Within thirty minutes after the first vote was taken, which resulted in acquittal, a Congressional Committee of Inquiry was instituted by Republicans in regard to the conduct of the disagreeing members of the Senate. Witnesses were summoned, and volumes of testimony were taken and ingeniously exhausted in the vain endeavor to fix a stain upon a single Senator, but the Committee had to give up the matter in disgust, being quite unable to accomplish the ends they so zealously pursued.
The remainder of Mr. Johnson's Presidential career was not especially noteworthy. On the 25th of December, 1868, he issued a full pardon to everybody who had taken part in the Rebellion.
[Facsimile]J. S. BlackJEREMIAH SULLIVAN BLACK, born in The Glades, Somerset County, Pa.,June 10th, 1810; studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1831;in 1851 was chosen Judge of the Supreme Court of the State, andbecame its Chief Justice; was Attorney-General under PresidentBuchanan, 1857-1861; resumed private practice at law; defendedPresident Johnson in the Impeachment trial; died near York, Pa.,August 19th, 1883.
As the time approached for the selection of a candidate by the Republicans, Ohio presented four names. General Grant, the conqueror of the Rebellion, who was without experience, qualifications, or capacity as a civil ruler, was evidently the choice of the loyal people of the North. The old Abolitionists and the national banks favored Chief Justice Chase, who possessed brains, personal dignity, and ability to perform the duties of the Executive. Stanton was the martyr-candidate of the contractors, an unscrupulous man of action and decision, bold, audacious, and unshrinking; and the Western Reserve brought forward bluff Ben Wade, feigning fanaticism and stoical virtue, but a mere mouther of strong words and profane epithets. A few spoke of a fifth Ohio candidate for the nomination in General Sheridan, but, "like a little man," he promptly sat down on every demonstration in his behalf. It soon became evident that General Grant would be nominated. State Republican Conventions, Union Clubs, and newspapers of all political shades declared their preferences for him, the New YorkHeraldfinally coming out for the "Conqueror of the Rebellion," with these lines, by General Halpine (Miles O'Reilly), as a text. They afterward became historic:
"So, boys, a final bumper,While we all in chorus chant,For next President we nominateOur own Ulysses Grant.
"And if asked what State he hails from,This our sole reply shall be,From near Appomattox Court-House,And its famous apple tree.
"For 'twas there to our UlyssesThat Lee gave up the fight;Now, boys, to Grant for President,And God defend the right."
Chief Justice Chase was treated with less favor by another poet, who thus described his visit to Ohio to rally his followers:
"Says Salmon P.Chase, says he,'I'll fish, by Jupiter Ammon!'He went to Ohio,And threw in his fly—oh!But never a sign of a Salmon."
The Chief Justice was a prominent candidate for the Democratic nomination. His eldest daughter, Mrs. Kate Chase Sprague, was in New York when the Democratic Convention was held there, and her parlor was the head-quarters of her father's friends. Mr. Frederick Aiken, a lawyer-journalist, who had appeared at the trial of the conspirators as the defender of Mrs. Surratt, was her master of ceremonies, and introduced the delegates from the rural districts to Mrs. Sprague, but she failed to capture a majority. The Chief Justice saw plainly that the star of Grant was in the ascendant, and that his life-cherished hope of being President was doomed to disappointment.
General Grant was very positive in demanding that all officers of the Confederate army should enjoy their liberty. Among those of them who had been imprisoned by order of the Secretary of War was General Clement C. Clay, an ex-United States Senator from Alabama. He was taken ill in prison with asthma, and his wife came to Washington to solicit his release. She went to President Johnson, and he gave her the necessary order, which she took back to Secretary Stanton. Stanton read the order, and, looking her in the face, tore it up without a word and pitched it into his waste-basket. The lady arose and retired without speaking; nor did Stanton speak to her. She was filled with despair. She saw her husband, in whom her life was wrapped up, dying in prison, and she was unable to help him.
Soon afterward she was advised to call on General Grant, who ascertained by consulting his roster of the Confederate army that her husband was a Brigadier-General, and then wrote an order directing his release, under the Appomattox parole, on giving the required bond, and added: "I shall see that this order is carried out." Having signed the order, he gave it to Mrs. Clay, who the next day presented it to the Secretary of War. Mr. Stanton read it, then touched his bell, and when an officer appeared, handed him the order, saying, "Have that man discharged."
The extensions of the Treasury Department were completed during the Administration of President Johnson under the efficient direction of Mr. A. B. Mullett, supervising architect. The entire building is four hundred and sixty feet long and two hundred and sixty-four feet wide. The new portions are constructed of granite, and the entire cost of this elegantly finished structure was about eight million dollars.
Senator Ben Wade, of Ohio, as Presidentpro temporeof the Senate, enjoyed the privilege of appointing the keeper of the Senate restaurant. That establishment, elegantly fitted up in the basement story of the Senate wing of the Capitol, brilliantly lighted and supplied with coal and ice, was enjoyed rent free by the person fortunate enough to obtain it. It was customary, however, for him to send a good lunch every day to the Vice-President's room without charge.
One day the restauranteur, hearing that he was to be superseded by a caterer from Cincinnati, called on Mr. Wade and said obsequiously, "I am the keeper of the Senate restaurant, Senator." "Oh! yes," replied Mr. Wade, "you run the cook-shop down-stairs, don't you?" "Yes, sir," was the reply, with a low bow. "Well," said Mr. Wade, "what can I do for you? what do you want?" "I have called to express my wish, sir, that I may continue to keep the restaurant, and anything you want, sir, you have only to send a page down-stairs and it shall be furnished quick as a flash, without costing you a cent, sir."
Just then Mr. Wade appeared to recollect something, and looking the man directly in the eye, said: "Oh! I don't want you to feed me; when I do I will pay you for what I eat, like other people. But, listen: complaint has been made to me that you don't treat the little pages fairly or kindly. They complain that they can't get anything to eat except expensive things, for which they have to pay a large price. Now, sir, just remember that these pages are our boys, and you had better overcharge Senators, who are able to pay, than these little chaps, who want to save all of their wages that they can for their mothers. You must be civil and kind to these pages, sir, or I'll have you moved out of your cook-shop and put in some one there who will treat the boys well." The restauranteur promised that he would do so, and bowed his way out. Mr. Wade after this made inquiry of the pages from time to time, and found that they were civilly treated, and that lunches of reasonable cost were provided for them.
Mr. Sumner's enemies circulated a statement that his great speech on Alaska was prepared at the Department of State, and there published at Government expense. This was an unmitigated falsehood. Mr. Sumner obtained the materials for his speech by a careful examination of all the available works in the Congressional and other libraries at Washington in which reference is made to Alaska, and by conversing with officers of the navy and of the Smithsonian Institution who had been there. Everything supplied from the Department of State was a brief correspondence between Mr. Stoeckel and Secretary Seward, which made a quarter of a printed page. Mr. Sumner's speech, written in his own hand, made nearly one hundred foolscap pages, and the manuscript, which he gave me, is now in my collection of autographs. He had it printed at theCongressional Globeoffice at his own expense, and an expensive job it was. Subsequently Mr. Seward asked and received permission to have a small extra edition struck off, before the type was distributed, for the use of the Department of State, and with these copies was bound a coast survey chart, for which Mr. Sumner had supplied much information.
General Grant, although at times annoyed by his relations with the President, passed the happiest period of his eventful life at Washington during the Johnson Administration. He occupied a large house which had been built by Judge Douglas, in what was known as Minnesota Row. A devoted wife, Mrs. Grant was also an affectionate mother, and the happy pair enjoyed the society of their children as they grew up. Fred, the eldest son, who had shared some of his father's later campaigns, was being prepared for admission to West Point. The General's pet was his only daughter, Nellie, who was bright and beautiful, and whose girlish prattle was far more attractive to him than the compliments of Congressmen or the praises of politicians.
