him a leader of armies and holder of the destinies of a free and united people.

While in this, as in all attacks upon him, time and a better knowledge of the man came to his vindication, and even turned invidious partisan remark into praise, the political events which led to the campaign of 1880 again involved him. He was less than ever an aspirant for nomination, and more than ever a passive instrument in the hands of his friends and admirers. Sift fact and sentiment as closely as the historian may, there does not appear a single trace of effort or inclination on his part for a nomination in that year. Yet circumstances, over which he had no control, and with which he had no identity, were given such a turn as to reopen the stale cry of "Cæsarism." There were factional differences inside of his party. There was much unrest over the mild and indecisive policy of President Hayes. There was growing apprehension of a solid political South which should overshadow the more populous North, as in the old slave days. There was conviction that this supremacy did not, or would not, rest on a full and free expression of the sentiments of all the people there. There was hope that it was not too late to introduce there a divided sentiment, and secure a free play of individual and party rights, such as prevailed elsewhere. Earnest had been given that the time was ripe for a break in the closely-riveted partyism of the section, provided a man in whom all could have confidence, who was sterling in character, strong in will, consistent in conviction, kind and considerate in policy, could become a leader. Even promise had been passed that more than one of the Southern States would swing from their old political moorings under the leadership of distinguished citizens, if some one could be raised to power who could inspire respect, and whose terms of political co-operation would not prove humiliating.

In so far as all these existing facts were shaping sentiment,

or were reflexive of sentiment, it was perhaps unfortunate for Grant that the popular eye intuitively took him in when it scanned the political horizon for a Presidential candidate who would fill every requisite. Though a term had intervened, still the anti-third-term spirit existed, and it was now used even more freely, if not more rancorously, than before, because the contention was inside of the Republican party, and family quarrels are never free from bitterness and excitement. Again, a candidate of his weight would be a most disturbing element in a party convention. It would unsettle the drift of things political, overturn calculations, destroy the chances of aspirants, defeat ambitions. In many senses it would be a new departure in party proceedings, if not in party policy. Hence, we say it was perhaps unfortunate for Grant that, while as to general needs he was the ideal candidate, as to strict party discipline and tradition, he was a subject of discord, though by no movement or expression of his own. This is as things stood in the mists of the morning, prior to the real campaign of 1880.

But as the campaign progressed, and matters and men became more involved, acerbities quickened on the one hand, while on the other the impression grew that no one but a man of wellknown record and firm administrative capacity could meet the rising contingency without risk. There were States which some shrewd men regarded as pivotal, yet unsafe for any of the known aspirants for Presidential honors. One of these― New York-was held to be doubtful for any man the Republicans could name, except General Grant. Here was another cause for a crystalization of thought about him, which, so far as he was concerned, was simply a fate.

As party work began to centralize in the respective States and communities, and local leaders to place themselves at the heads of followings, each using his choice for candidate as a Shibboleth, and his favorite policy as argument, it was

found, amid all the clashings and bitterness, that the use of Grant's name was most effective in all those places in the North upon which a doubt of success rested, and in the South where a revolution in political sentiment was desirable. It was but natural that these leaders should take advantage of this, coupled as it was with Grant's well-known convictions against taking office, except in consonance with a decided expression of the popular will. We cannot undertake to say how far they thereby expected to further their personal ends, but will suppose that they acted upon honest conviction and for the party and public good. This we accord also to those who took such violent issue with them, but who unfortunately shaped their issue so as to make personal detraction an argument which only solidified opposition and became, in the end, a source of regret.

All things considered, the preliminary campaign of 1880 was, in a political sense, a natural and proper one, and in a progressive sense, a necessary one. In its bitter methods, its extreme personalism, its loose imputations, it was unnatural and unworthy. There were many great and good names before the country and each name represented a fair following. The most conspicuous were those of James G. Blaine, John Sherman, Elihu B. Washburne, Senator Windom, Senator Edmunds. These were directly in the field. Grant was not so, by any wish, request or act of his own. It was not even known whether he would accept the nomination. From what is known of his character and convictions, he most certainly would not have accepted if the majority had not been emphatic, and so plain an expression of the popular will as to make acceptance clearly a duty.

As the respective State conventions were held, those who were using his name carried delegates to the National Convention in most of the Southern States, and largely in New York, Pennsylvania and Illinois, with smaller numbers in

many other States. Altogether, they would not foot up enough to control the convention, but they would be strongstronger than those for any other candidate-and with the use of the unit rule, such as had generally prevailed, they could nominate. This was felt by the friends of all the candidates. Hence, to break the unit rule, by which the States should vote in accordance with the sentiment of a majority of their delegates, became an object on the part of the friends of all the candidates, except Grant. They broke it, and also raised and carried the issue of district representation in the States. This left every candidate on his merits.

The convention met in Chicago, June 5th, 1880, and sat nearly a week. Grant's name was brought directly before the convention by Senator Conkling, of New York, who urged that the need of the hour was a man who could carry doubtful Northern, and some of the Southern States. As to the "third term " idea, he failed to see why it could be a valid objection to a man that he had been weighed in the balance and not found wanting, or that he had obtained experience which rendered him better fitted for the duties confided to his care. He commended his civic policy in establishing international arbitration, opposing inflation and paving the way to resumption of specie payments, reducing the expenses of the government, and adhering to an intelligent principle of reconstruction. He then said:

"When asked whence comes our candidate, we say from Appomattox. The election before us will be the Austerlitz of American politics. It will decide whether for years to come the country will be Republican or Cossack. The need of the hour is a candidate who can carry doubtful States, North and South, and believing that he more surely than any other can carry New York against any opponent, and can carry not only the North, but several States of the South, New York is for Ulysses S. Grant. He alone of living Republicans can carry

New York. Never defeated in war or in peace, his name is the most illustrious borne by any living man. His services attest his greatness and the country knows them by heart. His fame was born not alone of things written and said, but of the arduous greatness of things done, and dangers and emergencies will search in vain in the future, as they have searched in vain in the past, for any other on whom the nation leans with such confidence and trust. Standing on the highest eminence of human destination, and having filled all lands with his renown, modest, simple and self-poised, he has seen not only the titled but the poor and the lowly, in the uttermost ends of the earth, rise and uncover before him. He has studied the needs and defects of many systems of government and he comes back a better American than ever, with a wealth of knowledge and experience added to the hard common sense which so conspicuously distinguished him in all the fierce light that beat upon him throughout the most eventful, trying and perilous sixteen years of the nation's history.

"Never having had a 'policy to enforce against the will of the people,' he never betrayed a cause or a friend, and the people will never betray or desert him. Vilified and reviled, truthlessly aspersed by numberless persons, not in other lands, but in his own, the assaults upon him have strengthened and seasoned his hold on the public heart. The ammunition of calumny has all been exploded, the powder has all been burned out, its force has spent and Grant's name will glitter as a bright and imperishable star in the diadem of the Republic, when those who have tried to tarnish it have mouldered in unforgotten graves and their memories and epitaphs have vanished utterly. Never elated by success, never depressed by adversity, he has ever in peace, as in war, shown the very genius of comThe terms he prescribed for Lee's surrender foreshadowed the wisest principles and prophecies of true reconstruction."

mon sense.