward is, of course, the conspicuous example. I remember telling Horace Porter of the enormous sums that Grant thought he was making in business, and Porter, as a business man, replied that it was impossible to make them legitimately ; that there must be something wrong of which the General was ignorant. He told me afterward that he went once to Grant's house to warn him against Ward, whose conduct seemed to him dangerous if not suspicious, but that while he was there Ward was announced and the manner of the General to his partner was such that Porter, Grant's former secretary and aide-de-camp, did not feel warranted in uttering what he 406 GRANT IN PEACE. feared. It would probably have been useless to attempt to interfere. Mrs. Grant herself had her anxieties and suspi cions in regard to Ward, but was unable to insinuate them. More than once, indeed, she cautioned General Grant against his intimates, but in vain. He was the most steadfast man imaginable when his friends were assailed. If this was a fault, how rare, how noble a failing ! Grant's friends or professed adherents often failed him. He lost many absolutely in his long career. Soldiers who had once served him, as well as the country and the cause, with hearty fidelity ; political champions, early followers, fell away. Others injured him more because they professed to adhere. His political career was blighted by those whom he sustained in evil report and good report ; his Presidency was less brilliant than it might have been because of the mistakes and misdeeds of others ; though there were some, doubtless, who suffered unjustly because ignominy cast on them reflected odium on Grant. His business fortunes of course were ruined by those whom he trusted absolutely. Yet Grant had also as stanch and loyal friends as any man in history ; men who worked for him steadily, and sacrificed or subordinated their own interests to him and his fame. Of course it may be said that they were rewarded, for at one time he had the power to reward nearly every service that could be rendered him ; and who can say that service rendered to such a man is absolutely pure ? But men have fallen away from others as great in station and power as he ; and many adhered to Grant in his adversity. There were eras in his life when he needed all his friends and all their efforts ; all through his military career, in the Johnson imbroglio, during his two Presidential terms, in the struggle for a third, in the frightful financial disaster toward the end, under the cloud that for a while threatened to obscure even his fame- — -God knows he needed friends, and he always found them as stanch as he deserved. No man has such friends and keeps them unless he earns them. CHAPTER XLVIIL GRANT IN HIS FAMILY. I FIRST saw Grant at Nashville soon after the battle of Chattanooga ; hts wife and his youngest child were with him, and this was typical of all I knew of him. It is hard for me to think of him apart from his family. All through the war, Mrs. Grant visited him whenever he remained for a whfle in a town, and even in the field she often shared his tent or cabin when the armies were not engaged in active operations. In 1877 I wrote to him asking for information in regard to her visits, for my history of his campaigns, and he answered from Paris : " I cannot give you definite information as to dates when Mrs. Grant visited me at City Point. She went there, however, soon after my headquarters were established there. She returned to Burlington, N. J., after a short visit, to arrange for the children's schooling, and went back to City Point, where she remained with the exception of two short visits to New Jersey until Lee's sur render and my return to the national Capital. Mrs. Grant made a short visit to me — the first time after leaving Cairo ¦ — ¦ at Cor inth, next at Jackson, Tenn., then at Memphis, where I left her when I went to Young's Point, one or two days before running the Vicksburg batteries, and at Vicksburg after the surrender. She again visited me at Nashville." I venture to add what I wrote after this in my history. It was submitted to General Grant and read to his wife, and approved by both. Indeed, every line in my history was read by him before it finally went to the printer, and had his sanc- (407) 408 GRANT IN PEACE. tion as completely as any portion of his more "Personal Memoirs." With this knowledge the following passage has a peculiar significance. It is what he was willing should be said to the world : " The wife of the Commander-in-Chief had often spent a few weeks with him in camp or siege or when he was quartered in a captured town. At Memphis, Vicksburg, Chattanooga, NashviUe, she had joined him, and now again in front of Petersburg. His children, too, visited him, the eldest only fourteen years of age at this time [1864], the youngest seven ; and the man who directed the destinies of armies, and was unalterable in his decisions when , he believed them right, who ordered the devastation of the Valley of Virginia, and went unshrinking through the Wilderness cam paign, was as bland and playful with his wife and children as the humblest soldier in the ranks before he went to war. All the simplicity and gentleness of his nature came out in this compan ionship. He had been married sixteen years, and still seemed to find his greatest solace in the domestic relations, while, like a true woman, the wife was interested in whatever concerned him, anx ious to relieve him from petty cares, proud of his success, but never trenching beyond her proper sphere, exercising all her woman's influence to soothe and support, never to vex, or annoy, or disturb." I have no word to withdraw from this picture now. It was written ten years ago, and I spent many hours in close companionship with its subjects afterward, in a still greater intimacy with each than I had then enjoyed. I saw them in all the pageantry of their European tour; I accompanied them to palaces and arranged their invitations and their travels; I was with them in America amid the aspirations after a third term, in the defeat of those desires, and in the retirement to comparative privacy; I was their frequent guest both at Long Branch and in New York. Mrs. Grant said to me more than once that the General wished me to consider his house one of my homes. I went to them in the GRANT IN HIS FAMILY. 409 first distress after the failure of Grant & Ward, and I spent seven months under their roof in the last year of General Grant's existence, when the terrible shock of the cancer came, during the prolonged suspense, and when we all thought that the end had arrived; so that at the crises of their double Iffe for nearly twenty years I was a witness, as close and intimate, when all the circumstances are consid ered, as that Iffe ever knew; and I venture — I trust without indelicacy, for General Grant's private life is a matter of importance to mankind — I venture to testffy. There is nothing that the sur\'ivor should be unwilling to disclose or that I need shrink to reveal. No more beautiful domestic life can ever be known. General Grant's regard for his wffe was constant, tender, true ; the worthy love of a worthy nature; trustful, absolute, unceasing ; in great things and small anxious for the happiness of its object. He would do anything to gratffy his wife in her merest fancy or most momentary whim ; while, in important affairs, Mrs. Grant did not overstep the line which both perceived, though possibly neither ever indicated it to the other. She did not strive to affect or change her husband's judgment in matters of strat egy or public policy. She never dreamed of influencing his military decisions or his political ones, except in regard to individuals. Like all women, she was full of personal feeling, but it was feeling about and for her husband. If she wanted a man deposed or supported, it was because she believed him true or false to Grant; and her instincts were sometimes nearer right than his judgment. She, of course, may have erred, but her motive was pure. In personal matters, up to a certain point, her influence was undoubtedly great ; but after the point was reached, even in personal matters. Grant was immovable. Mrs. Grant wanted many things done which she was unable to accomplish. There came times when the General distmsted her judgment, thought her prejudices or 4IO GRANT IN PEACE. partialities affected her unreasonably, and then he did not yield, at least ever to do injustice. He may sometimes have gratified her by advancing a friend whom she favored higher than he would otherwise have done, but he also supported others whom he believed that Mrs. Grant unjustly dis approved. He would not overthrow a man in whom he trusted, though there were occasions when it would have been better for him had she succeeded. In greater than personal matters she always simply urged him to follow his own judgment and conscience. I know of more than one instance when political or other important influences were brought to bear, and almost warped his judg ment, and she simply but strongly advised him to do what he thought right, and perhaps induced him to do it ; though he, as little as any man, I believe, required such inducement. Mrs. Grant shared many of her husband's secrets, but not all ; and never those of others which were meant for him alone. He more than once spoke to me of matters which he said he had not disclosed to her. He used to say, to tease her, that after his first election to the Presidency, he had to get up in the night and examine the waistcoat he had put under his pillow, lest she should have discovered the list of his Cabinet that he kept in the pocket. But this was only to tease her ; he had as much confidence in his wife as any man that ever lived. In nearly every letter he wrote to me, he sent a message from her, who was indeed my faithful friend. He read to her every page of my history that I used to send him in advance, and many a time has he written that she commended lines about which he would only say, "They are so personal that I can make no comment." She shared his interest in my work and his approval of its character. In the first years of my intercourse with Grant I was greatly impressed with this influence of his wife, and the impression deepened until the last. Nobody can understand his character or career who fails to appreciate this ; no one GRANT IN HIS FAMILY. 4II who did not know him intimately can ever say how much Mrs. Grant helped him ; how she comforted him, and enabled him to perform his task, which, without that help and solace, I sometimes thought might never have been performed. She deserved of the country all the honor and deference it ever paid her, and all the comforts it ever bestowed. She soothed him when cares oppressed him, she supported him when even he was downcast (though he told so few) ; she served him and nerved him at times when he needed all she did for him. But in those early years during the war and the first portion of his Presidency, indeed during all the period in which General Grant achieved his greatness, his children were only playmates and objects of affection for him. They were too young to understand his efforts and duties and anxie ties. Jesse, the only one whom I ever saw much with him in the field, was a child of only seven }'ears, a toy, a delight to his father, and of course was cherished deeply, but that was all ; the others were at school ; he hardly saw them, and when he did, of course they could not influence his action or perceive its object or results. In Washington, all through the terrible anxieties of the Andrew Johnson time, they were stfll chfldren. He was fond of them, but he did not then impress me as more tender than many other fathers, though deficient in no parental duty or sentiment. I left his side after the first months of his Presidency, and saw little of him for the next seven years, but I met all of his children in Europe — the daughter first. She was then just seventeen, the sweetest, most natural, most delightful of American maidens. She was received almost as a princess in England. General Schenck was American Alinister at London at the time, and he determined that the daughter of the Presi dent should be treated with respect according to English rules. He cafled on the Minister for Foreign Affairs and announced that the daughter of the President of the United States had arrived in London. In a day or two the Foreign 412 GRANT IN PEACE. Secretary replied that the Lord Chamberlain had informed him Her Majesty would be happy to receive Miss Grant at a private audience at Buckingham Palace, together with the lady who accompanied her, and the Minister of the United States. Now " Nellie Grant," as the country called her, had been sent abroad by her mother to take her out of the way of half- grown admirers ; she had never worn a long gown in her life till she arrived in England, but as the President's daughter she was the object of a very natural attention. Mr. Borie, Grant's former Secretary of the Navy, was sailing for Europe with his wife, and Mrs. Grant requested Mrs. Borie to take "Nellie" with her. It was a great favor on Mrs. Borie's part, but she was happy to consent. She thought, however, that she was to take a schoolgirl, and she found she had a half-fledged princess on her hands. She .did not want to go to Buckingham Palace, and inquired if the daughters of the Minister could not accompany Miss Grant. But the Queen had not invited those young ladies, and they could not propose themselves. Then, too, Mrs. Borie had no gown to wear to court, but this difficulty was overcome, and she went to the palace, like a lady "in attendance" on the little girl she had expected to chaperone. I gave Mademoiselle a garden party while she was in London and was delighted with her ease and self-possession. She stood by my side and smfled with democratic grace on duchesses and marchionesses as they made her the same curtesy they made to royalty ; for the higher their own rank the more profound the prostration they performed. On the return voyage, the young lady met her fate. Mr. and Mrs. Borie were both iff and kept their staterooms while Miss Nellie remained on deck. There she fell in with a young Englishman, Algernon Sartoris, and before they reached America the mischief had been done that she was sent to Europe to avoid. "Neflie Grant" was engaged — GRANT IN HIS FAMILY. 413 and to an Englishman. Sartoris told me how he asked General Grant for the young lady's hand. With all the awe of an Englishman for the Head of a State, he was invited to dinner at the White House, knowing what was expected of him. After dinner the President led the way to the billiard-room and offered him a cigar. " Then," said Sartoris. " I knew my time had come. I waited and hoped the Presi dent would help me, but not a word did he say. He sat silent, looking at me. I hesitated, and fidgetted, and coughed, and thought I should sink through the floor. Finally, I exclaimed in desperation — ' Mr. President, I want to marry your daughter.' " It took a bold man to say that to General Grant, but doubtless the boldness recommended him, for Sartoris carried away the prize. His mother, Adelaide Kemble Sartoris, said something to me once which, as she is no longer living, I may repeat ; it shows the English notions so completely. I paid the young couple a \dsit soon after their marriage. They were living with the father of Sartoris, in the south of England ; and one afternoon when the pair were together in the garden, for the honeymoon lasted a long while, Mrs. Sartoris, the elder, was telling me how much she liked her daughter-in-law. "Neflie is not at all bumptidus," she said. "Soon after her arrival we were making five o'clock tea, and Nellie asked to help. I consented, of course, and she exclaimed : ' I never made tea before in my Iffe.' " Then Mrs. Sartoris gravely remarked, " It had not occurred to me before, but of course a President's daughter had never made tea ! " I said, " Cer tainly not ! I suppose she had never before made tea " ; but I didn't explain that five o'clock tea was unknown in America at that time. I was not going to take down my princess a peg. Another of General Grant's children visited England whfle I was there. "Buck," as we cafled Ulysses junior, was a law clerk in New York, and went to London with one 414 GRANT IN PEACE. of the firm with whom he was studying. The lawyer had business in England and took Ulysses to do the copying, but when they arrived he was worse off than Mrs. Borie. The son of the President and "the gentleman who accompanied him " were invited everywhere. When they drove out "Mr. Grant" was put on the front seat, and "the gentleman" behind ; when they were announced at dinners and parties in English fashion, it was Mr. Grant who preceded ; and their real relations were reversed in the most ridiculous manner. I was having a holiday at the time, and they took my house off my hands for a month or two. They went about a great deal in London, I was told, and were both more than popular, and " the gentleman who accompanied Mr. Grant " made the most of his opportunities. But all this passed away. The children of General Grant had their day. Then came sorrow and humiliation. Every one knows that the beloved chief went into business and was wronged ; that he and his lost their all ; that the sense of his disgrace rather than the loss of fortune, struck to the soul the man who had been honored by the world. The long and terrible story has been told. The nation is familiar with it. And then in the sorrow that was worse than a cancer, General Grant clung to his family. Then I — and I believe even they — first fully discovered how dear they were to him. His love for his wife remained what it had always been ; all that the love of a husband could be for the partner of his greatness and his poverty, his joys and his griefs, during more than thirty years ; a beautiful spectacle of domestic affection in as great and striking vicissitudes as earth can ever know. But the passion for his children was now developed into something exceptional and almost unreason ing. He admired the talent of his sons as if it had been extraordinary ; he declared Ulysses had a marvelous business capacity ; that Colonel Grant was fit to command armies ; that Jesse was a mathematical genius. All the world knows GRANT IN HIS FAMILY. 415 how he labored for them after he had been given up for dead ; how he revived to struggle on their account. His passion was pathetic. It reached out almost from the grave toward those children for whom he was suffering. Fle never believed for a moment aught against their good name any more than against his own. He lived for them ; he died for them. All this was revealed in those last months of his existence, and I have no doubt the feeling was heightened by his ill ness ; the protracted parting not only aggravated his sufferings but intensified his affection, until one was as harrowing as the other. He not only did not know until the last how profound his feeling was, but while he lingered, the feeling grew from day to day, as the cancer did, downward and inward into his nature, till at last it consumed him. At the end he forgot fame ; he was past even patriotism ; but his last glances and thoughts and heartbeats were for her with whom he had become one flesh, and for those who were bone of his bone. After his death a paper was found on his body addressed to his wife and containing his last injunctions to her regarding their children. CHAPTER XLIX. THE LAST DAYS OF GENERAL GRANT. ON Christmas Eve, 1883, General Grant seemed to him self and to the world a healthy and prosperous man. He was sixty-one years of age, full of mental vigor, and physically as strong, if not as active, as he had ever been. He was engaged in business that brought him in an ample income, and he told his intimate friends that he was worth a million of dollars. He passed that evening at the house of an acquaintance and went home in a cab about midnight. As he alighted he turned to hand the driver a fare, and in doing this his foot slipped on the ice, for the weather was • cold and wet, and the rain froze on the pavement. He fell to the ground and was unable to rise. The driver got down from the box to assist him, but the General was suffering acutely, and the man was obliged to call for help from within doors. A servant came out, and General Grant was carried up the steps into his house, which he was never to leave again a well man. The family at the time consisted only of Mrs. Grant and a young niece, with the servants. Mrs. Grant was naturally very much alarmed, but the General declared that the injury was not serious, and although he was almost senseless from pain he refused to allow a medical man to be summoned. In the morning his son Ulysses, who lived near, was brought, and he at once sent for Dr. Fordyce Barker, the family phys- cian, who pronounced the case one that required surgical treatment, and cafled in Dr. Lewis A. Stimson. The injury (416) FALLING ON THE ICE. THE LAST DAYS OF GENERAL GRANT. 417 was thought to be the rupture of a muscle in the upper part of the thigh, and although after the first few days the suffer ing was less, any quick or sudden movement of the limb was so painful that the General was unable to move in his bed without assistance; he did not leave it for weeks. A few days after the fall he suffered an attack of pleurisy, which also at first occasioned excruciating pain, but was not abso lutely dangerous. The effects of this accident detained General Grant in the house many weeks, but after a while he was able to hobble about on crutches, and in March he went, by the advice of his physicians, to Washington and Fortress Monroe. By this time his general health was greatly improved, but the weakness in his leg and hip continued, and the unusual con finement somewhat affected his spirits, though not his temper or his intellect. He was the most patient of sufferers, the most equable of prisoners. Hosts of friends among the most distinguished people of the country gathered about him wherever he went, and their society, always one of his great est delights, now cheered the tedium and allayed the suffer ing of the invalid. In April he returned to New York and was able to drive his own horse and to attend army reunions. He went, however, to no private entertainments. His affairs seemed still very prosperous, and he hoped soon to recover entirely from the effects of his fall. I had been absent from the country during the winter, but returned late in April, and at once saw much of my old chief. I found him cheerful and uncomplaining, going to his office daily on business, interested in politics and affairs. The Presidential election was approaching, and although he never spoke of such a possibility, many of his political friends thought the prospect of his nomination very bright. Every day revealed apparently irreconcilable differences among the adherents of other candidates, and the party and the country, not a few believed, were turning again to him who had twice 27 415 GRANT IN PEACE. been the Head of the State. He, however, responded to no such intimations, and never said even to his family that he desired or expected a return to public station. Any expres sion that ever fell from him on the subject was to repress or repel the suggestion. He was resting from national cares, and in the unwonted enjoyment of a private competence. He told me that in December for the first time in his life he had a bank account from which he could draw as freely as he desired. He was generous in gifts to his children, but never luxurious in his personal habits. He had only two expenses of his own, — his horses and his cigars. When General Grant returned from Europe in 1879, his entire fortune amounted to one hundred thousand dollars, and the income of this sum just paid his expenses at the hotel where he and Mrs. Grant occupied two rooms. He kept no carriage. Finding that he could not live in New York suitably to his position, he began to consider what other residence he should select or what means of support. His son Ulysses was engaged in the banking business with Ferdinand Ward and James D. Fish, and supposed he had accumulated four hundred thousand dollars. He offered to receive his father as a partner in his profits. General Grant would not consent to this, but proposed to invest his hundred thousand dollars in the business and become an actual part ner. Ward and Fish concurred, and in 1880, General Grant was admitted as a special partner in the firm of " Grant and Ward." He was never, however, actively engaged in its affairs. He lent his name and he gave his money, but others did the business. Ward in reality acted for the firm, made the investments, drew the cheques, received the deposits, and disposed of them. General Grant was assured that the investments were proper, and, utterly unaccustomed as he was to business, he inquired little further. Once or twice he thought he had reason to say that the firm must have no THE LAST DAYS OT GENERAL GRANT. 410 dealings in Government contracts, and he said so promptly. He declared that his position as ex-President made it im proper and impossible for a firm of which he was a member to have such dealings ; and Ward assured him that there were none. The apparent returns from the business were enor- nious, but General Grant knew that scores of bankers and brokers around him had made as rapid fortunes as he, and was not surprised. He put all his available capital into the bank, and induced many of his friends and relatives to invest or deposit with it. One of his sons was a partner, another had become an agent of the firm, and their father had all confidence in their integrity and capacity. But suddenly out of the clear sky came the thunderbolt. On Tuesday morning, the 6th of May, 1884, General Grant went from his house in Sixty-sixth street, supposing himself a millionaire. When he arrived at his place of business in Wall street he found that he was ruined. As he entered his office he was met by his son Ulysses, who said at once : ''Father, you had better go home. The bank has failed"; but the General went in and waited awhile. I happened to visit him that day about noon, and found him alone. After a moment he said to me gravely enough, but calmly : " We are all ruined here." I was astounded at the news, and he con tinued : " The bank has failed. Mr. Ward cannot be found. The securities are locked up in the safe, and he has the key. No one knows where he is." He could not at that time have known the event more than half an hour. In a few moments he got into a carriage and was driven home. He never returned to Wall street. The world knows that he gave up all that was his. The story of the debt to Mr. Vanderbilt into which he was inveigled is pitfful. Ferdinand Ward went to his house on Sunday the 4th of May and represented that the Marine Bank, where Grant and Ward had large deposits, was in danger, but that speedy assistance would enable it to over- 420 GRANT IN PEACF come toe difficulty. The assistance, however, must be immediate if they would save themselves. He urged General Grant to obtain at once a loan of ^150,000 for this purpose ; and Sunday though it was, the old warrior salhed out at the instance of the partner, who knew at that moment that all the fortunes of General Grant had been lost through his means. He went first to Mr. Victor Newcomb, who was not at home, and then to William H. Vanderbflt, who at once agreed to let General Grant have his cheque for ^150,000 without security. He said that he had never done such a thing before, but he would do it for General Grant. The General expected to return the money immediately ; he wanted it only to enable the Marine Bank to find time to col lect its loans. Ward had assured him, and he repeated to Vanderbilt, that there were securities for more than a miflion of dollars in the vaults of Grant and Ward. The first thing General Grant did when the failure was known was to make over all his individual property to Vanderbilt. In this act Mrs. Grant afterwards joined, waiv ing her right of dower. The house in which they lived belonged to Mrs. Grant. Three years before a hundred thousand dollars had been subscribed to purchase her a home, and the budding in Sixty-sixth street was selected ; but there was a mortgage on the property which the holders refused to cancel. It was a good investment, and they preferred to retain it. The price of the house was ^98,000, and the mortgage was for ^50,000 ; so ^48,000 only was paid, and the remainder of the sum subscribed was deposited with Grant and Ward, to be applied to the purchase of bonds. Ward, as the active member of the firm, was commissioned to make the purchase. He reported having done so, he received the money, and the interest was regularly paid. But after the failure it was discovered that the purchase had never been made. There was therefore a mortgage on the property which could not be redeemed. The library and the rare con tents of the house were, however, made over to Vanderbflt. THE LAST DAVS OF GENERAL GRANT. 43 j But this was not all. The Trust Fund of $250,000 raised for General Grant, the interest of which was de\oted to his benefit, had been invested in the bonds of a compan)' which at this juncture suspended payment. The fund was guar anteed by the E. D. Morgan estate, but from some tech nicality of the law the guarantors could not pay the deficient interest until the company had been six months in default ; this resource therefore failed entirely for the time. The last pajTnent had been deposited with Grant and \\"ard, and of cotrrse was lost. General Grant was as brave, however, as under all cir cumstances, and though regretting the loss of fortune for himseff and his sons, as well as for those who had suffered through their means, he was as yet free from any acute humiliation. He himseff was ruined ; one son was a partner in the wreck and the liabilities ; another the agent of the firm, was bankrupt for haff a million ; his }'oungest son on the 3d of j\Iay had deposited all his means, about 1 80,000, in the bank of his father and brother, and the bank suspended pajrment on the 6th ; his daughter had made a little invest ment of $12,000 with the firm ; one sister had put in $5,000, another $25,000 ; a nephew had invested a few thousands, the sarings of a clerkship ; and other personal friends had been induced by Grant's name and advice to invest still more largely. It was painful and mortifying that all these should lose from their confidence in him, but still there was no thought of personal disgrace. But after a day or two came out the shameful story of craft and guile in all its horrible proportions, and it was seen that his honored name had been used to entice and decoy hosts of friends and acquaintances, to their own injury and General Grant's discredit. Imputations were even cast on the fame that belonged to the country ; and this blow was the most terrible that General Grant ever endured. The shock of battle was less tremendous, the mortal agony was less acute. 422 GRANT IN PEACE. There seemed, too, under the circumstances, to be noth ing to do, nothing to say. He was indeed through life always able to remain silent, but the task was harder now than amid the abuse directed against him during the war, or the detraction and calumnies of political campaigns. His own fair fame, his honor as a man, the honor of his children, — all were assailed ; all discussed, doubted, defiled by the tongues of a careless and censorious world. The glory which had been likened to that of Washington was obscured. He never spoke of this even to those closest and dearest, but none the less they knew that the wound was eating into his soul. This sorrow was a cancer indeed. After a time the clouds were lifted a little, and the world seemed satisfied, at least in part, that his honor was untar nished. He breathed freer now; but still the accusations were hurled against his children ; and for him, for whom the family relations were absolutely the profoundest and most intimate of his nature, this was anguish intolerable. His bodily health was soon affected, though not yet conspicuously. He did not grow openly worse, but he ceased to grow better. His lameness did not mend. His strength did not increase. He was not morose, but hardly so cheerful as was his wont, although too brave to be willing to seem cast down. But he was indignant to the core at those who had injured him and his fame and his sons. At first he was distressed even for money for household expenses. Eighty dollars in his pocket-book and one hun dred and thirty doflars in cash belonging to Mrs. Grant were afl he had to live on. If two friends, one a man he had never seen and the other a foreigner, had not come to his relief. General Grant must have suffered actual want for a while. The very cheques paid out to tradesmen a few days before the faflure were dishonored. He was pennfless in the house that was crowded with his trophies. But four days after the 6th of May, an unknown country- THE LAST DAYS OF GENERAL GRANT. 423 man, Mr. Charles Wood, of Lansingburg, New York, wrote to General Grant and offered to lend him ^1,000 on his note for twelve months, without interest, with the option of renewal at the same rate. He inclosed a cheque for ^500, "on account," he said, "of my share for services ending April, 1865," and General Grant gratefully accepted the offer. About the same time Mathias Romero, the Mexican Minister, his valued friend from the time when the French were driven from Mexico, came on from Washington, and insisted on lending him ^1,000. At first the General declined the offer, but Romero suddenly quitted the room, leaving his cheque for ;^ 1,000 on the table. But for these succors the man who had dined with half the kings of the earth would have wanted money to buy bread for himself and his children. For it was not only himself and Mrs. Grant who were to be supported, but two of his sons and their families. Ulysses went to live with his father-in-law, the Hon. J. B. Chaffee, who was a man of means ; but General Grant must maintain the others, for, until released by their creditors, they could not even go into business. Mrs. Grant, however, owned two little houses in Washington, and she wrote at once to Mr. W. McLean, of Cincinnati, who she knew was buying property at the capital. McLean was a stanch personal friend of General Grant, although a political opponent, and Mrs. Grant asked him at this crisis to purchase her houses, telling him that she needed money for the absolute living expenses of the family. McLean at once directed his agent to purchase the houses, whether they were needed or not, and to pay the market price. This timely act relieved the family from their immediate anxieties. The generous loan of Romero was repaid ; the dishonored cheques for house hold expenses were redeemed, and enough was left to live on during the summer. As early as December 1883, the editors of The Century 424 GRANT IN PEACE. Magazine had informed me of a series of articles they were planning about the civil war, and asked whether I could not induce General Grant "to contribute either direct or through my assistance a paper, say c«i Shiloh or the Wilderness." I laid the matter before the General, but he was disinclined to attempt the unfamiliar task. The editors, however, renewed their solicitations. After the failure of Grant and Ward they addressed me another letter, in which they said: "The coun try looks with so much regret and sympathy upon General Grant's misfortune that it would gladly welcome the an nouncement and especially the publication of material relat ing to him or by him, concerning a part of his honored career in which every one takes pride. It would be glad," they continued, " to have its attention diverted from his present troubles, and no doubt such diversion of his own mind would be welcome to him." He was touched by the tone of the communication, but shrank at first from presenting himself to the public at this juncture, preferring absolute withdrawal and retirement. When I conveyed his reply, I spoke of the complete financial ruin that had overtaken him. The editors at once inquired whether a pecuniary inducement might not have weight, and made him an offer through me for two articles on any of his battles which he might select as themes. His necessities decided him. The modern Belisarius did not mean to beg. In June he went to Long Branch for the summer, and soon afterward sent for me and showed me a few pages he had written and called an article. The fragment was terse and clear, of course, like almost everything he wrote, but too laconic and compact, I knew, to suit the editorial purpose ; it would not have filled three pages of the magazine. I begged him to expand it. " But why write more .? " he asked. " I have told the story. What more is there to say .'' " I urged him to go into detail, to explain his purposes and THE LAST DAYS OF GENERAL GRANT. 425 movements, to describe the commanders, to give pictures of the countr}' ; and he seized the idea, and developed the sketch into a more protracted effort. It was copied by his eldest son, who carried it to the editors, one of whom came at once to see General Grant, and asked for more. What the General had given was so good that it made them greedy and they begged him to extend his article, suggesting one or two points for further treatment. He consented, and the paper became the elaborate one — elaborate for its author — which appeared in The Century ior February, 1885. This was General Grant's first attempt at anything like literary or historical composition. He at once became interested in the work. The occupa tion distracted him from the contemplation of his misfortunes, and the thoughts of his old companions and campaigns brought back pleasanter recollections. He agreed to prepare still another article. His first theme had been the battle of Shfloh ; the second was the Vicksburg Campaign. If he had been too concise at the start, he was now inclined to be more than full, and covered two hundred pages of manuscript in a few weeks. As soon as it became known that he had begun to write, the story spread that he was preparing his " Memoirs," and haff the prominent publishers in the country made him offers. Again he sent for me, and said he felt inclined to write a book ; but that as my ovm. history of his campaigns had been composed vrith his concurrence, and with the expec tation that it would take the place of all he would have to say on the subject, he thought it right to consult me. He wanted also to employ the material I had collected and arranged in my work, and to use it as authority for figures and for such facts as his own memory would not supply. Besides this, he wanted my assistance in various ways ; all of which was arranged. In October I went to live at his house, to help him in the preparation of his book. At this time he seemed in tolerable health. He was crippled and unable to move without cmtches, but he walked 426 GRANT IN PEACE. out alone, and he had driven me oiice or twice at Long Branch behind his own horse. He gave up driving, however, after his return to town. But he was cheerful ; his chfldren and grandchildren were a great solace to him ; many friends came in to see him and to testify their undiminished respect. His evenings were spent in their society at his own house, for he never visited again ; and his days were devoted to his literary labor. He worked often five, and six, and sometimes even seven hours a day, and he was a man not inclined to sedentary occupation. By October he thought he had completed his articles on Shiloh and Vicksburg, and had begun the prepara tion of two others on the Chattanooga and Wilderness Cam paigns. These four he had promised to The Century Maga zine, but he intended to incorporate them afterward, with some modifications, into his " Memoirs." To this the editors agreed. Thus General Grant's book grew out of his articles for The Century. In October he complained constantly of pains in his throat. He had suffered during the summer from the same cause, but paid no attention to the symptoms until toward the end of his stay at Long Branch, when Dr. Da Costa of Philadelphia, who was paying him a call, examined his throat. This gentleman urged General Grant to consult the most eminent physicians immediately on his return to New York. But General Grant never nursed himself, and it was nearly a month before he acted on the advice. His pains finally became so frequent and so acute that Mrs. Grant persuaded him to see Dr. Fordyce Barker, who instantly said if the case were his own or that of one of his family, he should consult Dr. J. H. Douglas ; and General Grant went the same day to Dr. Douglas. This was on the 22d of October. When he returned he said the physician had told him that his throat was affected by a complaint with a cancerous tend ency. He seemed serious but not alarmed, though it was afterward learned that he had pressed Dr. Douglas for close THE LAST DAYS OF GENERAL GRANT. 427 information, and had detected a greater apprehension on the part of the physician than the famfly at first discovered. Still there was disquietude and even alarm, — the terrible word cancer was itself almost a knell. It was now November, and all through this month he went regularly to the physician's house, about two miles from his own, taking the street-car. At first he went alone, but after a whfle he was persuaded to take a man-servant with him. One or two of the family called on Dr. Douglas to make further inquiry, and the response awakened further so licitude. The pains did not decrease, and the extraction of four teeth greatly aggravated his nervous condition. He went to a dentist to have one tooth taken out, but his forti tude was such that the operator was doubtless deceived, and proposed the extraction of three others, and the shock to the General's system was one from which he did not recover for weeks. As the weather became colder the disease was further aggravated by the exposure to which he was subjected in the street-car ; yet for a long time he refused to go by the car riage. Mrs. Grant and his children tried in vain to persuade him. One morning he announced his intention of going again in the cars. It was at breakfast, and I implored him not to do so. I declared he was taking his life in his hands and that he had no right to risk what was so precious to others. But he was obstinate, and I got up from the table very much agitated, and said I had rather he would stick a knife into me than have him go in the street-car. He was silent, but after a little he ordered the carriage. In December his pains became still more excruciating ; he could not swallow without torture, and his sufferings at table were intense. He was obliged to use liquid food and to avoid acids altogether. I shall always recall his figure as he sat at the head of the table, his head bowed over his plate, his mouth set grimly, his features clinched in the endeavor to conceal 428 GRANT IN PEACE. the expression of pain, especially from Mrs. Grant, who sat at the other end. He no longer carved or helped the family, and at last was often obliged to leave before the meal was over, pacing the hall or the adjoining library in his agony. At this time he said to me that he had no desire to live if he was not to recover. He preferred death at once to linger ing, hopeless disease. He made the same remark to several of his family. For a while he seemed to lose, not courage, yet a little of his hope, almost of his grip on life. He did not care to write, nor even to talk ; he made little physical effort, and often sat for hours propped up in his chair, with his hands clasped, looking at the blank wall before him, silent, contemplating the future ; not alarmed, but solemn, at the prospect of pain and disease, and only death at the end. It was like a man gazing into his open grave. He was in no way dismayed, but the sight was to me the most appalling I have ever witnessed :¦ — the conqueror looking at his inevita ble conqueror ; the stern soldier to whom so many armies had surrendered, watching the approach of that enemy before whom even he must yield. But his apathy was not long-lived ; the indifference to his work was soon over. I had been used for twenty years to speak to him with the greatest freedom, although only at rare intervals. He was not a man whom any one could approach unless he permitted, but there came moments and crises when he allowed me to say things to him such as few men ever say to each other ; and I ventured now to beg him to throw aside this strange depression — the result of his illness ; to be himself ; not to give way, even to fate. I urged him to try to recover ; not to let the world say that he was crushed by misfortune, or put an end to by Ferdinand Ward ; to think of the immense achievement his book would be if he could himself tell the story of his own motives and purposes and plans. I pleaded with him to live and work, not only for his fame, but for his family, whose fortune his J^^ % |&) ¦ 1 1 ^^ TM jfe.