General Grant used generally to walk to and from his "head-quarters," which were in a two-story house on Seventeenth Street, opposite the War Department, and he was often seen trudging along on a stormy day, his only protection from the rain being an army cloak and a slouch hat. There was nothing to indicate that he was the Commander- in-Chief of the army, and he was always alone in the morning when he went to the Department. His route was through I Street to Massachusetts and New York Avenues, to Fifteenth Street, and thence by the broad-flagged pavement on Pennsylvania Avenue to the War Department. Even the children along this route knew General Grant, and would frequently salute him as he passed, silently smoking his cigar. General Grant was very fond of walking about Washington, and even after he became President nothing was more agreeable to him than a stroll down Pennsylvania Avenue. Frequently in these walks he would meet going in an opposite direction Sir Edward Thornton, then the British Minister. Sir Edward was a good pedestrian, and took long strolls every day, and would go springing along like a boy out for a holiday. On the other hand, General Grant walked slowly and deliberately, and would invariably return every salutation, no matter how humble the person saluting might be.
General Grant's evening receptions at his house on Minnesota Row were the social feature of Washington. Cabinet officers, diplomatists, Judges, Congressmen, officers of the army and navy, residents, and the strangers within their gates made up the throng that good- humoredly jostled and crowded each other in futile attempts to move through the parlors and hall. When General Grant had issued cards of invitation to his first reception, hundreds who had received none went, all the same, so he afterward announced through the newspapers that he would be "happy to see his friends."
General Grant received all those who could get near him in his usual stoical manner, his eyes lighting up when he took an old friend or comrade by the hand. He wore his undress uniform, with the four golden stars glistening on his shoulder-straps, while Mrs. Grant, who stood at his side, wore a plain, high-necked, long- sleeved, pink silk gown, with a Honiton black lace shawl thrown over her shoulders. The wives of Senators Chandler and Morgan vied with each other in the richness of their toilets and the splendor of their diamonds, but the observed of all observers was Mrs. Charles Sumner, on the Senator's arm, wearing a becoming dress of black velvet, with a white lace shawl, and a flexible golden serpent woven among her dark tresses.
Secretary Seward hovered around the host nearly all the evening, anxious to conciliate him and to secure his support of "our Administration." Mr. Speaker Colfax was in excellent spirits, and so were the scores of Congressmen and placemen present, each one anxious to say a word to the next President. Lieutenant-General Sherman was grim and epigrammatic, while Generals Sheridan and Ord appeared delighted at their deliverance from the troublesome duties of reconstruction, and there was much soldier-talk among the many brave men present who had stood shoulder to shoulder on hard-fought fields. Receptions were given by President Johnson, Speaker Colfax, Chief Justice Chase, Governor Morgan, Admiral Dalhgren, and other dignitaries, but those at the house of General Grant eclipsed them all.
Mr. Sam Ward began to operate in the lobby at Washington toward the close of the war. He was a short, compactly built, round-headed gentleman, well educated, with an inexhaustible fund of anecdote and great gastronomic knowledge, which enabled him to give marvelously good dinners. Besides all this, he was a "good witness," and consequently a reliable friend. He said of himself, just after being examined by General Butler, during the Andrew Johnson impeachment investigation, that he had "been before that d——d strabismal inquisition, and that his evidence wasn't worth half his mileage." It should be known that his mileage was twenty cents, ten cents per mile each way from Willard's Hotel to the Capitol, and that, as his street-car fare only cost him twelve, he sent eight cents to the Treasury as conscience money. So powerful a legislative manipulator was Mr. Ward that he claimed for himself the title, "King of the Lobby," nor was his claim seriously disputed.
Charles Dickens again came to Washington to lecture during President Johnson's last official winter. He had rooms at Welcker's restaurant on Fifteenth Street. He used to walk out every fine day, accompanied by his friend and adviser, Mr. Osgood, the Boston publisher, and Mr. Dolby, his financial agent. They would often tramp eight or ten miles before dinner. Simon Hanscom, the journalist, secured him an interview with President Johnson, who impressed him, as he afterward wrote, as "a man of very remarkable appearance—indeed, of tremendous firmness of purpose, not to be trifled with." The only invitation to dine that he accepted was one from Senator Sumner, on a Sunday afternoon, when Secretary Stanton was in the party.
In Washington, as elsewhere, Mr. Dickens' lectures and readings were to him a mine of pecuniary profit, and to hundreds of the most intelligent and cultured citizens of the metropolis they furnished a treat of the highest intellectual character. His audiences were such as must have highly flattered him, and his entertainments were such as greatly delighted him.
[Facsimile] Charles Sumner CHARLES SUMNER was born at Boston, Massachusetts, January 6th, 1811; received a classical education, graduating at the Cambridge Law School in 1834; practiced in Boston; traveled in Europe 1837- 1840; was United States Senator from Massachusetts from December 1st, 1851, until his death at Washington City, March 11th, 1869.
General Grant, having been elected President by a majority of nearly one million and a-half of votes, was inaugurated on Thursday, the 4th of March, 1869. The national metropolis was crowded with those who had come to witness the historic event, many of them veterans who rejoiced in the elevation of their Old Commander to the highest civic office in the gift of the American people.
The military escort was composed of regulars and volunteers, several companies of the latter being colored men. Then came President Johnson and the President-elect in an open landau, drawn by four white horses, Mr. Johnson looking soured and sad, while General Grant, displaying no signs of elation, waved his hat in response to the cheers with which he was greeted all the way from the White House to the Capitol. Next came the Vice-President-elect, Mr. Colfax, in a carriage with a member of the Senatorial Committee of Arrangements, and the civic associations followed. There were the Tanners, the Invincibles, the Wide Awakes, the Grant and Colfax Clubs, and the Colored Republicans, each organization with its band, its banners, and its badges. The Washington Fire Department, their brightly polished engines drawn by spirited horses, brought up the rear.
On arriving at the Capitol, the President and President-elect and the Vice-President-elect were escorted to the Senate Chamber, where, four years previously, Mr. Johnson had disgraced himself by his drunken harangue. The Supreme Court was already there, with the Diplomatic Corps, gorgeously arrayed in their court costumes, and a number of prominent army and navy officers in full uniform. In the galleries were ladies gayly dressed, whose opera-glasses had been turned on the distinguished personages below as they had successively entered, and who kept up such a buzzing chat that it was almost impossible for the Senators to transact the closing business of the expiring session.
At twelve o'clock Mr. Colfax was sworn in as Vice-President, and afterward administered the oath to the new Senators. Some of those applying, however, had served in the Confederate army, and were not able to take what was known as the "iron-clad oath." A procession was then formed of those present on the floor of the Senate, which moved through the rotunda to the east front of the Capitol, where the President-elect was hailed by hearty cheers. He advanced to the front of the platform, and the oath of office was administered by Chief Justice Chase, followed by an artillery salute from a light battery near by, while the whistles of the steam fire-engines joined in the clangor, the band played, and thousands of voices cheered.
When silence was restored, President Grant drew from his coat pocket six or seven pages of foolscap, adjusted his glasses, and with great deliberation read in a conversational tone his message to the citizens of the Republic and to the world, a plain, practical, common-sense document, in which he declared that he should on all subjects have a policy of his own to recommend, but none to enforce against the will of the people. Soon after he began to read his message his little daughter, somewhat alarmed by the clamor and the throng, ran from her mother to his side, and took hold of his hand, which she held until a chair was placed for her, when she sat down, seemingly assured that no harm could reach her. When the President had concluded he shook hands with his wife, and afterward received the congratulations of many official and unofficial persons, who crowded around and greeted him, before he could return to his carriage and start, escorted as when he came, to the White House. The interest taken in this occasion by the President's old comrades in arms was something wonderful. Every soldier hailed his election as a compliment to the army.
