CHAPTER LXII. TWICE ELECTED PRESIDENT-TOUR AROUND THE WORLD. In furnishing a detailed and authentic biography of General Grant's early life and military career, the object proper of this book has been accomplished. For the purpose, however, of bringing the narrative down to the present time, this chapter is added, giving a very brief account of the General's nomination and election to the Presidency; a few of his most important acts as Chief Executive of the Nation, as well as a summary of his tour around the world. The National Republican Convention assembled at Chicago, May 20th, 1868, and unanimously nominated General Grant as candidate for the Presidency, 560 votes being cast for him. Schuyler Colfax was nominated for the Vice Presidency. In his letter of acceptance, dated May 29th, General Grant said: * * If elected to the office of President of the United States, it will be my endeavor to administer all the laws in good faith, with economy, and with a view of giving peace, quiet, and protection everywhere. I always have respected the will of the people, and always shall. Peace, and universal prosperity, its sequence, with economy of administration, will lighten the burdens of taxpayers, while it constantly reduces the national debt. Let us have peace. The Democratic nominees for President and Vice President were Horatio Seymour and Francis P. Blair. Grant and Colfax, however, carried twenty-six States -Mississippi, Virginia, and Texas not voting-and received 214 electoral votes, against 80 for Seymour and Blair. The aggregate number of votes cast was 5,716,082, and Grant's majority 309,684. Senator Morton, of the committee appointed to present General Grant with the certificate of his election as President, in an address on that occasion, assured the President-elect that his election was hailed with delight by the great majority of his countrymen, and that even those who were politically opposed to him entertained for him the very highest confidence and regard. The inauguration took place, according to custom, on March 4th. The new President being in perfect accord with Congress, the reconstruction of the disaffected States, which was retarded during President Johnson's administration, now proceeded. On the evening of the day upon which the fifteenth amendment to the Constitution was first ratified, President Grant and a number of distinguished advocates of the measure were serenaded at Washington. In an address to President Grant, John W. Forney said: MR. PRESIDENT: I am here to-night on behalf of the Republicans of the District of Columbia to return to you, in their name, the expression of their profound gratitude for the second proclamation, which seals the great work of the war, in the overthrow of which you were the chief instrument. In reply, President Grant said that he could assure those present that there had been no event since the close of the war in which he had felt so deep an interest as that of the ratification of the fifteenth amendment to the Constitution by three-fourths of the States of the Union. At the regular Republican Convention at Philadelphia, June 5th, 1872, Grant was again nominated for the Presidency. Among the resolutions passed by the convention was the following: A uniform national currency has been provided, repudiation frowned down, the national credit sustained under most extraordinary burdens, and new bonds negotiated at lower rates. The revenues have been carefully collected and honestly applied. Despite large annual reductions of rates of taxation, the public debt has been reduced during General Grant's Presidency at the rate of one hundred millions a year. * * * We believe that the modest patriotism, the ernest purpose, the sound judgment, the practical wisdom, the incorruptible integrity, and the illustrious services of Ulysses S. Grant have commended him to the heart of the the American people, and, with him at the head, we start to dy upon a new march of victory. In his letter accepting the nomination, President Grant, after promising the same zeal and devotion to the good of the whole people for the future of his official life as in the past, expressed a desire to see a speedy healing of all bitterness of feeling between sections, parties, or races of citizens. Henry Wilson was the Republican nominee for Vice-President. Horace Greeley and B. Grantz Brown were the candidates of both the Liberal Republicans and the Democrats. The election took place November 5th, and resulted in a victory for Grant and Wilson, who received 268 electoral votes, against 80 for Greeley and Brown. Grant's popular majority over Greeley was 762,991. In his address on the occasion of his inauguration for a second term as President, General Grant urged the enfranchisement of the colored people, and added: It is my firm conviction that the civilized world is tending toward Republicanism, or government by the people through their chosen representatives, and that our own Republic is destined to be the guiding star. Under our Republic we support an army less than that of any