^-'"- ^ ¦^^ Wl y J 7 .^ -¦¦-r^:-^.^ '''-tf- ¦ 1^) C^ ¦i.A A ..x\>. is 2a I^s^^: J THE LAST DAYS OF GENI:RAL GRANT. 430 book would secure. He did not say much, from which I knew that my words would be considered ; I was sure that he appreciated their motive and did not resent their freedom. The only utterance I can recall in reply was, " I am not going to commit suicide." But I changed the subject and he spoke cheerfully and very kindly to me on other themes. We were driving together from the doctor's house when this conversation occurred, and on our return he went to work mth renewed vigor. I told Mrs. Grant what I meant to do in advance, and reported the result afterward, and she approved it all. He enjoyed his labors now, and quite got the literary fever for a while. He liked to have his pages read aloud to the family in the evening, so that he might hear how they sounded and receive their comments. He worked, however, for the most part from ten or eleven o'clock in the morning until two or three in the afternoon, and sometimes again later in the day. Once in a whfle General Tower, a comrade in the Mexican War, came in and discussed the chapters describing the capture of Vera Cruz or the march on Mexico. Sometimes "Sir. Chaffee listened to the political passages, and begged the General not to emasculate them, but to say all he thought without fear or favor. Daily about one o'clock he was interrupted by his grand children, who stopped as they passed to their lunch, and looked in at the open door, not entering till he saw them and summoned them. Their prattle and kisses were always welcome, and made me think that the very misfortune which brought them to his house had its compensations. He took a pecuflar pleasure in their society, and when at one time it was thought that they disturbed his labors, and they were told not to visit him, he was distressed at the omission and revoked the order. They came, indeed, like a burst of light into the sick man's study, three of them, dancing, gamboling, laughing — as pretty a brood of merry, graceful grandchil- 430 GRANT IN PEACE. dren as ever a conqueror claimed for descendants, or looked upon to perpetuate his name. Those were happy months, at times, despite the anxiety, until the anxiety became despair. For although the doctors had warned the family, there was yet hope of arresting, if not of curing, the disease, and a pos sibility of arresting it for years. His constitution was good ; he came of a long-lived stock ; and his nerve and will were what all the world knows. So there was hope ; not with so much foundation as could have been desired, but still there was hope. I shall never forget the frolic with the little ones on Christmas Day. They all came to dinner, and the two youngest sat one on each side of him. He was compara tively free from pain at that time ; indeed, for a month or more the excruciating tortures came only at intervals ; and on this day he took his own place at the head of the table. The babies were allowed to talk as much as they pleased, and they pleased a great deal. They monopolized the conversa tion, and when their mammas endeavored to check them, the General interposed and declared that this was their day. So they prattled across their grandpapa, and made preposterous attempts at jokes in their broken English, at which every body laughed, and no one more heartily than the great warrior, their progenitor. It was a delicious morsel of sweet in the midst of so much bitter care, a gleam of satisfaction in the gloom of that sad winter, with its fears, and certain ties, and sorrows. No one, indeed, can understand the character of General Grant who does not know the strength of his regard for his children. It was like the passion of a wfld beast for its cubs, or the love of a mother for a sucking child, — instinctive, unreasoning, overweening ; yet, what everyone can compre hend and appreciate ; natural, and in this grim veteran touch ing in the extreme. He not only thought his sons able, wise, and pure ; he had a trust in them that was absolute THE LAST DAYS OF GENERAL GRANT. 431 and childlike; his affection even clouded his judgment and turned appreciation into admiration. For them he would have sacrificed fortune, or ease, or even Iiis fame ; for them he did endure criticism and censure, and underwent physical fatigue and pain. He rose from his death-bed to work for them, and when he thought he was dying his utterances were about his "boys." This feeling, lavished on his own chil dren, reached over to theirs. No parent ever enveloped his entire progeny in a more comprehensive or closer regard ; none ever felt them more absolutely a part of himself, his ovra offspring, the issue of his reins. By the last of the year the editors of The Century had received three of his articles for their magazine and announced them for publication. A large increase in their sales had followed, and the editors, thinking at least a part of this due to his name, sent him in December a cheque for one thousand dollars more than they had stipulated. Gen eral Grant at first intended to divide this sum as a Christ mas present between his two daughters-in-law living in the house with him. The amount would have been very accept able to those ladies, but almost immediately he remembered the debt to Mr. Wood, his benefactor of the loth of May, and inclosed his cheque for a thousand dollars to that friend whom he never saw, stating that the money was the result of his first earnings in literature. Still later General Grant received from Tlie Century another thousand dollars in addition to the sum stipulated for the fourth article. This cheque was the last he ever endorsed, and the payment, beyond his expectations, gave him in the last week of his life the satisfaction of knowing that his literary efforts had a high market value. About Christmas the pecuniary troubles became more compflcated. There was a possibflity of some smafl creditors of Grant and Ward attempting to levy on the famous swords and presents he had received from Congress and the States 432 GRANT IN PEACE. and foreign potentates and cities. In order to save them Mr. Vanderbflt proposed to enforce his prior claim. Talk of this got abroad and was misunderstood. At this juncture General Sherman was in New York, and of course visited his old chief and comrade. I went to call on him the next day, and he asked me about the possibil ity of any annoyance to General Grant on this score. He was extremely anxious, and declared : " Grant must not be allowed to suffer this new disgrace." He would share his own income rather. I did not feel at liberty to tell what I knew, even to him, and General Sherman's talk in New York, Philadelphia, and Washington excited a great and general sympathy. The result was that a number of General Grant's friends, with Cyrus W. Field at their head, began to raise a fund to save the hero from this last indignity. A hundred thousand dollars were to be subscribed to pay off the debt to Vanderbilt, who it was supposed would compromise his claim for that amount. But General Grant was weary of the repeated efforts to aid him. Congress had failed to place him on the retired Ust. A bill for this purpose had indeed passed the Senate at the preceding session, but President Arthur, it was known, would veto it, in order to preserve his consistency, having vetoed another intended to restore General Fitz-John Porter to the army. He forgot, apparently, that the cases were different. General Grant himself said : " I have not been court-martialed." Mr. Arthur proposed, it is true, a pension, but this Grant indignantly declined to receive. He disliked to appear to apply for public or private charity, and wrote now to Mr. Vanderbilt, informing him of the well-meant efforts in his behalf, but declaring that he preferred not to avail himself of them. He requested Vanderbilt to exercise his legal rights and offer for sale the whole of General Grant's property in his hands, including the presents and trophies of peace and war. He did not feel at liberty to THE LAST DAYS OF GENERAL GRANT. 433 thwart the intentions of his other friends without the sanc tion of Mr. Vanderbilt, as their efforts would enable him to cancel his debt to Mr. Vanderbilt, but he preferred that the debt should be paid by the sale of the property, not by a new subscription. Then came the correspondence which has been given to the world: first the munificent offer of Vanderbilt to make over all the property to Mrs. Grant, only providing that the presents should be held in trust during her Iffe and that of the General, to be afterward transferred to the Govern ment, as souvenirs of the glory which is national ; then the letter from General Grant, accepting the offer so far as it concerned the disposition of the presents, but declining to receive the return of the property ; the persistent pressure of the great millionaire ; the acceptance of Grant under this pressure ; Mrs. Grant's letter of an hour afterward recalling the acceptance, written, of course, with Grant's sanction, but signed by Mrs. Grant to save the General from the appear ance of discourtesy ; and the final abandonment of every par ticle of property he had in the world, to satisfy a debt in curred at the instance and through the outrageous falsity and guile of a monster in craft, who selected the people's hero as his victim and his decoy ; the abandonment of the property, and the surrender — harder still — of those monu- . ments to his fame which his deeds had won ; surrendered, it is true, to the nation, which will guard them sacredly, as it will the fame of which they are the symbol and the seal. All this wore on the frame torn by disease and the spirit racked by imputations, thrown off, it is true, but some of which still rankled, like poisoned arrows, that wound though they are extracted ; all this told on that body which had endured so many sleepless nights and prolonged marches, which had suffered fatigue and hunger and watchings, and that soul which had withstood cares and responsibilities and torturing anxieties such as have faflen to the lot of no other z8 434 GRANT IN PEACE. man in our time ; for no other bore on his single shoulders the weight of the destiny of a great nation at the very crisis of its history; no other stood before the enemy and the country and the world as the incarnation of the hopes and fears and efforts of a people waiting to be sayed. These labors, endured long before, told now, and made him less able to withstand the shocks of fortune and of nature, and he gradually succumbed. When the extent of General Grant's humiliation became a common story, when it was disclosed to the world that the house in which he lived was no longer his own, that his books and furniture were held on sufferance, that he was stripped even of the insignia of his fame, while he seemed neglected and forgotten in his adversity by the nation he had done so much to save, then even his stout heart gave way. All his symptoms were aggravated ; his pains increased, the appalling depression of spirit returned, and more than all, the exhaustion of his strength — far greater than the disease alone could at this stage have produced — occasioned the physicians as well as the family the most painful solicitude. Dr. Barker and Dr. Douglas had as yet retained the case exclusively in their own hands. They had never deceived the family, but said from the beginning that the disease was epithelial cancer; that it might be arrested, but they had never known it cured. Neither Mrs. Grant nor the General had been told so much, although both of course knew that the case was critical, and both were undoubtedly anxious. What General Grant in his heart feared or expected he said to no human being ; not his wife nor his children penetrated to the inner sanctuary where his soul contemplated its fate and balanced the chances of life and death alone. But the gravity of his manner and the dejection of his nevertheless intrepid spirit indicated too plainly that he felt how great was his danger. In January he ceased to visit his physician. Dr. Douglas THE LAST DAYS OF GENERAL GRANT. 435 now came to the patient daily, and after a while twice in the twenty-four hours. The visits of Dr. Barker were twice a week. The physicians had always agreed perfectly as to the nature of the malady and its treatment, and now were agreed in their alarm at its progress. In fact the earlier stages were past. The phases followed each other with ominous rapidity. The pains in the throat had become lancinating and sharp, the infiltration extended further and further, the cancer was eating into the delicate and vital tissues, and the end seemed in sight. This relapse could be traced directly to its cause, — it was the fresh revelation of his misfortunes, the loss of his honors, the publicity of his humiliation that kindled anew the fatal fires of the disease. At this juncture the physicians determined to call in other eminent men in their profession. Dr. H. B. Sands and Dr. T. M. Markoe were requested to make a minute examination with the others, after which a general consultation was held. The conclusion was not immediately communicated to the family, but enough was said to confirm their gravest appre hensions, and no announcement whatever was made either to the General or to Mrs. Grant. At the same time a piece of the affected tissue was cut off and submitted to Dr. G. R. Elliott, an expert with the microscope, who, after careful preparation and examination, not knowing the name of the patient on whose case he was to pronounce, declared, as all the others had done, that the indications of the fatal disease were unmistakable. The verdict of science was that a malignant cancer had seized on the system and was hope lessly ravaging the strength and vitality of the sufferer. General Grant was doomed. Afl that could be done was, not to stay the progress of the destroyer, but to alleviate the tortures that were imminent. This apprehension of ap proaching and inevitable agony was keener with the physi cians than they were wflling to betray ; but their gloomy manner and guarded words told in spite of them what they were anxious to conceal. 436 GRANT IN PEACE. Within a day or two after this consultation a statement was made in a medical journal, apparently by authority, that General Grant was improving, that the disease was not unquestion ably cancer, and that care and good fortune might even yet bring about recovery. Mrs. Grant first saw this statement, and naturally supposed it to be the official report of the consultation. She read it to the General, who, like herself, was greatly relieved. The effect upon his spirits was imme diate and evident. He spoke of the report to the family as if it was decisive, and even mentioned it to the physicians. But this publication was a version of what had been said long before, at a time when a peculiar phase of the com plaint gave ground for favorable vaticinations, and when it was thought wise not to alarm the public mind for fear of the reaction upon the patient. The delusion was cmel, for it was destined to be dissipated. No utterances of the press, even appearing to emanate from his immediate medi cal attendants, could conceal from General Grant for more than a day or two the fact that he was rapidly failing. His own sufferings, his extreme prostration, the redoubled care and attention of his physicians, — all combined to disclose to him the reality. Almost immediately after this publication a second an nouncement was made in the newspapers, this one divulging the exact truth, which the famfly had not yet communicated in its fullness to their most intimate friends, or hardly admitted in words to themselves. How this statement became public was not discovered, but it mattered little now, for the bitter verity could no longer be withheld. When friends and reporters came instantly to inquire, the sons admitted the danger of their father, as wefl as the anxieties and distress of the family. These utterances were at once published, and were read by General Grant. He doubtless then for the first time became convinced of his condition, and of the extent of the solicitude of his children. Mrs. Grant also THE LAST DAYS OF GENERAL GRANT. 437 at this time first realized what were the fears of the family. Her disappointment was sharp, coming after the elation of the last few hours, and General Grant himself, it was evi dent, felt the shock profoundly. No one spoke to him on the subject, nor did he mention it to any one, but he acted like a condemned man. He had no thought before, I believe, that he might not live years, although ill, and with a terrible shadow hanging over him. That his days were numbered was an intimation for which he was not prepared. He was, I am sure, unwilling to die covered with the cloud of misfortune. On this subject also he was silent to every human being, but the thought added bitterness to his agony. I knew it, as well as ff he had told me. It could not indeed but be hard for him who had led the armies of his country to repeated victory, who had received more sur renders than any other conqueror in history, who for eight years had sat in the chair of Washington, and whose great ness had been sealed by the verdict of the world, to leave his children bankrupt, their faith questioned, their name, which was his, tarnished — that name which must live for ever. The blur on his reputation, even with the taint of dishonor entirely removed, the wreck of his fortune, the neglect of the Government, the humiliations of his poverty, — these stern images hovered around his couch by night and day, and goaded and galled him till the moment when physical torture crowded out even mental pain. The country received the news of his condition with grief and consternation. Whatever had been said or thought injurious to him was instantly ignored, revoked, stamped out of mind ; under the black shadow of Death the memory of his great services became vivid once more, like writing in sympathetic ink before a fire. All the admiration and love of the days immediately after the war returned. The house was thronged with visitors, old friends, army comrades, for mer cabinet ministers, senators, generals, diplomatists, on 438 GRANT IN PEACE. errands of inquiry or commiseration. A hundred letters and telegrams arrived each day, with pity and affection in every line. The soldiers all over the country were conspicuous in their manffestations of sympathy — ^Southerners as well as Northerners. Army clubs and loyal leagues sent messages incessantly. Meetings of former Confederates were held to signify their sorrow. The sons of Robert E. Lee and Albert Sidney Johnston were among the first to proffer good wishes to him whom their fathers had fought. Political opponents were as outspoken as partisan friends, and the bitterest enemies of General Grant in the daily press were generous and constant in the expression of their interest. Rivals in the army like Buell and Rosecrans made known that the calamity which impended over the nation was a sorrow for them, because they were Americans. Mr. Jefferson Davis more than once uttered kind words which were conveyed to the sufferer. The new Secretary of War of the Democratic administration called in person ; the new Secretary of State sent remedies and good wishes. The new President dis patched the Marshal of the District of Columbia from Washington to make inquiries. Ex-President Hayes and ex-Secretary Lincoln had called long before. State legisla tures voted their commiseration; the Queen of England telegraphed her condolences, and little children from all parts of the country sent constant messages of affection and tributes of flowers. But no sympathy could check the progress of the pale rider who bears his summons with impartial footsteps to the hovels of the poor and the palaces of the great. The malady made incessant advance. The terrible darting pains increased in intensity. Another medical attendant, Dr. G. F. Shrady, was called in to assist and relieve Dr. Douglas. The great fear of the physicians now was of the horrible cancer ous pains. They said repeatedly that a speedy termination of the disease was to be desired. If pneumonia or some THE LAST DAYS OF GENERAL GRANT. 43Q Other quick-ending complaint could carry off the patient in a week, it would be cause for gratitude. This sickening appre hension of coming physical torment aggravated the expecta tion of bereavement and left nothing lacking to the intensity of the calamity. Yet it seemed to me after the first shock that General Grant still had not given up. His unconquerable nature rebounded. He looked at the physicians with an anxiety that could not have been so acute unless the possibflity of hope had been mingled. He submitted to every operation, he carefully attended to every injunction, and sustained the long siege of disease with the same determination and tenacity he had displayed in other sieges and campaigns with other enemies. But now he was on the defensive, — it was the first time. Meanwhfle his article on Shiloh had appeared in The Century Magazine, and the influx of letters and criticisms from friends and opponents excited his interest for a while. The greeting offered to his first contribution to written history showed that the world stood ready to receive his story from himseff, but even this thought could not arrest the rapid concentration of his attention on bodily ailings and failing powers. The strifes of battle and the contests of history sounded distant and dull to ears that were deadened with the ever present sense of pain, and even the imposing fabric of his fame looked shadowy and unsubstantial to eyes about to close forever on the glories and honors of this world. As soon as General Grant's condition became known an attempt was made in Congress to revive the measure for* restoring him to the army. Since the bill which had already passed the Senate and was actually before the House of Representatives would be vetoed by the President, Senator Edmunds introduced another, with the view of obviating Mr. Arthur's objections. This was rapidly passed by the 440 GRANT IN PEACE. Senate and sent to the other House. There it was taken up by Mr. Randall, the Democratic leader, who in conjunction with General Grant's personal and political friends, and many Democrats and Southern soldiers, made every effort to secure its success. Most of the Democrats, however, opposed it. They were anxious to pass the earlier bfll, and thus force the President either to reverse his previous action in the Porter case or veto the bill in favor of General Grant. The President allowed it to be known that he would not re cede from his position ; Congress must pass the bill that he wished, for he would veto the other. On Sunday morning, the 15th of February, Mr. Cyrus W. Field, who had been incessant in his efforts in the press and in private to secure the passage of the bill, came to Gen eral Grant's house and asked for me. He said if a deter mined effort were made by General Grant's friends, he thought the bill might be passed the next day ; and asked me to go to see whoever I thought would have influence. I told the General of the visit. He was gratified at the interest of his friends, but would give me no advice, and I sallied out and spent the day in his service. I found Mr. Hamilton Fish, General Grant's old Secretary of State, Mr. Evarts, who had just been elected Senator, and General Horace Porter, my former comrade on General Grant's staff. All were willing and earnest ; all wrote letters at once to reach members of Congress the next day, and Porter went with me to visit others who we thought might help us. But Monday came and the bill was cafled up and lost. General Grant felt the rebuff acutely. Though he had made no demonstration of anxiety in advance, those who saw most of him and had learned to interpret the few and faint indications he ever gave of his personal preferences and desires, knew how eagerly he had hoped, how cruelly he was disappointed. He had indeed looked to this bill as in some sort a reparation of the injury his reputation had sustained ; THE LAST DAYS OF GENERAL GRANT. 441 as an official vindication, an intimation that the country still believed in him and regarded his fame, had not forgotten his services. When the reparation was withheld he suffered proportionally. But he refused to reveal his emotion. A day or two before the decision he declared that he did not .expect the passage of the bill ; and when the defeat was announced he made no remark. That evening he played cards with his famfly and displayed unusual spirit and gayety ; but all saw through the mask. All joined, however, in the deception that deceived no one. None spoke of the disappointment ; and a grim interest in whist apparently absorbed the party that was heart-broken for him who permitted neither wife nor child to come beneath the cloak that concealed his wound. AU he said was that the bill had failed on the i6th of Feb ruary, the anniversary of the fall of Fort Donelson. The next day he was worse, and in a week the gravest fears seemed near realization. He himseff appeared con scious of the approach of the end. He had all winter been considering and discussing the choice of a publisher for his book, but had made no decision. Now he came to a conclu sion, and in the first week in March the agreement was signed with his publishers, Messrs. C. L. Webster & Co. At the same time the famfly thought they could no longer withhold from his daughter, Mrs. Sartoris, the knowledge of her father's condition. She was in England, and they had of course notified her of his illness, but, in the hope of amelio ration or respite, had deferred the announcement of its criti cal character. But at last they wrote and urged her to hasten to him. After his second relapse thev telegraphed, and she started for his bedside. They were still unwflflng to inform General Grant that she had been summoned, lest he should be depressed by the certainty that they believed the end to be near ; they only told him she had written to say that she was coming ; but the amiable concealment hardly deceived 442 GRANT IN PEACE. him. Though his spirit was broken, his exhaustion extreme, his mind depressed, and certainly at this time weakened, he knew too well why she was coming ; but he asked nothing and said nothing. The decay of his energy was to me more distressing than any other symptom. For the inroads extended beyond physical strength ; they reached at last mental power, and even that nerve and force which made the great character the world has recognized. To one who had studied him for half a lifetime, it was acute pain to watch his strength give way, the light of his intellect flicker and fade, the great qualities all apparently crumble. To see General Grant listless, inca pable of effort, indifferent to work, absorbed in physical needs and pains, — a sick man in soul as well as in body, — was hardest of all. The interest of the country still followed him, and, as the disease proceeded, became still more intense. The physicians now sent out daily bulletins, and crowds of people watched the boards where these were published. His friends deter mined that still another effort should be made in Congress to pass some bill for his retirement ; but he felt little interest in the measure now, — the languor had reached his heart. For many weeks he had been unable to go down stairs to his meals or to receive a friend, and had spent his days in the room which, before his illness became so acute, he had used as a study. Here his papers still remained, and once in a great while he even yet attempted to write a page ; but alas ! it was not like what he had once been able to write. Some times I tried to catch an idea and took it down from his lips, reading it afterward to him to verify it. But these opportu nities became rarer and rarer ; he had no longer strength for the effort, no longer interest in his work, and at last aban doned all idea of being able to finish it. Then his sleeping-room was changed. Mrs. Grant gave up hers at the front of the house to him, and took that which THE LAST DAYS OF GENERAL GRANT. 443 he had occupied at the rear, so that his bed-chamber might be next to his sitting-room. At first he objected to the change, but soon his strength was so far gone that he recog nized the need. The two great chairs in which for months he had sat, leaning back in one with his feet in the other, were taken into that room in which all now thought he would die. Still, he walked almost daily into the apartment where he had spent so many hours during the winter. Meanwhile the efforts to pass the bill for his retirement continued. This one Mr. Arthur would sign. It had passed the Senate, and Mr. Randall, General Slocum, and other prominent Democrats wrote to General Grant's family and friends that the final result would be favorable. Mr. Ran dall had greater power in the matter than any one else, his party being in the majority, and no one was more earnest than he. But General Grant remained indifferent, and this time his indifference was real. He was absorbed in his sufferings, and believed the bfll would be of no use to him now. His family, too, cared little for success, save as it might soothe or possibly brighten his last hours. The doctors thought it might possibly revive his spirits and prolong his days ; but why, some thought, prolong his sufferings .¦" Finally, on the morning of the 4th of March, almost in the last moments of the expiring Congress, the bill was taken up by unanimous consent in the House of Representatives, and passed at once amid great cheering. The President, as usual at the close of the session, was in a chamber at the Capitol, waiting to sign such bills as had been left to the last moment, and must fail unless they instantly receive his sig nature. He signed the bill. A nomination had been made out in advance and was sent at once to the Senate. There lacked but a few moments of the hour when Congress would cease to exist ; but Senator Edmunds, the presiding officer, announced a message from the President ; all other business was suspended, and the nomination was confirmed amid tumultuous applause from the gaUeries. 444 GRANT IN PEACE. President Cleveland signed the commission ; it was the second act of his administration. The news was telegraphed to General Grant by numerous friends, and the same day the adjutant-general of the army notified him officially of his appointment. General Grant wrote the telegram of accept ance in his own hand. He was again in the army which he had so often led to victory. It seemed indeed preposterous that any difficulty should have been made about admitting him to that army of which he had been the most illustrious member. But the recognition came too late. He was gratified and cheered, but the hand of fate had faflen, and could not be removed. There was no revival of his strength, no reaction from his depression, no cessation of his pain. The exhaus tion went on. Nevertheless his restoration to the army, though it could neither bring back his health nor prolong his days, made a deeper impression on him than he was willing to betray. When the end of the month came this was apparent. Afl officers of the army are required to make a monthly report of their post-office address to the adjutant-general. I do not remember that this report was ever made by him as General- in-Chief, at least after his headquarters were removed from the field ; but now he was extremely anxious to make it, and filled out the form himself, though with extreme difficulty. It was a question at the time whether he would live through the day, and it was strange to read the language required by the regulations : " My post-office address for the ensuing month will be " — 3 East Sixty-sixth street. New York He was still more eager to draw his pay. It seemed as if he looked upon these two circumstances as the seal of his return to the army. No young lieutenant expecting his stipend for the first time could have been more anxious. He sent for his pay-accounts before the time, and when signed they were forwarded to the paymaster, so that on the day THE LAST DAYS OF GENERAL GRANT. 445 when the first month's pay was due the cheque was handed him. At first he insisted that one of his sons should go at once to the bank to have the cheque cashed ; he wanted to handle the money. But at this juncture his sons were unwilling to leave the house even for an hour, and he finally consented that Mr. Chaffee should draw the money. When it was handed him he divided it among Mrs. Grant and his chfldren, saying it was all he had to leave them. This was on the 31st of March, when he was expecting to die within forty-eight hours. During the month of March his daughter arrived, and although, of course, her coming was a solace, yet he knew too weU by this time that she had come to see him die. The gathering of other friends also had significance. He ceased now to leave his room except at rarest intervals. One phy sician always slept in the house. His suffering at last became so poignant that anodynes, the use of which had long been postponed, were indispensa ble. The pain was not of that violent character which had been so sorely dreaded, and which the progress of the disease did not even yet induce ; it was rather an intolerable nervous ness, as unlike as possible the ordinary phlegmatic calm of General Grant, — a physical excitement and an excessive sleeplessness, combined with a weakness that was spasmodic. These sensations were the cause of a consuming wretched ness, but they were not cancerous pains. The physicians constantly declared that although the cancer was making irresistible advance, it was not the cancer that produced the exhaustion and the nervousness, which, unless arrested, would bring about death very soon. It was only too plain that the mental, moral disease was killing General Grant, — it was the blow which had stmck him to the dust and humiliated him before the world, from which he could not recover. He who was thought so stoHd, so strong, so undemonstrative, was dying for a sentiment — because of the injury to his fame, the aspersions on his honor. 446 GRANT IN PEACE. This, now, every one recognized. Every one nov/ admitted his purity, and contended for his honor which it was said was the country's. If the universal affection and regard which were showered on him could have salved his wounds he might have been cured, but the recognition and reparation were in vain. He who had passed unscathed through Shiloh and the Wilderness was stricken by a weapon more fatal than the rebels ever wielded ; he who had recovered from the attacks of political assaflants and resisted the calumnies of partisan campaigns was succumbing under the result of the machina tions of one man. Still, the sympathy soothed his mortal anguish and cast a gleam of consolation into his dying chamber. It seemed to change and soften his spirit. His indignation at former enemies was mollified by their protestations of pity; the bitterness he had once felt for them was converted into grat itude for their compassionate utterings. The very fire of his nature seemed quenched by the cold shadows of impending dissolution. Now, also, an unfamiliar tenderness appeared, which had been long concealed. The depths of his affection were disclosed; he was willing to express more of his inti mate feeling than ever before. It was a new man, a new Grant in these matters that was revealed, as if the husks were torn aside and the sweet kernel given to those from whom it had been so long withheld. All who approached him intimately at this time recognized this uncloaking of certain parts of his nature which hitherto had been so carefully veiled. But one more struggle, one more fierce battle remained. He had yet to justify himself, to say in person what he had never yet said to the world, of his relations with " Grant and Ward," to tell himself the story of the deceit which had brought him low. James D. Fish, one of the partners in the firm, was on trial, and General Grant's testimony was desira ble. He was now so feeble that it was almost dangerous to THE LAST DAYS OF GENERAL GRANT. 447 subject him to the ordeal of an examination; but yet to vin dicate his fame, to allow him in his dying moments to utter his own defense, it was worth while incurring whatever dan ger. His sons, especially, were anxious that he should say what no one else could ever say for him, and for them ; and although in his weak condition he did not appear to share their anxiety, he consented for their sake to make the effort. The examination was held in his bedchamber. The law yers and the stenographer and one or two others were pres ent. The ceremony of an oath was waived, with the consent of the opposing counsel, and the dying man answered all questions and told how he had been betrayed. As the in quiry went on the old spirit of battle revived ; he felt all the importance of the occasion, roused himself for the effort, and made a definite declaration, damning in its evidence of the guilt of one man's action, absolute in the assertion of the purity of his own. In his testimony he spared neither Fish nor Ward; he felt that this was his last blow, and he dealt it hard. If he had died then, as it was almost feared he might, it would have been, not only like the old warrior of story, standing, but fighting to the last. He never relented in his bitterness to these two men. The harshest words I ever heard him speak were his frequent utterances, after he knew that he was doomed, in regard to them who had been the cause of his ruin, and, as he doubtless felt, of his end. These he never said that he forgave. The examination lasted nearly an hour. When it was over he did not at first appear more than usually exhausted. He never showed immediately the effects of any intense physical or mental strain. Not after his great disappoint ment in February did his strength or spirit at once give way ; so now for a day or two he seemed no weaker than before. But in forty-eight hours he began to fail. He recognized himseff the decrease of vital force, and believed it was the 448 GRANT IN PEACE. beginning of the end. The physicians shared the belief. Two now remained constantly in the house. Anodynes were doubled, to control the excessive nervousness and to prevent the occurrence of the anticipated agoriies. One of his sons was in his room continuously and the famfly were summoned more than once when he seemed in mortal peril. At this time General Grant had not lain in his bed for more than a few moments at a time in months ; a sensation of choking invariably attacked him in that position, and although the physicians assured him that there was no dan ger of suffocation, the symptoms were so distressing that he could not be persuaded to take to his bed. He sat in one great chair, with his feet in another, propped up by pillows, usually wearing a dressing-gown, and his legs swathed in blankets. Dr. Newman, his most intimate clerical friend, was with him often now, and prayed with him, first at the request of Mrs. Grant, and afterward frequently at the request of Gen eral Grant himself. His prayers had one quality in which they differed from any I ever heard in a dying chamber. He prayed for recovery, for strength, for the power of the Almighty to be manifested, for the Hand to be stretched out to save; he prayed as the suffering in Scripture prayed to Christ, for instant, present, physical relief; for rescue, not for submission or resignation; not for the alternatives of the other world, but that there and then, God would s^ive and deliver General Grant. This was prayer to which every one of whatever faith could say "Amen." It certainly comforted and supported the sufferer and solaced for a while the family. General Grant liked those prayers, and I doubt not they did their part to revive his strength, to make him think recovery possible. They were a medicine to his drooping spirit, an anodyne to the excited, trembling heart, a stimulant at the moment when the pulse was failing and the breath fluttering. Very early in April I was obliged to give up my room; THE LAST DAYS OF GENERAL GRANT. 44Q after Mrs. Sartoris arrived, there was no other where the faithful medical attendants could rest in the intervals of their watchings. But I still spent my days at the house, and often remained for the night, lying where I could, or snatching sleep in a chair, with Dr. Newman or Chaffee or other inti mate friends. One morning General Grant himself thought he was dying. The family were all summoned. He kissed each of them in turn, and when Mrs. Grant asked him to bless her he replied : " I bless you. I bless you all ! " After this he went lower and nearer death than ever before. The pulse was flickering like a candle, and the physicians said: "He is going." But there had been an injection of brandy pre pared some days before, for just such emergencies, and one physician whispered to the other: "Now! the brandy." "Where is it .'" "On the table." "ShaU we use it? Is ff worth while to bring him back to pain.'" "Yes. Hold the Fort." And Dr. Shrady administered the brandy, which Dr. Douglas had prepared. It stimulated the nerves, it pro duced another pulsation. The throbbings went on, and General Grant returned to the world he had almost quitted forever. Another morning I was at my hotel, having left the house after midnight. At about four o'clock I was wakened, and a note was handed me from Colonel Grant. It contained only the word " Come." I knew too well what this must mean, and hurried to the house. A hemorrhage had occurred. This was one of the contingencies that had always been foreseen, and it was supposed certainly would be fatal. Every one had been summoned. "What shall I say.?" asked Colonel Grant, as he wrote the notes. "It makes no difference," said the doctor; "all wifl be over- before they get here." But General Grant walked to the basin and helped to wash his throat, and the hemorrhage proved favorable instead of fatal. It was caused by the 29 450 GRANT IN PEACE. loosening of a slough that had formed over a part of the throat, and the slough in a day or two came entirely away, after which the cancer itself was eased, and indeed for a while arrested. The weakness, for some cause or by some means which I have never been able to understand, was to a certain extent overcome. The anodynes were lessened in quantity, and their injurious effects in part passed away. For several days General Grant seemed to hover between life and death, and then came a marvelous change. To the amazement of all, his strength returned and his spirits revived. At first he disbelieved in the amelioration. He had perhaps for one moment a glimmer of hope, but then the conviction overwhelmed him that recovery was impossible. At this crisis he did not wish to live. "The doctors are responsible three times," he said, "for my being alive, and — unless they can cure me — I don't thank them." He had no desire to go through the agony again. For, he had suffered death ; he had parted with his family ; he had undergone every physical pang that could have come had he died before the brandy was administered. It seemed to me then cruel to bring him back only to renew his torture ; for I had no idea, nor had any one else, that he would live more than a week, if so long. He had said more than once : " I have no regrets, except for leaving my family." But he was recalled, and from that time the apparent improvement went on. He still, however, for a few days remained unwilling to live — in pain; though always eager to be cured. He was never afraid to die. Having disposed of his book and his affairs, these matters he considered settled; just as in battle, after giving an order, he never doubted, or wished to recall it. But the fighting spirit, the unconquerable nature, made him struggle still. The dejection which marks the disease, and which had been so appalling in January and February, did not return. In its stead a new phase came on. He was THE LAST DAYS OF GENERAL GRANT. 