That night General Grant and wife attended the inauguration ball, which was held in the north wing of the new Treasury Department, then just completed. There was a great crowd, and the single flight of stairs proved insufficient for those who wished to pass up or down, causing great dissatisfaction, especially on the part of Horace Greeley and others, who found that the best hats and coats had been taken from the improvised cloak-rooms early in the evening.
General Grant had kept the formation of his Cabinet a profound secret, and their names were not known until he sent their nominations to the Senate on the day after his inauguration. The nomination of Elihu B. Washburne, of Illinois, as Secretary of State, created some surprise, as it had been understood that he was to be sent to France as Minister Plenipotentiary. It was soon known, however, that Mr. Washburne only desired to preside over the Department of State for a few days, ostensibly for the prestige it would give him in diplomatic circles abroad, but really that he might appoint some of his political henchmen to profitable consulates. At the end of six days' service, Mr. Hamilton Fish was nominated and confirmed as his successor. Mr. Fish was of orthodox Knickerbocker stock, and the services of his father, Colonel Nicholas Fish, gave him a hereditary right to belong to the Society of the Cincinnati, over the central organization of which he presided as Captain- General. He had served acceptably in the United States Senate and House of Representatives, and as a War Governor of the State of New York he had displayed considerable executive talent. He was rather a large, British-looking man, with leg-of-mutton side- whiskers, a stout nose, and a pleasant expression of countenance, especially when he was chuckling over his success in humbugging some verdant news-gatherer on diplomatic matters.
It was the especial social duty of Secretary Fish to entertain the foreign diplomats in Washington, to settle their little disputes on questions of etiquette, and to make them reasonably happy. Every winter he dined and wined them, and, although his dining-room in the Morgan House was of goodly size, he was forced to make a three days' job of it. So on Monday he had the Envoys Extraordinary, on Tuesday the Ministers Resident, and on Wednesday the Chargè d'Affaires, with a few personal friends to fill up the gaps. The Senate and House Foreign Committees were next entertained at dinner, and then the leading members of either House expected to put their Congressional legs under the Fish mahogany. Meanwhile Mrs. and Miss Fish had to go the grand rounds to leave their cards on the wives and daughters of Senators and Representatives, and to be "at home" every Wednesday to receive visits from them and the rest of society in turn.
The Secretary of State is considered the "Premier" of the Administration, but General Grant regarded the Secretaryship of the Treasury as the most important position in his Cabinet. The Republic was at peace with other nations, and the military and naval forces, which had grown to such enormous proportions during the war, had been economically reduced, but the Treasury was an immense, overgrown organization, with its collections of customs and of internal revenue duties, its issues of interest-bearing bonds and of national bank-notes, the coinage of money, the revenue marine service, the coast survey, and the life-saving stations, all of which had been expanded during the war until the clerks and employees were numbered by thousands. General Grant wished to place at the head of this establishment a business man who could prune off its excrescences and reform its abuses. The place was offered to the millionaire merchant, Mr. A. T. Stewart, of New York, who accepted it with pleasure, and at once had a suite of rooms in the Ebbitt House, with a private entrance, fitted up for his occupancy until he could go to housekeeping. A few days before the 4th of March he came to Washington and occupied these rooms, with Judge Hilton as his companion and adviser.
On the day after the inauguration Mr. Stewart was nominated by General Grant, but Senator Sumner, who had not been consulted as to the formation of the Cabinet, interposed his objection to the immediate consideration of Mr. Stewart's nomination. Late in the afternoon of that day a rumor got abroad that there was a law, understood really to have been written by Alexander Hamilton while Secretary of the Treasury, prohibiting an importer in active business from holding the position of Secretary of the Treasury. A newspaper correspondent obtained this law and carried to General Butterfield, who conveyed it to Mr. Stewart and his legal adviser, Judge Hilton. They consulted Chief Justice Chase, and he confirmed the view which had been taken of the law by those who first brought it to Mr. Stewart's attention. Mr. Stewart then proposed to retire from business and devote the entire profits that might accrue during the time that he should hold the office of Secretary of the Treasury to charitable objects. But this was decided to be something which would not be proper either for him to carry out or for the Government to accept.
Immediately after seeing Chief Justice Chase, Mr. Stewart and Judge Hilton drove to the White House, and laid the facts and the opinions before the President, who, on the next day, wrote a message to the Senate asking that the law of 1788 be set aside so as to enable the candidate to hold the office. This the Senate declined to do. It was a very natural ambition for a man of Mr. Stewart's tastes and training to desire to be at the head of the Treasury, and it is not unlikely that the disappointment was a very severe one. This was the beginning of the "unpleasantness" between President Grant and Senator Sumner, which finally resulted in open rupture.
Disappointed in not having the services of Mr. Stewart, General Grant appointed George S. Boutwell, ex-Governor of Massachusetts, who had had great legislative experience, as Secretary of the Treasury; General John A. Rawlins, who had been his chief of staff and military adviser, was made Secretary of War; Adolph E. Borie, a retired Philadelphia merchant, Secretary of the Navy; J. D. Cox, an Ohio lawyer, with a good military record, Secretary of the Interior; John A. J. Creswell, an ex-Senator from Maryland, Postmaster- General, and Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar, a gifted Massachusetts lawyer, endowed with keen wit, but possessed of most unpopular manners, Attorney-General.
The Cabinet was regarded as a strong one. In Congress, Vice- President Colfax presided over the Senate, and James G. Blaine was Speaker of the House. Every State was again represented, and the Republican Administration had the support of a decided majority at either end of the Capitol. It was hoped by the Republicans that their party was about to enter upon a new career of usefulness.
General Grant carried with him into the White House his army habits of regularity and two of his staff officers, Generals Porter and Babcock. He used to rise in the morning about seven o'clock, read the Washington papers, and breakfast at half-past eight with his family. He would then light a cigar and take a short stroll, walking slowly, with his left hand behind him, and sometimes holding his cigar in his right hand. Ten o'clock found him in his office, ready for the reception of visitors and the transaction of executive business. On Thursdays and Fridays the Cabinet met, and members of Congress always had precedence over other visitors. He would listen attentively to all that was said to him by those who called, but he was silent or non-committal in his replies. As the day advanced his secretaries would bring him letters which required answers, and would receive instructions as to what replies should be made.
At three o'clock the official business of the day was ended, and General Grant almost invariably visited the White House stables, for he was very fond of his horses. Among them were "Cincinnatus," his dark bay charger; "St. Louis" and "Egypt," two carriage-horses of fine action; a buggy horse named "Julia;" Master Jesse's Shetland ponies, "Billy Button" and "Reb;" "Jeff Davis," a natural pacer; "Mary," Miss Nellie's saddle-horse; "Jennie," a brood mare, and three Hambletonian colts. Five vehicles were in the carriage house —a landau, a barouche, a light road-wagon, a top-buggy, and a pony- phaeton for the children.
From the stable, if the weather was pleasant and the walking good, General Grant would often take a stroll along the north sidewalk of Pennsylvania Avenue, occasionally stopping to exchange a few words with an old comrade. He returned all salutations, as had been his custom before becoming Chief Magistrate, and always lifted his hat when bowing to lady acquaintances.