European power of any standing, and a navy less than half that of at least five of them. * * * Now that the telegraph is made available for communicating thought, together with rapid transit by steam, all parts of the continent are made contiguous for all purposes of the government, and communication between the extreme limits of the country made easier than it was throughout the old Thirteen States at the beginning of our national existence. On April 22d, 1873, President Grant vetoed the inflation bill, and in a subsequent letter gave his views on the subject at some length, summing up by saying that he believed it to be a high and plain duty to return to a specie basis at the earliest practicable day, not only in compliance with legislative and party pledges, but as a step indispensable to lasting national prosperity. On his retirement from office, March 4th, 1877, General Grant devoted a short time to visiting personal friends, and in May of the same year sailed for Europe, on what afterward proved to be a tour around the world. For a week preceding his departure, the General was the guest of Mr. G. W. Childs, proprietor of the Philadelphia Ledger. He also received many flattering testimonials of esteem from other prominent Philadelphians during the same period, among others a brilliant reception at the Union League Club, and a serenade at the house of Mr. Childs. The steamship on which he had taken passage was the "Indiana,” of the American line--the only fleet of transatlantic steamers sailing under the Stars and Stripes. On the day of his departure a large number of distinguished persons went down the Delaware in the steamer Magenta" and the revenue cutter "Hamilton," to bid the ex-President God-speed. When the "Magenta," having General Grant on board, touched at Girard Point, the following telegram from President Hayes was handed to the General: General GRANT, Philadelphia: Mrs. Hayes joins me in heartiest wishes that you and Mrs. Grant may have a prosperous voyage, and, after a happy visit abroad, a safe return to your friends and country. R. B. HAYES. 66 During the farewell speeches by those on board the General Grant leaves here to-day with the highest regards of his fellow-citizens, and on his arrival on the other side there is no doubt he will be welcomed by friends with as willing hands and warm hearts as those he le ves behind. While you, his fellow-citizens, speak of him and regard him as ex-President Grant, I cannot but think of the times of the war, and of him but as the General Grant of Fort Donelson. I think of him as the man who, when the country was in peril, restored its hopes when he marched triumphant into Fort Donelson. After that none of us felt the least doubt as to the future of our country, and, therefore, if the name of Washington is allied with the birth of our country, that of Grant is forever identified with its preservation and perpetuation. It is not here alone on the shores of the Delaware that the people love and respect you, but in Chicago and St. Paul, and in far-off San Francisco, the prayers go up to-day that your voyage may be prosperous and pleasant, and that you may have a safe and happy return. When General Grant and his party had been transferred to the "Indiana," the "Hamilton" fired a salute of twenty-one guns, and the "Indiana" proceeded on her way, amid the screaming of steam whistles and the enthusiastic cheers of those on the accompanying vessels. The following official note, dated May 23d, 1877, was issued by the Department of State to the diplomatic and consular officers of the United States: GENTLEMEN: General Ulysses S. Grant, the late President of the United States, sailed from Philadelphia on the 17th inst. for Liverpool. The route and extent of his travels, as well as the duration of his sojourn abroad, were alike undetermined at the time of his departure, the object of his journey being to secure a few months of rest and recreation after sixteen years of unremitting and devoted labor in the military and civil service of his country. The enthusiastic manifestations of popular regard and esteem for General Grant shown by the people in all parts of the country that he has visited since his retirement from official life, and attending his every appearance in public from the day of that retirement up to the moment of his departure for Europe, indicate beyond question the high place he holds in the grateful affections of his countrymen. Sharing in the largest measure this general public sen timent, and at the same time expressing the wishes of the President, I desire to invite the aid of the diplomatic and consular officers of the Government to make his journey a pleasant one should he visit their posts. I feel already assured that you will find patriotic pleasure in anticipating the wishes of the Department by showing him that attention and consideration which is due from every officer of the Government to a citizen of the Republic so signally distinguished both in official service and personal renown. Your obedient servant, WM. M. EVArts. |