451 battling again, and this time harder than before, for the enemy was closer. He fairly grappled and wrestled now with Death. Once or twdce his opponent got him down, but Grant arose almost stronger in his agony than the One who is stronger than us all. The terrible calm of the fight was exactly like the determination in the Wilderness or before Richmond, where I once heard him say : " I feel as sure of taking Richmond as I do of dying." There was no excite ment, no hysterical grief or fear, but a steady effort of vital power, an impossibflity for his spirit to be subdued. He was not resigned ; neither was he hopeful. He simpily, because he could not help himself, made every effort to conquer. After every paroxysm of mortal faintness the indomitable soul revived, and aroused the physical part. I may not be thought to lift too far the veil from a dying chamber ff I mention one circumstance which had for me a peculiar interest. During all of General Grant's illness, down to the hour when his partial recovery began, Mrs. Grant never could bring herseff to believe that she was about to lose him. A woman with many of those singular premoni tions and presentiments that amount almost to superstition, but which yet affect some of the strongest minds, and from which General Grant himself was certainly not entirely free, she declared always, even at the moment which every one else thought would prove the last, that she could not realize the imminence of the end. Her beha-vior was a mystery and a wonder to those who knew the depth of the tenderness and the abundance of the affection that she lavished on her great husband. Her calmness and self-control almost seemed cold ness, only we knew that this was impossible. I did not presume, of course, to comment on this apparent stoicism, but once or twice she told me she could not despair; that there was a feeling constantly that this was not to be the last ; and even when she wept at the gifts and the words that were thought to be farewefls, she was putting up prayers that 452 GRANT IN PEACE. were full of confidence, and after which the wonderful and unexpected recuperation occurred. All this whfle, the public interest was painful. So much of it penetrated into that house under the shadow of Death, that it seemed to us within as if the whole world was par taking of our sorrow. All day through the half-closed shutters we could see the crowds waiting silently and solemnly for news of the beloved sufferer. Every one who left the house was instantly accosted, not only by profes sional reporters, but by earnest and often weeping men and women, who had never known General Grant personally, but shared the feeling of the country in his behalf. To me there chanced to come peculiar indications of this feeling. Known to be an inmate of the house, and yet not so near as the nearest relatives, I could be approached by others on subjects which they shrank from broaching to the sons. General Grant belonged to the country as well as to his family, and the country would insist on doing him every honor when the final occasion came. Many public men endeavored to ascertain through me what would be the wishes of the family in regard to the disposition of the great dead ; and letters were sent to me to present at the fitting time, offering worthy sepulture. The people of the District of Columbia, through their representatives, declared their desire that the revered ashes should rest at the capital of the country, and the General-in-Chief of the army, the friend and follower of General Grant, sent proffers of a place for him at the Soldiers' Home, — a fitting spot for the last habitation of a soldier. The President of the United States sent a messenger from Washington to say that he would attend in person the august obsequies, and I was requested to commu nicate in time the probabflities and the arrangements. All these sad secrets were to me especial signs of the universal grief that kept pace with the still more sacred sorrow which I saw ; but I was anxious not to intrude prematurely upon THE LAST DAYS OF GENERAL GRANT 453 the family the preparations for what seemed then inevitably at hand, and I bore about with me for weeks the knowledge, undisclosed, that armies and presidents were waiting to pay General Grant those honors which to himself would be for ever unknown. On Easter Sunday he seemed a _ittle easier, though there was still no hope. I went into his room and found him able to listen and even to utter a few words without too much effort. I had been greatly struck by the universal watching of a nation, almost of a world, at his bedside, and especially by the sympathy from former rivals and political and even personal adversaries ; and I recounted to him instances of this magnanimous forgetfulness of old-time enmities. Wlien I told him of the utterances of General Rosecrans and Jeffer son Davis, he replied : "I am very glad to hear this. I would much rather have their good-will than their ill-will. I would rather have the good-wfll of any man than his ill-will." On the 3d of April several newspapers which had fol lowed General Grant with a persistent animosity down to the very beginning of his illness, recalled in touching and even eloquent words that twenty years before he had captured Richmond on that day. I told this to my chief, for I had been with him on that other 3d of April. I said the nation was looking on now, watching his battle as it did then, and that his fight vrith disease was as good a one as that he had made with the rebels twenty years before. "Ah," he answered, " twenty years ago I had more to say. I was in command then." "But even then," I replied, "it took a year to win ; perhaps you may win stfll." He brightened up at this and told the physicians the story of General Ingalls's dog. Ingalls was the chief quartermaster of the armies operating against Richmond, and had been a classmate of General Grant at West Point ; they were always on intimate terms. He had a peculiar dog that often came about the camp-fire at headquarters. One day during the long siege 434 GRANT IN PEACE. General Grant said, " Ingalls, do you mean to take that dog into Richmond ? " " 1 think I shall," said Ingalls ; " he belongs to a long lived breed." After this Dr. Shrady sat down to write the bulletin for the morning. "What shaU I say. General.'" he asked. "How shafl I tell them you are this morning ? " " More comfortable," replied the General. And the doctor wrote a line about the physical condition of his patient, and read it to General Grant, who approved. j was still greatly impressed by the public emotion, and I interrupted : " General, why not say something about the sympathy of all the world, something to thank the people .' " " Yes," he exclaimed willingly, and dictated these words : " I am very much touched and grateful for the sympathy and interest manifested in me by my friends, and by — those who have not hitherto been regarded as friends." Toward the last he stammered and hesitated, evidently unwilling at this moment to call any one an enemy; and finally made use of the circumlocution, — " Those who have not hitherto been regarded as friends." Dr. Shrady wrote out the bulletin, and read it aloud, when the General added : " I desire the good-will of all, whether heretofore friends or not." I urged the Doctor to stop just there, to say nothing about physical details, but give this Easter message from General Grant to the world in his own language. Mrs. Grant, however, wished the word " prayerful " to be used before "sympathy," and General Grant consented to the change. Another morning, only a day or two after his improve ment began, he said to me, evidently with a purpose, that it was strange how undisturbed a man could be when so near death. He supposed he had been as near the other world as THE LAST DAYS OF GENERAL GRANT. 45 c one could be and survive. His feeling at the time had been that every moment might be his last ; but he had not suf fered one particle of apprehension, or fear, or even discom posure. He evidently wished me to know this, for we had once or twice in the winter talked of religious beliefs. "Yet," he said, "at such a time it hurts no one to have lived a good Ufe." He had been undisturbed, — he repeated this emphat ically, — but he believed any one would be more comfortable at such a moment with a conscience that could not reproach him. A good Iffe would certainly contribute to composure at the end. The 9th of April came, the anniversary of Appomattox, and recovery was still not assured. One of the sons had a presentiment that his father would not survive that day ; but it would have been hard to have General Grant surrender on the anniversary of his greatest victory. Then came another jubilee. His birthday was the 27th of April, and by this time he was so far restored as to be able to join the family for a while at dinner. There were sixty-three lighted candles on the table to celebrate the sixty-three years, which a month before no one had hoped would ever be completed, and the house was crowded with flowers, the gifts of thankful friends. By the first of May he was so well that he sent for a stenog rapher, and began to dictate matter for his booL His strength, however, was intermittent, and the cancer soon began to make progress again. Nevertheless, one crisis was past. A new chapter in the disease was begun. He was able now to drive out, and dictated, and sometimes wrote, at intervals dunng the month of May and the earlier days of June. His interest in his work seemed keener than ever. It doubtless gave him strength to make a new fight — a hope less one, he felt before long, so far as recovery was con cemed. StiU, there was a respite, and this period, with his usual determination, he employed in the effort to complete his "Memoirs." 45 6 GRANT IN PEACE. The secret of this partial recovery is not far to find. It was after the great expression of public sympathy that Gen eral Grant began to improve, after his place in the affections of the people was restored or resumed that his whole nature, moral and physical, became inspired and renovated. For this it was almost worth while to have suffered, — to have the world recognize his sensitiveness, and to receive himself its appreciation in return. Few men, indeed, have known in advance so nearly the verdict of posthumous fame. No death bed was ever so illumined by the light of universal affection and admiration. Garfield had not the same claims on his countrymen, and the feeling for him was pity and indignant grief rather than gratitude or lofty enthusiasm; Lincoln knew nothing of the shock that went round the world at his assassination ; Washington lived before the telegraph ; and no European monarch or patriot was ever so universally rec ognized in his last moments as a savior and hero as Grant. All this was borne in to him as he sat struggling with Death, and, like the giant of old, he received new strength from his contact with earth. The consciousness of a world for specta tors might, indeed, nerve any combatant ; and when he found that the attacks on his fame were parried, the reproaches forgotten, his very mistakes lost sight of in the halo that enveloped him, he gathered himself up for a further contest. The physicians, doubtless, did their part, and nothing that science or devotion could suggest was withheld ; but neither science nor devotion expected or produced the resurrection and return of him whose very tomb had been prepared. It was the sense of humfliation that had stricken him and had more to do with his prostration than disease ; and when this was removed, he rose from the embrace of the King of Ter rors, and flung himself for a whfle into new toffs and battles, and, though wounded and bleeding, refused to die. On the 1 6th of June he was removed to Mount McGregor, near Saratoga, where a cottage had been offered him by its THE LAST DAYS OF GENERAL GRANT. 457 owner, Mr. Joseph W. Drexel. Flis strength had so far lapsed that the physicians afterward declared he could not have lived a week longer in the heats and sultriness of New York. When the fatigues of the journey were over, how ever, and there was time for the fresh and reviving air of his new situation to affect him, his spirits rallied, and he resumed his literary labor with extraordinary energy for a man in his condition. I was not with him at Mount McGregor, but I know that his effort there must have been prodigious. He probably dictated or composed more matter in the eight weeks after the first of May than in any other eight weeks of his life ; while in the eight weeks immediately preceding that date he did not compose as many pages. But the dying General seemed to summon back his receding powers, and expression, memory, will, all revived and returned at his command. His voice fafled him, however, after a while, and he was obliged to desist from dictation and to use a pencil, not only in com position, but even in communicating with his family and friends. This was doubtless a hardship at the moment, but was fortunate in the end for his fame; for the sentences jotted down from time to time were preserved exactly as they were written, and many of them are significant. They espe cially indicate his recognition of the magnanimous sympathy offered him by Southerners. This recognition was manifest in a score of instances. He was visited at Mount McGregor by General Buckner, the Confederate commander who had surrendered to him at Fort Donelson, and he declared to his former enemy, "I have witnessed since my sickness just what I wished to see ever since the war — harmony and good feeling between the sections." To Dr. Douglas he expressed the same sentiment in nearly the same words : " I am thankful for the providential extension of my time, because it has en abled me to see for myself the happy harmony which so sud denly sprung up between those engaged but a few short years 4^8 GRANT IN PEACE. ago in deadly conflict." These utterances were not left to a fading or faulty memory to gather up, but remain legible in the handwriting of their author." They form a fitting sequel to the acts of Donelson and Vicksburg and Appomattox. Certainly it never happened to a conqueror before to reap such a harvest of appreciation and even affection from the men that he subdued ; to accomplish in his death more of the aim of his life than even the victories of his life had achieved. He saw few friends at this time, and did little besides write and obey the directions of his physicians, or submit to the attentions of his family and nurses. His suffering, fortunately, was not greater than that of a patient in any ordinary lingering illness; it proceeded principally, from weakness, for the opiates always controlled the excruciating pains. These he was spared to the last. He perhaps once or twice had a glimmer of hope, but the rays were faint and quickly faded back into the obscurity of despair. He felt that he was working only to finish his self-appointed task. For he had an intense desire to complete his " Memoirs." It was upon the sale of his book that he counted for the future fortune of his family. It was indeed for his family, not for his fame, that he was laboring now ; bis fame he felt was secure. But at his death his army pay would cease. There would remain to Mrs. Grant and his children, it is true, the Trust Fund, the income of which he had authority to dis pose of by will ; but besides this and the mortgaged house in Sixty-sixth street, and one or two inconsiderable properties elsewhere, there was nothing ; and three families depended on him. His Personal Memoir, it was hoped, would bring in half a million of dollars ; but when he had ceased to work in the winter, this was little more than haff completed, and the monetary value of the book would be greatly depreciated, if it must be concluded by any hand but his own. This was the consideration that strengthened the sinking soldier, that gave him courage to contend with fate and despair, and, THE LAST DAYS OF GENERAL GRANT 45^ stricken as he was by one of the most terrible of maladies, to check the advance of Death himself, while he made his pre parations under the very shadow of the wing and the glare of the scythe of the Destroyer, to secure a competence for his family after he himself should have left this world. The spectacle of the hero who had earned and worn the highest earthly honors, working amid the miseries of a sick-chamber to glean the gains that he knew he could never enjoy, — the fainting warrior propped up on that mountain-top to stammer out utterances to sell for the benefit of his children, — is a picture to which history in all her annals can find no parallel. Indeed, this simple, plain, and undramatic man, who never strove for effect, and disliked the demonstration of feeling as much as the parade of circumstance and power, was per forming the most dramatic part before the world. His whole Iffe had been a drama, in spite of him, full of surprises and startling results and violent contrasts, but nothing in it all was more unexpected than this last scene, this eager haste, not in business nor in battle, but in literary labor : this race with Death, this effort to finish a book in order to secure a fortune for his family. But there was a key to the mystery, a solution of the riddle, and it is the explanation of every apparent mystery in the character of General Grant. His character at bottom was like that of other men. He loved and hated ; he suffered and enjoyed ; he appreciated what was done for and against him; he relished his fame and his elevation, he felt his disappointments and his downfall; his susceptibilities were keen, his passions strong; but he had the great faculty of concealing them so that those closest and acutest could seldom detect their existence. I sometimes wondered whether he was conscious of his own emotions, they were so completely under control ; but they were all there, all alive, all active, only enveloped in a cloak of obstinate reserve and 460 GRANT IN PEACE. majestic silence which only at the rarest intervals was torn aside by misfortune or lifted for a' moment to a friend. And now he may himself have been but half aware of the sentiment that inspired him ; but since he had discovered that his personal honor was as clean, and his military fame as brilliant in the eyes of men as either had ever been, he determined that his reputation for wordly sense and shrewd ness should also be redeemed. He would not die without regaining a fortune equal to that which had been wrung from him by fraud. No man should say that after all General Grant left his children penniless. Away down in the depths of his nature where neither affection nor friendship ever penetrated, except by the intuitions of a life-long intimacy, — this was the incentive that poured oil on the flames which the disease was quenching, this was the fuel that kept the worn-out machine still in motion, to the amazement of a world. When the work was over, the energy expired ; when the motive was withdrawn, the effort ceased ; when the influence that was the impetus of the machine was exhausted, wifl and strength alike fafled. Immediately after the end of the book was reached, the other end was seen to be at hand. One or two spasmodic bursts of life flared up, like gusts cf an expiring fire, but they probably deceived not even himself, and certainly no one besides. His former indifference to life returned as soon as his task was accomplished. The country too had no wish that he should linger on in agony. If he could have been restored to health and strength, nothing that the nation could have done to secure that end would have been lacking, or been thought too costly ; but now that he could never be more than a sufferer, prostrate and hopeless, there was no desire to retain him. Reverent sorrow and sympathy had long ascended from every quarter of the land toward the cottage on that mountain-top, but there were no prayers uttered for pro tracted days. h 3 < 3 OiO.J < 2 wo ??.^/ O ' , THE LAST DAYS OF GENERAL GRANT. 461 The final crisis was neither long nor painful. On the 2 1st of July the country was informed that he was failing again. For two days his symptoms indicated increasing depression and exhaustion, and on the 23d came the end. There was no renewed struggle, no distinct consciousness on his part that his feet were wet with the waters of that river which we all must cross ; he made no formal parting again with his family; he endured no pangs of dissolution, but passed away quietly without a groan or a shudder, with no one but his wffe and children and his medical attendants by his side. He had done most of the great things of his life with calmness and composure, and in the same way he entered the long procession in which Alexander and Cassar and WeUington and Napoleon had preceded him. CHAPTER L. LETTERS OF GENERAL GRANT TO GENERAL BADEAU. THE following letters are printed exactly as they were written by General Grant, without either correction or. modification of the language, and entirely without addition by me. There are only four omissions or excisions in the series, and these are all indicated. I was so closely and almost incessantly by Grant's side in the first four years of our intercourse that I received hardly any letters from him during that period. Our correspond ence can hardly be said to have begun until I went to Europe in 1869, immediately after he became President. Even then his letters were infrequent ; I wrote to him, except when I was in America, once or twice a month during his Presidential terms, but I always sent my letters unsealed and under cover to his private secretaries. General Porter and General Babcock, and his reply was usually contained in the letters they wrote to me ; of these I have several hun dred, but they of course are in the language of the writers, and comprise many other matters besides the messages of President Grant. But after his arrival in Europe his intimacy with me was renewed and deepened. He passed several weeks at my house, and I accompanied him, with rare exceptions, wherever he went, both in Great Britain and Ireland, and during his first Continental tour. I visited him afterward in Paris and Rome, and went with him as far as Marseilles when he fin aUy sailed for the East. During this period he gave me (462) LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 463 more of his confidence than ever before, and treated me with a familiarity I had not enjoyed either during the war or in the four years afterward in Washington, or during my visits to America while he was President. He seemed at this time to throw away much of the reserve that he maintained with nearly everybody else, and Mrs. Grant often told me that I appeared nearer to him than any other man except his own sons. I lived with him as one of his family ; I shared the expenses when we traveled together. We were often among those whose language he did not speak ; his son Jesse, who was of the party, was too young to be really a companion, and for months I was . the only man who could talk with him on terms of intimacy. We discussed all his military record hundreds of times, and he read and revised repeatedly the portions of his history on which I was then engaged. We talked of his political career, and he told me many of the events of his Presidency that had occurred while I was separated from him. He understood fully my intention to write his civil history, and allowed me to ask any questions upon disputed points ; and I could never perceive that he withheld a complete reply, or was unwilling to give me his opinion' on any public event of his career, or his judgment of any man with whom he had ever been associated. But it was in purely personal matters that I got closer still. In what affected his character or feeling he allowed me to probe him strangely, as well as to suggest an isolated step or outline a general conduct for the present or future. Of course he often did not follow my suggestions, but he was never offended at them, and I felt that in many matters I was able to influence his action, both during his European tour and in the years that I passed in America after his and my return. These letters are the proof and illustration of what I say, as well as of what has preceded in this volume. I give them in their chronological order, prefacing or adding such remarks 464 GRANT IN PEACE. of my own as may be necessary to explain the circumstances under \vhich they were written or the opinions they contain. They may sometimes suggest to me other facts or utterances of importance or interest, and these comments of mine will serve, I trust, as a thread to bind the letters together and give a certain unity to the whole. About half a dozen of the letters have already been printed entire in the earlier pages of this volume, where they peculiarly illustrate the theme or vindicate its treatment ; but I have thought it better to repeat them in the complete series than to inter rupt the continuity, for toward the close the letters will be found almost to form a connected narrative. They contain so many references to my own affairs that in order to make them intelligible I have been obliged to say more of myself and my concerns than would otherwise be delicate or desirable. But whatever explains or elucidates Grant's language I have supposed would be interesting to the world. In the same spirit I have left unchanged a few passages that may give pain, rather than mutilate his letters or misrepresent his feelings or opinions. General Grant will be so prominent a figure in history that personal considera tions become insignificant in the attempt to portray him in his habit as he lived. There are few men, however, whose private letters would bear such public inspection, or in whose intimate thoughts and expressions the world can find so little to criticize or friends so little to wish unsaid. This disclosure will reveal nothing to General Grant's dishonor, and no more faults will be found than every one has already known that he possessed as the common lot of humanity ; whfle no one can read this correspondence carefully without obtaining not only a better insight into his character, but a profounder impres sion of his personal and public virtues. To me the more intimately I knew him the more he became the object of affection and admiration. His very weaknesses made him LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 455 seem more human, and his excellences were never diminished by being studied close at hand. He was greater and better in my eyes than to any of those who stood further off and were blinded either by the mists of their own passions or the halo of his position and deeds. One word more : although General Grant was so reticent and almost secretive with individuals, he was not so with the world. He was willing for much to be known about himself that he could not bring himseff to utter. He never suggested that one word I wrote about his personal characteristics in my "Mflitary History" or in a political memoir on which this work is founded, should be omitted or changed. He listened in advance to an article in The Century Magazine for May, 1885, in which I disclosed and discussed many of his most peculiar qualities. Mrs. Grant suggested and he sanctioned a paragraph for that article, about his family relations, which was so personal that the editor struck it out and refused to publish it, although I protested. He read and revised the paper I wrote for the New York Mail and Express in 1885, describing the origin of his "Memoirs"; and in those memoirs them selves he showed himself wflling to disclose details of his life and character and sentiment quite as sacred as any that I have revealed. I believe that, with the portraiture which this volume affords the subject himself would be satisfied, could he know its character and its effect upon his fame. Letter No. One. This note explains itself. It shows the interest Grant took in the great question of Reconstruction which so affected his own action and career, and betrays the democratic simplicity of the General-in-Chief and virtual dictator over the conquered territory ; for this Caesar traveled in a street-car. Headquarters Armies of the United States, Jan'y 17*, 1866. Col., — I am going to the Senate Chamber to hear the speeches on reconstruction this afternoon and will not be back to the office 30 466 GRANT IN PEACE. again. Please tell the orderly that brings my horse to return with him, as I will go home in the cars. Yours, &c., U. S. Grant. Letter No. Two. This is the letter already printed in Chapter XVII, on "Grant as a Presidential Candidate." It requires no further comment or elucidation than it there received. Headquarters Army of the Uijited States, Galena, III., Aug. 18'" / 68. Dear Badeau, — As I have concluded to remain here until about the close of Sept., I think you had better open the letters that have accumulated in Washington. Such as are on official business refer to Rawlins. All others do with as your judgment dictates, only do not send any to me except such as you think absolutely require my attention and will not keep till my return. If you are not otherwise more agreeably engaged I think you will find it pleasant here for a while and then to return with me. I have also written to Comstock to come out if he feels like it. The family are all well. Yours Truly, U. S. Grant. Letter No. Three. General Grant suffered all his life from severe headaches proceeding from biliousness. The movements of armies were sometimes delayed by this cause. I remember that during the march from the Wflderness, a halt of a day was cafled while he lay suffering at Maggahick Church, and in the Appomattox campaign he was nearly blind with pain when he got the news that Lee was willing to surrender ; but this cured him. Jan. 12'* / 69. Dear Gen'l, — Say to the people who I appointed to-day to meet that I have a severe headache and will not leave the house. I cannot see any one here on business either during the day. Yours Truly, U. S. Grant. Gen'l Badeau. LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 467 Letter No. Four. This is the correspondence with me on the day of Grant's first inauguration, 1869, already given in Chapter XIX, on "Cabinet Making." It is worth noting that the first line he wrote as President was to appoint an hour when he w.ould receive the present of a Bible. March 4, 1869. Dear General, — Mr. George H. Stuart is one of a committee of three, the other two being the Chief-Justice and Senator Freling huysen, who desire to present you, in the name of some religious society, with a Bible. They will wait on you whenever you say — ex cept that the Chief-Justice must be at the Supreme Court, and Mr. Stuart leaves town to-morrow night. If you will send word to me what hour will suit you, I will let Mr. Stuart know. Mr. Stuart pro poses to-morrow morning before ten o'clock, or ff the court does not meet till eleven, before that time. With great respect. Your obedient servant, Adam Badeau. The President of the United States. The bearer will wait for an answer ; if you are out he will still wait till your return. P. S. — I have just learned positively that the Supreme Court does not meet until eleven. On the back of this the new President pencfled : "To-morrow before 10 a. m. at my house, or between 10 a. M. & 3 p. M. at the Executive Mansion. U. S. G. Letter No. Five. This letter is the one referred to in Chapter XXIII, on " Grant and Motley." It was written, as I there state, in reply to one of mine suggesting that Grant should say some thing to me commending Motley which I could show to the Minister. The "utterances" that he speaks of were one or two public speeches of Motley delivered soon after his arrival in England. At this time. Grant's first outburst of anger at 468 GRANT IN PEACE. Motley's course had abated, and he intended to allow the envoy to remain, but he had directed Fish to withdraw the negotiation of the Alabama question from his hands. The remark on this subject was intended to smooth the rebuke which the withdrawal implied : as Motley was to stay, Grant thought it well to make him feel as pleasant as possible. The subsequent change in the President's intention was caused by the discovery that Motley had placed on file in the British Foreign Office the paper which had so offended his superiors. But in July, 1869, this fact was not known, for Motley fafled to report it promptly. This whole matter has been discussed by Mr. Fish and Mr. Bancroft Davis in papers already given to the world. I mention it because it seems necessary to explain why General Grant wrote so favorably of Motley — almost to him — at this time. There was no tergiversation in his course. I need not call attention to his remarks on public policy. His predecessor had so often advocated a "policy" of his own in opposition to the will of the people, that the very word had become offensive to many patriots. This Grant had in view in the line he wrote to me.Executive Mansion, Washington, D. C, July 14"', 1869. Dear Badeau, — Your two very welcome letters were duly received. I shall always be glad to hear from you but may not be able to reply very frequently. — The little insight your letters give to public acts and feeling abroad is something which cannot be gathered so clearly from official dispatches. So far I have been pleased with Mr. Motley's utterances abroad, and I have no doubt he will prove the very best man that could have been selected for the English mission. It is not half so important that the Alabama claims should be settled as it is that when settled it should be on terms creditable to this nation. I do not see that any harm is to arise from the matter standing in an unsetded state. LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 469 I leave here to-morrow for Long Branch, and the North, to be gone all summer. I will return here however from time to time myself to look after public business. Probably will not remain absent longer than two weeks at any one time. — Public affairs look to me to be progressing very favorably. The revenues of the countT}' are being collected as they have not been before, and expenditures are looked after more carefully. This is policy enough for the present. The first thing it seems to me is to establish the credit of the country. My family are all well and join in respects to you. Please remember me kindly to Mr. Motley and his family. Yours Truly, U. S. Grant. Letter No. Six. This letter shows the exactness of the statements miade by Grant's friends that INIotley's removal was not occasioned by Sumner's action in regard to St. Domingo. He did not of course suppose when he wrote this familiar letter that it would ever become an historical document, but for that very reason it furnishes incontestable proof on the disputed point. The second paragraph refers to my bonds as Consul-Gen eral at London. Those who had arranged to become my bondsmen were absent when I received the appointment, and I started for England before the bonds were filed. They were speedily signed, however, and there was no need for Grant to become my surety at that time, but his name was on my bonds tweh'e years afterward, when I was appointed Con sul-General at Havana. I hardly need call attention to the utterances about the fate of Napoleon III. The readers of this volume know that General Grant cherished the same feeling to the last. Even the death of the Emperor and the approach of his own end did not abate the severity of his judgment. Long Branch, N. J., Aug. 22^, 1870. Dear General, — Your several letters -nTitten since your return to England have been received, and read with great inter- 470 GRANT IN PEACE. est. I have been negligent about writing but nevertheless prize and appreciate your letters all the same. Your letter speaking of the effect newspaper rumors about Mr. Motley's removal had upon him was rec'd the very day I sent in the name of his successor. Mr. Motley's removal was long in contemplation, as you know, and he was only left in England as long as he was out of deference to Gov. Fish, who is averse to changes, or to doing anything which gives inconvenience to others. — I regretted the delay in getting your bonds ; I inquired about the matter several times, and spoke of having them made up myself, but found that, to do so, yoii would have to make out, and sign, a new set. — Being Executive of this Nation I shall not write about the pres ent terrible war raging on the Continent. However, before this reaches you I would not be surprised if Napoleon should be off his throne (he is practically so now) and peace, through the inter vention of other Nations, in a fair way of being negotiated. — The winding up of Congress was much more harmonious and satis factory than the beginning. I think the Republican party stands well before the people. We will lose Members of Congress in the Fall elections no doubt, because it always happens that the party in power are less active at the election intervening between two Presidential elections than the party out. I have not yet sent any one to take Mr. M.'s place in England. As you have no doubt learned from the papers Mr. Frelinghuysen declines. It is to be regretted for Mr. F. and his family, are good representative Americans. The Summer in the United States has been intolerably warm. At Long Branch however we always have a breeze which makes the warmest weather endurable. — Mrs. Grant and the children send their kindest regards. I shall always be glad to hear from you, and to get exactly the sort of letters you have written so far, though 1 may not write often myself. Yours Truly, U. S. Grant. GenU A. Badeau, Consul, etc. Letter No. Seven. The article for the British press referred to in this letter was a comparison between the War of the Rebellion and LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 471 that between Germany and France in 1870. It was written for Frazcr's Magazine at the request of the editor, Mr. Froude, and of course had the sanction of the President and the Secretary of State. I have not stricken out the sentences referring to the Adams family, although Grant must have subsequently modi fied his opinion, for it was after this that he appointed Charles Francis Adams arbitrator for the United States at Geneva ; and I know that he highly appreciated the services there rendered to the country by that distinguished states man and diplomatist. The remarks in regard to Butler are significant. Butler was the only one of Grant's personal enemies whom he seemed to me entirely to forgive, — untfl his final illness. I never discussed the subject with him, but the cordiality appeared complete; all rancor was past; although he believed that Butler had said as offensive things of him as any of his ad versaries. When I sent him the pages of my history describing Butler's campaign on the James he wrote in some curious interpolations. I had said : " Grant came East fully intend ing and prepared to remove that officer (in whose military ability he had little confidence)." The words in brackets he struck out and substituted, in pencil, in the margin — " Who he had only known by reputation and one who had stepped into the highest grade in the army from the beginning and without experience in the subordinate grades. Want of such experience he did not believe proper preparation for a command." In the same chapter I had written : " Grant gave him two of the ablest professional soldiers in the army to command his corps, in the hope that Butler would avail himself of their talent and experience." To this Grant added in the margin, also in pencfl: "Note. Results convinced Grant that in his selection of one of these corps commanders he 472 GRANT IN PEACE. contributed largely to the failure in the capture of Peters burg on arrival of the Army of the Potomac on the banks of the James." The officer referred to was W. F. Smith. Executive Mansion, Washington, D. C, Oct. 23'', 1870. Dear Badeau, — I am in receipt of your letter in which you speak of the article you propose writing for the British press, and of getting something from Sheridan to aid you in preparing it. I have rec'd but one letter from Sheridan since he has been with the Prussians. It is probably too late for that letter to be of service to you ; but I send it. It will at least interest you. — I also send you a review of the reviewer Adams, by Senator Howe. The Adams' do not possess one noble trait of character that I ever heard of, from old John Adams down to the last of all of them, H. B. — In writing your second volume I would advise to steer clear of criticisms of persons on account of your personal acquaintance. For instance you know personally much more of Butler, Meade and others, against whom prejudice may exist, than any one could learn from any authentic record. I would give them all the credit the record entitles them to and particularly avoid personalities. This is voluntary advice however and you can use it as you please. My family are all very well and wish to be remembered to you. You will learn before this reaches that Morton declines the English Mission. It is because a bitter copperhead would take his place in the Senate should he go. I have not made up my mind now who to send but I wifl not leave Mr. Motley. Yours, U. S. Grant. Letter No. Eight. This letter is already given in full in Chapter XXIX. The information spoken of was for my use in the preparation of the "Military History of Ulysses S. Grant." Executive Mansion, Washington, D. C, Nov. 19"", 1871. Dear Badeau, — As I have before assured you your letters are rec'd and read with great pleasure though I may not find time LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 473 to answer many of them. The information asked for by you, from the War Dep't, Porter undertook to get, and has obtained so far as the clerks in the Dep't. could work it out. But it does not satisfy Porter and he now intends to go to the Dep't. himself and work it up. This accounts for the delay. I have not yet written a line in my message. Will commence to-morrow and hope to make it short — Everything in the country looks politically well at present. The most serious apprehension is from the awards that may be made by the commissions at Geneva and in Washington. Should they go largely in favor of the English it would at least cause much disappointment. — In speaking of political matters I do not of course allude to my own chances. It will be a happy day for me when I am out of politi cal life. But I do feel a deep interest in the republican party keeping control of affairs until the results of the war are acqui esced in by all political parties. When that is accomplished we can afford to quarrel about minor matters. My family are all well and send you their kindest regards. Fred, sailed for Europe on Friday last. He will be in England about May next and will stay there, I hope, long enough to do up the island pretty well. Yours Truly, U. S. Grant. Letter No. Nine. General Schenck was Minister to England when this letter was written : Long Branch, N. J., July I4*^ 1873. My Dear General, — General Babcock has handed me your letters to him & myself, and the five pages of your history of the rebeUion accompanying them, all of which I have carefully read. I have no criticism whatever to make in what you have presented, and believe you are as near accurate in your statements as it is possible to get. I am always