Dinner was served at the White House promptly at five o'clock, and every member of the family was expected to be punctual. General Grant's favorite dishes were rare roast beef, boiled hominy, and wheaten bread, but he was always a light eater. Pleasant chat enlivened the meal, with Master Jesse as the humorist, while Grandpa Dent would occasionally indulge in some conservative growls against the progress being made by the colored race. After coffee, the General would light another cigar and smoke while he glanced over the New York papers. About nine o'clock, a few chosen friends would often call, sometimes by appointment, but business matters were generally forbidden, and offices were not to be mentioned. The children retired at nine o'clock, Mrs. Grant followed them about ten, and between ten and eleven General Grant sought his pillow.
[Facsimile] U. S. Grant ULYSSES S. GRANT was born at Point Pleasant, Clermont County, Ohio, April 27th, 1822; graduated from the Military Academy at West Point in 1843, and was commissioned as a Brevet Second Lieutenant in the Fourth United States Infantry; served in the Mexican war, receiving the brevets of First Lieutenant and Captain; resigned his commission in 1854; carried on a farm near St. Louis; was commissioned Colonel of the Twenty-first Regiment of Illinois Volunteers, June 16th, 1861; was promoted to the rank of Brigadier-General, May 17th, 1861; of Major-General, February 17th, 1862; of Lieutenant-General, March 1st, 1864, and as Commander of the Armies of the United States, March 24th, 1864; received the surrender of General Lee at Appomattox Court-House, April 9th, 1865; was inaugurated as President of the United States, March 4th, 1869; was again inaugurated March 4th, 1873; traveled around the world with his family, May 17th, 1877 - December 16th, 1879; died at Mount McGregor, July 23d, 1885, and was buried in the city of New York.
General Grant, soon after his election to the Presidential chair, turned his attention to the improvement of the National Capital, which was then unworthy of the American people. The streets generally were wagon tracks, muddy in the winter and dusty in the summer, while the numerous public reservations were commons overgrown with weeds. The growth of the city had been slow and labored, the real estate being generally in the hands of a few old fogies who manifested no disposition to improve or to sell. For many years the metropolis had been petted and spoiled by the general Government, which had doled out small annual appropriations, and the residents had been exempted from many of the ordinary burdens of municipal government and local improvement.
General Grant, with his great knowledge of men, found the right person to place at the head of the regeneration of the city. It was Alexander R. Shepherd, a native of Washington, born poor and without friends, who went from the public schools into the shop of a gas-fitter and plumber, where he learned the trade and became, in a short time, by honesty, industry, and ability, a leading business man. The Territorial Government was organized with Henry D. Cooke, the banker, as Governor, a Legislature, and Delegate to represent the District in Congress. Shepherd, as Chairman of the Board of Public Works, commenced with his immense energy and invincible determination, to transform a slovenly and comfortless sleepy old town into the great and beautiful metropolis which L'Enfant had planned and which Washington approved before it received his name. The grandest systems of municipal improvement ever conceived were carried out regardless of expense. The whole city was placed upon an even and regular grade, the low places filled up, and the elevations cut down. Some ninety miles of the three hundred miles of half-made streets and avenues were graded and paved, some with wood and others with asphaltum. The public grounds and parks were made and ornamented with grass plats, shrubbery, and fountains, the sewerage and drainage were made perfect, and health, beauty, and comfort were permanently secured.
Washington, thanks to Governor Shepherd (he having in time succeeded Governor Cooke) became a metropolis worthy of the Republic. By reducing the width of the streets a front yard was given to each house, planted with trees or flowers, and where the old canal yawned through the heart of the city, a muddy receptacle for dead dogs and filth, arose a broad avenue, while the small reservations dotted over the city were graded and ornamented with trees, fountains, and flowers.
All of this cost a great deal of money. Congress appropriated five million dollars in cash, and several millions more were raised on bonds. Much of this money was disbursed by Governor Shepherd, and he undoubtedly was disposed to give profitable contracts to his friends, and to the henchmen of those members of Congress whose votes secured him liberal appropriations. Newspaper correspondents received in several instances contracts for paving, which they disposed of to those engaged in that business, and realized handsome sums, but close investigation failed to show that Governor Shepherd had enriched himself or had added to the value of his own property as distinguished from the property of others. His ambition was more than a merely selfish one, and it was shown clearly that his ability was equaled by his honesty. A few years later he became financially embarrassed, and was forced to exile himself to Mexico, hoping to repair in its silver mines his shattered fortune. General Grant never lost confidence in him, and as his improvements became perfected, Alexander R. Shepherd was regarded as the regenerator of the National Metropolis.
Another man who did much for the ornamentation of Washington City was A. B. Mullett, the Supervising Architect of the Treasury. After having finished that magnificent structure, the extended Treasury Building, he planned and commenced the great State, War, and Navy Building, the cost of which is about twelve millions of dollars. His professional advice was followed by Governor Shepherd, and it is not altogether creditable to our institutions that after having honestly disbursed millions on the public buildings in almost every section of the country, as well as on those at Washington City, Mr. Mullett was removed from his position on political grounds, and was obliged, after having given the best years of his life to his country, to commence anew the practice of his profession for a livelihood.
General Grant was much embarrassed early in his Presidential career by the attempts of some of those around him to engage in speculations for their private benefit. Always willing to bestow offices, or to dispense profitable favors to his numerous relatives by blood and by marriage, and to advance the interests of those who had served him faithfully during the war, he could not understand the desperate intrigues which speculation had led some of them into. Among his protégés was Abel R. Corbin, who had been known at Washington as the clerk of a House committee, a correspondent, and a lobbyist, and who had afterward removed to New York, where he had added to his means by successful speculation. Marrying General Grant's sister, who was somewhat advanced in years, he conceived the idea of using his brother-in-law for a gigantic speculation in gold, and in order to obtain the requisite capital entered into a partnership with Jay Gould and James Fisk, Jr. By adroit management, these operators held on the first of September, 1869, "calls" for one hundred million dollars of gold, and as there were not more than fifteen millions of the precious metal in New York outside of the Sub-Treasury, they were masters of the situation. The only obstacle in the way of their triumphant success would be the sale of gold from the Sub-Treasury at a moderate price, by direction of General Grant. Corbin assured his co-conspirators that he could prevent this interference, and wrote a letter to the President urging him not to order or permit sales from the Sub-Treasury. He ostensibly sent this letter by special messenger, but, in fact, substituted for it an ordinary letter on family matters. General Grant's suspicions were aroused by the receipt of this unimportant epistle, and at his request Mrs. Grant wrote to Mrs. Corbin, saying that the General had learned with regret that her husband was engaged in gold speculations, and he had better give them up.
General Grant returned to Washington on the 23d of September, 1869. The next day, "Black Friday," the conspirators put up the price of gold, and a wild panic ensured. Leading men of all parties in the city of New York telegraphed the President and the Secretary of the Treasury, urging their interference as the only way of preventing a financial crash, which would have extended over the whole country. About eleven o'clock Secretary Boutwell went to the White House, and after a brief conference General Grant expressed his wish that the desired relief should be given, and Secretary Boutwell promptly telegraphed to Sub-Treasurer Butterfield, at New York, to give notice that he would sell four millions of gold. This collapsed the speculation. "I knew," said Jim Fisk, afterward, "that somebody had run a sword right into us." It was not without difficulty that Corbin, Gould, and Fisk escaped from the fury of their victims. The conspiracy was subsequently investigated by a committee of the House of Representatives, and a report was made by James A. Garfield, completely exonerating General Grant, and declaring that by laying the strong hand of Government upon the conspirators and breaking their power he had treated them as enemies of the credit and business of the Union.