glad to hear from you, and to hear of your good health and prosperity. But I am worse than I used to be about writing. As I grow older, I become more indolent, my besetting sin through life. It is too late to reform now. 474 GRANT IN PEACE. The season at Long Branch has been very pleasant so far, and the number of sojourners here is larger than ever before. The place has increased vastly in the last four years in the number of private cottages. My kindest regard to Gen. Schenck, his family, and his official household should you meet them. Very Truly Yours, U. S. Grant. Gen. A. Badeau, Consul General, London, Eng. Letter No. Ten. General Grant's daughter and her husband had spent a day or two at my house in the suburbs of London, and the visit had been so pleasant to me that I wrote an account of it for the General and Mrs. Grant, which I knew would please them. In reply the General wrote, out of the fullness of a father's heart, the glowing account of his children that follows. Nothing could exceed the admiration as wefl as affection with which he regarded his sons and his daughter, and the interest he took in whatever concerned them. The parental feeling was as strong in him as in any man I have ever known. Executive Mansion, Washington, D. C, Oct. 25"", 1874. My Dear General, — Your letter stating that Mr. Sartoris & Nellie had been at your house in London was received while Mrs. Grant and I were in Chicago attending the wedding of Fred. to Miss Honord Fred's wife is beautiful and is spoken of by all her acquaintances, male and female, young & old, as being quite as charming for her manners, amiability, good sense, & educa tion, as she is for her beauty. Mrs. Grant and I were charmed with the young lady and her family, — father & mother, sister & four brothers. We expect them to spend the winter with us, & as Mr. Sartoris & Nellie will be here in January, we will have I hope, quite a gay household. Buck is in a law office in New York City, and is a student at the same time in Columbia LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 475 Law School. Jesse entered Cornell University, without a condition, although he has never attended school but three years, then in an infant class. My boys are all growing up. Pred with no surplus flesh, weighs 193 lbs., and Buck who is a spare looking young man, weighs 160 lbs., twenty pounds more than I weighed at forty years of age. As my children are all leaving me it is grat ifying to know that, so far, they give good promise. They are all of good habits and are very popular with their acquaintances and associates. We have had — Mrs. Grant has — a letter from Nellie this morning. But as I was busy I have neither read it nor heard its contents ; therefore do not know whether it was written before or after her visit to London. Although remiss in writing I am always glad to hear from and take as warm an interest in your welfare as though I wrote frequently. Yours Truly, U. S. Grant. Gen'l A.. Badeau, Consul Gen'l, Eng. Letter No. Eleven. In 1875, 1 visited the United States to be married. Pres ident Grant had promised me to give the bride away, but two or three days before the wedding he found himself unable to be present and wrote me the following letter. I went at once to Washington to persuade him to keep his engagement, but was unsuccessful ; but before I left the White House he offered me the mission to Belgium. In accordance with his suggestion Washington was included in the wedding journey, and the President made a dinner of forty on the occasion. Executive Mansion, Washington, Ap'l 23'', 1875. Dear General, — I write to express my regrets that I shall not be able to be present at your wedding as I had expected, and so much desired. Invitations that I had given — not for partic ular date — for company to spend a week with us has been ac cepted, and the company will arrive during the early part of next week. Allow me therefore to heartily congratulate you, in be- 476 GRANT IN PEACE. half of Mrs. Grant and myself, and wish you a happy journey through life. Please to say to Miss Niles that I very much regret that I shall not have the pleasure of conferring her upon my old — not in years, but in date of service — Staff Officer. Ever Your friend, U. S. Grant. Gen'l A. Badeau, Consul Gen'l, London, Eng. P. S. — I hope you will take Washington in your tour and give Mrs. Grant and me an opportunity of having you and Mrs. Badeau meet some of our friends — and your old ones — socially. U. S. G. Letter No. Twelve. On the day of my marriage the President sent me the following telegram : Washington, D. C, April 29, 1875. General A. Badeau, — Gramercy Park Hotel, New York : Please accept my hearty congratulations upon the auspicious events of to-day and my regrets that public business prevents my being present to present the bride and congratulate you in person as I had expected to do. U. S. Grant. Letter No. Thirteen. Before leaving America I declined the mission to Belgium for personal reasons, which are referred to in the omitted portion of this letter. General Grant, however, knew that I had originally desired a diplomatic appointment, and he had always promised me one. The promise had indeed been kept, for in 1870 he offered me the mission to Uruguay and Paraguay, when I preferred to be Consul-General at London ; but now he proposed Belgium, and pressed the place on me, even after I had declined it. My appointment was made out and sent to me in London, together with the letter of creden tials to the King, without any further notice than this letter. LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 477 which indeed only reached me in England. But my chief and friend persisted in his kindness. Long Branch, N. J., July 5" / 75- Dear General, — Your letter written a few days before you sailed for Liverpool was duly received and I should have answered it before you got away. What I wanted particularly to say — and now do say — is that I will not regard your declination of the Mission to Brussels for the present. I presume Jones will not return to Brussels, though under the letter which he received when his resignation was tendered he can do so. His household goods, &c., were sent home in advance. If he does not return the mis sion wiU still be tendered to you, — and I hope you with Mrs. Badeau, , may enjoy it. Of course I can not know, or even surmise, why you did not wish .... But this will all be right very soon and I know you will then prefer a Mission to a Consulate. I am not giving advice but doing what I think you will be glad of on second reflection. If I am mistaken you can decline the Mission when it reaches you. My family, and your friends here at the Branch, are all well. Buck safls from Liverpool on the 8th inst., so that I hope you may meet him before he starts. Please remember me to Gen. Schenck & daughters. Very Truly Yours, U. S. Grant. Gen. A. Badeau. Letter No. Fourteen. This telegram is in reply to one from me, asking for infor mation in regard to General W. F. Smith's report of the battle of Cold Harbor, for my Military History of Grant : [Telegram.] Washington, Nov. i, 1876. Gen. Badeau, U. S. Consul-General, London: No report from Smith after June 4th. U. S. Grant. 478 GRANT IN PEACE. Letter No. Fifteen. This letter was written immediately before the election of Hayes, and of course toward the close of Grant's second Presidential term : Executive Mansion, Washington, Nov. 2'' / 76. Dear Badeau, — I have read with great pleasure your chapter on the Cold Harbor Campaign, and given it to Babcock to return. I have no criticisms to make, and think it not only very accurate, but that it will explain many existing misapprehensions in regard to that Campaign. I have no time to write further, people being in waiting now wishing to come in to see me. By June next I hope to see you, in person, in London. It is my intention by that time to start on a somewhat extended tour, taking Mrs. Grant and Jesse with me. Jesse will then be a senior in Cornell University and may only remain with me during his vacation. But if he remains with me he will still graduate at the age of twenty-one, quite young enough. Always taking an interest in your welfare, I subscribe myself. Your friend, U. S. Grant. Letter No. Sixteen. The chapter in my history here referred to is that which describes Sherman's Atlanta campaign : Executive Mansion, Washington, Nov. 15"" / 76. Dear Badeau, — I received from Chicago on last Sunday, your sixth chapter of " Grant and his Campaigns," and read it over hastily at once, intending to give a more careful perusal. I have not had time however since, to do so, but as I gave it to Sherman to read the same evening, and as he read the most of it aloud, it is not necessary for me to retain it any longer. I send you Porter's letter. It indicates that he had some criticisms to make ; I certainly have none to make myself, nor had Sherman further than to make two or three small corrections of distances in the field of his campaigns. I hope you wfll be able to get out LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 470 the second volume by May or June. I expect to be in England early in July when I shall hope to see you if my successor has not decapitated you before that. The question of successor is not yet fully determined nor can it be until we get the official canvass of the States of La., S C, & Fla. With best wishes for your welfare. Yours Truly, U. S. Grant. Letter No. Seventeen. This letter, as the date shows, was written shortly after the inauguration of Hayes. As soon as Grant went out of power I wrote to him, to show and to say that my regard was as great as when he had been President, and the letter that follows was his reply. He was already planning his European tour, and I had invited him to make my house his home as long as he remained in England. In February, General Horace Porter, my successor as his private secretary, visited me in London, and brought me word that the General could not accept prolonged hospitalities, but would like to join me in a mess at my house ; and I consented. When he wrote this letter he expected to go direct to me. Washington, D. C, Apl. 23" / 77. Dear General, — I have just received your letter of the 24th of March, and have before me the chapter on the Petersburgh Mine explosion which I wfll read so soon as I finish this letter. — I am much obliged for the kind expressions in your letter and shall only be too happy to serve you whenever it may be in my power. I spoke to Mr. Hayes in your behaff in the only interview I ever had with him when the subject of retention of any of my appointees was mentioned. Mrs. Grant & I have been west for the past three weeks, and over, which accounts for the lateness of this letter, and the delay in returning your manuscript. I wrote Judge Pierrepont that we would arrive in England late in June. Jesse goes with us and as his college examination does 480 GRANT IN PEACE. not take place until the middle of June that time was fixed upon for starting. But subsequently to writing that letter Jesse was home during a few days' vacation — at the end of a term — and said that by dfligent study he could get through his course much earlier. He finished last Friday and is now with us, practically a senior two months in advance of his class. We will sail earlier therefore, most likely on the 17th of May, and by the America line of steamers from Phil'. I wish you would explain this matter to Judge Pierrepont, and present my kindest regards to him and Mrs. Pierrepont. Yours faithfully. Gen. A. Badeau. U. S. Grant. Letter No. Eighteen. In June, 1877, General Grant arrived at Liverpool and proceeded by Manchester to London. From this time I was constantly with him. The month of June and part of July were passed principally in London. I have already described the dinners of the Queen and the Prince of Wales, and told of the Court Ball, and the Reception at the house of the United States Minister. Besides this, dinners were offered him by the Princess Louise and the Marquis of Lome, the Prime Minister, Lord Beaconsfield, by the Dukes of Devon shire and Wellington, the Marquis of Ripon, the Earls of Derby, Carnarvon, and Dunraven, the Master of Trinity and Lord Houghton, and many others. Mr. Pierrepont invited the Prince of Wales to meet him at dinner ; I gave him an evening party and a dinner ; Mr. Smalley, the correspon dent of the New York Tribune, invited him to breakfast, and Mr. Russell Young, of the New York Herald, to dinner ; the Reform Club and the United Service Club gave him dinners, at the last of which the Duke of Cambridge, the Commander- in-Chief of the British army, presided; and there were innumerable parties, afternoon and evening, made in his honor. The Duke of Argyll, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Mrs. Hicks-Lord, of New York, the Marquis of Hertford — all entertained him ; and everybody of any consequence in Lon- LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 481 don called on him. The Provost of Eton invited him to lunch, the University of Oxford offered him a degree ; and the City of London presented him with its freedom. Early in July he visited Belgium, and afterward passed up the Rhine to Switzerland and Northern Italy. At Brus sels, Frankfort, Cologne, Geneva, and Berne he was the object of public or official courtesies. The Grand Duke of Baden invited him to his villa near Constance, and Garibaldi sent him a message of welcome whfle he was at Varese. At Ragatz I left him for a week to arrange for his tour in Scotland. The Dukes of Sutherland and Argyll had asked me to bring him to them if he went as far north as their seats of Inverary and Dunrobin, and I now wrote to them to pro pose his visits. In a few days he arrived in England and at once went to Edinburgh and the Highlands, even extending his trip to John O'Groat's House, the extreme northern point of the island. By October he had returned to the south of England, stopping at Glasgow, Newcastle, Sheffield, Leeds, Sunderland, Leamington, Stratford, and Warwick, on his way, and receiving the freedom of nearly every city through which he passed. After this he paid a visit to Mr. and Mrs. Sartoris, the parents of his daughter's husband, who had a country house near Southampton. I had been absent so much from my consular post that, although this was with the sanction of the State Depart ment, I felt that I ought now to remain for a while in Lon don, and accordingly I was not with General Grant at South ampton, Brighton, Torquay, and Birmingham. Nevertheless I conducted all his correspondence with the civic functiona ries, accepted his invitations, public and private, and arranged his route, as I had done ever since his arrival, both on the Continent and in England. In London, the Minister, Mr. Pierrepont, directed one or two of the most important arrangements, but with this exception, aU his plans were made through me, and were for the most part such as I pro posed — never such as I disadvised. 31 482 GRANT IN PEACE. General Alvord, the Paymaster-General of the ai'my, had written to warn me that he supposed I did not come within the provisions of the law allowing certain retired officers of the army to hold diplomatic or consular positions. General Grant as President had examined this matter with several of his Cabinet, and I had been retired expressly to enable me to enter the diplomatic service. He now took a lively interest in the question, and when the matter was revived years after ward, he was ready to testify, in the last months of his life, in my favor. Warsash House was the residence of Mr. Sartoris. Warsash House, Titchfield, Hants, Oct. 3" / 77. Dear General, — I am in receipt of your letter enclosing Mr. Jessup's invitation and your two replies. It is of course always pleasant for me to have you with me but as I do not intend to have any public demonstrations it is not necessary if your public duties require you at home. I have written to South ampton declining the banquet, but saying that, if agreeable to the Mayor and Corporation, I would drive over there on Friday or Saturday by 12 m., and would pay my respects to them at any place they might designate, and return here not later than at five, — starting time — in the evening. I am surprised at Alvord's letter. Does he explain the change come over his views since his former letter advising you of the decision of the Atty Genl? There are but two officers — you and Sickles — affected by the decision, and as you had made no claim for Army pay while in other Govt. emplo)mient, and as Sickles is now out of the public service — active — it would look as though he had raised the question and got a decision in his favor. I shall probably go to Torquay on Monday next. If you feel like going, and that you can do so without detriment to the public service, my sending your letter declining need not interfere. LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 483 I wfll telegraph you the exact day when I will be in London as soon as possible, and also the day when I will go to Birmingham. Yours Truly, Gen. A. Badeau. U. S. Grant. Letter No. Nineteen. The last part of this letter refers to the assertion made by a prominent American that I had not been authorized or invited to accompany General Grant on his tour, but had thrust myself upon him. Warsash, Oct. 5'^ / 77. Dear Gen., — I enclose you two cards of invitation to tiie Merchant Tailors' feast which you may accept formally. I have already informed them informally, in reply to a note sent to ascer tain if I could attend, that I would be in London on the i8th of Oct. My plans from now until we go to the Continent are about complete, and if you will be kind enough you may arrange accordingly. On Monday the 15th we will be in London: on Wednesday, the 17 th, I would like to go to Birmingham to return the next day evening. On Saturday — the 20th — we go to Brighton to be the guests of Capt. Ashbury until the following Tuesday. We then return to London and will go to Paris on the 24th. I am amazed at what you say about . . . but are you sure he has made any such statements as you quote ? Every thing I have said in his presence — or elsewhere — disproves his statements if he has made them. You have been of incalculable help to me, and your presence has been most acceptable to our whole party. When I see ... I wfll take occasion to put in a few words that he will feel if he has been talking as you suspect. Very Truly Yours, U. S. Grant. Gen. A. Badeau. Letter No. Twenty. The Mr. Walter spoken of in this letter was the pro prietor of the London Times, who had invited General Grant to pay him a visit at his country seat of Bearwood. 484 GRANT IN PEACE. Warsash, Titchfield, Oct. 8'" / 77. Dear General, — I enclose you a letter which has just been returned to me. I wish you would drop a note to Mr. Walter making the explanation. I was under the impression that I wrote you that we would go to Birmingham on Wednesday, and telegraphed to correct the date. From your last letter however I see you wrote to the Mayor that we would be there on Tuesday, which is right. We start in a few minutes for Torquay. Yours Truly, U. S. Grant. Letter No. Twenty-one. I had suggested that General Grant should write in per son, acknowledging some of the numerous hospitalities he had received in England, and this letter is his reply. He was always ready in such matters, but in the hurry of travel and crowd of engagements the proper recognition was sometimes overlooked. Torquay, Oct. 9«' / 77. Dear General, — I shall leave London for Paris on the 24th. The Saturday preceding we go to Brighton to remain until the fol lowing Tuesday. You see by a letter returned to me — and which I sent to you, that I answered Mr. Walter promptly. I also wrote, the first day after my arrival at Warsash, to every one who had entertained me — including the Mayor of Leamington — whom I had not previously written to. We will go to London on Monday next. I will telegraph you the station at which we wfll arrive, and the hour in time. Yours Truly, U. S. Grant. Gen. A. Badeau. Letter No. Twenty-two. This note was written at my consular office, where General Grant called to see me, and not finding me there scribbled these lines on my official paper. I had invited him and Mrs. LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 485 Grant to a little box I occupied eight or ten miles from London. He was staying at the Bristol Hotel. Sir Edward Watkins was the Chairman (President as Americans call it), of the London, Chatham & Dover Railway Company, and had offered the hospitality of his road when ever General Grant traveled over it ; as in fact did most of the railroad companies in England. Consulate-General of the United States FOR Great Britain and Ireland, London, Oct. 18"', 1877. E. C. Dear General, — I just returned this a. m. from Birmingham. The reception there was extremely flattering, and the speeches showed not only present warmth of sentiment for America but that it had been the same during the trying days when many other communities in England felt and spoke quite differently. — I regret that I shall not be able to get out to your house — prob ably — during my stay in London. Hope however that you will be able to get to Bristol Hotel Yours Truly, U. S. Grant. Over P. S. — Will you be kind enough to let me know ff Sir — Wat- kins has made arrangements for our departure on Wednesday next ; and if so, at what hour we will start, what hour arrive in Paris, and at what depot we will arrive. Letter No. 'Twenty-three. The Government had placed one of its largest vessels in European waters at the disposal of General Grant whenever it might suit his convenience to travel in that way. I was no longer able to be absent from my consular post, and when General Grant again left England, I parted com pany with him for a while. Our correspondence now became more regular than ever before, so that what was a disadvant age to me, may prove an advantage to the world ; for at this time he wrote to no one else so constantly and famiUarly on subjects of general importance and interest. 486 GRANT IN PEACE. Mr. RusseU Young, the European correspondent of the Neiv York Herald, accompanied General Grant during the winter of 1 877-8. Mr. Young, although a warm political adherent and a personal admirer, had hardly before this been intimate with Grant ; but during this winter he became one of his closest companions and most valued friends. He went to the East with General Grant in 1878, and wrote an account of the journey, based upon his correspondence with the New York Herald on the way. In 1882, at General Grant's urgent desire. President Arthur appointed Mr. Young Minister to China. The joke about rough weather in the letter which fol lows shows that General Grant had already begun to like Young, for it was only his favorites that he ever bantered or teased. 6, Eastern Terrace, Brighton, Oct. 22'* / 77. Dear General, — We leave here at 1 1 a. m. to-morrow ; will be at Victoria Sta° at 12.30. It will not be necessary for you to send your carriage however unless you are recovered suffi ciently to go yourself. We have a landau to meet us. I hope you will be able to go to Boulogne on the following day, I have not availed myself of Sir Edward Watkin's invitation to take other guests with me, but if you will write a note to Russell Young saying that I would be pleased with his company I will be obliged. If the weather should be rough he might stop in Folke stone until the boat returns. I wish you would write a letter for me to the Commander of the Med" Squadron saying that about the first of Dec' I will go to Spain and if he can have a vessel at Lisbon I will join him at that port about ten days later. If preferable to meet me at some Mediterranean port I would be glad to have the com'''' inform me, to the care of Drexel, Hargous & Co., Paris. As the time approaches I am anxious to get off to the Conti nent, though I have no idea that I shall enjoy my visit there half LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 487 so much as in England. \\'ith kind regards of myself and family, I am Truly Yours, U. S. Grant. Gen. A. Badeau, U. S. Consul Gen. Letter No. Twenty-four. As soon as General Grant had left England, I resumed my labors on his history. In November*! wrote him, asking for information in regard to Mrs. Grant's visits to him dur ing the war, and also for a detailed statement of the points he had visited in the preceding summer after I left him at Ragatz. This I wanted for some such purpose as that of the present volume. The last sentence in this letter refers to the promise of President Hayes to retain me at the Consulate General at London. Grant had heard that several aspirants were at tempting to supplant me, and therefore had written to Gen eral Sherman on the subject. Paris, Nov. 9* 777. Dear General, — In answer to your letter of the sth inst. I cannot give you definite information as to dates when Mrs. Grant visited me at City Point. She went there however soon after my Hd. Qrs. were established there. She returned to Burlington, N. J. after a short visit to arrange for the children's schooling, and went back to City Point where she remained, — with the excep tion of one or two short visits to N. J. — untfl Lee's surrender and my return to the National Capital. Mrs. Grant made a short visit to me — the first time after leaving Cairo — at Corinth, next at Jackson, Tenn. then at Memphis where I left her when I went to Young's Point, at Young's Point one or two days before run ning the Vicksburg Batteries, and at Vicksburg after the surren der. She again visited me at Nashville. ., On leaving Ragatz we traveled to Bale, Switzerland, lay over Sunday there ; thence to Strasburg where we stopped five or six hours, visiting the Cathedral, fortifications, &c. ; thence to Metz for the night. The next day, until late in the afternoon, was spent 488 GRANT IN PEACE. in visiting points of interest in and about Metz, and in the evening we went on a few hours travel to a little town — I have forgotten the name of it — near the border of Belgium. This was to save a too early start from Metz. The following day to Antwerp where we spent two days — Thence by steamer to London. I do not now think I shall visit Portugal. I have had some cor respondence with Adm'. Le Roy — who has taken Worden's place — in regard to the rouje. He advises against sending a vessel to Lisbon at this season of the year on account of the insufficiency of the Harbor for large vessels, making it necessary to anchor out side. My route will probably be through Madrid to Cadiz, thence up the Mediterranean. I will write a letter soon to Gen. Sherman and will take pains to say a word in the direction you mention, and will also remind him of the President's promise to me. We are all very well. I have seen all I want of Paris and but for engagements ahead would leave without much delay. With kind regards. Yours Truly, U. S. Grant. Gen. A. Badeau. Letter No. Twenty-five. The Porter who is mentioned is General Horace Porter. The letter referred to contained some political suggestions, in regard to General Grant ; of no consequence now. The Comte de Paris had called on General Grant at my house in London, and as he was leaving town the same day, the visit had not been returned. As General Grant was now in Paris, I had suggested to him to pay the civility at this time. Hotel Bristol, Paris, Nov. ii"'/77. Dear General, — Lest you may want Porter's letter I return it. I wrote to Porter but did not tell him that you had submitted it to Pierrepont before sending it to me. I have nothing new to say to you only that the Count de Paris called on me soon after my arrival here. I was out at the time so I did not see him. LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 489 But I called at his house soon after — within a day or two — and found that he was living in the country about six hours, by rail, from Paris. I am to meet him at dinner on the 23d when he comes in for the night. Very Truly Yours, U. S. Grant. Gen. A. Badeau. Letter No. Twenty-six. This extremely interesting and important historical letter was written in reply to one from me, asking for information in regard to General Grant's visit to the North in August, 1864, when he relieved Hunter, and placed Sheridan in command in the Valley of Virginia. When I made the inquiry I was preparing the account of Sheridan's Campaign. A large number of boxes, presents, addresses, freedoms of cities, etc., had been left by General Grant at my house when he quitted England, and I had inquired what disposition he wished made of them. Hotel Bristol, Paris, Nov. 17"" / 77. Dear General, — Your letter of yesterday reminds me that I neglected to answer yours about Sheridan. As you may remem ber—or have data to show — I ordered first one then the second Div. of Sheridan's Cavalry Corps to the department commanded by Gen. Hunter. About the time the second division was going I visited General Hunter at Monocacy, where I found his army encamped promiscuously around over the fields in the neighbor hood, and a very large amount of railroad rolling-stock concen trated about there. I asked Gen. Hunter where the enemy was. He said he did not know, his orders kept coming so rapidly from Washington directing him to move here and there to keep between the enemy and the National Capital that he could do nothing towards locating or pursuing the enemy. I told him that I would find out where he was, and put the whole army, railroad trains and all, in motion for the Valley of Va. knowing full-well — no matter where the enemy might be at the time — that when the rich store- 490 GRANT IN PEACE. house of the Valley of Va. was threatened the enemy would be in the front of our Army to defend it. I then wrote out at Gen. Hunter's table, his instructions. After reading them to him I told him that Gen. Sheridan was in Washington and that I would order him up at once, and advised Gen. Hunter to put Sheridan in com mand of the Army " in the field," and to select Dept. HdQrs. for himself wherever he liked, and retain general command himself. He said he thought I had better relieve him altogether because Gen. Halleck did not seem to repose the confidence in him he should have in a Dept. Commander. I then telegraphed Sheridan to go to Monocacy at once where I would remain to meet him. When he arrived I was at the station with the orders written out for, and addressed to. Gen. Hunter. The whole country about, — which had been filled but a few hours before with troops and trains of cars — was then entirely clear from all appearance of warlike preparation. In a short time Sheridan started for his new com mand and I back to Washington. I believe this is all the infor mation called for in your letter, which I have not now got. I sent all the addresses, boxes, &c., I had — excepting the box given by the City of London — to the U. S. before leaving London. The latter I deposited at the bank of Morton Rose & Co. I wish, when you are ready to do so, you would box up all the boxes, addresses, albums, &c., you have for me, have my name marked outside, and deposit them at the same place. Very Truly Yours, U. S. Grant. Gen. A. Badeau. Letter No. Twenty-seven. This letter also is made up in part of replies to inquiries from me ; some about Sheridan, others about the movements before Petersburg. I had also asked whether the General had thought to write to Mr. Pierrepont after his visit at the Minister's house, and the efforts of Pierrepont to make the stay in London successful. LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 401 Paris, France, Nov. 27"' / 77. De.\r Badeau, — I met Mr. Lincoln at Ft. Monroe the day after the Mine explosion. I do not think anything was said about putting Sheridan in command of " the Army in the Field " under Hunter. Having sent the majority of Sheridan's command North I sent him also. He did not join it however until I telegraphed him from Monocacy, to \\'ashington, to join me there. I remember distinctly requesting that Sheridan should be put in command of the forces in the field, and of receiving a reply to the effect that it was feared he was too young for so important a command. The magnanimous action of Gen. Hunter enabled me to give him the command while I was upon the field from which he started. I do not recollect anything that was talked about while in \\'ashington, on my return from Monocacy. I ^ATOte Pierrepont a letter in reply to one from him containing a request from the publishers of " Men of Mark,'' asking me to sit for a photograph for their work, adding my thanks for his hospi talities while at his house. — I wrote to Sherman as I told you I would do, speaking of your services to me, and of the President's promise that you should not be disturbed. Your statement is correct that I was not on the field when Warren carried the Weldon road nor at his Ream's Station battle. I have given up my visit to Spain for this winter. On Satur day of this week we start for Nice, stopping over Sunday at Lyons, and over Tuesday at Marseilles. From Nice we will take the Vandalia — naval vessel — and sail along the Mediterranean. Just our stopping places will be determined after we go aboard. All my family are well and join in best regards to you, and wishes for your health and prosperity. Whether Jesse goes with us will depend upon a letter he hopes to receive from Cornell University. I rather think however his mother will insist upon his going. Yours Truly, U. S. Grant. Letter No. Twenty-eight. This letter also is made up almost exclusively of replies to my inquiries. In one of my chapters I had compared Grant's method of 492 GRANT IN PEACE. directing simultaneous campaigns at the East and West to " driving four-in-hand," and the figure had evidently pleased him, who was so good a driver. It is to this that he alludes in the concluding sentence below. It is unnecessary to call attention to his anxiety that I should complete my work. He knew at this time nothing of literary labor or historical research, and it probably seemed to him that I could have accomplished my task more prompt ly. He learned something of the necessity for study and re vision years afterward, when he was engaged upon his " Per sonal Memoirs." Hotel Bristol, Paris, Nov. 30"" 777. Dear General, — Your letters of the 28th, with enclosures, were received this morning. I took time to read your chapter of history with which I am much pleased, and find nothing to correct. Being my last day in Paris — for the present — I had much to do, calls to return, &c., and to dine out this evening. I could not answer until now — nearly midnight. The cattle raid took place while I was away from City Point. I cannot call to memory the time of my visit to Burlington to see after the children's schooling ; but Mrs. Grant never went with me there before the night of Mr. Lincoln's assassination. The present Atty. Gen. Devens was, I think, the Cavalry Gen. Gen. Torbert can answer that question, and it is too late for me to ask him. He goes with me in the morning however and I will ask him then. I believe this answers all your questions in your last letters. For the next fifteen days my address will be Nice, France. After that anything directed to Drexel, Paris will reach me. But it is likely you will have my directions. I told you in a former letter that I had written to Sherman as I stated I would. I also wrote to Porter, but nothing affecting your status in your present position. Porter received my letter I know because Buck says in one of his last that it was shown to him. LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 453 I hope you will persevere in your work, and if "four-in-hand" goes slower than a "single team " that you wfll come down to the faster method of driving one at a time. \\'ith kindest regards. Your obt. svt, U. S. Grant. Gen. A. Badeau. Letter No. Twenty-nine. This letter is already given at the close of Chapter I, where it seemed pertinent. I had asked General Grant about material for the political memoir which I always intended should follow the military volumes. He looked forward to this sequel with an interest quite equal to that he felt in the earfler history, for he knew that his civil career had been harshly criticized, and he was anxious to have it vindicated. He offered me every assistance in his power, and furnished from time to time whatever material he could, in advance. Mr. Fish has been good enough to keep the promise made for him by General Grant ; and I am indebted to him for not a few statements in this volume which I could not otherwise have made so positively. Naples, December 18* / 77. My Dear General, — Your letter and enclosed chapter of history were received here on our arrival yesterday. I have read the chapter and find no comments to make. It is no doubt as correct as history can be wTitten, " except when you speak about me." I am glad to see you are progressing so well. Hope Vol. 2, will soon be completed and that the book will find large sale. No doubt but Gov. Fish will take great pleasure in aiding you in your next book. He has all the data so far as his own Dept. was concerned. It was his habit to sum up the proceedings of each day before leaving his office and to keep that information for his private journal. To-day we ascend Mt. Vesuvius, to-morrow visit Pompeii and Herculaneum. About Saturday, the 22d start for Palermo, thence 494 GRANT IN PEACE. to Malta where we will probably spend the 25th. From there we go to Alexandria and up the Nile. That is about as far as I have definitely planned, but think on our return from the Nile, we will go to Joppa and visit Jerusalem from there, possibly Damas cus and other points of interest also, and take the ship again at Beyrout. The next point will be Smyrna, then Constantinople. I am beginning to enjoy traveling and if the money holds out or if Consolidated Va Mining stock does, I will not be back to the eastern states for two years yet. Should they — the stocks — run down on my hands and stop dividends, I should be compelled to get home the nearest way. Jesse is entirely well and himself again & enjoys his travels under these changed conditions very much. I wrote a letter to Porter a good while ago but have received no answer yet. Very Truly Yours, U. S. Grant. Letter No. Thirty. The Babcock spoken of in this letter is the General Bab cock who had been private secretary to Grant during the greater part of his second Administration. General Grant often spoke of him to me with great sympathy, and assured me that be believed him innocent of the charges brought against him. I was out of the country during all the period of Babcock's trouble and trial, and I asked General Grant about him when we met. He repeatedly declared that he would trust him with every pecuniary interest he had in the world. These letters contain constant messages to Babcock or refer ences to him which would never have been made had Grant entertained a doubt of Babcock's innocence. Cairo, Egypt, Feb. 4* / 78. Dear General, — Your letter of the 3d of Jany., enclosing a chapter of your book, and a letter from Babcock reached me some five or six days up the Nile from here. There was no use in answering earlier because the reply could not do better than to LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 405 come by the boat I did. Our trip has been a most enjoj-able one and the sights exceed in colossal grandeur the guide-book descrip tions. One is kept in constant wonder how any people could have moved such immense blocks, in such large numbers, for so great a distance as most of them had to be moved, and put them in their places. The Khedive gave me a special boat, and sent with me one of his household, Sami Bey, an educated Egyptian who speaks English well — in fact he was educated in England — and a German Egyptologist who has been a long time a student here, and who reads all the inscriptions in the Temples & Tombs with facility. His presence added much to the value of the journey. I have read the last chapter of your book over carefully and see nothing to correct except as to one little matter of fact. My recol lection is that I recommended Sherman Sheridan and Hancock for promotion precisely as you say. Sherman and Hancock's names were promptly sent to the Senate, and they were con firmed, but some one at Washington had failed up to that time to appreciate Sheridan as I did, and withheld his name. He was not nominated until I urged his promotion a second time. It is possible that he was given the same date when appointed that he would have had if appointed when first recommended. We leave here on the 7th to take up our travels again. I have given you our proposed route in a previous letter I believe. When you write to Babcock give him and his family my kindest regards. All my family join me in desiring to be kindly remembered to you. Yours Truly, U. S. Grant. Gen. A. Badeau. Letter No. Thirty-one. This letter refers to my account of Sherman's movements around Atlanta. Smyrna, Asia Minor, Feb. 22" / 78. My Dear General : — On our arrival here this a. m. I found a mafl, and with it your letter and the enclosed chapter. I have read it carefully and see no word to change. I am glad you have 496 GRANT IN PEACE. submitted it to Sherman. He must feel pleased with the way you have treated his Atlanta Campaign, and if there is any error, in fact, he will correct it. He is at Washington where he has access to all the records and if there is any mistake in minor details he will be able to inform you. You no doubt received back the for mer chapter sent from Cairo, Egypt. I am almost afraid to send any matter of importance, by mail, from this wretchedly governed country, and will keep this until a steamer is going to some more civilized part, or until I get to Athens. We go from here to Con stantinople first. Our visit to Jerusalem was a very unpleasant one. The roads are bad, and it rained, blew and snowed all the time. We left snow six inches deep in Jerusalem. I wrote to Porter several months ago but have received no reply from him. He got my letter I know because Bucky wrote me that Porter showed it to him. Yours Truly, U. S. Grant. Letter, No. Thirty-two. This letter seems to require no explanation. Rome, Italy, March 22'', / 78. My Dear General: — On arrival here I found a large mail, and in it yours enclosing a chapter of your book with letters from Sherman, Porter & Babcock. I return the whole without com ment, seeing nothing absolutely to correct or change. I also return two little slips previously received — at Athens I believe — which seem to me proper addendums. I observe from Porter's letter that he has made marginal notes on previous chapters. Of course I cannot tell what those notes were, but knowing that you have done Sherman justice and nothing more, I suggest that you change nothing that relates to him or his movements. Young left this morning for London. He will be there about the time you receive this and will give you a graphic account of all we have seen. I will only state that my trip up the Nile, and in the Levant — all of my travels out of the beaten track — have been the most pleasant of my life. I LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 407 should like to do the same thing over again next winter. Most every letter I get from the states — like Porter's to you — ask me to remain absent. They have designs for me which I do not con template for myself. It is probable that I will return to the United States either in the fall or early next spring. Sherman did not say in his letter to me what the President rephed when he notified him of my desire for your retention, and of his previous promise to me in the matter. I have no doubt but it is all right, and that you have been retained to this time solely on account of that promise. You know there has been a terrible pressure by Reformers for your place. Mrs. Grant and Jesse desire to be most kindly remembered to you. Very Truly Yours, U. S. Grant. Gen. A. Badeau, Consul Gen' of the U. S. Letter No. Thirty-three. I paid General Grant a visit at Rome on his return to Europe, and wrote in advance asking him to allow his courier to secure rooms for me. Rome, Italy, March 30'" / 78. Dear General, — I have your letter of yesterday. I will instruct Hartog to execute your commission at once. I have written to you since my arrival here and returned the last of your manuscript. We leave here two weeks from to-day to go to Florence for a week, thence to Venice for about the same time, then to Milan and on to Paris where we expect to arrive on the loth of May. We will remain there until about the middle of July and make our journey North, to Sweden & Norway after that. As I shall see you so soon I will say nothing of what we have seen, or of the recent news from home. Yours Truly, U. S. Grant. Gen. A. Badeau. 32 4g8 GRANT IN PEACE. Letter No. Thirty-four. This memorandum was written while I was at Rome, and sent to my rooms. It accompanied a letter to Russell Young, which General Grant wished me to see before it was forwarded. ' Read this and mail if you approve. If not, retain until to-morrow and make your suggestions to me. Add a note if you choose to Young and send with mine. U. S. Grant. Letter No. Thirty-five. The Comte de Paris wrote to me about this time asking for information in regard to the surrender of Vicksburg. General Pemberton, the rebel commander at Vicksburg, had published an account of that event very different from mine, which I had obtained from Grant, and the Comte had asked me if I wished to make any reply. I forwarded his letter to General Grant, who wrote as follows on the back of another letter he was sending to me. To General A. Badeau, U. S. Consul General, London, Eng. I return Pemberton's letter. Your statement of the circum stances attending the Vicksburg surrender are as absolutely correct as it can well be made. I presume Bowen did ask the interview between P. and myself without authority. I did not propose or submit to the settlement of terms by a reference to Commissioners. Finding that we were about to separate without coming to an agreement Bowen — who seemed very anxious about an agreement — proposed that he and others of the Reb Army, and Gen. A. J. Smith and some others of our Army who were present at the time, should consult and see if they could not agree upon terms which Pemberton and I would accept. I declined that and the terms were finally arranged between us through a correspondence which extended late into the night of the 3d of July, / 63. U. S. Grant. LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. ^gg t Letter No. Thirty-six. With this letter General Grant enclosed the reply to the Comte de Paris above given. He also refers to my account of the explosion of Burnside's Mine at Petersburg. While I was at Rome with General Grant I was laid up for a week or more with a lameness in a wounded leg. I had not been able to obtain a room in the same hotel with him, and he came to see me and sit with me daily until I recovered. During this period I wrote a letter to the Neiv York Herald contradicting certain statements that had been published by ex-Secretary Welles of Lincoln's and Johnson's Cabinets, and General Richard Taylor of the Confederate army, in regard to the Wilderness campaign. This paper announced that it was written with Grant's sanction, and in fact it was read and revised by him in advance of publication. It is to this that he refers in the following letter. When General Grant wrote that he was " tired " of " going all the time," he had just returned from Rome, Florence, and Venice; but from Cairo he had written: "Our trip has been a most enjoyable one, and the sights exceed in colossal grandeur the guide-book descriptions." The contrast in his impressions and emotions is characteristic. The works of art and even the antiquities of Italy were tedious to him, while the Egyptian monuments excited his liveliest interest. In the same way his letters from China and Japan and India were full of comments on the people and institutions, but Eulopean civflization seemed to provoke only comparatively languid remarks. Perhaps it was too much like our own. Paris, France, May 19"', / 78. My Dear General, — I return you Porter's, and the Count de Paris' letters and the part of chapter of your book. I feel very sure you have the Vicksburg surrender right, and see nothing wrong in the printed matter you send. If there is anything it is m not Showing the failure of Warren more distinctly. But that I 500 GRANT IN PEACE. think you did in the chapter of which this is to form a part — or a correction. I am very glad you sent on your letter to the Herald in answer to Taylor and Welles. Young's, without yours, would not have much point. I become responsible for yours, and I can very well afford it because Taylor's was a deadly attack upon two now dead — Lincoln & Stanton — and Welles upon two dead per sons — Stanton and Halleck — all untrue — the attacks — and I feel it a duty to relieve all three of aspersions so unjust to their memories. We are going all the time and I am becoming very tired of it. Think we will leave several weeks earlier than we expected. Our contemplated route, as you know, is to the Hague, Copenhagen, through Sweden, Norway, then back to St. Petersburg, through Prussia & Austria to quarters for next winter. All send regards to you. I shall write to Babcock in a few days. Yours Truly, U. S. Grant. Letter No. Thirty-seven. General Townsend, then Adjutant-General of the Army, had reported to the Secretary of War, without due examina tion, and without any inquiry of me, that I did not come within the provisions of the law allowing certain retired officers to accept diplomatic rank, and in consequence my name had been stricken from the retired list of the army. But I at once laid proof before the Department, through General Sherman the General-in-Chief, that Townsend was wrong, and the order dropping me had been promptly rescinded. Central Grant, as I have elsewhere stated, was very much interested in tffis matter, for I had been retired by his order as Presi dent, to enable me to take a diplomatic position. On the death of the Duchess of Argyll I had suggested that the General should write to the Duke, who had enter tained him at Inverary. LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. SOI Paris, France, May 29"'/ 78. My Dear General, — I am just in receipt of your letter of the 27th — with enclosirres — and hasten to answer so as to return the papers you want without loss. I am certain you need not feel alarmed about your position on the retired list. But I should not trouble myself about Townsend. He is badly beaten as the matter stands. I wrote to Babcock since my arrival in Paris. My correspondence is large, and delays occur sometimes ; but when I sit to it I bring up all arrears — that I intend to bring up. I get letters from persons with whom I have never corresponded, desir ing answers, but whose letters I do not answer. B.'s was not one of that class. I wrote the Duke of Argyll a letter of condolence the very moment I heard of the death of the Duchess — day before yesterday I think. We leave here on the 15th of June for our northern trip. Jesse, you know, goes back. He & Nellie leave on Friday — day after to-morrow — for London. He will sail on the 4th of June from Liverpool. With kindest regards of all, I am, as ever, very Truly Yours, U. S. Grant. Gen. A. Badeau. Letter No. Thirty-eight. I had been unwell and despondent about my health when General Grant wrote me the letter which follows, to encourage me: Paris, France, June i", / 78. My Dear General, — I am much obliged for your kind invita tion for Mrs. Grant & I to visit you, but we wifl not be able to accept. In two weeks we start on our Northern trip and will not return until the Autumn. We will then probably visit Spain and setde down about Nov. for the winter. Where I have not yet determined, but either here Nice or Southern Italy. You must keep up your courage. There is no reason why you S02 GRANT IN PEACE. may not have many years before you yet. I return Porter's letter which I have read with pleasure ; also one from Babcock which I find on my table. Yours as ever, U. S. Grant. Gen. A. Badeau. Letter No. Thirty-nine. This refers to certain passages in Chapter XXV of my History of Grant's Campaigns. Paris, France, June 7^ / 78. My Dear General: — I return your last chapter, or part of chapter, without comment. It seems to me to be very good, and calculated to call to the minds of some of the Northern gushers of to-day for peace and fraternity between the sections, of the terms we might have expected had the South been successful. I am getting tired of Paris and feel almost impatient for the day — the 14 of June — of our departure to arrive. Mrs. Grant joins me in best regards to you, and in wishing you good health and happiness. Very Truly Yours, U. S. Grant. Gen. A. Badeau. Letter No. Forty. This of course was written to aid me in my account of Sheridan's Operations in the Valley of Virginia. The "letter to the Herald" is the one I wrote at Grant's desire, referred to in his earlier letter of May 19, 1878. Mrs. Robeson was the wife of Grant's Secretary of the Navy. Legation of the United State's, At the Hague, June 16" / 78. Dear General, — Your letter of the 12th, with enclosure, was received before my departure from Paris. But I had not time to do more than read your letter before leaving, so brought the whole here to examine and approve or otherwise. I have made LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 503 marginal notes in pencil of all I have to say. I do not think there is anything to strike out, nor anything to add except what you can get from the notes referred to. You may recollect that when I visited Sheridan, at Charlestown I had a plan of battle with me to give him. But I found him so ready to move — plan and all — that I gave him no order whatever except the authority to move. He is entitled to all the credit of his great victory, and it estabUshed him in the confidence of the President & Sec. of War as a commander to be trusted with the fullest discretion in the management all the troops under him. Before that, while they highly appreciated him as a commander to execute they felt a little nervous about giving him too much discretion. We leave here on Thursday for Amsterdam ; Saturday for Hanover, Monday following for Berlin. How long I will stay in Berlin I cannot say but probably until the following Saturday. We will then go to Copenhagen, breaking the journey at Hamburg. You might send anything you have for me, direct according to this programme. We will stay in Copenhagen for several days and then go direct to Norway, thence to Sweden. I am glad to see that you are getting on so well with Vol. II. It looks now as ff it might be out the coming fall. Your letter to the Herald, and the interview, have been copied everywhere in the states much to the gratification of friends and the confusion of enemies. I think you will have no cause of regret for writing your letter. With Mrs. Grant's and my kindest regards. Yours Truly, U. S. Grant. P. S. — Remember both of us to Mrs. Robeson if she is stfll in London. Mrs. Grant & I regret that we did not meet her before our trip north. Letter No. Forty-one. RusseU Young had published in The New York Herald some of General Grant's conversations, in which the General made one or two statements in regard to losses, which were inaccurate, and which he would undoubtedly have corrected 504 GRANT IN PEACE. upon reference to the records. I had written to caution him about allowing his talk to be printed without revision by some one conversant with the subject. This letter is his reply. Young of course acted with the best intentions, and thought, very naturally, that whatever General Grant said about the war must be authoritative. But no man's memory is infallible, and General Grant's more than once played him false. What I wanted was for him to make no statement for print on important historical subjects till he had verified his own recollections. Vienna, Austria, Aug. 22'", 1878. My Dear General, — I have your letter of the 17th with chapter enclosed, which I have read and have no comments to make upon. I agree with you in the impropriety of the publica tion of my "table talk" upon military or other matters. There is not a word I said which was intended for publication or even to be taken down. But traveling together as long as Young & I did conversation naturally covered a good many subjects civil & military. Many things I said explained matters, or put a new light upon them to Young, so that he noted them down. He wrote them out afterward and gave me the manuscript to read — about twice as much as is published. I put it in my trunk and forgot it for several months. I afterward read it and found it in the main correct, erasing however all relating to Civfl Administra tion. Young makes an error in stating my losses from the Rapid Ann to the James River which I did not notice in the Manuscript. I did not say that about 39,000 would cover my losses in kflled, wounded, & missing. What I did say was that Welles, Taylor & Co. would soon have it pass into history that we had a 100,000 men killed in getting to the James river, when we could have gone by boat, without loss, and ignoring the fact that Lee sustained any loss whatever. That 40,000, 1 thought about 39,000, — would cover such losses, but that the reports from time to time would show a much greater loss. I explained that after a battle every Capt. Col. and Brigade Commander liked to show his own losses as LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 505 large as possible. Consequently we had a full report of every man who had a scratch as wounded. Many men would be reported before we got to the end of the campaign, in that category, two, three or more times, yet never lost any time. In the same way many men would be reported missing who would afterward turn up. Others had fallen into the hands of the enemy, unhurt, and would be exchanged for. I made a full statement of how these reports were made up. Young thought he was doing right in this publication, and thinks now that he has done me good service. I do not think it will do any harm, but I will caution him for the future. I have no idea now of making the tour around the world, but will go back home in the spring. We will stay in Austria through September and then go to Spain and probably Portugal. I will then have seen every country in Europe and will be ready to sit down for the winter. Mrs. Grant joins me in kindest regards. Very Truly Yours. U. S. Grant. Gen. A. Badeau. Letter No. Forty-two. I had prepared in advance a sketch of my account of the origin of Sherman's March to the Sea, and submitted it to General Grant, and this interesting letter contains his reply. He continues the references to the publications of Young already mentioned. IscHL, Austria, Aug 29"', / 78. My Dear General, — Yomr letter of the 2 2d of August — here with returned — reached me just before leaving Vienna. The out line you propose for your history of " the March to the Sea " is exactly right. Follow it and give all the letters and dispatches in the body of the narrative. When you have it in type send a copy to Sherman. You have certainly divided the honors of the cam paign correctly. The particular campaign made was Sherman's conception and execution. Supposing that I was to remain in the West, in command, I had conceived earlier a different Campaign, leading practically to the same result. Subsequent events would So6 GRANT IN PEACE. have modified that plan beyond doubt, even had I remained. Events shaped Sherman's campaign. Your book will necessarily be criticised, but criticism will do no harm so long as your facts are right. My opinion is that Young's publication of " table talks " will add many thousands to the number of readers of your book. People will look to that as the authentic views which I entertain. The other will be looked upon as hastily noted recollections of what was said in conversa tion without the data at hand to speak with entire accuracy. I shall remain here some eight days more and then in Salz burg for ten days or more. My next address after that will be in Paris though but for a short time. I wrote Washburne a letter telling him the outrageous stories had told me about him * * * * Very Truly Yours, Gen. A. Badeau. U. S. Grant. Letter No. Forty-three. This letter continues the supply of information Grant was furnishing me in regard to the history of Sherman's March to the Sea. I had written for an explanation of cer tain dispatches which he could not recall. It was a singular situation : he was writing to me from Paris, Rome, Egypt, apd from Swiss villages, accounts of his instructions to Sherman and Sheridan, his own battles on the James, and the strategy in Georgia and the Valley of Virginia, and always insisting that I should do full justice to his great lieutenants, even at the sacrifice of some of the credit that was often ascribed to himself. No reader can have failed to remark the magnanimity toward Sherman and Sheridan which these letters display ; — letters written to fix, so far as he was able, the status that afl three were to occupy in history ; for my work he fully intended should be the only authorized expression of his views on the war. Ragatz, Switzerland, Sept. i8'\ 1878. My Dear General, — Your letter of the 12th of Sept. reached me at this place last evening. I have no recollection LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 507 whatever of the dispatches you speak of between Sherman and myself about die 4th of October, / 64 and my subsequent dis patch saying that his movement should be independent of mine. I remember that I sent a ship-load of provisions to meet him on the seacoast where\'er he might come out. I will be in Paris at the Hotel Liverpool, on the 2Sth of this month to remain there until about the loth of Oct. when I expect to start for Spain. Expecting to see you so soon I will write no more except to say that I have lost twenty-five pounds weight, while in perfect health and without doing anything to bring about such a result. It makes me feel much more comfortable. Yours Truly, Gen. A. Badeau. U. S. Grant. Letter No. Forty-four. I had seen a statement in print that either Mr. Fish or Mr. Bancroft Davis intended to compose a history of Grant's Civil Administration, and wrote to inquire if he was acquainted with such a purpose on their part ; as it would of course con flict with my own plan of a political history to follow the military one. This letter is General Grant's reply. Several times he was approached by letter, or in person, by writers who proposed a work of this character and requested his sanction or assistance ; but he always replied that he was pledged to give all the aid and authority he could in such an undertaking exclusively to me. I had learned that several retired army officers holding civil positions were drawing retired pay in addition to that of their other offices, and I had discussed with him the propriety of my applying for such pay. It is unnecessary to call attention to his constant anxiety for the completion of his military history. Paris, France, Oct. 3'' / 78. Dear General, — Your letter of the ist is just at hand. I am sorry you are too unwell to come over before my departure. The latter part of next week we start on our trip through Spain ^o8 GRANT IN PEACE. & Portugal. As we will probably visit Algiers, and possibly some other points in the Mediterranean before returning to Paris, we may not return here before December. I have no knowledge of an intention on the part of either Gov. Fish or Judge Davis to write a civil history of my Civil Administration. If they should do so it would probably be confined chiefly to matters relating to the State Dept, foreign relations, &c., and would in that event be a great help to the preparation of the volume you propose to write. I would not push the matter of back pay while holding, or wishing to hold the Consul-Generalship. It would furnish a pre text for your removal. I think you ought to hurry up Volume II, however and get advantage of the present desire to collect war reminiscences. We are all well. Very Truly Yours, Gen. A. Badeau. U. S. Grant. Consul-General, etc. Letter No. Forty-five. It had been repeatedly stated by hostfle critics that Grant intended after the battle of the Wilderness, to march on Gordonsville, in Central Virginia ; and I had found the dis patches on which those assertions were probably founded. I knew, because I was with him at the time, that he had no intention to make this movement, but I wrote to ask his own explanation or construction of the orders. His reply, it wifl be seen, corroborated my own memory. These confidential communications to me, I have said before, are always given in full, exactly as he wrote them, even with the little inac curacies of famfliar correspondence. He never cautioned me about their use, although he knew that I sought them for the purposes of my history, and I have thought it better to pub lish them in all their plainness, and sometimes with criticisms that may be painful to others, rather than subject myself to the charge of mutflating his utterances. Grant, indeed, never wrote or spoke a word suggesting that I should keep back, or misrepresent, or cover up, any fact, or act, or statement, LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. cog except the two or three utterances in favor of leniency which these letters contain. This of course did not prevent his making secret communications. Lisbon, Portugal, Oct. 27*, / 78. Dear Badeau, — Your letter of the 17th came to hand in Madrid where I was so busy that I did not get to write a letter to any one. I can give nO explanation of the dispatches you speak of from Spottsylvania, of loth & nth of May, / 64, to Meade directing him to be prepared in a certain event to move to Gordonsville. The only thing is that I had in mind the possibility, if things favored it, of moving by my right flank instead of the left as we had been doing before. Gordonsville must have been put in without much reflection knowing that if we did move to the right events would determine where we would march to with[out] any reference to the original orders. We arrived here this a. m., at five o'clock having been in the cars two nights and one day from Madrid, without getting out once by the way for meals. Spain may contain much of interest to see, but the accommodations for travel are horrible. Yours as ever, U. S. Grant. Letter No, Forty-six. The letter from General Sherman here spoken of was full of indications of his loyalty to Grant, and I forwarded it to my chief, who I knew would be gratified. The passage about the publication of my history was in answer to certain inquiries of mine. It had been suggested that the appearance of the work at that time might seem intended to affect the Presidential nominations, and I sought General Grant's views so that I might conform to them. His reply is characteristic. He hardly ever allowed his actions to be affected, or his course to be induced, by what he sup posed would be said of either ; he had learned, as most men do who have careers, that comment is apt to be incorrect, and that the opinion and the talk of to-day are, more often than not, reversed by the verdict of to-morrow. 510 GRANT IN PEACE. Dec. 19, / 78. My Dear General, — I have your letter of the 17th, with Sherman's to you enclosed. I also received one from you at Pau, and one before the present one here in Paris. I should have written to you earlier but I found so many letters to answer that I deferred. It is impossible yet for me to say when we will get off for our trip around the world. The steamer on which we are to sail left the states on the loth of this month. If she crosses the Atlantic under sail it will be about the last of Jan^ before she will be ready for us. If she steams over it may be as early as the 12th. Mrs. Grant & I want to see Nellie before we go, and have written asking her to come here. She answers fearing that she may not be able to come, but has written Mr. Sartoris, who is in Ireland, for his opinion. If she does not come we will likely take a run over to London for a few days. I will let you know by tele graph if we go. I shall be very glad, if we do not go there, to see you here. I am very glad to see Sherman's letter to you. It only shows him in the light I always regarded him ; a warm friend as I surely am of his. I do not see what the publication of your book, at any particu lar time, can have to do with the formation of public opinion as to political objects. It has been a long time in preparation and the public has known afl about it. If the work should be withheld the public might say that there was an object in that. I would go on as fast as possible and when the work is ready publish it : let the public say what they please. Our trip through Spain, like all others, was very delightful. We received marked attention from the officials everywhere, and no place more marked than while we were at Gibraltar. Lord & Lady Napier, with the officers of the garrison, seemed not to be able to do too much for us. Hoping to see you either in London or Paris before our depar ture, I am as always. Yours Very Truly, Gen. A. Badeau, U. S. Grant. Consul-Gen. of the U. S., London, Eng. LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. cn Letter No. Forty-seven. I had been requested by prominent Irishmen to ask General Grant to visit their country, and accordingly wrote to him on the subject. The Richmond was the naval vessel placed at his disposal by the Government of the United States. Mr. Borie was Grant's first Secretary of the Navy, and one of his most intimate and valued friends. He was in poor health at this time, and it was thought that travel might benefit him. He was especially invited by General Grant to accompany him to the East. The last portion of this letter has already been partly ex plained. I had been informed by persons intimate with the English Royal Family that a letter" of condolence on the death of the Princess Alice would not be unacceptable, and had therefore suggested it to General Grant; but he pre ferred not to write one. Dec 24'V78. Dear Gen., — I have just this moment rec'd yours of the 2ist. I hasten to answer so that you may respond to such inquiries as you are receiving the best you can. Having visited Europe very thoroughly, except Ireland, I did think of running over there for a hasty trip before my departure for the east. It is extremely problematical whether I can go. I must stay here until I know all about the time to expect the Richmond in the Mediterranean ; where I am to board her ; how much she is to await my orders, &c. The mail which brings news to the loth of Dec. —the day the Richmond was to sail from America — brings me no news on the subject. It is certain that I cannot go to Ireland — that is, leave here for there — before the second of Jan^. NeUie & Mr. Sartoris come here this week to remain with us until our departure for the east. We will not go to London therefore unless I should go to Ireland. You had better come over here therefore, and, if you get this in time, why not come with Young this week ? Mr. Borie sails on Thursday, the 26th, by the steamer Ohio 512 GRANT IN PEACE. from PhiP. He will accompany me on the whole trip, much to both Mrs. Grant's and my delight. Before your letter suggesting a letter of condolence to the Prince of Wales for the death of Princess Alice, and requesting a word about you in a letter of thanks you supposed I would write to the President for his tender of a ship to take me east, I had written such a letter — as the latter — but to the Sec. of the Navy, from whom the tender came, without allusion to the President On the whole I thought it out of place — in the estimation of the American citizen — to write to the Queen, or for her. We will be glad to see you over here at such time as you can best come before my departure. By the second of Jan'' I will know positively whether I can go to Ireland. With kindest regards of Mrs. Grant & myself. Yours Very Truly, U. S. Grant. Letter No. Forty-eight. I accompanied General Grant on his visit to Ireland, which lasted about a week. He went first to Dublin, where he was entertained by the Viceroy, (the Duke of Marlborough), at the Vice-Regal Lodge, and at dinner by the Chief Secretary; thence he proceeded to Belfast, Londonderry, and the North ; but he was unable to go to the West or South; the civic authorities of Cork refused to invite him officially, because of some utterances hostile to the Catholics while he was Presi dent, which those functionaries resented. This was the only instance of the kind that occurred to Grant in Europe or Asia. Nearly every city in the United Kingdom had wel comed him officially and presented him with its freedom, but Cork preferred to be singular. Paris, France, Dec. 28'V 78. Dear General, — I have again concluded to visit Ireland be fore my departure for the East. General Noyes & I will leave here on the 2d of Jany. without servants, and only hand-bags, for a flying visit through the principal cities. We expect to be in LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 513 Dublin the next morning after we leave, only passing from one station to the other in London. A\'e will not stop more than one day at any place in Ireland, and must be back here by Saturday, the nth of January. You might make your arrangements to join us in London on our return and come to Paris with us. I have no information yet of the sailing of the Richmond, and can form no idea of the time of my departure. I cannot leave Paris however until after the 15th. Mr. Borie, who goes with me, wiU want a little rest here, and ff Fred goes he cannot arrive in Paris before the isth. Very Truly Yours, U. S. Grant. Gen. A. Badeau, U. S. A. P. S. — Since sealing this a cablegram iifforms me that Fred. sails in the Britannic on Saturday, to-day ; Mr. Borie not until next week. U. S. G. Letter No. Forty-nine. In passing through London on his return from Ireland, General Grant was met by Mr. Welsh, the new American Minister, who held a reception for him. He then proceeded to Paris, where he was joined by his son. Colonel Grant, and Mr. Borie. I returned with him to Paris, and accompanied him to Marseilles, from which place he sailed for the East. After this I did not see him again till the spring of 1880, but in the meantime he kept up a more animated correspondence with me than ever. His first letter was from Bombay. The Mr. Welsh spoken of was the United States Minister at London, and Mr. Hop- pin was the First Secretary of Legation. Bombay, India, Feby. 17""/ 79. My Dear Badeau, — We reached this place on the 13th after a most pleasant voyage. From Suez to Bombay the temperature was just right to keep all the passengers on deck from the hour of rising in the morning to the hour of retirement in the evening. The sky was clear and the sea so smooth that you might almost 33 514 GRANT IN PEACE. play billiards on deck. The reception here has been most cordial from the officials, foreign residents, Parsee merchants and the better to do Hindoo natives. Myself and party were invited to occupy the Government House, where we are now staying, and where we have received princely hospitalities. Young has de scribed the whole thing very fully in his article for the paper. I hope you will see it. To-day we start for the interior where we expect to see more characteristic phases of Indian life & habits. Bombay has much in common with European cities. It is a manufacturing and com mercial city. The old — Native — portion of the city however is different from anything I have yet seen either in Egypt or Turkey. Like in New York city we may find people from every known part of the world. The party are all well and join me in kindest regards to you. Please present my compliments to Mr. & Miss Welsh and Mr. Hoppin. Yours Truly, U. S. Grant. Letter No. Fifty. Calcutta, March 15""/ 79. Dear Badeau, — We have now done India from Bombay to Delhi and back to this place. We leave here to-morrow morning for Singapore, by a regular steamer, the Richmond not having put in an appearance yet. Our visit to India has been a most delight ful one. The English people have exceeded themselves in hospitalities. No where but at one place have we been permitted to stop at a hotel, and there — Jubulpore ¦ — it was because no official had the spare room for our accommodation. The railroad officials have been equally attentive giving us all through India two special cars, provided with every convenience, including bath rooms, for our party of six. I have a letter from a cousin of mine who says that she has been informed that a brother of her grandfather, by the name of Mordecai Levy died in London some fifty years ago leaving a large fortune to her grandfather, and that the will was recorded, as she says, in parliament. Will you do me the favor to have some one examine whether they can find any such record. LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 515 Mrs. Grant and all my party desire to be specially remembered to you. I wfll continue to drop you a line occasionally, but you must not expect much to interest you. Very Truly, U. S. Grant. Letter No. Fifty-one. The reference at the beginning of this letter is to the account of Early's failure in Sheridan's campaign in the Valley, in my Military History. The long interval between this letter and its predecessor makes me beUeve that some of General Grant's communica tions miscarried. He was at this time hardly ever a month without writing to me. The reference to the British Government has been ex plained in Chapter XXXV. Nagasaki, Japan, June 22'' / 79 My Dear General, — The two enclosed chapters were received at Tientsin China just on the eve of my departure from there, so I brought them here to mail. The last chapter I think is one of the best in the book. It shows Early in an unpleasant light and shows the Southern character — for lying — as it should be shown. I have no corrections to suggest in either chapter. My visit through China was a pleasant one though the country presents no attractions to invite the visitor to make the second trip. From Canton to Peking my reception by the Civil & Military authorities was the most cordial ever extended to any foreigner no matter what his rank. The fact is Chinese like Americans better, or rather perhaps hate them less, than any other foreigners. The reason is palpable. We are the only power that recognize their right to control their own internal affairs. My impression is that China is on the eve of a great revolution that will land her among the nations of progress. They have the elements of great wealth and great power too and not more than a generation will pass before she wifl make these elements felt. I received your letter suggesting that I should write to Mr. Welsh on my departure from the last British Colony, in time to 5i6 GRANT IN PEACE. have written from Hong Kong. But I did not do so, because I did not feel like making acknowledgment to the Govt, for any exhibition of respect on their part while I do gratefully acknowl edge the most marked hospitality & kindness from all British officials in the east. I do not care to write the reasons for dis tinguishing between the people — official & unofficial of England and the Govt. But I will tell you some day. We arrived at this place yesterday & found the most exten sive arrangements for our reception. The Japanese have made my party their guests during our stay in the country and have a house here, at Kobi and Tokio, fitted up for our accommodation. Mrs. Grant, Fred & Young — dubbed the Commodore — join me in kindest regards to you. It looks now as if we would leave for home about the loth of August. But I may change my mind and go back to visit Australia, and some other places left out, and go back by the Sandwich Islands. In this case we wifl not reach San Francisco before March. Yours Truly, U. S. Grant. Gen. A. Badeau. Letter No. Fifty-two. I see nothing to add to this letter by way of explanation or elucidation. It tells its own story. ToKio, Japan, July i6" / 79. My Dear General : — Your letter inclosing the chapter on Hatcher's Run reached me last night. I have read it carefully and see nothing to correct unless it might be to let Warren off a little lighter. But in that respect do as you please for I think you are entirely correct. We have now been in Japan for nearly a month. The country is most beautiful and the people charming. There is nothing they are prouder of than their institutions of learning, from their com mon schools up to the highest college, including their Military and Naval schools. There is no country where the arrangements are more complete for giving every child, male and female, a fair com mon school education than in Japan. Their higher institutions LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. S17 compare favorably with those of the oldest countries of the highest civiUzation. The better class of males wear the European costume and many of the ladies are beginning to adopt it also. From China to Japan the change is very great both in the people and country. But I thought I saw germs of progress in China. The country has great resources, and a wonderfully industrious, ingen ious & frugal people. The end of this century will probably see China looming up. To-morrow we go to the interior for a week or two. After that 1 shall visit some other points of interest in the country and set sail for home on the 27th of August. I dread going home but must do so. Remember Mrs. Grant and I to Mr. Welsh and his family with him, and be assured of our kind regards for yourself. Young & Fred join me in this. Very Truly Yours, U. S. Grant. Gen. A. Badeau. Letter No. Fifty-three. The beginning of this letter refers to the chapter in my History in which I described Grant's life at City Point. — The remarks about Japan were no more enthusiastic than his conversation always became whenever he spoke of his visit to that country. The impression made upon him there was more vivid than in any European or Asiatic region. Pie never tired of describing the courtesies he had received, or the character of the inhabitants and tbe marvelous advance in their civilization within so short a period. ToKio, Japan, August 1°' / 79. My Dear General : — Your letter enclosing the within chapter reached me in the interior of Japan — ^at Nikko — just the evening before I started on my return here. The chapter is so personal to myself that I can say nothing about it. But I have corrected two or three little errors of fact. My visit to Japan has been the most pleasant of all my travels. The country is beautffully culti vated, the scenery is grand, and the people, from the highest to 5l8 GRANT IN PEACE. the lowest, the most kindly and the most cleanly in the world. My reception and entertainment has been the most extravagant I have ever known, or even read, of. But as Young will probably give a full description of which you will read not long after receiv ing this, I will not attempt it. You speak of only receiving two letters from me since my departure from Marseilles ! Probably since your last letter you have received two or three others. At all events I have returned all your chapters with letters accom panying, and hope you have received them. I assure you that I am always glad to hear from you even if I do not answer as promptly as I might. On the 27th of this month we sail for San Francisco. At the end of the first year abroad I was quite homesick, but determined to remain to see every country in Europe at least. Now at the end of twenty-six months I dread going back, and would not if there was a line of steamers between here and Australia. But I shall go to my quiet little home in Galena and remain there until the cold drives me away. Then I will probably go south — possi bly to Havana & Mexico — to remain until April Mrs. Grant, Fred, & Young desire to be specially remembered to you. Yours Truly, U. S. Grant. Genl K. Badeau. Letter No. Fifty-four. The following letter requires no comment. * ToKio, Japan, August 25'" / 79. My Dear General, — My visit to this interesting country — and abroad — is now drawing to a close. On the 2d of Sept we sail for San Francisco. Our reception and entertainment in Japan has exceeded anything preceding it. Young's account will not be very full until his book comes out because two firms have already pirated his work and advertise cheap editions compfled from his letters to the Herald. Since learning the fact he has written but little for the paper intended for the book. This is a most beautiful country, and a most interesting people. The progress they have made in their changed civilization within LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 51Q t^velve years is almost incredible. They have now Military and Naval Academies, Cofleges, Academies, Engineering schools, schools of science and free schools, for male & female, as thoroughly organized, and on as high a basis of instruction, as any country in the world. Travel in the interior is as safe for an unarmed, unprotected foreigner as it is in the New England States. Much safer from extortion. This is marvelous when the treatment their people — and all eastern peoples — receive at the hands of the aver age foreigner residing among them [is considered]. I have never been so struck with the heartlessness of Nations as well as indi viduals as since coming to the east. But a day of retribution is sure to come. These people are becoming strong and China is sure to do so also. When they do a different policy will have to prevail from that enforced now. I send to-day addressed to your care a small box containing some small presents to Nellie which I wish you would be kind enough to pay all charges upon, and forward to her, with the bill for the amount you may have to pay. The box is marked : Mrs. Neflie Grant Sartoris; care General A. Badeau; U. S. Consul- General, London, England. Mrs. Grant, Fred, & Young join me in kindest regards to you. Very Truly Yours, U. S. Grant. Gen. A. Badeau. Letter No. Fifty-five. The reference to General Grant's intended book was of course a banter. He often used to tease or rally his intimates, and the more he liked them, the more he some times seemed to be unmerciful. He never teased any one half so much as he did Mrs. Grant. There was besides a vein of real humor in him which became apparent when he felt entirely free and unrestrained. I had mentioned a state ment I had seen that he intended to write a history of his campaigns, and this letter contains his comical reply. Mrs. Robeson had repeated to me something she had heard about Grant's candidacy for office and the opposition which was likely to come from certain quarters. 