General Grant was known to advocate the speediest practical return to specie payment, but the Supreme Court of the United States changed the current of financial operations by declaring that the act of Congress of 1864, making "greenback" notes a legal tender, was unconstitutional. It is a curious fact, that while the community every now and then is thrown into a condition of great excitement about political rights and duties, and about who shall be President and who member of Congress, nine elderly gentlemen, wearing silk gowns, sitting in a quiet room in the Capitol, are deciding questions of direct and immediate political concern, taking laws from the statute books, and nullifying the action of the executive and legislative departments of the Government, yet not one in a thousand of the busy, restless citizens of the country knows or cares what the decisions of this arch-tribunal are.
This high tribunal holds its sessions in the chamber of the Capitol which was originally constructed for and occupied by the Senate of the United States. The Supreme Court began its sessions here in 1860. The Court is in session from the second Monday in October to early in May of each year. It usually sits five days each week, reserving Saturday for consultations on the cases in hand. Positions on this bench are deemed eminently desirable, as they are for life, or "during good behavior." The salaries are not to be despised either, being ten thousand dollars each per annum, with an additional five hundred dollars to the Chief Justice.
The Credit Mobilier made a deal of talk, although comparatively few people knew what it really was. Under various acts of Congress granting aid to the Union Pacific Railroad, that corporation was to receive twelve thousand eight hundred acres of land to the mile, or about twelve million acres in all, and Government six per cent. bonds to the amount of twelve thousand dollars per mile for one portion of the road, thirty-two thousand dollars per mile for another portion, and forty-eight thousand dollars per mile for another. In addition to these subsidies, the company was authorized to issue its own first mortgage bonds to an amount equal to the Government bonds, and to organize with a capital stock not to exceed one hundred million dollars. All this constituted a magnificent fund, and it soon became evident that the road could be built for at least twenty million dollars less than the resources thus furnished. Of course, the honest way would have been to build the road as economically as possible, and give the Government the benefit of the saving, but this was not thought of. The directors set themselves at work to concoct a plan by which they could appropriate the whole amount, and, after building the road, divide the large surplus among themselves. The plan hit upon was for the directors to become contractors, in other words, to hire themselves to build the road. To consummate this fraud without exciting public attention, and to cover all traces of the transaction, was no easy matter, but the directors employed an eminent attorney skilled in the intricacies of railroad fraud, and with his aid and advice the machinery for the transaction was finally arranged to the satisfaction of all concerned. This attorney was Samuel J. Tilden.
In order to avoid personal liability and give their movement the semblance of legality, the directors purchased the charter of the "Pennsylvania Fiscal Agency," and changed its name to the "Credit Mobilier of America." At this time (1864) two million dollars of stock had been subscribed to the railroad company, and two hundred and eighteen thousand dollars paid in. Samuel J. Tilden had subscribed twenty thousand dollars. The first thing the Credit Mobilier did was to buy in all of this stock and bring the railroad company and Credit Mobilier under one management and the same set of officers. Then the directors of the railroad company, through certain middle-men, awarded the contract for building the road to the Credit Mobilier, in other words, to themselves, for from twenty thousand dollars to thirty thousand dollars per mile more than it was worth. Evidence which afterward came to light in the Congressional investigations showed that the Credit Mobilier made a cash profit in the transaction of over twenty-three million dollars, besides gobbling up the stock of the road at thirty cents on the dollar, when the law plainly provided that it should not be issued at less than par.
Oakes Ames, a sturdy Massachusetts mechanic, who had acquired a fortune by the manufacture of shovels, had been persuaded to embark in the construction of the Pacific Railroad. Finding legislation necessary, and knowing how difficult it was to secure the attention of Congressmen to schemes which did not benefit them or their constituents, he distributed shares of this Credit Mobilier, to use his own words, "where it would do the most good." Some of the recipients kept it and pocketed the profits, while others endeavored to get rid of it when public attention was called to it, and they ungratefully tried to make Mr. Ames their scapegoat.
[Facsimile] James Monroe JAMES MONROE was born in Westmoreland County, Va., April 28th, 1758; served honorably in the Revolution; entered the Virginia Legislature when twenty-three years of age; entered Congress when twenty-four; chosen United States Senator, 1789; was Minister to France, 1794-1796; was Governor of Virginia, 1799-1802; re-elected Governor in 1811; resigned and became Secretary of State under Madison, 1811-1817; was President of the United States, 1817-1825; died July 4th, 1831, in New York.
The Southern States had again returned to their allegiance, and in the third session of the Forty-first Congress every State in the Union was represented. Vice-President Colfax presided over sixty- one Republican and thirteen Democratic Senators, and Speaker Blaine over one hundred and seventy-two Republican and seventy-one Democratic Representatives. The Republican party had preserved the Union, conquered peace, and was at the height of its power. The "carpet- baggers" from the South were gradually being replaced by ante-bellum politicians and "Southern brigadiers." Many Northern men regretted that the North had not sent more of its heroes to Congress, feeling that men who had honorably faced each other on hard-fought battle- fields would have a mutual respect and a mutual desire to co-operate together for the national welfare.
It soon became evident, however, that the Southern Democrats were about to exercise an important influence in national politics, that they possessed in common some very clearly defined purposes, and that they were not likely to permit their allegiance to their party to interfere with their efforts to obtain what they called "justice for the South." They went in without reserve for the old flag, but they also went in for an appropriation—in fact, several appropriations. They honestly thought that they were only asking simple justice in demanding that the Government should spend nearly as much for the development of their material resources as it did for the suppression of the Rebellion. All their cherished ideas of State Rights vanished when money was to be expended at the South, and the honesty of their intentions made their influence far more to be dreaded than that of adepts in legislative corruption, who are always distrusted.
The number of Southern Representatives was greatly increased by that change in the Constitution which abolished the fractional representation of colored people and made all men equal. It soon became evident, too, that the whites were determined, by a well- disciplined legion, known as the Ku-Klux Klan, whose members pretended to be the ghosts of the Confederate dead, to intimidate the colored voters, and intimidation was often supplemented by violence and murder. The grossest outrages by this secret body went unpunished and Congress finally passed a law which enabled the President to eradicate the evil.
The "Joint High Commission," for the adjustment of all causes of difference between the United States and Great Britain, including the depredations of Rebel cruisers fitted out in British ports and the disputed fisheries in North American waters, assembled in Washington in the spring of 1871. The "High Joints," as they were familiarly termed, took the furnished house of Mr. Philp, on Franklin Square, where they gave a series of dinner-parties, with several evening entertainments. In return numerous entertainments were given to them, including a banquet by the leading Freemasons in Washington, some of them members of Congress, to the Earl De Gray (then Grand Master of Masons in England), and Lord Tenterden, who was also a prominent member of the fraternity.
There are good reasons for believing that the British were induced to gracefully make the concessions involved in the Alabama treaty by the knowledge that General Grant had taken into consideration the expediency of seizing Canada as a compensation for damages inflicted upon the United States ships by Confederate cruisers fitted out in English ports. This was a favorite idea of General John A. Rawlins, who was the brain of General Grant's staff and his Secretary of War until death removed him. General Rawlins was in full accord with the hope that Stephen A. Douglas's aspirations for an ocean-bound Republic might be realized, and it was understood that he was warmly seconded by General Pryor, of Virginia, ex- Lieutenant Governor Reynolds, of Missouri, and others.