520 GRANT IN PEACE. ToKio, Japan, Aug. 30* / 79. My Dear General, — You will see from the date above that we did not get away from here on the 27"' as I wrote you we would. The steamer on which we are to sail postponed her depart ure until the 3* of Sept. otherwise I should not have received your letter of the 9"" of July. I do not know how it can be that you have not received letters from me. I have written to you oftener than to any one else, except my children and possibly Ammen. I have received since leaving you at Marseilles three or four batches of your book and returned all of them. I hope you have received them all back. Mrs. Robeson is no friend of mine to tell you of my intended book in competition with yours when she knew yours was not yet in print and might be changed to suit the altered circumstances. On looking at your letter again I see that Mrs. R. did not tell you that, but you got your information from an obscure paper published in the western part of Kansas. Well, I thought by letting the information out so far from London you would not find it out before your work was completed and then it would do you no good nor me any harm. But as you are posted now I give you my written pledge that the work described in the Wichita Eagle shall not appear in time to do you any harm. — I do not feel bad over the information Mrs. Robeson gave you. I am not a candi date for any office nor would I hold one that required any maneu vering or sacrifice to obtain. We are all well. Mrs. Grant, Fred, & Young join me in kindest regards to you. Yours Truly, Gen. A. Badeau, U. S. Grant. U. S. Consul-General. Letter No. Fifty-six. In 1864, at the time of the Presidential election when McClellan was a candidate against Lincoln, disturbances were apprehended in New York by the Government, and General Butler was sent to that city to assist in maintaining the pub lic peace. No disorder occurred, but General Rawlins told LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 52 1 me shortly afterward that Butler had intended, in case of a riot, to send out to Orange where McCleflan was living, and have him tried by a drum-head court-martial for inciting trea son, and if found guilty, he meant to hang him at once. I have, as General Grant said, no authority for this statement but Rawlins's declaration that Butler had so assured him. Acting upon Grant's advice I did not give it a place in my history. I was expecting to return to America in the spring of 1880, to bring out the concluding volumes of my history, and had written to ask General Grant's plans, so that I might meet him on my arrival and submit to him such portions of the work as he had not seen. I was very anxious to bring out the book before the nominations for President could be made, in the hope that it might help to revive the enthusiasm for Grant ; but with all my efforts, it was not finished until nearly a year after the meeting of the Convention at Chicago. Galena, III., Nov. 2 1^', 1879. My Dear General, — I have just read the enclosed and see nothing to suggest in the way of change, except there are three or four typographical errors which you will correct. I have no one with me now and have consequently mail enough to keep about six hours a day reading and answering such as must be answered. You must be satisfied therefore with a very unsatisfactory letter. There is one omission I would suggest in the notes to the first chapter here returned. I doubt the policy of giving Butler's inten tion to hang McClellan in a certain contingency. He might deny it and your authority for the statement — Rawlins — is dead. The papers have probably kept you posted as to the manner of recep tions I have had since my arrival in San Francisco. They have been very flattering. I go East so as to reach Phil" on the 1 6"" of Dec. I will remain there until I go to take up winter quarters. My present intention is to go to Havana and the City of Mexico and return to Galena about the last of April next 522 GRANT IN PEACE. year. In this case I will not meet you on your arrival. But you can get your book out just as well without me. I think you can not get it out too soon after your return to America. It will be the most authentic book published on the war, and I think the most truthful history — except what you say about me — published this many a day. Mrs. Grant joins me in kindest regards and well wishes for you. Very Truly Yours, Gen. A. Badeau. U. S. Grant. Letter No. Fifty-seven. Grant's reference to Stanton in this letter, is characteristic. It has been thought and said that a hostility existed between these two great men, and because Grant did not offer Stanton a place in his Cabinet, I have heard it asserted that the Sec retary went broken-hearted and disappointed to his grave. Yet Stanton had supported Grant in the canvass of 1868, and though I doubt not there had been a time when he hoped that his own great services to the country would secure him the very highest political reward, he soon saw that the tide had set irresistibly toward Grant. It was he who announced to Grant his first nomination at Cincinnati, and he manifested no half-heartedness afterward. Neither did Grant ever entertain any serious ill-feeling toward Stanton. The little differences that had arisen between them in their official relations never affected their action, and Grant retained his respect for Stanton to the last. He did not, indeed, invite him to a position in his Cabinet, for he felt that it would be difficult for Stanton to serve under one who had so long been his subordinate, and the delicacy of the situation was not inviting. It is also true that he knew Stanton's imperious temper, and was not anxious to bring himself into contact with it ; for Grant certainly would not have submitted as President, to what he had thought proper to endure as a nominal inferior. More than all, he wanted to enter upon his new functions with men who had not been LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 523 complicated by their past relations, especially in the very positions which cabinet ministers would hold. Flad both Seward and Stanton been more personally intimate with Grant, or had their fitness for their posts been still more marked, I doubt whether he would have sought an association with either of them when he became President. But this implied no failure to appreciate their ability or services. It is possible that in his new position. Grant forgot, for a whfle, his old superior ; and he may have seemed in the press of public cares, and amid the importance of the highest pub lic duties, even to neglect the faithful patriot who had done and suffered so much for the cause with which Grant had triumphed ; but when it was told him that Stanton was ill and depressed in body and mind, I know that he was both shocked and grieved. I was in Washington at the time, and on duty at the Executive Mansion. A seat on the Supreme Court bench was vacant, and Grant was aware that this had long been an object of Stanton's legitimate ambition. He went at once. President though he was, to Stanton's house, and offered the sick man the position, and the broken statesman was greatly touched and gratified by the recogni tion of his services from him who was now the representative of the Republic. The interview took place in the same room where Grant had once told the Secretary that he was to supersede him. But the great War Minister was worn out in the service of his country. His efforts and labors had told on him as much as if they had occurred in the field ; the offer was grateful to him, but it came too late, or only in time to soothe his dying hours. He never sat on the bench to which he had been elevated, and within a week Grant went to the same house to Stanton's funeral. When one remembers the great men whom that great era developed, the positions they occupied, the achievements they performed, the ambitions they cherished, and how almost 524 GRANT IN PEACE. invariably their careers came to a disastrous close, the little ness of worldly success is terribly and sadly taught. Seward, Chase, Sumner, Stanton, and Greeley all aspired to the Presi dency, and each died without reaching the goal, each under the shadow of defeat and disappointment ; while others on the national side, like Johnson, Hancock, and McClellan, failed of an election. Then there is the long list of soldiers, men of ability and patriotism, who were superseded : including Halleck, McClellan, Burnside, Hooker, Rosecrans, Buell, Pope, and Warren; as well as Banks, and Butler, and McDowell, and even Scott ; while Meade and Thomas doubtless felt that they had deserved what others gained. Every one of these men was surpassed by Grant, to say nothing of the soldiers whom he vanquished in the field ; yet Grant himself, who seemed so long the favorite of fate, was deserted at the last, and hurled into an abyss of misfortune into which every one of the others might have looked and pitied him. The canal mentioned in this letter was the Nicaragua Canal, in the construction of which Grant took the greatest interest, both while he was President and afterward. Philadelphia, Pa., Dec. 2 7^ /79. My Dear Badeau, — I have now been in PhiP nearly two weeks and have been kept so busy all the time that I have not been able to glance over the morning papers even except two or three times. The trip from Chicago here has been a very fatiguing one though very gratifying. No doubt you have seen fuller accounts of it than I would give if I was going to describe it. The reception at Louisville however astonished me. Not withstanding a heavy rain storm when I reached there, and ankle deep mud in the streets, the way was packed with people through out the whole line marked out for the procession. The windows were crowded with ladies & children waving their handkerchiefs, and the houses all decorated with stars & stripes. The people seemed very cordial & enthusiastic. The reception here has LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 525 been simply overwhelming. — To-day I start for Cuba & Mexico. Sheridan & wife, Fred & his wife & Ivittie Felt, Mrs. Grant & I make up the party, ^^'e will stop over in ^^'ashington until the 30"! ^^'e go to Flo. by rail and cross over to Havana from there. In the two last chapters of your book I have seen nothing to criticise. Your chapter on Stanton is the best pen picture of a historical character I e^-er read. I venture to predict that it will be so considered by critics when it comes before the public. The fact is I think the whole book will rank among the most truthful, and best written, histories ever presented to the pub lic. It wfll be criticised of course by friends of some Generals who do not rank in your estimation as they do in their own, and by personal enemies. But you will find on the whole favorable criticisms. I expect to be back in Galena as soon as the weather gets pleasant in the spring, and to remain there until time to go to Long Branch. I will then have the summer to arrange for a per manent home and occupation. It may be the Canal in which case I will live in New York City. It must be occupation or a country home. My means will not admit of a city home without employment to supplement them. All my family join in kindest regards to you. Very Truly Yours, U. S. Grant. Letter No. Fifty-eight. I returned to the United States, on leave, in April, 1880, but Grant was in Galena. I went out to see him in May, just before the Chicago Convention that nominated Garfield for the Presidency. After the result was known I wrote to him, of course, as warmly as I knew how, and yet without saying too much of his defeat — the first in his career. The manly but touching letter which follows was his acknowl edgment. The sentence mentioning Porter and Seligman refers to some business propositions that were made to him after the failure of his political friends at Chicago, for they knew now that he must turn his attention to his own affairs ; as he was far from rich, or even independent. 526 GRANT IN PEACE. June 23"^, 1880. My Dear Badeau,— Your letter of the 19"" is just received, I will be very glad to see you before your return to England. I will not be going east, however, before the latter part of Novem ber. In one week I will be starting west and may remain absent six weeks. I may get tired in three weeks and return here. In any event I expect to get back before the end of August. Since writing the above I have read the admirable chapter which accompanied your letter. There is no criticism to make upon it. If you want it returned write or telegraph me. Suppos ing you have a copy I do not return it with this. — I am glad you are getting on so well with your book. Hope to see it out before you return to England. It will not probably have so great a sale, at once, as would have had the result at Chicago been what many thought it would be. But it will have a long run, finding a market long after you and I are gone. Tell Porter that I received his letter, and Seligman's. I answered Seligman both by telegraph & letter, declining his offer. Seligman will no doubt allow him to see my letter. , We are all well here and Mrs. Grant and Jesse, who is here for a day or two, join me in kindest regards. Very Truly Yours, U. S. Grant. Letter No. Fifty-nine. This note was accompanied by a portion of what I had written on Thomas's Nashville campaign for my history. Dear Badeau, — I neglected to enclose this in my last letter. I gave your summing up of Thomas' characteristics to the press thinking it appropriate as the Society of the Army of the Cumber land were about meeting in Washington to unveil the Equestrian Statue to his memory. All well. Yours Truly, U. S. Grant. Letter No. Sixty. For months after his defeat at Chicago, Grant was turn ing over in his mind the business he should adopt ; considering many offers and examining various enterprises, as the next letter shows very fully. LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 527 Manitou Springs, Col., July 28'", 1880. Dear Badeau, — Your letter of the 18'" of July, with chapter enclosed, only reached me on the 26"', at Leadville. I have read the chapter over carefully and see nothing to criticise. In your letter you say that you sent me the first part of " Fort Fisher " some weeks ago, before the receipt of my letter. The last I have received from you, before your letter of the 18*, was the chapter which I approved in my letter from Galena. I think now, I will be in New York City soon after my return to Galena. The probabilities are that I shall make my home there. But this is. not entirely certain. I am obliged to do something to supplement my means to live upon and I have very favorable offers there. Fortunately none of my children are a tax upon me. If they were we would all have to retire to the farm and work that. I have been looking at the mines in New Mexico and in this state and flatter myseff that I have obtained something of an insight into the resources of the two — the state and territory — and a large insight in the way mines are managed. Without going into details I would not buy stock in any mine in the country, when the stock is thrown upon the market, any more than I would buy lottery tickets. The mines are producing largely, but those quoted pay no dividends to the stockholders unless it is to put up the price of the stocks so the knowing ones can sell out. Porter & Co. have a magnificent mine, managed by a thoroughly competent and honest man. It is so opened that they will get out all there is in it in the most economical manner, and the dividends will be regular, subject to no vicissitudes except strikes, epidemics or earthquakes. I go on Saturday to the Garrison and probably from there to the San Juan region. That visit over I will have seen a large part of the Mining region. My family are all well. Buck is with me and Fred, is on his way between Santa Fe and here. The climate of this place is perfect. While you are sweltering in New York cloth clothing is comfortable here. AU desire to be remembered to you. Yours Truly, U. S. Grant. 528 GRANT IN PEACE. Letter No. Sixty-one. At the close of this letter. Grant alludes to the joke of one of the rebel soldiers in Sherman's Atlanta campaign. It was proposed to blow up a tunnel on the road over which Sherman brought his supplies. " Oh h — U," exclaimed the Confederate, "Don't you know that Sherman carries dupli cate tunnels with him on this march.'" Manitou Springs, Col., Aug. 12* 1880. My Dear General, — I returned here day before yesterday and found a mail awaiting me which has required all my spare time until now just to read. In it I find your two letters, and the first part of the chapter on Fort Fisher. I have read it carefully and do not see how a word can be changed. All that you say that exception can be taken to is supported by quotations, or citations to, orders and letters of instruction of the time. I have been away from here for ten days visiting parts of Colorado I had never seen before. The trip was a very hard one though full of interest. I am satisfied this state has a great destiny before it. The new regions that I visited will show greater mineral resources than all that has been heretofore discovered in the state besides considerable agricultural resources. But I will see you in September, when I shall be in New York, and then I can tell you more than I can write. When I go to New York it will be deter mined whether I accept the Presidency of the Mining Co. to which I have been elected. One thing is certain, I must do something to supplement my income or continue to live in Galena or on a farm. I have not got the means to live in a city. With kindest regards of Mrs. Grant, Fred. & Buck — the latter has just left— I am as ever. Yours Truly, U. S. Grant. P. S. I do not return the chapter on F. F. supposing you have a duplicate as Sherman's men had of all the R. R. tunnels the rebels destroyed. LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 529 Letter No. Sixty-two. Chapter XXXI of my " Military Flistory " which Grant so highly approved, is the one which shows more plainly than any other how absolutely he directed the movements of all the armies, and gives him the credit to which he was entitled for the comprehensive strategy which did so much to bring about the success of the Union armies ; without which indeed all the effort of those armies would have failed. I need not call attention to General Grant's remarks about Thomas and Canby; they show at least that I have not misapprehended nor misrepresented his own opinions of those soldiers, and justify the plainness with which I speak of other eminent individuals in the present volume. The visit to Boston to which he invited me, had a semi- political character, and was turned to good account in favor of Garfield by the Republicans. During the journey, which extended to other places than Boston, Grant was present at a number of political meetings, at all of which he made short addresses, so that the popular enthusiasm for him was con verted into capital for the candidate who had defeated him at Chicago. Galena, III., Sept. 20"' /So. My Dear Badeau, — I have just read your last chapter furnished me. It is admirable. You have not written one better, nor one more interesting. I am glad you have put so distinctly before your readers the vexatious delays of Thomas and Canby. They were both excellent men ; but possessed fatal defects to being successful directors or executors of great military move ments, unless on the defensive. You give true history in regard to them, and furnish the proof as you go along. While I would not wish to detract from any one I think history should record the truth. — I read this chapter out loud to Mrs. Grant. She wants me to say that she was much interested. I have been compelled to delay 'my departure to the east one week to enable me to keep an engagement to meet my old regiment at a reunion, which I had 34 530 GRANT IN PEACE. promised last fall to do, but had forgotten the date of the meeting when I arranged to start on the last of this month. I shall hope to meet you then and would like to have you go on to Boston with me for four or five days if it would not interfere with your book too much. Tell Porter of my delay. With kind regards of Mrs. Grant & myseff. Yours Truly, U. S. Grant. Letter No. Sixty-three. After the visit to Boston, I was almost constantly with General Grant for four or five months. I had rooms near him in New York, and saw him daily. During the latter part of the winter, I was laid up for six weeks with a lameness, and he often came and sat with me, discussing public affairs or his own, or reading and revising the chapters of my history on which I was stfll engaged. I was still Consul-General at London, and my leave of absence having been renewed once or twice, he gave me the advice contained in the following letter. It is hardly necessary to say that Mr. Evarts was Secretary of State, and Colonel John Hay, Assistant-Secre tary under President Hayes. New York City, Dec. 4'"/ 80. Dear Badeau, — I would advise that you drop a private note to Asst. Sec. Hay saying that you would like to have your leave ex tended to about the 20*, or last of Jan. to insure getting your book in the hands of the printer before leaving. I wfll be going to Washington on Monday the 13* inst. and will speak to Hay, or Evarts, to have 5^our leave extended if you wish. It is a pity the book cannot be out by the holidays. Business is then suspended and many persons might read it who later will not have the time. Sincerely Yours, U. S. Grant. Letter No. Sixty-four. This note was written immediately after the inauguration of Garfield, in March, 1881. Grant was stiU in no actual business, and his means, as I have said, were limited ; he had LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 531 no secretary, and the accumulation of his correspondence often annoyed him. I therefore offered to assist him as of old. He expected to remain in New York, and had agreed to recommend me to the new Administration for the "Naval Office " in that city, which would place me permanently where I could be near him. At this time he had no doubt that a mere suggestion from him to the President would be suffi cient ; the obligations of Garfield were so conspicuous. Dear General, — Much obliged for your offer of services ; but company have been coming in all day, so that all I could do has been to answer a few letters. In the morning I go to Washington and will take that occasion to talk to Conkling and the President about your transfer to New York. Yours, U. S. Grant. Letter No. Sixty-five. General Grant recommended Mr. Russell Young to the new Administration, either for the mission to Mexico or to China or Japan. March 11* / 81. Dear General, — I will call over to see you a while this after noon ff I can. Young will not probably go to Mexico because there will hardly be a change there. If there should be a change in China or Japan he would have one of those places. I will tell you this evening about your chances for the Naval office. Conkling is wiUing. Yours, U. S. Grant. Letter No. Sixty-six. In Chapter XXXVII of this volume, I have given the history of General Grant's recommendation of myself to Garfield. On the 24th of March, 1881, I took the following letter to the new President : New York, March 16* 1881. His Excellency, Ja's A. Garfield, President of U. States: Dear Sir,— I take great pleasure in introducing to you General Badeau, formeriy of my staff, and now Consul-General 532 GRANT IN PEACE. at London. You may not be aware that General Badeau has been engaged for fifteen years on a history of the Rebellion so far as my connection with it is concemed. That work is now com plete and in the hands of the publishers. When I was in Wash ington last week I meant to speak to you of him, but do not remember whether I did. Lest I should not have done so, I will now state that it was my intention to have asked his retention in his present office unless he could receive the post of Naval Officer of this port. I would not ask the latter position unless it met with the approval of the Senators from this state and the Repre sentatives from this city and Brooklyn. Very truly yours, U. S. Grant. Before this letter was delivered my name was sent to the Senate as Charg6 d' Affaires at Copenhagen. Grant at once sent me the following telegram from New York : New York, March 24. General Badeau, Riggs House, Washington, D. C: See the President at once with my letter. Ask him to with draw your nomination, and if he cannot leave you in London, ask him to give you either Italy or Naval Office in this city. Show him this dispatch as my endorsement of you for either place. U. S. Grant. Letter No. Sixty-seven. As the President was disinclined to reconsider his appoint ment. Grant sent me this second telegram, which also I submitted to Garfield. The result is described in Chapter XXXVII. New York, March 25. General h.. Badeau, Riggs House, Washington, D. C: I advise you to decline Copenhagen and stick to London unless you can get Naval Office, Italy, or some equally good place. Advise with Conkling and Piatt. It would be better to come here without government appointment than to take Copen hagen. U. S. Grant. LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 533 Letter No. Sixty-eight. As elsewhere related, Garfield persisted in his nomina tions, which, however, were opposed in the Senate, and I returned to my post in England to await the result, while General Grant went to Mexico to arrange for the organization of a railroad connecting that country with the United States. This was the enterprise in which Mr. Romero took so deep an interest. From Mexico Grant wrote to the Hon. J. P. Jones of the United States Senate, a letter condemning Garfield's course. This letter was published and excited great attention. In it Grant said : " The change of Badeau and Cramer, the two appointments in which I felt a strong personal interest, was very distasteful to me; the first, because of our personal relations, and my wish that he should be kept where his office would support him until he finished some work he is engaged upon, and which he could do without interfering with his public duties." This work was Grant's political history, the military one being complete. From Mexico General Grant wrote to me also the follow ing letter: City of Mexico, May 7th, 1881. Dear General, — I received your several letters written since my departure from New York, and your telegram. The latter I answered at once saying stick to London or its equivalent. The operator refused to send the dispatch on the prepayment. I then sent my pass — which I have over the Mexican cable & Western Union — when they received it. I supposed of course you would get the reply. I am completely disgusted with Garfield's course. It is too late now for him to do anything to restore him to my confidence. I will never again lend my active aid to the support of a Presidential candidate who has not strength enough to appear before a convention as a candidate, but gets in simply by the adherents of prominent candidates preferring any outsider to_ either of the candidates before the Convention save their own. 534 GRANT IN PEACE. Garfield has shown that he is not possessed of the backbone of an angle-worm. I hope his nominations may be defeated and you left where you are until you are ready to withdraw voluntarily. I see no note of your book coming out yet. It looks as if the Appletons were in no hurry. My business here progresses favorably so far as the President and the departments are concerned. I have heard nothing yet of any opposition in Congress. Before this reaches you I wifl be on my way home. I never would have undertaken the work I am now engaged in for any possible gain that can accrue to myseff. But I have been much impressed with the resources of this country, and have enter tained a much higher opinion of these people than the world at large generally do, and of their capacity to develope their re sources, with aid and encouragement from outside. I felt that this development must come soon, and the country furnishing the means would receive the greatest benefit from the increased com merce. I wanted it to be ours. Besides we want to encourage republican government, and particularly on this continent. Then too it is an advantage for us to pay for our imports with the products of our soil & manufactures as far as possible. This we do not do now with countries from which we receive tropical & semi-tropical products. Mexico can furnish all the commodi ties and will want in return what we have to sell. I will always be glad to hear from you and will write in return occasionally. You know I have a great many letters to write, and probably will have to write more in the future. But I have learned one thing in this trip that I wish I had learned twenty years ago. I brought along a stenographer as Sec. I find no trouble whatever in dictating letters, speeches & reports. It saves a world of trouble. With best regards of Mrs. Grant & myself. Yours Truly, U. S. Grant. Letter No. Sixty-nine. It is not fair to Grant that the last letter should be read without the one which immediately succeeded it. If his bitter ness towards him whom he considered a disloyal compeer is LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 535 remembered, the sympathy he felt for the stricken President should also be recalled. I reprint the second letter although it has already been given with other surroundings. New York City, July 27", 1881. My Dear Gex. Badeau, — I am just this day in receipt of t\vo letters from you of the latter part of June. Why they have been so long coming I cannot conceive. — A few days after your letters were \mtten, as you know — the dastardly attempt was made upon the President's Iffe. This of course has put a stop to afl communication on the subject of foreign appointments, in fact all Presidential appointments. I had told Porter before this terri ble crime that I thought probably you had better after all accept the Copenhagen appointment for the present. AMaether Porter had an opportunity to mention the subject before the wounding of the President or not I do not know. — This attempt upon the life of Gen. Garfield produced a shock upon the public mind but httle less than that produced by the assassination of Mr. Lincoln. The intensity of feeling has somewhat died out in consequence of the favorable reports of the patient's condition from day to day ; but now more alarm is being felt for his safety. I myseff have felt until within the last three or four days that there was scarcely a doubt about his recovery. Now however I, fear the chances are largely against it. But by the time this reaches you more certainty wfll be felt one way or the other. The crime is a dis grace to our countrj', and yet cani^t be punished as it deserves. I have been very busy though not accomplishing much, which must be my excuse for not writing sooner. Very Truly Yours, U. S. Grant. Letter No. Seventy. At last my successor to London was confirmed, and on his arrival in England, in September, i88x, I returned to this country, and resumed my old habit of constant association with General Grant. The new President, Arthur, was in New York in October, and General Grant cafled on him. He 536 GRANT IN PEACE. told me the same day that Arthur had introduced the subject of providing an appointment for me. Arthur had urged me a few months before to decline the nomination to Copenhagen which Garfield offered me, and my whole course in that matter had been advised and endorsed by him and Senator Conkling as strongly as by Grant. He now admitted to Grant that he felt bound to offer me a place at least equal to that from which I had been removed. He said to General Grant that he meant to appoint me Minister to Italy. By General Grant's advice, I waited on the President the next day. Arthur had been my acquaintance for more than twenty years. I knew both him and his wife before their marriage, and had . always been on pleasant and personal terms with him. He was at the Fifth Avenue Hotel, and received me in a parlor full of visitors ; but he took me by the hand and led me at once into his bedroom, which was crowded with clothes, so that he sat on the bedstead and I on a trunk while we talked. He adverted at once to my position, and, without waiting for me to ask or suggest anything, declared that he meant to give me the mission to Italy. Mr. Marsh, the incumbent, was old and infirm, and had long been unable to perform his duties, and Arthur said that I might rely upon his promise ; but of course there was a press of important matters that had precedence. His Cabinet was not re-formed, and he always moved slowly ; and I heard no more from him for months. During the winter he was again in New York, and again assured General Grant that I should receive the Italian Mission, but I did not approach him at that time. In January, however, I went to Washington, and he received me by appointment in the evening. Again he promised to nominate me to Italy, but he said there was a difficulty about removing Mr. Marsh, who was the friend and relative of Senator Edmunds. The President, however, informed me that he meant to nominate Mr. Edmunds to a LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 537 vacant seat on the Supreme Court bench, and then any obli gations to the Senator would be fulfilled, after which my appointment would be made. He did offer Edmunds the judgeship, but it was declined, and nothing more was said to me. It was at this time that I received the following letter from General Grant. The first sentence refers to my " Military History," which was sold by subscription, and Grant wanted to make out a list of his personal friends to whom the can vassers might offer the book. Dear Badeau, — I think it would be well if the Appletons would send one of their canvassers for this city to me. I hardly know how to advise you to proceed in your personal matter. But I think I would see the President and if he is not incUned to remove Marsh I would suggest the Consul-Generalship of Paris or London. There may be some hesitation about the removal of the latter, but I am told there would not be in regard to the former. Very Truly Yours, U. S. Grant. Letter No. Seventy-one. In accordance with General Grant's advice I wrote a note requesting a second interview with the President, and received no answer. I reported this to the General, who thereupon wrote me this letter. The Mr. Hamilton spoken of was the late John C. Ham- flton of New York, father-in-law of General Halleck. It was this relationship which made his commendation notable ; for I had been obliged to say many things in my history, which were unfavorable to Halleck. New York City, Feb'y 3", 1882. Dear Badeau, — I have your letter of the 1='. It is possible the President's Sec— knowing how the President is op pressed by calls — never laid your letter before him. At all events I would assume that he had not, and would lay my business before 538 GRANT IN PEACE. him. The President has spoken in the kindest terms of you, and suggested himself, before I mentioned it, the Italian Mission. I would suggest that you go in to see him in his office hours and say that you would not take up his time now, but ff he would name a time you would like to call when he could give you a few minutes. Of course you are at liberty to use any letter or saying of mine. Old Mr. Hamilton was in to see me a few days ago. He had just finished reading your book and was in extasies over it. He had not one word of unfavorable comment. The Appletons have not yet sent an Agent to me. — I hope you may be speedily relieved from your suspense by Presidential action. Very Truly Yours, U. S. Grant. Letter No. Seventy-two. The volume General Grant here refers to is his political history, which, as the military work was complete, I was now about to begin. There were some conversations between Mr. George Jones and several of my friends, at this time, in regard to my joining the staff of the New York Times, which will explain the concluding sentences of this letter. New York City, Feb'y i6^ 1882. Dear Badeau, — I have your letter of yesterday, and received in time yours of a few days ago. I think there is no doubt but the President is disposed to do something for you. But, to this time, he has seemed averse to making any removals no matter how offensive the parties in place have been to him and his friends. I hope this will not continue. Exactly what to suggest I am at loss to think of. Something in Washington would suit your purpose of writing the volume you speak of better than elsewhere. But what is there of sufficient dignity and compensation that would give you the time. I have no doubt but they would be glad to give you the place vacated — or to be vacated by young Blaine. If that would do suggest it to the Sec. or Asst. Sec. and no doubt it LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 530 could be brought about. Refer to me in this or any other matter for your benefit. George Jones and his wife dine with me on Saturday next. I wfll see what he might be willing to do in the direction you sug gest. With a fair compensation from that quarter, your retired pay and what you might pick up in other ways, might be better, pecuniarily than an official position in Washington. Very Truly Yours, U. S. Grant. Letter No. Seventy-three. General Grant had suggested one of the railroad inspector ships in the gift of the President as an appointment that might be acceptable to me. He knew that I intended to devote as much of my time and labor as I could command to his Political Memoirs, and he felt that he should in turn do all in his power to advance my interests. New York City, Feb'y I8'^ 1882. Dear Badeau, — Yours of yesterday received. I wrote the President this morning suggesting Austria and said that your qualifications for the office were equal to those of any representa tive we have had at that court in twenty years. I also said that you spoke the German, French & Spanish languages, and that I believed you did the Italian also. Am I right ? I marked the letter " Personal " on the envelope, and signed my name, so that it might go direct to the President. I think I would call upon him again if I were in your place even if I did not mention the Austrian Mission. He would be apt to speak of my letter. You might speak of the railroad inspectorship. Very Truly Yours, U. S. Grant. Letter No. Seventy-four. The boxes referred to were left by me at the White House when I went abroad. They contained a few private papers of my own, but were principally filled with the material and proofs for the first volume of my Military History of Grant. 540 GRANT IN PEACE. In the various removals that took place after General Grant's Presidency, they had remained unopened, but at last they were examined by some one unused to the care of papers and manuscripts, and were thrown into inextricable confusion. While I was living at General Grant's house in 1884, I was shown a huge mass of papers, and told by the servants that mine were among them ; but none of the family knew any thing of the matter, and I could find nothing of importance that belonged to me. The names omitted in the last part of the following letter are those of four important Republicans with whom Grant was on bad terms. New York City, Feb'y 21^', 1882. My Dear General, — The boxes you refer to are at my house. They were pried open and discovering that they contained only papers were put in the store room where they now are. — I shall take no notice of Shipherd for the present. He stated truthfully, in a published interview that I had no interest in the Peruvian Co. and never had. I do not recognize the right of reporters and sensational writers to call upon me for an explana tion whenever my name is mentioned. If I should say anything to a reporter it would be that the greatest objection I had to the statements of Mr. Shipherd was that he associated my name with those of , , & . But this was partially relieved by the many good names on his list. Very Truly Yours, U. S. Grant. Letter No. Seventy-five. I have no copy of the letter to the President here referred to which I submitted to General Grant. It was not forwarded to the President. March 7* 1882. Dear Badeau, — Your proposed letter to the President is in good enough tone ; but I think I would not send it, but instead LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 541 would call and say in substance the same thing. If I did send the letter I would omit what is here marked out. Yours Truly, U. S. Grant. Letter No. Seventy-six. New York City, March n* 1882. Dear Badeau, — The story about my failure was all a pure fiction, invented ^rith many other lies on the stock board to depress stocks. I have nothing to do with their speculations and I think it great presumption to use my name in any way to effect their purposes. Very Truly Yours, U. S. Grant. Letter No. Seventy-seven. During the winter I called on the President once or twice again, but with little result. He once said that the Secretary of State had proposed the mission to Lisbon for me, but that he himseff had declared he could not ask me to accept the post, as he had urged me to decline Copenhagen, which was of equal importance. Mr. Edmunds stfll supported his relative, and I at no time suggested that Mr. Marsh should be requested to resign ; nor did General Grant, on my account. Finally, the Secretary of State sent for me, and inquired ff money was an object to me. I replied that the pay of an office was certainly a consideration, for I was not a rich man, but that money was not my principal object. Here the Secretary interrapted and said : " I understand. You were removed because of political considerations, and you think you should be vindicated, now that your friends are in power." I said that was my position. He then inquired if I would be wifling to take a Consulate-General temporarily, with the express understanding that my acceptance should not affect my claims to a diplomatic place ; and stated that Havana, Japan, and Rio Janeiro were at his disposal, and I might take 542 GRANT IN PEACE. my choice of them. I replied that Havana was the only one I could possibly accept, as that was the only one in which I would not be subordinate to a Minister, the Consul-General at Havana exercising in reality diplomatic functions, and re porting direct to the State Department, and in no way to the Minister to Spain. I asked for time to consider the proposi tion, and referred it to Grant, who replied by telegram as fol lows : New York, April 5, 1882 General Bad'eav, 1407 H Street, Washington: I would accept with conditions named. U. S. Grant. I followed General Grant's advice, but not until I had gone to New York to consult him in person. Then I wrote to the Secretary of State that, relying upon his pledge, I accepted the post of Consul-General at Havana. Mr. Freling huysen replied, also in writing, promising me that Havana should not be a finality, and declaring that he would look after my interests in the matter as carefully as a lawyer would for those of a client. My name was accordingly sent to the Senate, and I was confirmed. But it was arranged that I should not go to my post until after the yellow fever season was past, and I remained at the North during the summer. In July, Mr. Marsh, the Minister to Italy, died very suddenly, and General Grant at once wrote to the President, reminding him of his promise to send me to Italy. Mr. Conk ling also wrote to Arthur in my favor ; and I addressed both the President and the Secretary of State, recalling their pledges. Mr. W. W. Astor, however, was immediately ap pointed and confirmed as Minister to Italy. Both he and his father had been aware of my expectations, and Mr. John J. Astor had congratulated me upon the prospect. They both wrote at once, and assured me that the appointment was LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 543 entirely unexpected and unsolicited by either of them. Mr. John Astor told me that when he read the announcement of the death of Mr. Marsh, he exclaimed : " Now General Badeau wiU get his mission." Mr. Arthur wrote the following letter to General Grant : Thursday. Executive Mansion, August 3. Washington. My Dear General Grant, — I would have been glad to be able to gratify you by the appointment of General Badeau to the Italian Mission, but there were so many embarassments in the way (of which I will tell you when I have the opportunity) that I could not well do so. I had thought that the General was satisfied with his present place, the emoluments of which certainly amount to much more than the salary of the Minister to Italy. I suppose however that he would rather be in Europe. It looks now like adjournment on Saturday night which I earnestly hope for. With sincere regards for Mrs. Grant & yourseff, I am Faithfully Yours, Chester A. Arthur. General Grant, New York. No other explanation was ever offered to General Grant or to me, of the conduct of Mr. Arthur and Mr. Freling huysen. By the advice of General Grant, I did not resign the appointment to Havana. Letter No. Seventy-eight. General Grant sent copies of my history to all of the sovereigns or ministers who had entertained him during his joumey around the world. These volumes were bound expressly, and were sent when possible through the State Department, or the Legations at the various countries that General Grant had visited. It is to these that he refers in 544 GRANT IN PEACE. the following letter. Lytton was the Earl Lytton, Viceroy of India. New York, June 26" / 82. Dear Badeau, — I am sorry I have been out every time you called recently. I want to see you before you go. — The very day after I saw you last letters began to come in acknowledging the receipt of the book. Nearly all have now been acknowledged — I will be in town again on Thursday. If you can come in then go down and spend the night with me at the Branch. If you can not come then go down to the Branch on Saturday and stay over Sunday. If you can go on Thursday stay the balance of the week. We have no company invited for this week, consequently plenty of room. Very Truly Yours, U. S. Grant. P. S. The mail laying before me when you were in had the acknowledgment from Lytton, the first received. Next I believe was from the King of Siam. U. S. G. Letter No. Seventy-nine. This note accompanied the article of General Pleasanton, to which it refers : In cleaning up my desk to go to the city I find Pleasanton's criticisms on your book. You will find that after all it was Thomas and Rosecrans — principally Pleasanton — who captured Richmond. U. S. G. Letter No. Eighty. General Grant had met Colonel Chesney, the eminent British soldier and mflitary critic, in India, and the letter and lecture which he forwarded contained some highly favorable comments on my history as well as on Grant's career. Lieutenant Green of the Engineer Corps, was engaged at this time in the preparation of a short history of the Vicks burg campaign, and during the summer he had read a part LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 545 of it to General Grant in my presence, to invite remark. It is to this work that General Grant refers in the following letter : N. Y, Sept. 21=71882. Dear Badeau, — We moved to the city yesterday. I find in my desk your letters inclosing one from Colonel Chesney — here with returned — and his lecture. I will read the latter when I go home this evening. Green was at my house, at the Branch, Monday evening and read the second part of his book. He will be up early next week to finish it. He has found a probable error of 4,000 in his state ment of numbers at Vicksburg. The tri-monthly returns for the end of Ap'l, and the monthly return for same date disagree by that number. He finds that Scott takes the monthly return as the correct one when the two disagree. This reduces the number. His second part was quite as interesting as the first. I will be much mistaken ff his book is not regarded as far the best of the series. Green felt much complimented when I told him what you thought of his work. Yours Very Truly, U. S. Grant. P. S. We will be pleased to see you at the house when you come to town. U. S. G. Letter No. Eighty-one. When this letter was written I had arrived at my post in Havana. Mr. Thomas Hughes, the weU-known English author and political economist, had a son in Texas, and I had asked Gen eral Grant for letters to some of the important people in that region for the young man, who was an especial favorite and friend of mine. The appointment mentioned by General Grant was the Vice-Presidency of the international telegraph line between the United States and Cuba. The position was held by an Englishman, and the control of all telegraphic messages between the Consul-General of the United States and his 35 546 GRANT IN PEACE. own Government was thus in the hands of a foreigner. It was proposed that this should be transferred to the Consul- General, ex officio. Mr. Jay Gould was the principal owner of the stock of the company, and General Grant's business relations with Gould at that time warranted him in making the request. He did apply to Gould, who referred him to Dr. Norvin Green, the President of the Western Union, as weU as of the Cuban Telegraph Company. General Grant made the application to Dr. Green, who paid no attention to his request, and the place with its powers and appurtenances remained in the hands of an Englishman. New York City,Dec. n"", 1882. My Dear General Badeau, — I have your letter of the i" instant, enclosing one from Hughes and also your previous letter. I did not write to you before because I expected to see your Vice- Consul, Williams, but he has not called on me yet. Of course I will help you if I can to obtain the appointment you ask. In regard to the matter Hughes speaks of, I wrote' the letter he re quested long ago, just after you spoke to me about possibly the second time, and in time I should think for them to have received it, and informed their father before the date of his letter to you. If however they have not received my letter — it was a general letter to railroad officials connected with international roads between this country and Mexico — I will be glad to write them another. I have no special news to write you from here. Congress has met and the overwhelming defeat of the republicans seems to have put both parties on their guard. It looks now as if the interests of the country were to be more considered — by many I fear as the best means of serving a party — than party interests. But there is abundant time for either party to do fooKsh things and both parties have men capable of them. I hope you will find your new station an agreeable one. I believe you will, for a time, and wish for you a more pleasant one in the near future. But I can hardly say I expect much from this Administration. It is too slow. LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 547 Buck safls for Europe day after to-morrow. Jesse & wife think of going to Mexico this winter. If they do they may drop in upon you. Hurry up your book on English life. It will be interesting I think to many readers. With kind regards from all my family. Very Truly Yours, U. S. Grant. Letter No. Eighty-two. This letter is already given, with full explanations, in Chapter XL, on " Grant and Mexico." New York City, Feb'y 4* 1883. Dear Badeau, — I have had three or four letters from you since my last. The last one was through the State Department. I had heard before that the English had sent their Vice Consul to Cuba to Mexico, ostensibly to renew intercourse with that gov ernment, but more particularly to co-operate with the Germans and French to defeat a Commercial Treaty with the United States. I sent your letter, with one from myself, to the Sec. of State. — You should by all means write to the Sec. of State saying to him substantially what you say to me in your letter of the 3° of January. Of course I cannot send that letter. We were successful in negotiating a Commercial Treaty, which is practically ratified so far as the Mexican Govt, is concerned. We will see what our Senate will do with it, ff the President sends it in. It was delivered to the Sec. of State two weeks ago, with report ; but so far it has not seen the light. Yours Truly, U. S. Grant. Letter No. Eighty-three. The first part of this letter is already printed in Chapter XL of this volume, on " Grant and Mexico," and requires no further explanation. I do not remember that I ever requested General Grant to 548 GRANT IN PEACE. recommend my appointment as Minister to Spain, but when that post became vacant the State Department requested him to mention the names of several suitable persons for the place, and he made a list of two or more ; my name was first, and Mr. Foster's second ; and Foster was appointed. General Grant thought this selection was made because my name was so identified with his own, and because Arthur was unwilling to seem too much under his influence. Grant frequently said to me that at this time his friendship was a detriment to me, as it provoked many enmities which I might otherwise have escaped ; and in the eyes of Mr. Arthur, it was, he thought, especiaUy a disadvantage ; for Arthur was then most anxious to propitiate Grant's enemies. New York City, Feb'y 28^ 1883. My Dear General Badeau, — I was much pleased to receive your letter of the 22'' inst. I was tempted to give what you say about the use of Mexican tobacco ; its use in Cuba ; the feeling of the Cubans in regard to the effect of the treaty &c. to the press. Of course I should only have given it as from a friend of mine writing from Havana. But on reflection I concluded that the pub lic would know who my friend in Cuba was, so I concluded not to. I wish however you would write the same thing to the State Dept. You will learn by the mail that carries this that considera tion of the treaty has been deferred until December next. This I fear will defeat the treaty in Mexico where there will be untiring efforts, by foreign merchants and diplomats to prejudice the Gov ernment against it. You will see — or have seen — that J. W. Foster has been appointed to Spain. Foster did not want the place but has accepted it temporarily, as I understand, to transact a special and important mission which will probably occupy but a few months. In some way that I am not quite well enough informed to write about, a question has arisen in regard to what constitutes a natural ization of a Spanish subject, to make him a citizen of the United States. The present Sec. is not willing that Spain should inter- LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 540 pret our laws on the subject. — Confidentially I do not doubt but that Arthur would be very glad to have you succeed Foster. But he seems more afraid of his enemies, and through this fear, more influenced by them, than guided either by his judgment, personal feelings or friendly influences. I hope he will prove me wrong in this judgment. I saw Gould a few weeks ago about your apt. as superin tendent of American telegraph interests in Cuba, and he seemed interested. He asked me to write the President of the Co. on the subject and he would speak to him personally. I did so. Mrs. Grant tells me to say that she is just reading your history and thinks more of you than ever. She is now in the second volume. Yours Truly, U. S. Grant. Letter No. Eighty-four. The Rev. Alonzo Flack, the head-master of a considerable boarding-school in New York, had written to Gen. Grant pro posing that the Appletons, my publishers, should get up a school edition of the "Military History of Grant." The General forwarded the letter to me with the following endorsement. I have answered Mr. Flack approving his idea and told him that you had suggested the same thing yourseff. I also told him that I would forward this letter to you. U. S. G. March 31=', 1883. Letter No. Eighty-five. This letter was written to aid me in a report I was making to the Government on the defenses of Havana. New York City, Apl. 30"', 1883. Dear Badeau, — I beg your pardon for not answering your letter requesting my views about the capabilities of the defenses of the harbor of Havana to resist any navy. I supposed I had answered it, but your last letter reminds me that I have not. On my visit to Havana three years ago I had the opportunity of see- 550 GRANT IN PEACE. ing the forts and armament. Both are formidable, and with additions that could easily be made before any country could attack them, impregnable from direct attack. But I should not regard Havana as a difficult place to capture with a combined Army and Navy. It would have to be done however by effect ing a landing elsewhere and cutting off land communications with army while the Navy would perform the same service in the water. The hostility of the native population to the Spanish Authority would make this a comparatively easy task for any first class power, and especially easy for the United States in case of a war with Spain. I have no special news to write you. Buck & Jesse have returned from abroad all well. Yours Truly, U. S. Grant. Letter No. Eighty-six. This refers to the suit brought by me in the Court of Claims to defend my right to a position in the army. The War Department uniformly held that this right was undoubted, but one of the auditors of the Treasury took a different view, and the matter was referred to the Court of Claims, as I have already explained. General Sickles, as well as myself, had been retired by President Grant in order to enable him to accept diplomatic rank, and he had written to General Grant to obtain some information in regard to the General's action as President. The letter was not answered promptly, and General Sickles inquired of me if it had been received. New York City, June 21", 1883. Dear General, — I am just in receipt of your letter of the 1 6th inst. I have been absent from the city most of the time for six or seven weeks, returning for a couple of days twice during the time. General Sickles wrote me a letter on the subject referred to in yours during these absences. Mails accumulated so that I did not get to his letter until some time after it was written. I then found a second letter from him, on a different subject, and answered both in one letter. I have not heard from him since, but hope my letter was satisfactory. LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. SSI ^^'llen you come North, and visit Long Branch, come directly to my house, ^^'hether I have company or not there will always be a room for you. Of course I mean this as an invitation to you to come to Long Branch notwithstanding the ambiguity of the pre ceding sentence. Yours Truly, U. S. Grant. Letter No. Eighty-seven. This was written when I was in the United States on a leave of absence from my post in Havana. In the con cluding sentence General Grant refers to the fact that I had been ill from the effects of the climate. Long Branch, N J., Aug 27^ / 83. Dear Badeau, — I am just now in receipt of your letter of the 24"" inst. It is the first I had heard of your arrival though I sup posed you were some place in the Catskills. Jesse and family expect to go to the Kaaterskill house to-morrow, his family to remain until he and I return from our trip over the North Pacific railroad. We start on that trip on Thursday next. It is probable that we will go no further than where the two ends are to be united — the last spike driven. In that case we will be back from the 12"" to 14"' of Sept. I am sorry that I cannot see you before starting ; but I presume I will be back before you will want to go to Washington. I would suggest that you write to the Sec. of State a note saying that from your condition owing to your long delay in Havana that you will not go to Washington until after the first frost. Very Truly Yours, U. S. Grant. Letter No. Eighty-eight. The first part of this letter is given in Chapter XXXIX on " Grant and Blaine." The paper spoken of recommended an absolute protection by the Government of American citizens and American in terests in the Island of Cuba. General Grant was strongly 552 GRANT IN PEACE. in favor of my views, but the Administration took a course diametrically opposite to that which I proposed. The result was the Spanish Treaty, which was so universally condemned by the country, and so ignominiously defeated in Congress in 1884. The postscript refers to an article on General Sheridan which I was writing for The Century Magazine, and which I had read to General Grant. Indeed Grant furnished some entirely new and very interesting material for the article. New York, October 25* / 83. Dear Badeau, — I have your letter of yesterday. I write because of your allusion to hearing a rumor that Blaine and I had formed a combination politically. You may deny the statement most peremptorily. I have not seen Blaine to speak to him since a long time before the Convention of / 80. We have had no communication in writing, through other parties nor in any direct or indirect way. The republican party cannot be saved, if it is to be saved at all, by tricks and combinations of politicians. I read yesterday a circumstantial account of Blaine & I spending a week or two together recently when without doubt we had fixed up matters for / 84, Blaine to be President and I Senator from this state. The republican party to be saved must have a decisive declared policy. It has now no observable policy except to peddle out patronage to soreheads in order to bring them back into the fold, and avoid any positive declaration upon all leading questions. I hope you may be able to get your paper before the President and Secretary of State and that they may be induced to take strong and declared grounds on the subject it treats of. We are all well. Yours Truly, U. S. Grant. P. S. Sheridan may be in Washington when you receive the proof-sheets of your article. If so get him to revise for you all of it preceding his appointment as ColoneL U. S. G. LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 553 Letter No. Eighty-nine. I had wanted to use some money unexpectedly just before returning to my post, and had borrowed it from General- Grant. The draft spoken of was in repayment. Grant had been requested to make a speech at the annual 'meeting of the Army of the Tennessee, and asked me to prepare him a summary of its history, which I had forwarded. He had promised to pay me a visit with Mrs. Grant at Havana, but the circumstances he relates prevented me from receiving this great pleasure. I had anticipated important results from his study of the situation in Cuba, with such lights as my official position and knowledge would have enabled me to render, and the change in his plans was a great disappoint ment to me. New York City, Dec. 24^ 1883. Dear General, — I am in receipt — and have been several days — of your letter inclosing draft for J600.00. I also received your sketch of the battles in which the Army of the Tennessee participated. I am much obliged to you for it. If I conclude to write an address for the meeting of the Society next year, of the nature I spoke of, it will aid me greatly. In my indolence I may postpone the consideration of the subject until too late, and may then be compelled to say what I do say, extemporane ously. But even in this case I would have the memorandum to refer to. I am afraid now that I will be deprived of the visit I had promised myself this winter. You know we have a good corps of servants, carriages and three teams of horses and we do not like to leave the house and all these things to run themselves. We had expected Fred and his family to come and enjoy these things. But he says now that he cannot leave his own luxuries of the same sort. Unless Jesse will move into our house we will have to stay and watch them. There is nothing new here since you left. It is now understood that there is no concealment of Arthur's candidacy. At this time no other person looms up so that unless there is a change within 554 GRANT IN PEACE. the next sixty days he will be renominated without much opposi tion. I feel however that he will not get the nomination although it is impossible to predict who may. — My family are all well and doing well. Very Truly Yours, • U. S. Grant. Letter No. Ninety. On Christmas Day the news of General Grant's fall on the ice the night before was telegraphed to Havana, and I at once inquired the extent of his injuries, and received the' following reply : New York, Dec. 27, 1883. A. Badeau, Arnerican Consul-General, Havana, Cuba : Painful but not dangerous. U. S. Grant. Letter No. Ninety-one. There was some talk of the physicians sending General Grant as far south as Havana, when he should be sufficiently recovered from the effects of his fall, and I wrote at once to renew my invitation that he would come as my guest. In December the editors of The Century Magazine had written to me, asking if I could not induce General Grant to prepare, "either with or without my assistance," one or two military papers for their magazine. I laid the matter before him and the last sentence in this letter was his reply : New York City, Jan'y 21, '84. Dear General Badeau, — I have your several letters, aU received on due time, but as I have to dictate, I will not now undertake to answer them. I am still a great sufferer, confined to my room and have not had my clothes on since Christmas Eve, when I received my injury. It is barely possible that Mrs. Grant and I may get down to Bermuda and Havana this winter, ff I should recover sufficiently to travel in time to make our visit. I LETTERS OF GEN. GR.\NT TO GEN. BADEAU. 555 will say, however, that I have no idea of undertaking the task of writing any of the articles the Century requests. With kind regards of the family. Very truly yours, U. S. Grant. Per F. F. Wood. Letter No. Ninety-two. Mr. George Jones, the proprietor of The New York Times, was passing a part of the winter in Cuba, and gave a report of General Grant's condffion that made me feel anx ious, and I had written to make particular inquiries. The General's reply shows that Mr. Jones appreciated the injury more exactly than the patient, who was always sanguine — untfl he was struck by that blow, which he seemed to know from the beginning was mortal. United Bank Building, Wall St. & Broadway, New York, Feb'y 27 1884. General A. Badeau, Havana, Cuba. My Dear General, — I am in receipt of your letter of the 2 ist of Feb'y and hasten to write to you to say that Mr. George Jones had entirely overestimated my condition. I think the injury that I received from my fall has been well this last six weeks, but we have had a very horrid winter here, and it has given me what I never had before in my life — the rheumatism, and it has settled in the injured leg, but on the opposite side from the injury, and is very painful and prevents my being able to walk except with crutches, and as yet I have only written one or two notes myself but have simply confined myself to dictating such answers as I have to give to letters. I drive out every good day and have been intending to go South for warmer and drier weather than we have had here, but I put it off from week to week and do not feel sure that I will get away at all. Very truly yours, U. S. Grant. per Frank F. Wood. 556 GRANT IN PEACE. Letter No. Ninety-three. My situation in Havana had become disagreeable and I consulted my friend and former chief as to the course I should take. This dispatch is his acknowledgment of the receipt of my inquiry. New York, Feby 28, 1884. Badeau, U. S. Consul, Havana, Cuba. Dispatch received. Letter by mail. Grant. Letter No. Ninety-four. In March General Grant was so much better that he was able to travel, and was ordered by his physicians to Washing ton and Fortress Monroe. At this time the Government had decided on a course toward Cuba directly the opposite of that which I had advised, and one that seemed to me most disadvantageous to American interests, while it grossly neglected American citizens, who were frequently fined and imprisoned without cause. I had also reported culpable frauds at the Consulate which the State Department failed to investigate; and I became anxious to give up the post. A vacancy occurred in the mission to Russia, and I asked General Grant whether it would be advisable for him to solicit the appointment for me. This letter is his reply. The 3d of June was the date fixed for the assembling of the Presidential Nominating Convention at Chicago. United Bank Building, Wall St. & Broadway, New York, Mch. 3, 1884. My Dear General Badeau, — Your dispatch was duly received and an answer returned saying letter by mail. — Under the circum stances it is impossible for me to comply with your request. In the first place I am sure it would not have benefitted you in the least. The President is now openly a candidate for the nomination in June next, and knows well that I am opposed to it. Besides that, judging from the past I doubt very much whether any appointment will be made until after the action of the Chicago LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 557 Convention in June is known. There are now many vacancies existing, some of which ha\e existed for a year and over, and among them very important offices for which no nominations have yet been sent to the Senate — offices such as judges of United States Courts for the States and Territories, United States Mar shals &c., which must cause great inconvenience to the pubUc service in the States and Territories where these vacancies exist. Further, I would not like to ask a favor from a President whose Administration I have been free to criticise and have no doubt but what my words have been reported to him very much exag gerated. If I had been able to get out I would have tried to see some person or persons who think better of the Administration than I do and ask them verbally to send a note urging your appointment, but repeat I am sure to do no good between this and the 3rd of June. My condition is improving — in fact I believe I am as well as I ever was except the rheumatism has set in in the injured part of my leg, and the weather this mnter has been the worst ever known in New York for the rheumatism. I hope in a day or two to get off. Very Truly Yours, U. S. Grant. per Frank F. Wood. Letter No. Ninety-five. This dispatch was on the same subject as the preceding letter. The nominations for President were to be made in June, and General Grant thought that the action of Mr. Arthur would depend upon the result at Chicago. I did not take Grant's advice, for I knew that if Arthur was nominated he could snap his fingers at me, whfle in advance he might fear disclosure ; but the hidden influences that opposed me were too strong, and my positive assertions of criminality in my own Consulate were ignored. Fort Monroe, Va., March 14, 1884. Badeau, Consul-General, Havana, Cuba. Received your letter referred to. I advise patience until after June Convention. You understand why posffive action need not be effected before tiiat. U. S. Grant. 558 GRANT IN PEACE. Letter No. Ninety-six. My situation had by this time become intolerable, and I had written again to General Grant, telling him that I should be compelled to resign. I had been for years in the habit of consulting him upon many of the most important actions of my life, and I now thought it proper to take his opinion. He was quite right in the view that he took. The Gov ernment, when they found that I opposed them on one point, attacked me in every way ; the suits in the courts which had no possible connection with my dispute with the State Depart ment were pressed in the most offensive manner ; and it took me years to vindicate myself from aspersions and insinua tions which the subordinates of Mr. Arthur thought it policy to fling abroad. Four separate decisions of the courts in my favor have sufficiently proved that the power of the United Government can be maliciously and wickedly used to injure a public servant who refuses to submit to wrong or counte nance corruption. But General Grant was right in what he said ; my matters before the courts would have been better served by quiet ; that is, I should have had proper and fair decisions without the trouble and expense and delay of the law, had I been satisfied to submit in silence to indignity and injustice in other affairs. Washington, D. C, Apl. 8'^ 1884. Dear Badeau, — I have now been here three weeks. We go back to New York on Saturday next. I am still on crutches, and will probably be on them, for a month or two yet. I have had but one opportunity to talk to the Sec. of State and then did not bring up your matter because the Sec. had said to me on the street that he wanted to come over and see me and have a talk. This was when I first arrived. I saw him at the State Dept. a day or two after, but there was a clerk in the office and the Asst. Sec. came in frequently. I will try to have a conversation before my departure. Of course I could not ask anything from the President LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 550 having taken decided grounds against his nomination. Then too it looks as though the appointing power was being worked for all it is worth to name delegates to Chicago. I am satisfied that the vacant foreign missions will not be filled until after the Chicago convention. In my telegram to you I scarcely knew what to say in the limit of a dispatch. The idea I wanted to convey was that I thought it better that you should have no rupture with the department unless you wanted to leave the service. You have matters pend ing before the Court of Claims that probably would be better served by quiet. The administration has seemed to me to be a sort of ad interim one endeavoring to offend no one, and to avoid positive action which would draw criticism. Probably the Admin istration has fewer enemies — -outspoken ones — than any pre ceding it. It has fewer positive hearty friends than any except Hayes possibly. But Arthur will probably go into the convention second in the number of supporters when he would not probably have a single vote if it was not for his army of officials, and the vacancies he has to fill. Very Truly Yours,U. S. Grant. Letter No. Ninety-seven. In April I resigned my position at Havana, and of course immediately on my return to New York I saw General Grant. Only a few days later occurred the failure of " Grant and Ward." During the winter the editors of The Century Magazine had requested me to write an article on Grant's personal characteristics so far as they affected his public career. When I consulted them in regard to this paper, they renewed their endeavors to procure a contribution from himself. I was living out of town at the time and he wrote me this note in reply to the message of the editors. 3 East 66** Street, June 4'" / 84. Dear General, — I do not feel now as though I could under take the articles asked for by the Century. Possibly when I get 56o GRANT IN PEACE. to the country I may feel differently. But I would not have the Editors of the Magazine delay on such an uncertainty. When you come to the city we will always be glad to see you. Very Truly Yours, U. S. Grant. Gen. A. Badeau. Letter No. Ninety-eight. In June General Grant finally began the preparation of an article on the battle of Shiloh, and showed it to me. We worked it over together, and when it was, as he thought, com plete, he sent it to the editors ; after which he wrote to me as follows : Long Branch, N. J., July 3* / 84. Dear Badeau, — Yesterday I received a letter from the Editor of the Century expressing himself much pleased with my article on Shiloh, but expressing the hope that when the proof came to me I would put in some of the incidents of the second days fight. My recollection is that M'Cook's division was not under fire at Shiloh at all. I am not sure about Crittenden's. Did Buell have any of his army with him the second day except Nelson's division. I commenced on the Vicksburg campaign to-day and have made considerable progress so far as pages covered. But I have not gone far from my base. I do not think I will be able to get through the Wilderness before you go to the Mountains. But I will take Vicksburg and will be glad to see you here. In fact I do not want to submit my article until you have approved it. Yours Truly, U. S. Grant. Letter No. Ninety-nine. Grant's literary labors continued and he constantly desired my assistance, which of course it was a great pleasure to me to render. I visited him repeatedly at Long Branch, and spent many days revising the papers he had written and discussing the future ones in advance. LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 561 On the day when the State Department sent me several of its most hostile dispatches to Cuba, one of the Comptrollers of the Treasury decided adversely to me a matter that con cerned my London accounts ; and the Secretary of the Treas ury, Mr. Folger, refused to overrule him, though I was in formed privately by one of his important subordinates that Folger held my contention to be right, in law. It is to this that General Grant's postscript refers. I may be permitted to add that the United States courts have three times decided this point in my favor. Long Branch, N. J., July 9^/84. Dear Badeau, — I have your letter of the 7"". I write a little dafly on the Vicksburg campaign. Probably will have the draft completed by this day week. I may not commence the Wilder ness article for some time after, so when you want to run down, or rather when your article is ready — after next Wednesday — I will be ready with Vicksburg and will be glad to see you. My family are all well and join in kindest regards to you. Very Truly Yours, U. S. Grant. P. S. I am glad to hear that the Sec. of the Treasury is with you in your controversy with the Comptroller. U. S. G. Letter No. One Hundred. This letter tells its own story. I have nothing to add except that I went promptly at the call of my old commander, ready and happy to be of service to him. I was busy at the mountains preparing my own article on his character, and whether with him or absent, still engaged in his behalf. Long Branch, N. J., July 21", 1884. Dear Badeau, — I have worked on Vicksburg every day since you left here, from two to five hours each day. It will be finished, ready for revision, to-morrow. If you feel like a change 3<5 562 GRANT IN PEACE. of Mountain to sea air for a while I will be glad to see you. If you are not through your article you can finish it here. Very Truly Yours, U. S. Grant. Letter No. One Hundred and One. When I went to General Grant's house after this invita tion he informed me that he wanted to write his " Memoirs," and particularly desired my assistance. Indeed, he said he should not think of attempting the work unless with my aid — and concurrence; for he had always promised that my history should take the place of all he would have to say on the subject. He accordingly made me a formal proposition which he requested me to keep entirely secret between him and me, not divulging it even to his family ; and I accepted his terms. I stayed ten days at his house, planning the entire work with him, revising once more what he had written about Vicksburg and Shiloh, and mapping out what was yet to be done with the articles on Chattanooga and the Wilder ness for The Century Magazine. Long Branch, N. J., July 26^ 1884. Dear Badeau, — If you can come down after next Wednes day I will be glad to see you for at least a week. I have finished Vicksburg, but have not read it over yet. Shiloh was brought back to me by the editor with some suggestions. I have added enough to make a page or two of the Century, and I think improved it. The latter part of the Vicksburg paper I think better than the first, but all wanting improvement. I mention after Wednesday next for your coming because, on that day, Nellie sails for Europe. Monday, and till she leaves here, everybody wfll be busy with her packing. I have written you one letter since you went to Tannersvflle. Yours Very Truly, U. S. Grant. LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 55, Letter No. One Hundred and Two. I had asked General Grant for the name of a wine mer chant, for a friend, and he sent me this reply. The remainder of the note teUs its own story. He was already contemplating the " Memoir." August 26* 1884. Dear Badeau, — I am just in receipt of your letter of the 23^^. I do not remember the name or the address of the Agent for the sale of the Calffornia Champaign. I have however written to Mr. Frank \\'ood, 2 Wall St. to send it to you. You will prob ably get his letter about as soon as you do this. I gave him your address. The name of the wine is Eclipse, Extra. I will be very glad to see you when we get to our house in town. I shall hope to have "The \'\'ilderness," " Chattanooga," and possi bly the biographical part of my book ready by that time. I do not expect to be in the city, to stop, before the last of September. Fred has not gone west yet, and may not go. Yours Truly, U. S. Grant. Letter No. One Hundred and Three. I had made some suggestions in regard to the publication of his work, in which, as I have intimated, I was to have a pecuniary interest; and this letter is his reply: Sept 13"', 1884. Dear Badeau, — I have your letter of the 9** instant. There wfll be time enough to make the arrangements for publication when my book is completed. Rosswefl Smith has been here to see. There will be no difficulty about the publication at any time ff they are to be the publishers. My own opinion is that they would be the best publishers. But I wfll make no committal until about the time for publication. I find that firm has emancipated itseff from the "General Agency" for the sale of books and procuring advertisements which enables them to sell books and advertise much cheaper than firms using " The Agency," and stfll receive the same themselves that others do. The agency demands 564 GRANT IN PEACE. fifty-five per cent, for their services. It cost the Century * * * using their own agency. I have just finished Chattanooga. I shall go on to complete my work up to where the Wilderness Campaign begins, and then go back to the beginning. When we get to Washington [of course this should be New York] I shall have a room for you where you will always be wel come, and I shall be specially glad to have you, as soon as we are settled, to go over with me the remaining articles for the Century. We will spend a week or ten days with Buck before we settle down in the city. Very Truly Yours, U. S. Grant. Letter No. One Hundred and Four. The arrangements at General Grant's house, which he de scribes in this letter, were all carried out. The " smaU room at the head of the stairs " was that in which he wrote the greater part of his Personal Memoir. The articles for The Century were re-made there, and all the biographical part of the first volume, the story of the Mexican war, the l^egin- ning of his military career, indeed, all of the work down to the Wilderness Campaign, and even the first draft of that — all were written and revised in that room, with me sitting by his side. I was, however, not ready at that time to go to him. I was writing a book myself, intended to show the circumstances and tell the story of my Havana career; and this I was extremely anxious should appear during Arthur's Presidency; first, because it was more manly to attack the Administration while it was in power, and next, because when Arthur went out of office the interest of the theme would be greatly lessened. So I wrote to General Grant that I preferred to remain where I was, in the mountains, a few weeks longer, till I could complete my own book. This was his reply. LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 565 New York City, Oct. 2"", 1884. Dear Badeau, — We are at home now, and settled, and will be glad to see you on Monday next, or any day thereafter that may suit your convenience best. I finished the Wilderness Campaign about a week before leaving Long Branch and have done nothing , since. I propose however going to work next Monday, and to continue busily until I am done. As I told you in a previous letter there will be a room for you all the time you want to spend with us. There is room also for you to work on your own book. I have taken the front room, — the small one — at the head of the stairs for my work, and converted the boudoir into a bed room. Where I now am there is a table to write upon, and a large desk. Very Truly Yours, U. S. Grant. Letter No. One Hundred and Five. General Grant still pressed me to go to him promptly, and after the receipt of this letter, in which he seemed so urgent, I gave up the completion of my own work and went to his house where I remained until the first week in May ; during the greater part of his literary labor, and of his illness. He had arrived at the close of the Wilderness Campaign when he stopped work in March, never expecting to resume it ; but I continued revising it, by his desire, for sometime afterward. In May I ceased my connection with his book. This is the last letter in his own hand that General Grant ever wrote to me : Oct. Sth, 1884. Dear Badeau, — Your letter just received. The articles I have to examine were completed about the lo* of Sept. Of course it will not hurt to let them rest two weeks longer. But I wfll be glad to see you when you are ready to come. You had better bring your [own work] with you too when you do come. There will be room for you and me both in my room. If there is not a table can be put up in your bed-room. Yours Truly, U. S. Grant. CHAPTER LL MISCELLANEOUS CORRESPONDENCE, No. One. GENERAL GRANT TO PRESIDENT JOHNSON. THIS letter of course was written during the period of Johnson's dispute with Congress. As the subsequent correspondence shows, it was withdrawn, but it is evidence of Grant's strong feehng on the subject of the removal of Sheridan. Headquarters Armies of the United States. Washington, Aug. 26, 1867. To His Excellency, A. Johnson, President of the United States : Sir, — I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the fol lowing letter, to wit : " Executive Mansion, Washington, D. C, Aug. 26, 1867. Sir, — In consequence of the unfavorable condition of the health of Major-General George H. Thomas, as reported to you in Surgeon Hasson's dispatch of the 21st instant, my order dated August 17, 1867, is hereby modified so as to assign Major-General Winfield S. Hancock to the command of the Fifth Military District, created by the Act of Congress passed March 2, 1867, and of the Military Department comprising the States of Louisiana and Texas. On being relieved from the command of the Department of the Missouri by Major-General P. H. Sheridan, Major-General Han- (566) miscellaneous CORRESPONDENCE. 567 cock will proceed directly to New Orleans, Louisiana, and assum ing the command to which he is hereby assigned will, when neces sary- to a faithful execution of the laws, exercise any and all powers conferred by Acts of Congress upon District Commanders, and any and all authority pertaining to officers in command of Military Departments. Major-General P. H. Sheridan will at once turn over his present command to the officer next in rank to himself, and proceeding without delay to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, will relieve Major- General Hancock of the command of the Department of the Missouri. Major-General George H. Thomas will, until further orders, remain in command of the Department of the Cumberland. Very respectfully yours, , Andrew Johnson. Gen'l U. S. Grant, Secretary of War, ad interim." To it I have the honor to submit the following reply : Gen eral Thomas has not yet acknowledged the receipt of the order assigning him to the command of the 5th Military District. My recommendation to have the order assigning him to that command suspended was based principally on the fact that the yellow fever has become epidemic, and some time since orders were issued, at the suggestion of General Sheridan, authorizing all officers then absent from the 5th Military District, on application to the Adju tant General of the Army, to remain absent until the 15th of Oc tober. A copy of the dispatch on which this order, or circular, was based, and the circular itself, were forwarded with my recom mendation for the suspension of General Thomas' order. Before substituting General Hancock or any one else for General Thomas to command the 5th Military District, his objections, ff he makes any, should be heard, or else the order for the change should be based on other grounds. Unless there are very grave public rea sons, no officer should be sent to Louisiana now. Your letter quoted above will leave the 5 th Military District without a commander of the rank required by law during the period necessary to effect the contemplated change of commanders. In 568 GRANT IN PEACE. fact, it orders General Sheridan to turn over his command to an officer absolutely incompetent by law to fill it. I assume that you will change this part of your instructions so as to admit of General Sheridan remaining where he now is until relieved by an officer of the requisite rank. The Act of Congress of July 19, 1867, throws much of the re sponsibility of executing faithfully the reconstruction laws of Con gress on the General of the Army. I am bound by the responsi bility thus imposed on me. I approve all General Sheridan's orders to this date, and therefore must insist on instructing his successor to carry out those orders so far as I am authorized to do so by Acts of Congress. Having the responsibility placed on me that I have in regard to the execution of the laws of Congress in the districts composing the States not represented in Congress, I claim that I ought to be consulted as to the agents who are to aid me in this duty. But the right existing with the President to name District Commanders, I cannot decline to publish the order so far as it affects change of commanders. I do protest, however, against the details of the order ; I do more : I emphatically decline yielding any of the powers given the General of the Army by the laws of Congress. In the present changes the country sees but one object, no matter whether it interprets the objects of the Executive rightly or not. The object seen is the defeat of the laws of Congress for restoring peace, union, and representation to the ten States now not represented. This course affects the peace of the whole coun try. North and South, and the finances of the country, unfavorably. The South is the most affected by it, and through the South the whole country feels the agitation which is kept up. It is patent to every one that opposition to Congress has induced the measures which now stand on the statute books as the laws of the land, and has induced the loyal people of this country to sustain those meas ures. Will not further opposition necessarily result in more strin gent measures against the South ? The people had come to look upon the reconstruction policy of the country as settled, whether it pleased them or not. They acquiesced in it, and at least the great mass of people, irrespective of political creed, desired to see miscellaneous CORRESPONDENCE. 