The treaty was indirectly opposed by Monsieur de Catacazy, the Minister Plenipotentiary of the Emperor of Russia to the United States, who endeavored to prejudice Senators against its ratification, and inspired the correspondent of a New York paper to write against it. This prompted Secretary Fish to request the Minister's recall, and there was also much scandal circulated by Madame de Catacazy, a beautiful woman, who had been at Washington—so the gossips say —fifteen years before, when she had eloped from her husband under the protection of Monsieur de Catacazy, then Secretary of the Russian Legation. The Emperor of Russia, on receiving complaint against his Envoy, directed the Minister of Foreign Affairs to ask in his name that the President "would tolerate Monsieur de Catacazy until the coming visit of his third son, the Grand Duke Alexis, was concluded." To this personal appeal General Grant assented.
The Grand Duke soon afterward arrived at Washington, and was welcomed at the Russian Legation by Madame de Catacazy, who wore a dress of gold-colored silk, with a flowing train, elaborately trimmed with gold-colored satin. On her right arm she wore a double bracelet, one band being on the wrist and the other above the elbow, the two joined together by elaborately wrought chains. Her other ornaments were of plain gold, and above them was a wealth of golden hair. As the Grand Duke entered the Legation, Madame de Catacazy carried a silver salver, on which was placed a round loaf of plain black bread, on the top of which was imbedded a golden salt-cellar. The Prince took the uninviting loaf, broke and tasted of it, in accordance with the old Russian custom.
The Grand Duke was cordially welcomed at the White House, but Monsieur de Catacazy was treated with studied coolness. It was openly intimated that there was a little Frenchwoman at Washington, young, sprightly, and accomplished, who had won the way into the Catacazy's household through the sympathies of its handsome mistress. She was made a companion of, advised with, and intrusted with whatever the house or Legation contained, confidential and otherwise. All the public or private letters, papers, and despatches passed under they eyes of this bright little woman, all that was said went into her sharp ears, and every day she made a written report of what she had heard and seen, which was privately sent to the Department of State, and for which she was handsomely remunerated from the Secret Service Fund.
Charles Sumner purchased (before it was completed) an elegant dwelling-house between the Arlington Hotel and Lafayette Square, but when he occupied it at the commencement of the next session, he was alone. The energetic reporters at once began to intimate that the Senator's marriage had not been a happy one, and from that time until the great Senator passed over the dark river this painful subject was, as it were, a base of supplies from which a great variety of theories were drawn and sustained. One was sure that the attentions of a diplomat had troubled the Senator, another declared that he was too arrogant, another that he was too exacting —in short, there was not an editorial paragraphist who did not sooner or later give a conjectural solution of Mr. Sumner's domestic infelicity. They were divorced, and he lived alone for several years in his sumptuous house, which he adorned with superb works of art. Here he hospitably entertained personal friends and distinguished strangers. Unforgiving and implacable, his smile grew sadder, the furrows on his face deepened, and he lost his formerbonhomie. He was a Prometheus Vinctus, bound to the desolate rock of a wrecked life, but heroically refraining from revenging his great wrong by attacking a woman.
General Grant's difficulty with Mr. Sumner began when the President did not consult the Senator about the formation of his Cabinet. The breach was gradually widened, and thorough it the Senator finally became completely estranged from his old friend and associate in the Senate, Secretary Fish. When Mr. Motley was removed from the English mission, Mr. Sumner insisted upon regarding it as a personal insult, which he sought to repay by opposition to the acquisition of San Domingo. General Grant endeavored to appease the offended Senator, and on the evening of the day on which the San Domingo treaty was to be sent to the Senate he called at Mr. Sumner's house. General Grant found the Senator at his dinner- table with Colonel Forney and the writer, and was invited to take a seat with them. After some preliminary conversation, General Grant began to talk about San Domingo, but he did not have the treaty or any memorandum of it with him. He dwelt especially upon the expenditures of General Babcock at San Domingo of a large sum taken from the secret service fund for promoting intercourse with the West India Islands, which Mr. Seward, when Secretary of State, had prevailed on Representative Thad Stevens to have inserted in an appropriation bill during the war. The President impressed Mr. Sumner with the idea that he looked for an attack in Congress on the manner in which much of that money had been spent. Mr. Sumner unquestionably thought that General Grant had come to enlist his services in defending the expenditure by General Babcock of one hundred thousand dollars in cash, and fifty thousand dollars for a light battery purchased at New York. The President meant, as Colonel Forney and the writer thought, the treaty for the acquisition of the Dominican Republic. The President and the Senator misunderstood each other. After awhile General Grant promised to send General Babcock to the Senator the next day with copies of the papers, and then left. While escorting the President to the door, Mr. Sumner assured him that he was a Republican and a supporter of the Republican Administration, and that he should sustain the Administration in this case if he possibly could, after he had examined the papers. He meant the expenditure of General Babcock, but the President meant the treaty.
The next morning General Babcock called on Senator Sumner with a copy of the treaty, which he began to read, but he had not gotten beyond the preamble, in which Babcock was styled "aid-de-camp of His Excellency General Ulysses S. Grant," before Mr. Sumner showed signs of disapprobation. When General Babcock proceeded and read the stipulation that "His Excellency General Grant, President of the United States, promises perfectly to use all his influence in order that the idea of annexing the Dominican Republic to the United States may acquire such a degree of popularity among the members of Congress as will be necessary for its accomplishment," Senator Sumner became the enemy of the whole scheme. He did not believe that the President of the United States should be made a lobbyist to bring about annexation by Congress. Some of Mr. Sumner's friends used to tell him that he should have gone at once to General Grant and have told him of his purpose to oppose the treaty, and that he had declared his hostility to it to General Babcock in unmistakable terms.
This was the time when well-meaning friends of both of these great men might have secured satisfactory mutual explanation, although no living power could have made Senator Sumner a supporter of the acquisition of the port of Samana in San Domingo. In the Senate sycophants who "carried water on both shoulders," and men who always delight in fomenting quarrels, embittered Mr. Sumner against the President. One had served his country well in the camp, while the other had performed equally valuable services in the Senate; one was a statesman, the other was a soldier. What did not appear to be wrong to the General, the Senator regarded as criminal. Conscious of the value of his services in saving the Union, General Grant accepted with gratitude the voluntary offerings of grateful citizens; but Senator Sumner, who had seen so much of political life and of politicians, knew too well that those who make gifts to public men expect favors in return, and that every public man should be inflexibly opposed to the reception of presents. Remarks by him about the President, and remarks by the President about him were carried to and fro by mischief-makers, like the shuttle of a loom, and Mr. Sumner directly found himself placed at the head of a clique of disappointed Republicans, who were determined to prevent, if possible, the re-election of General Grant to the Presidency.
Henry Wilson, when Vice-President of the United States, endeavored to restore harmony, and said, in a letter to General Grant: "Your Administration is menaced by great opposition, and it must needs possess a unity among the people and in Congress. The head of a great party, the President of the United States has much to forget and forgive, but he can afford to be magnanimous and forgiving. I want to see the President and Congress in harmony and the Republican party united and victorious. To accomplish this, we must all be just, charitable, and forgiving."
[Facsimile] SchuylerColfax SCHUYLER COLFAX was born at New York City March 23d, 1823; was a Representative from Indiana, 1855-1869, serving as Speaker of the House of Representatives six years; was elected Vice-President of the United States on the ticket with General Grant, serving 1869- 1873, and died at Mankato, Minnesota, January 13th, 1885.
General Grant, when elected President of the United States, had endeavored to elevate his views beyond the narrow sphere of party influences, and had consolidated in his own mind a scheme of policy which he had before shadowed out for the complete reconstruction of the Union, and for the reform of abuses which had crept into the Federal Government during the war. The qualities which insured his success as a soldier had not enabled him to succeed as a statesman, but he displayed the same fortitude under apparent disaster and courage at unexpected crises when he found himself again passing "the wilderness," darkened, not with the smoke of battle, but with detraction and denunciation. Again, in the old spirit he exclaimed, "I will fight it out on this line if it takes all summer."
The opposition to General Grant's re-election was hydra-headed, and no less than seven candidates were in the field against him. The contest of 1824 had been called "the scrub-race for the Presidency," and to that of 1872 was given the name of "Go as you please." The watchword of the factions was "Anything to beat Grant;" their points of union were the greed of office and the thirst for revenge.
The only serious opposition to General Grant was that of the combined Liberal Republican and Democratic parties, which nominated as their candidate Horace Greeley. It was deeply to be regretted that political ambition tempted the only equal of "Benjamin Franklin, journeyman printer," to become a politician. Better informed than any other man on American politics, courageous, free from small vices, and the embodiment of common sense and justice, with a kind and charitable heart, he was a man of the people and for the people. He was made supremely ridiculous by Nast's caricatures, and by his own record as collated from the files of the great newspaper which he had founded and continued to edit.
Mr. Greeley, after his double nomination at Cincinnati and at Baltimore, showed that he was not content with being a "good printer, a respectable publisher, and an honest editor," which he had previously avowed was the height of his ambition. The unnatural political alliance with those whom he had denounced for a quarter of a century led him into all sorts of inconsistencies and contradictions, and displayed his insatiable thirst for public office. All the sympathies of the Democratic party had been his antipathies, all their hates his loves, and many of their leaders spoke of him publicly with contempt. Indeed, his campaign would have been a farce had not his untimely death made it a tragedy. Ridicule killed him politically, and his political failure was the immediate cause of his sad physical death.
Senator Sumner, endeavoring with the aid of Senator Schurz to connect General Grant or some of the officers near him with the French "arms scandal," prepared with great care, and read in the Senate on the 31st of May, 1872, a fierce philippic against the President. Ancient and modern history had been ransacked for precedents, which were quoted and then applied to General Grant, to show his unworthiness, his incompetency, his nepotism, and his ambition. The long tirade was an erudite exhibition of most intense partisanship, having as a motto from Shakespeare, "We will have rings and things and fine array." A few weeks later Mr. Sumner sailed for Europe, and did not return until after the election.
At the Republican National Convention, which was held at Philadelphia, on Wednesday, the 5th of June, 1872, General Grant was renominated by acclamation as President and Henry Wilson as Vice-President. The defeat of Mr. Colfax for renomination was attributable to the bitter hostility of some of the Washington newspaper correspondents, and to the free use of money among the delegates from the Southern States, under the pretense that it was to be used for the establishment of newspapers and for campaign expenses. Mr. Wilson had sent from Washington all the money that he could raise, and he had been liberally aided by Mr. Buffington, of Massachusetts.
Mr. Colfax was badly served by his own immediate friends and advocates. The Indiana delegation were at first quite immoderate in their mode of demanding their favorite statesman's renomination. One gentleman, himself an editor, was especially bitter at the activity of Mr. Wilson's newspaper friends, and declared he would mark them all in his paper. Such declarations made what begun in good feeling toward Mr. Wilson, and a considerable share of a fun- loving spirit, a strong and determined contest. Then in the New York and other delegations there were gentlemen who represented large employing and moneyed interests, as Mr. Orton, of the Western Union Telegraph Company, Mr. Shoemaker, of Adams Express, and Mr. Franchot, familiarly known as "Goat Island Dick," the principal attorney of the California Central Pacific for legislative favors from Congress. These and other gentlemen identified with great corporate interests were at first even bitterly hostile to Mr. Wilson's candidacy, and to the last urged that of Mr. Colfax. There was considerable fun in the conflict, which was, in the main, conducted with good-nature on both sides. Mr. Colfax was by no means without newspaper friends. Mr. Bowles, though a Greeley man, did him quiet but continuous service. Messrs. Jones and Jennings, of the New YorkTimes, were present, and were understood to have exerted themselves for the Vice-President's renomination. Mr. Holloway, of the IndianapolisJournal, was very active. Colonel Forney pronounced for Mr. Colfax through thePress, though his son, the managing editor, shared in the good feeling of the Washington correspondents toward the Senator.
The campaign was a very earnest one, and every citizen had to listen to campaign speeches, attend ward meetings and conventions, subscribe for the expenses of torchlight processions, if he did not march therein, and thus fortify his intellect and strengthen his conscience for the quadrennial tilt with his friends over the relative merits of candidates and the proper elucidation of issues involved. For the first time civil-service reform was advocated by the Republicans, in accordance with the recommendations of General Grant in his message, and was opposed by those who (to paraphrase Brinsley Sheridan) believed that "there is no more conscience in politics than in gallantry."
When Congress met in December, 1872, General Grant made the gratifying announcement that the differences between the United States and Great Britain had been settled by the tribunal of arbitration, which had met at Geneva, in a manner entirely satisfactory to the Government of the United States. He also congratulated the country on the coming Centennial celebration at Philadelphia, the completion of the ninth census, the successful working of the Bureau of Education, the operations of the Department of Agriculture, and the civil-service reform which Congress had been so reluctant to consider.
The New Year's reception at the commencement of 1873 was a crowded affair. Mrs. Grant wore a dress of pearl-gray silk, flounced and trimmed with silk of a darker hue and with point lace. Mrs. Fish wore an elaborately trimmed dress of Nile-green silk, and was accompanied by her young daughter, in blue silk. Mrs. Boutwell wore a black velvet dress trimmed with white lace, and her daughter a pale-blue silk dress trimmed with black lace, and Mrs. Attorney- General Williams wore a dress of Nile-green silk, trimmed with Valenciennes lace. Lady Thornton wore a dress of royal purple velvet, elegantly trimmed, and the bride of the Minister from Ecuador wore a dress of sage-green silk, with a sleeveless velvet jacket, and a velvet hat of the same shade.
The army, the navy, the Diplomatic Corps, and the judiciary were out in full force. There were nice people, questionable people, and people who were not nice at all in the crowd. Every state, every age, every social class, both sexes, and all human colors were represented. There were wealthy bankers, and a poor, blind, black beggar led by a boy; men in broadcloth and men in homespun; men with beards and men without beards; members of the press and of the lobby; contractors and claim agents; office-holders and office-seekers; there were ladies from Paris in elegant attire, and ladies from the interior in calico; ladies whose cheeks were tinged with rouge, and others whose faces were weather-bronzed by out-door work; ladies as lovely as Eve, and others as naughty as Mary Magdalene; ladies in diamonds, and others in dollar jewelry; chambermaids elbowed countesses, and all enjoyed themselves. After the official reception at the White House the Secretaries and other dignitaries hurried to their respective homes, there in their turn to receive visits. The foreign diplomats did not receive, but with the army and navy men and the citizens "generally" went "the grand rounds." The older citizens had hospitable spreads, including hot canvas-back ducks, terrapin, and well-filled punch-bowls, and veteran callers got in the work as ususal, but at most houses intoxicating drinks were dispensed with, and there were no such exhibitions of drunkenness as had disgraced former years.
Senator Sumner, who had left the Presidential contest and gone to Europe returned to his Senatorial duties and "accepted the situation." Early in the session he introduced a bill prohibiting the future publication of names of Union victories in the Army Register or their inscription on the regimental colors of the army. This step toward an oblivion of past difficulties was highly acceptable to General Grant, who conveyed to Mr. Sumner his appreciation of the olive branch thus extended. Others were not disposed to regard his movement with a friendly eye, and the Legislature of Massachusetts passed a resolution censuring him.