560 it executed and the country restored to quiet, ready to meet the great financial issue before us. I would not venture to write as I do if I was not greatly in earnest; ff I did not see great dangers to the quiet and prosperity of the country in the course being pursued. I have the honor to be. Very respectfully. Your obedient servant, U. S. Grant, Sec. of War, Ad int. No. Two. general grant to president johnson. Headquarters Armies of the United States, Washington, D. C, Aug. 28, 1867. His Excellency, A. Johnson, President of the United States : Sir, — I have the honor very respectfully to request permission to withdraw my letter of the 26th inst. Very Respectfully, Your Obt. Servt, U. S. Grant, Sedy of War, Ad Int. No. Three. president johnson to general grant. Executive Mansion, Washington, D. C, Aug. 28, 1867. Sir, — I have received your communication of this date, and in compliance with your request, return herewith your letter of the 26th instant. Very Respectfully, and Truly Yours, Andrew Johnson. General U. S. Grant, Secretary of War, ad interim. S70 GRANT IN PEACE. No. Four. EDWIN BOOTH TO GENERAL GRANT. This is the letter referred to in Chapter XIII, on "Grant in the Cabinet." Barnum's Hotel, Baltimore, Sept. nth, 1867. Genl. U. S. Grant, Sir, — Having once received a promise from Mr. Stanton that the family of John Wilkes Booth should be permitted to obtain the body when sufficient time had elapsed, I yielded to the entreaties of my mother and applied for it to the " Secretary of War " — I fear too soon, for the letter was unheeded — if, indeed, it ever reached him. I now appeal to you on behalf of my heartbroken mother — that she may receive the remains of her son. You, sir, can understand what a consolation it would be to an aged parent to have the privilege of visiting the grave of her child, and I feel assured that you will, even in the midst of your most pressing duties, feel a touch of sympathy for her, one of the greatest sufferers living. May I not hope, too, that you will listen to our entreaties and send me some encouragement — some information as to how and when the remains may be obtained ? By so doing you will receive the gratitude of a most unhappy family, and will — I am sure — be justified by all right thinking minds should the matter ever become known to others than ourselves. I shall remain in Baltimore two weeks from the date of this letter — during which time I could send a trustworthy person to bring hither and privately bury the remains in the family grounds, thus relieving my poor mother of much misery. Apologizing for my intrusion, and anxiously awaiting a reply to this, I am Sir, with great respect, Yr. obt. sevt., Edwin Booth. MISCELLANEOUS CORRESPONDENCE. 571 No. Five. GENERAL GRANT TO GENERAL GARFIELD. This letter was written after Grant's first nomination as President. Garfield was in Congress at the time, and the communication referred to a previous recommendation of the General-in-Chief. The address and signature were not preserved in the pen ciled copy taken at the time by one of the aides-de-camp of Grant, and transferred to me. The letter was endorsed : " Gen. Grant to Gen. Garfield, June 19, 1868. About increase of Army pay." " In recommending a continuance of the same increase to the pay of officers of the army given for the fiscal year just ending, I did it on mature deflberation and under the firm conviction that it is necessary to their decent support. The pay of the army is now what it was at the breaking out of the Rebellion within a few dol lars, and which is offset by the income tax, whilst the cost of living has increased in a proportion familiar to every one. " P. S. The pay of all, or nearly all, who are employed by the Gov't, except army officers, has been increased in the last seven years." No. Six. GENERAL GRANT TO MR. BLEST-GANA, Chilian Minister to the United States. Mr. Blest-Gana had been the Chilian Minister at Wash ington nearly a year when Grant was elected President, and he wrote at once to offer his congratulations. I have elsewhere told of the respect Grant always showed for the representa tives of the various American republics, and the more than amicable relations he strove to maintain with them all, both in their personal and official capacities. Washington, D. C, Nov. 27th, 1868. Sr. D. A. Blest-Gana, Minister, etc. Dear Sir, — Your esteemed congratulatory letter is rec'd. Please accept my thanks for the kind expressions it contains both 572 GRANT IN PEACE. towards me personally and to the government of the United States. The tendency of the world at this time seems to be towards free government. May it go on until all are as free as we are, and as prosperous. I hope the day is not far distant when Republican Governments, especially those on this continent, will be in such sympathy with each other as to be a mutual support, and be an to all others. Please present my kind regards to Madame Blest, and accept the assurance of my esteem. Yours Truly, U. S. Grant. No. Seven. GENERAL BADEAU TO SENOR SARMIENTO, President of the Argentine Republic. The following letter was written by the direction of General Grant, then President-elect, who did not, however, desire to make himself the recommendation which the corres pondence suggests. Sarmiento had been Minister of the Argentine Republic to the United States, and in that capacity had made the acquaintance of Grant. I also had known him as Minister, on terms which made the form of this communi cation not inappropriate. Headquarters Army of the United States, Washington, D. C, Nov. 29, 1868. His Excellency SeSor Don D. F. Sarmiento, President of the Argentine Republic: My Dear Sir, — I have lately read in the newspapers that the Argentine Republic proposes offering the command of its armies to one of the successful generals of the United States in the recent war. It would of course be impertinent in me to make any sug gestion in a matter of so much importance ; but if there should be any foundation for the report alluded to, I am sure you will be glad to know the opinions of General Grant. I have several times heard him say that he hoped in case such a plan should be carried out, that the Argentine Republic would secure the services of a MISCELLANEOUS CORRESPONDENCE. 573 soldier of real talent and not any of the adventurers who would be most likely to be pressed upon its attention. If there should be any probability like that I mention, the advice of some very prominent American soldier would doubtless assist materially in furthering the objects of the Argentine Republic. Trusting that this note may not be deemed officious, and making my warmest congratulations, my dear Sir and President, upon your accession to the chief magistracy of your country, I am, with the best wishes for the success of your administration and the prosperity of your people. Your obedient servant, Adam Badeau, Brvt. Brig.- Gen. and A.D. C. to General Grant. No. Eight. GENERAL BADEAU TO MR. BURLINGAME, Chinese Minister, etc., etc. This letter, like its predecessor in this series, was written by the direction of General Grant, then President-elect ; and of course was submitted to him before it was sent. Burlin- game had originally been United States Minister to China, but resigned that post in order to accept a roving but import ant commission, that of Chinese Minister both to this country and to the prominent European Governments. It was his object to establish more intimate relations between the Chinese and the Western powers, and had he lived he might have initiated a policy of importance to the world and of especial advantage to this country. He visited first the Umted States, and then England, France, Prussia, and Russia, but at St. Petersburg his career was suddenly cut short at its very meridian. His death was a loss to modern civilization. Whfle in this country in 1868, he established relations with General Grant that were unusually cordial. Upon the death of Rawlins he was very desirous to enter Grant's 574 GRANT IN PEACE. Cabinet, and, as I was then returning to America, he com missioned me to say to the President that he would willingly resign his diplomatic position for the sake of a place in the United States Government. But Grant appointed Belknap. Headquarters Army of the United States, Washington, D. C, Dec. 28, 1868. Hon. Anson Burlingame, Chinese Minister, &^c., &^c. My Dear Sir, — General Grant directs me to write to you and say that Dr. Wm. Martin, Professor of International Law in the Imperial College of China, has inquired of him whether Brevet Major-General Emory Upton, an officer of the American army, would be a suitable person to instruct the Chinese army in our tactics. General Grant has recommended General Upton very warmly and highly, and desires me to write to you on the matter. General Upton is the author of the system of tactics now in use in our army ; he is a young man, not more than thirty years old, who made a distinguished reputation for ability and energy during the late war ; and General Grant, though he would willingly recom mend other young officers of equal merit and distinction, would give higher recommendations to none than to him, and sees a peculiar fitness in him for this peculiar position. He also is favorably impressed with the plan in itself, and trusts that you may find equal advantages apparent to yourseff with those which he perceives, both for China and America. I avail myself of this opportunity to say how closely your countrymen have watched your career in England, and how much admiration has been extorted by the sagacity and skill with which you have met and overcome peculiar obstacles. With great respect and regard, My dear Sir, I am Yours very sincerely, Adam Badeau, Bfvt. Brig.-Gen'l, and A.D. C. MISCELLANEOUS CORRESPONDENCE. 575 No. Nine. GENERAL GRANT TO GENERAL BUELL. This letter is its own explanation. Headquarters Armies of the United States, Washington, D. C, Dec. 29th, 1865. General,— Your letter of the 27th inst., calling my attention to a letter which you wrote me in August last, is received. The letter referred to reached my office in my absence from the city, and was placed in a private desk and never came to my attention until it was handed to me by a staff-officer on the cars whilst on my way to New York city early in November last. I put the letter in my pocket expecting to answer it while in New York. Not finding time there, however, the letter remained pocketed and has either been mislaid or lost. I will answer the letter from memory, as far as possible. I have no recollection of any conversation in Springfield, Mass., or elsewhere during last summer, in which your name was men tioned. I am often questioned, however, about this officer and that one and in such cases endeavor not to do them injustice. Conversations are rarely quoted correctly and in the case referred to by you I know could not have been, for I am made to say things which I never believed. For instance in regard to your want of ability to command in the presence of an enemy or in battle. I have always thought, and frequently expressed the opinion that in that precise case you would do as well as almost any General that could be selected. I did receive a telegraphic dispatch from Gen. Halleck, dated more than two weeks before the attack at Pittsburgh Landing, Tenn., from which or from the courier bringing it I gathered the idea saying that you were within four days' march of Savannah, and would be up in that time. That dispatch was telegraphed to your care, if I remember rightly, and sent by you to me by courier. At all events, the dispatch came by way of Nashville to the Army commanded by you and thence to me by courier. This fact I may have mentioned and drawn the conclusion that if you had been up in the time men tioned or double the time, that instead of being attacked I would have taken the initiative. On the subject of your heart never 576 GRANT IN PEACE. having been in the cause I must certainly have been entirely mis understood. I supposed you to be as earnest at the beginning of the war, and whilst in command, as any other officer engaged in it in the maintenance of the Government. Your own letters pub lished since have rather given the idea that you wanted the Union saved in a particular way, and that way different from the one which was being pursued. I drew such a conclusion from them and state so frankly, although I have no recollection of ever having mentioned the fact in such a way as to have my opinion get into print. But ff I did, what I may have said was based upon your own writing, or what purported to be, and which the whole com munity had access to. I do not remember any of the other points alluded to in the newspaper article which you sent. I have in the course of the war been the subject of very severe newspaper criticisms, and never appealed to the press for vindica tion and now very much dislike to be called on to deny or affirm the statements of some irresponsible reporter without the slightest idea of who he is. But I shall always be much more ready to correct an injustice done another than if I were the injured party. Very Respectfully, U. S. Grant. No. Ten. GENERAL GRANT TO MR. RANGABE. Greek Minister to the United States. Mr. Rangab6 had been Greek Minister to the United States in 1867, and then made the acquaintance of General Grant, who esteemed him highly. In 1868 he returned to his own country to take an important post in the Government, but did not relinquish his appointment to the United States ; his son remaining in Washington as acting Charg6 d' Affaires. Upon the election of General Grant to the Presidency the elder Rangab6 sent his congratulations from Athens, and they were presented by his son. The following letter is the acknowledgment of Grant. MISCELLANEOUS CORRESPONDENCE. 577 Headquarters Army of the United States, Washington, D. C, Feb'y 15, 1869. My Dear Sir, — Your esteemed and flattering congratulatory letter of the 20th of January, accompanied by an equally compli mentary note from your son, is received. I sincerely hope that my country may continue to deserve the high stand among the nations of the earth which you ascribe to it, and be regarded as the friend of those struggling for freedom and self-government, the world over. For myseff I can only strive to deserve the confidence which so great a nation has bestowed on me. Thanking you for the kind expressions contained in your letter, and hoping for your nation, and for you individually, the greatest prosperity, I subscribe myself. Very Truly and Respectfully, Your Obedient Servant, U. S. Grant. His Excellency, M. a. R. Rangabe, E. E. and M. Plenipotentiary, of His Majesty, the King of the Greeks. No. Eleven. CHARLES SUMNER TO GENERAL BADEAU.' This letter was written while Motley was Minister at Lon don and I was Assistant-Secretary of Legation. It is inter esting for the defense of Sumner's famous speech which it contains, and which he desired I should render to his English friends. For Sumner was always anxious about the effect of his rhetoric, although the anxiety never induced him to restrain its violence. He was somewhat hysterical, even womanish in his temperament, as men of his type of genius often are. He suffered and enjoyed acutely. An orator, a student, a lover of pictures and books and society, he was confident in the graces and charms of his person and behavior, and both were distinguished. His face and form were fuU of noble, 37 578 GRANT IN PEACE. manly beauty, and his manner was attractive and sometimes irresistible. In the latter part of his life he was used to the adulation of a select circle which wafted incense to him as worshipers do to a demi-god, and he snuffed it up eagerly. I have seen clever women — women with names that are known in literature and society, literally sitting at his feet and waiting to catch every syllable that dropped from his lips — lips full of elegant and sometimes eloquent language, in conversation as well as public speech. He had a certain flow of not very original ideas and images, an impassioned, though somewhat stilted manner and utterance, and a rhetorical arrangement of expression that captivated many and deceived himself as well as others into the belief that his oratory was of a higher order than was really the case. It smelt too much of the lamp. His history also excited an interest that was adventitious. He had been ostracized in Boston society, and for a long time in Washington as well, because of his anti-slavery sentiment, and to the last there were many who refused to receive or invite him — even after his marriage. But the dastardly attack of Brooks evoked a general sympathy which the con tinued suffering of the victim kept alive. Then when the war broke out and the opinions that Sumner had advocated became triumphant he was naturally looked upon as a leader. But he was never fitted for more than oratory. He was no statesman, no practical man in affairs, and as opposite as possible in quality and character to Grant. Neither indeed could fully understand or appreciate the other, although each had originally respected the achievements or acquirements that were so unlike his own. But when the egotism of Sum ner came in contact with the stubbornness of Grant the result was inevitable. Sumner used all the arts of the rhetorician in his attacks on Grant ; he was unfair, iUogical, and untrue; and Grant resented the injustice, and punished it relentlessly. It was a pity that men who had both done miscellaneous CORRESPONDENCE. 570 honor to the State at the critical hour of ffs existence should afterward have been thrown into such antagonism ; but their strife was so bitter and their passions became so aroused that the excellence of each was obscured to the other's view ; and neither at last could admit or perceive the merit of him with whom he contended. Nevertheless of the two, the man of deeds did far more justice to his antagonist than the man of words ; and naturally the man of action conquered. Boston, 26th July, '69. My Dear General, — I am obliged by your good letter, but I have for some time doubted if it were advisable at least for me to try any longer against the spawn of misrepresentation in England. My o\vn system is so essentially pacific, I am so near a Quaker in my convictions, and I have such ties with England even now that I cannot aflow personal indignities to sway me in an important public duty. Whatever may be said there, I shall hope to keep the peace. But I confess that this recent outburst of dishonest attack, when nobody has read the speech, followed by falsehood and abuse of every line, with the bad temper, haughty tone, and brutal insolence, which seemed almost universal, has disheartened me. How, then, can the question be settled peacefully ! I am the most pacific advocate on our side. Others who take it up, will touch a different cord. Already many look to war. B. F. B. told me recently that it must come, as the people never would give back, and everybody is profoundly convinced that England is equitably liable for several years of our war with its deaths and taxation. George Bemis writes me from Europe that he is disheartened, for he does not see any solution except that of war. I do ; and I am not afraid of war, ff our Administration will make England see and understand our case. This is no time to disown an authoritative statement, made under peculiar circumstances and adopted, as speech never was before, as the voice of the Senate and of the country. If we give back there are others who will take our places, who will not give back. It is our duty to conduct this debate closely, and make England know the 5 So GRANT IN PEACE. wrong we have received and the convictions of our people. When this is done, we can take up the question of remedy more or less ; but first the grievance must be stated in length and breadth. If I reply to your inquiries, it is because I would not seem in different to your desires. You can report whether I represented the Senate and the country, — and the President too. I think you can say that never was any doubt of it. This point is stated well in Senator Anthony's article, and also in Mr. P. W. Chandler's, in the Adver tiser, both of whom belonging to the most moderate school, insist that the country agrees with me. Of course you know that the phrase "abject apology," and nothing like it can be found in the speech. I never had the idea. But my speech makes no demand, whether apology or money ; not a word of apology, not a cent of money. It shows that we have suffered incalculable damages for which we have never received compensation or acknowledgment, and refers to other cases where money was paid with an apology. But I ask nothing. It is humiliating to be obliged to write such a commentary on myself. The members of the Liberal party who criticise my silence on their services, have never read my speech, or like Forster, have for gotten it, so that they attribute to me what was not in it, or require in it what it could not properly contain. The treaty under consideration was not with the Liberal party, but with England, corporate England — represented by the Government. It was the acts of the Government that I called in question, and I did not step aside to censure Tories or to praise Liberals, not even those working-men, or Mr. Bright, who deserve so much and have always had my heart. Forster made this unworthy criticism at the same time he said that I complained of the " upper classes," and then another taking up the statement of Forster, said that my in dictment was against "Belgravia," — when I indicted nobody but the British Government. Had the speech been read generally such absurdities could not have found a market. The honest sense of John Bull would have been indignant at the misrepresentation. Mr. Motley knows, you know, everybody who knows the least of me, how my soul has clung to John Bright for years and how it has throbbed in unison with him. To him and partners I give MISCELLANEOUS CORRESPONDENCE. cgi honor and praise perpetually. Little did I think, when without any seeking, I found inj'seff obliged to state the case of my country, that any English Liberal would complain, because I did not embody praise of some of his friends. The case was too grave, and I was too serious. I had a duty, which was to explain the occasion of our profound sense of wrong and this I did gently and simply. I would ask any Englishman how he would state the American case more gently or simply, with less of unkindness or menace. The harshness is in the case, not in me. If English men would not put off upon me, as Don Quixote did upon Sancho Panza, the retributive lashes which their conduct justly deserves, we should be much nearer a settlement. As for the recognition of belligerency being " friendly," Mr. Forster leaves the House of Commons, rushes to the Commons Library, takes down Wheaton, and finds it "friendly." By such sciolism was this terrible step determined. The question of bel ligerency is the most difficult of unsolved questions in Interna tional Law. JFhcn Wheaton wrote and died, next to nothing was known on it. No rule had been established ; no rule is established now, unless the English precedent be accepted as a final expres sion of the law. This I think bad for the peace of the world, and for International Law. Talk with Mr. Bemis on the " friendly " character of that concern. He knows its history. I never saw Mr. Seward more like a caged tiger, or more profuse of oaths in every form that the English language supplies than when prancing about the room denouncing the Proclamation of Belligerency, which he swore he would send to hell. To my mind the best point in his whole prolonged service at the State Deptartment was his persistency in holding England responsible for the Proclama tion. I never thought him judicially clear on the question whether the Proclamation alone was ground of damages or the Proclamation with the detriment from the ships and blockade-run ners. The latter has always been my ground. We cannot give up the liability on this account, wffhout weakening our case immeasurably. It is easy to see that the EngHsh desire to limit the case to the Alabama. I embrace all the ships. But negligence perhaps can be shown only in the case of the Alabama. For the other ships 582 GRANT IN PEACE. we rely primarily upon the Proclamation, without which they could not have been built, so that the Proclamation becomes the first link in our case. But I write on — too much, and now stop. I hope you enjoy London. Society there is the best in the world. If I can serve you in any way, command me, and let me know from time to time how the drama appears. Be frank always where it is possible with Englishmen, and let them know our case, so that when it is presented again, they will not treat an honest, well-meant effort with indignity. Ever sincerely yours, Charles Sumner. I hope Mr. Moran is well. I know not what I have written ; but I commit it to your discretion. No. Twelve. VISCOUNT HALIFAX TO GENERAL BADEAU. This letter was written while I was at the Executive Mansion, after my return from England in 1869. Of course I understood that it was intended for the President, and showed it to Grant and the Secretary of State; and Lord Halifax told me afterward that this was what he had expected. The English view of the points at issue was hardly ever better stated, and the paper came with more force because its writer had been in the Government which had arrested the Rams ; while its significance now is increased by the fact that he was also Lord Privy Seal in that which negotiated the Treaty of Washington. He died in 1886, full of years and honors. The article referred to was written by me and published both in England and America. In England, it was signed ; but Lord Halifax had evidently not seen the foreign publi cation. Hickleton, April 22, 1870. Dear General Badeau, — When I wrote to thank you for sending me a number of Harper's Magazine, I had not read the article in it on " Our Relations with England." I do not know whether I am warranted in guessing who the author of the article MISCELLANEOUS CORRESPONDENCE. 583 is, but whoever he may be, e^•erybody who is anxious to promote harmony and good feeling between our two countries must be deeply indebted to him for so valuable a contribution towards fur thering an object so essential to the weffare of both. I confess, however, to bemg somewhat disheartened by the account given in the article of the general prevalence of a state of feeling on your side of the water not very favorable to the restora tion of cordial feeling towards this country, and by which probably the language of )our Government is in some degree influenced. I had thought of ¦\\Titing to you in the autumn in consequence of some expressions as to this country in a note to your book, and I am now the more wishful to do so in consequence of what I have learnt from that article. I have been a good deal occupied since I read it tiU I came down into the countty for our Easter holiday. I ¦write to you from here, ha\'ing some leisure, that I might put be fore so fair and impartial a mind as yours one or two considerations which I venture to think ought to weigh against the feeling indi cated in the article. The two principal matters which are stated to weigh against us in the mind of the citizens of the United States are (i.) The supposed feeling of England in favor of the Confed erate States. (2.) The action of our Government in two instances. I. The early recognition of the belligerent rights of the South. 2. Allowing the Alabama to get out of Liverpool. In the first place, as to the feehng in England. The article truly states that there was a great division of opinion in this country. London Society probably favored the South. The Countrj' generally favored the North. Taking the members of the House of Commons who gave utterance to their opinions, Mr. Gregory and Mr. Roebuck spoke in favor of the South. Mr. Bright and !Mr. Forster in favor of the North. Surely when in the United States there was so large a body on fhe other side, people in this country might, without bringing upon England the hostility of the people of tlie Unffed States, hold dff- ferent opinions as to the parties in the United States. Again, is it not unjust on the part of the people of the United States to find fault -mth. the English people generally, and to complain of Eng lishmen as a whole because some of them entertained views which the successful party in the United States condemned ? The only 584 GRANT IN PEACE. point on which England as a whole might have been expected to agree with the Northerners would have been that the war was against slavery. So some of your statesmen considered it. But that was not the view stated by your Government for some time after the commencement of the war. It was a contest on the part of the North to preserve the Union, and a very legitimate purpose for them to contend for ; but upon such a question Englishmen might be allowed, without offense to the United States, to entertain an opinion on one side or the other, as they might have done some years ago as to the separation of Holland and Belgium. I come now to the action of the Government. I will not enter into the question of what the opinions of indi vidual members of the Government may have been, only observing that I do not think the statement in the article is correct. With out going into that question, the material point is, whether the ac tion of the Government as a Government, was unfair or unfriendly to the North. I say for myself, as a member of that Government, that I never from the first moment entertained a shadow of a doubt as to what it was our duty to do. We were bound to maintain the strictest neutrality, and to avoid anything which could involve us in the contest. Most indisputably that was the view adopted by the Government, as a Government — and I believe that we so acted. I. As to acknowledging the belligerent rights of the South. It is an undisputed principle of International law that a nation cannot blockade its own ports. Blockades can only be established against an Enemy. The question was considered and discussed in this country at great length from 1834 to 1846 or 1847 i" refer ence to a blockade estabUshed by the French of the coast at Port- endis, on the west coast of Africa. We denied the right of the French to blockade a port where they exercised sovereignty ; their answer was that the coast blockaded was subject to the sovereign of Morocco. It was a small matter, and was referred to the king of Prussia; but the principle was admitted. When the report of your blockade was received in this country, application was made by merchants to the Government to know whether they might proceed to the Southern ports, and whether they would be protected if they did so. What answer v/ere we to MISCELLANEOUS CORRESPONDENCE. cg^ give ? If we had answered according to the ^'iew now put forward in the United States of what our conduct should have been, we must have answered that tliere could be no legal impediment to their going. Now, do consider what in afl probability would have happened ff we had given that answer. Many vessels would have gone to the Southern ports. Your officers would, under the orders of your Government, have stopped or seized them. Suppose any EngHsh vessel had resisted, and that your officers had fired into her and caused serious damage or kifled some of her crew. That is no improbable case. What do you think would have been the state of feehng in this country? and what would have been the conduct of the Government? We must have demanded reparation for an injury to our merchants by a breach of International law, and en forced it, if necessary at the risk of war. Can one even now con template such a state of things without the most serious alarm ? The course we did take avoided all risk of such a crisis. We ac knowledged the belligerent rights of the South, and that acknowl edgment enabled us to acquiesce in your blockade, and to give the immediate answer to our merchants that they were entitled to no protection ff they attempted to break the blockade. Surely, so far from our conduct having given any cause of com plaint, it ought to have been accepted as the most convincing proof of our anxiety to avoid -any risk of rupture with the North. The Alabama case is more compflcated, and the result of her operations on the trade of the North has not unnaturally created a strong feeflng in the United States. But the conduct of our Government must be judged on the state of the case when she left Liverpool. Your law and our law on these matters are substantially the same. Most of the recent discussions on questions of International law have been in your Courts, to which we always look as authority, from the high character of your legists and great judges. I have not the means, in the country, of referring to all the particulars of the well known case of the Santissima Trinidad, decided in your courts. Unless, however, my memory fails me, she had been em ployed as a vessel of war, and she left one of your ports fully manned, armed, and equipped for war, proceeded to Buenos Ayres, 586 GRANT IN PEACE. was sold to the Insurgent Government ready armed and manned, and acted at once as a Buenos Ayrean vessel of war. This your courts decided to be, so far as the equipment, man ning, and arming in an United States port and sale of the vessel so equipped is concerned, to be a legitimate commercial transaction. How far short of this are the circumstances of the Alabama ? She was partly fitted for carrying guns, as any merchantman may fairly be ; she was only partly manned when she left Liverpool, apparently for a trial or short trip. It was only after she had got out of English jurisdiction that she was put into that state of full equipment for war in which the Santissima Trinidad actually was, when she left the port of the United States. Evidently anything which would have brought the Alabama within the law was very doubtful. There cannot be better proof of this than that when we seized the Alexandra we were unable to make our case good in a court of law. We subsequently seized the Rams, of whose warlike character there could be no doubt — but the proceeding was so questionable in the opinion of the law yers, that we ultimately bought them in order to avoid going into court. Now, surely it is no just cause of serious complaint that in the first case of the kind with which we had to deal we should have been cautious in taking a step which would in all probability have turned out to be an illegal measure. That is the utmost that can be alleged against what we did. Our illegal seizure of the Alex andra and of the Rams is proof enough that we had no indisposi tion to interpose. Am I unreasonable in thinking that the Gov ernment of one free country might judge less harshly the conduct of the Government of another free country when it hesitates to overstep the boundary of the law. I will not add an unnecessary word to a letter already too long, beyond the assurance of my sincere esteem, and of the pleasure which it would give me if I succeed in showing you how anxious we were to act in such a way as to preserve that attitude of com plete neutrality which it was our duty to maintain. I have not given up all hope of seeing you in England again MISCELLANEOUS CORRESPONDENCE. 587 ere long, and it will gi\-e me great pleasure to renew so agreeable an acquaintance. Believe me. Yours very truly, Major-General Badeau. Halifax. No. Thirteen. GENERAL GRANT TO GENERAL BABCOCK. This letter Babcock forwarded to me because of my interest in its contents. It shows two of Grant's traits which I have elsewhere described ; his carelessness with his papers and his disposition toward leniency in criticising other soldiers. Dear General, — The inclosed chapter of Badeau's book was handed to me just before leaving Chicago. Having a large mail before me at the time, which I was then engaged in reading and answering, I put the chapter and letter in my overcoat pocket and forgot all about it until after coming East, when I was asked by some one " when Badeau's second volume would be out.'' For the first time then since receiving it, it flashed upon my mind that I had rec'd a chapter to review. I was about to write back to Fred. to look and see if he could find the missing paper. Before doing so, however, I made a search of all my pockets and found it as stated. I have written to B, but said nothing about the contents of the chapter under review. In fact wrote my letter before reading it. It is all right except I would like to see Burnside let off a little easier. Yours, U. S. G. No. Fourteen. THE COMTE DE PARIS TO GENERAL BADEAU. This letter was written after I had forwarded the letter of General Grant given in chapter LI, page 498. Chateau d'Eu, Seine Inferieure, May nth, 1878. My Dear General,— I thank you very much for your letter of April 2 ist, and for the most valuable information which you have given me. I had, of course, the greatest doubts about the accuracy of General Pemberton's statement, as it was so much at 588 GRANT IN PEACE. variance with your own account ; but coming from such high authority I could not put it aside without mentioning it to you. I am very grateful to General Grant for the trouble he took to answer himself, and to give such a detailed account of what happened between him and General Pemberton. I regret very much not to be able to go myself to Paris to thank him ; but the Countess de Paris having given birth to a daughter four days ago only, I cannot leave her presently. Believe me, my dear General, Yours Truly, L. P. D. Orleans, ' « Comte de Paris. No. Fifteen. GENERAL GRANT TO J. H. WORK, ESQ. Mr. Work had a copy of my Military History of Grant especially bound for his library, and asked General Grant to write something in it to attest his opinion of its merits ; and this letter is the inscription it contains. New York City, Dec. 22, 1881. J. H. Work, Esq., — This book was revised by me, chapter by chapter, as it was being prepared for the publishers. It was sub mitted for a similar review also to Generals Porter and Babcock, two of the staff colleagues of the author. In addition to this, all those chapters treating of events in which Generals Sherman and Sheridan held detached commands were submitted to those officers. The author had access to the Government and captured and purchased archives. He also read and consulted all that was published on both sides, before and during the time he was writing this book, with the view of getting the truth. So far as I am capable of judging, this is a true history of the events of which it treats. The opinions expressed of men are the author's own, and for which no one else is responsible. Very Truly, U. S. Grant. P. S. General Geo. H. Thomas was dead before the events in which he held detached commands took place, otherwise, those chapters relative to events after March, 1864, in which he took a leading part would have been submitted to him. U. S. G. ¦K 4^ ^i *• CfJ~'^*-r> ^5-. yyz^ cc/'c.'^ _ z-^ — &-^ ^yt^^y^^ — ^~ V «-^' .^cT ^^'"^o-w- • <>-z-, (y,...z~y^ — *- — ¦ ^-^^zz. .z^ ^ -C^*,.^'^'^ .w- ^ *^i — ^ CHAPTER LIL CONCLUSION. WHILE General Grant lay lingering In his final illness one of the greatest wits of this generation called at his house and waited in the next room until he could be re ceived by the sufferer. The visitor was a personal friend as well as an admirer of Grant, and he and I talked of the great revulsion in popular feeling which had occurred — the sym pathy and affection that had revived as soon as the hero was known to be dying. It made me think of Lincoln, revfled and maligned for years, but in one night raised to the rank of a martyr and placed by the side of Washington. "Yes," said the other, with the terrible sententiousness almost of Voltaire : "The men that want to set up a new religion ought always to get themselves crucified." The speaker was anything but heartless, and the utterance was not so irreverent as it seemed. For the Head of our religion Himself was brought nearer to the race He came to save — through suffering, disgrace, and death; and every my thology has been forced to represent its deities in human form before the world could realize their existence. So, Lincoln and Grant, the baboon and the butcher, as they were called by their enemies, will be forever associated in the reverent affec tion of their countrymen — not only as triumphant colleagues, but as brothers in some of the bitterest trials that men can ever endure. Lincoln, however, like Elijah, passed at once, in a chariot of fire, into the haven of historic appreciation, while Grant was reserved for a career in Peace that rivaled his struggles (59°) CONCLUSION. - and successes in War. The applause which his magnanimity at Appomattox extorted from fallen foes died away in the Reconstruction strife, and when he insisted on carrying out the law and the will of those who had conquered, a fiercer animosity was aroused than had existed during the Rebellion. The rancor of his Presidential terms rivaled any that was poured on Lincoln, and the damage done to his reputation by open enemies and pretended friends wounded him all the more acutely because for a while he had been used to popularity. Then came the wonderful tour abroad, and after this his retum to party strife. The aspirations that were crushed at Chicago, the hostflity with Garfield, the slights from Arthur, embittered his final years, and his political sun went down in eclipse ; while the odious story of his business failure flung an additional cloud around his fame. Last of all appeared disease — the result of mental agony. But the self-same hand that struck the soldier to the earth tore away all that had obscured the real Grant from his countrymen. They saw him suffering, struggling with Death, and all the light of his past was reflected on the scene ; his errors were blotted out, his great deeds remained. Partisan and personal hostility alike were hushed, and the world remembered, as posterity will, that his name is indis- solubly connected with the salvation of a country, the eman cipation of a race, and the triumph of the democratic princi ple. It was for him, not only to overthrow the hosts that threatened the existence of the nation, but to reconstruct in peace the fragments that had been shattered in war; and then to be recognized by the whole world as the foremost representative of the rights of the individual man; more even than this — as the statesman, the diplomatist, the sol dier — who kept in view throughout his entire career the sentiment of his own simple but historic words — Let us have Peace. YALE UNIVERSITY L 3 9002 01368 6127 iiip^-itftrtH 1 ¦:;•¦'¦'.!' iwn;:,,;ni,<"'i, iii';:"-,'- iii! y- ' yM. y^ixyvi^m