Mr. Sumner survived a few months only, when, after a very brief illness, he died at his house in Washington. When he was gone, men of all political parties joined heartily in eulogizing the deceased statesman. A mourning nation paid homage to his pure heart, to his sense of duty and right, to his courageous willingness to bear obloquy, to his unwearied industry—in short, to that rare union of qualities which impart such grandeur to his memory. Even the jealousies and schemes of the living were restrained, as the second-rate heroes of ancient days postponed their contest for the armor of Achilles until last honors had been paid to the memory of the illustrious departed. In Doric Hall in the State House at Boston his remains finally lay in state amid a lavish display of floral tokens, which were sent from all classes and localities, Massachusetts thus emphatically indorsing her son, whom she had so lately censured.
Senator Sumner left behind him a few printed copies of a speech which he had prepared for delivery in the Senate before the then recent Presidential election, each copy inscribed in his own handwriting, "private and confidential." He had written it when inspired with the belief that with the Administration he was a proscribed man; but his friends convinced him that it would not be best for him to throw down this gauntlet of defiance. He had, therefore, decided not to make public the indictment which he had prepared, and the few copies of it which had been given to friends was not, as was asserted, the report of a "posthumous speech." Its publication after his death by those to whom copies had been intrusted in confidence was an unpardonable breach of trust.
The great Massachusetts Senator had for years stood before the country with a strong individuality which had separated him from the machine politicians, and placed him among the statesmen of the Republic. Before the roll of the Northern drums was heard in the South, he had defiantly denounced the slave-holders in the Capitol, and when the thunder of artillery drowned the voice of oratory, he earnestly labored to have the war overthrow and eradicate slavery. Just as his hopes were realized, and as he was battling for civil rights for the enfranchised race, his life, for which his friends anticipated a long twilight, was unexpectedly brought to a close. Yet there is something so melancholy in the slow decline of great mental powers, that those who loved him the best felt a sort of relief that he had suddenly thrown off his load of domestic sorrow and passed across the dark stream into the unknown land while still in the possession of his energies.
[Facsimile]Yours trulyH. WilsonHENRY WILSON, born at Framington, N. H., February 16th, 1812; memberMassachusetts House of Representatives, 1840, and served four yearsin the State Senate, being twice its presiding officer; UnitedStates Senator, 1855-1871; Vice-President, March 4th, 1873 - November22d, 1875, when he died.
General Grant's second inauguration on Tuesday, March 4th, 1873, was shorn of its splendor by the intense cold weather. The wind blew in a perfect gale from the southwest, sweeping away the flags and other decorations from private houses and making it very disagreeable for the, nevertheless, large crowds of spectators. When the procession started from the White House, so intense was the cold that the breath of the musicians condensed in the valves of their instruments, rendering it impossible for them to play, and many of the cadets and soldiers had to leave the ranks half frozen, while the customary crowds of civilians were completely routed by the cutting blasts. The procession was headed by the regulars, followed by a battalion of half frozen West Point cadets in their light gray parade uniforms, and another of midshipmen from the Annapolis Naval School in dark blue. A division of gayly uniformed citizen-soldiers followed, including the Boston Lancers in their scarlet coats, with pennons fluttering from their lances, and the First Troop of the Philadelphia City Cavalry, which had escorted almost every preceding President, and which carried its historic flag, which was the first bearing thirteen stripes, and which was presented to the Troop in 1775.
General Grant, with a member of the Congressional Committee, rode in his own open barouche, drawn by four bay horses. In the next carriage was Henry Wilson, Vice-President, escorted by another member of the Committee, and the President's family followed. After the military came political clubs in citizens' attire, with bands and banners, the Washington Fire Department bringing up the rear.
Meanwhile the Senate had closed the labors of the Forty-second Congress, and chairs were placed in the chamber for the dignitaries, who soon began to arrive. The members of the Diplomatic Corps wore their court dresses and were resplendent with gold lace and embroidery. Chief Justice Chase, who came in at the head of the Supreme Court, looked well, although strangely changed by his full gray beard, which concealed all the lines of his face. General Sherman had been persuaded by his staff to appear in the new uniform of his rank, but, to their disgust, he wore with it a pair of bright yellow kid gloves. There were other high officers of the army and navy, with the heads of the executive departments, on the floor of the Senate, and the members of the defunct House of Representatives, who came trooping in after their adjournment, formed a background for the scene.
At twelve o'clock, Vice-President Colfax delivered a brief valedictory address, and then Henry Wilson, Vice-President-elect, delivered his salutatory, took the prescribed oath, and swore in the Senators- elect. A procession was then formed, which slowly wended its way through the rotunda to the customary platform over the steps of the eastern portico. When General Grant appeared hearty cheers were given by the vast crowd, estimated at not less then twenty thousand in number, packed behind the military escort on the plaza before the Capitol. Chief Justice Chase again administered the oath of office, and the President advanced, uncovered, to the front of the platform, and read his re-inaugural address. The wind blew a tempest at times, nearly wrenching the manuscript from his hands. No sooner had he finished reading than the salute from a neighboring light battery was echoed by the guns in the Navy Yard, the Arsenal, and at two or three forts on the Virginia side of the Potomac, which had not yet been dismantled. Before the echoes of the salutes had fairly died away, the procession started to escort President Grant back to the White House, the bleak wind making nearly every one tremble and shiver.
The city was illuminated in the early evening, and the new wooden pavement on Pennsylvania Avenue, cleared of all vehicles by the police, was covered by the throng of shivering men, women, and children. The light in the tholus over the great dome of the Capitol shone like a beacon far above the rows of colored lanterns which were hung in festoons from the trees among the sidewalks. Calcium lights added to the brilliancy of the scene, and many private houses and stores were illuminated with gas or candles. At nine o'clock there was a display of fireworks on the park south of the White House, the rockets shooting comet-like across the clear, star-dotted sky, dropping showers of colored fire in their flight. All the while the wind blew fiercely, and the cold was intensified, but the crowd seemed oblivious to the wintry blast.
At the inauguration ball, held in an immense temporary building, which had no heating apparatus, the ladies were compelled to wear their wrappings, and the gentlemen kept on their overcoats and hats as they endeavored to keep warm by vigorous dancing. Mrs. Grant, who wore a white silk dress trimmed with black Chantilly lace, shivered as she stood by the side of her husband on the dais, and the members and the ladies of the Diplomatic Corps remained but a few moments. The supper, which had been prepared at a large expense, was emphatically a cold repast. The ornamental devices in ice- cream were frozen into solid chunks, and the champagne and punch were forsaken for hot coffee and chocolate, the only things warm in the building. The guests, each one of whom had paid twenty dollars for a ticket, were frozen out before midnight.
Chief Justice Chase never appeared in public after this inauguration, but died on the 7th of May following. An effort was made to have Justice Miller promoted, but President Grant positively declined doing so, on the ground that to raise any Associate Justice over his brothers would be to deepen jealousies not wholly invisible there, so he tendered the important position to Roscoe Conkling, then a United States Senator from New York, whose great intellectual powers especially qualified him to be the successor of Marshall and of Taney. Some of Mr. Conkling's friends urged him to accept the place, while others, who desired to see him President of the United States, prevailed on him to remain in political life and to decline the President's offer. General Grant then nominated as Chief Justice his Attorney-General, George H. Williams, of Oregon, but this awakened the jealousies of Justice Miller, whose son-in- law, Colonel Corkhill, commenced a vigorous attack upon the nomination in the WashingtonChronicle, which he then edited. There were also some grave scandals in Washington society about a number of anonymous letters which had been written, it was intimated, by Mrs. Williams. When the Senate met it soon became apparent that the nomination of Mr. Williams could not be confirmed, and it was withdrawn at his own request. Having come to him without his own agency, he lost nothing in letting it go except some unpleasant experiences.