THE VETO OF THE INFLATION BILL.

153 to revise my report to see that I have quoted him correctly. It may not be uninteresting to add that it was not without reluctance that General Grant gave his consent. This arose from

his dislike to appear in print. But it seemed to me that one who had played so great a part in the world's affairs should not pass away without being heard concerning events which he had governed, and which will live in history so long as American history is written. I do not claim the dignity of history for these conversations; I only claim that they represent the opinions of General Grant, and now go to the world with his knowledge and consent.

I note among our conversations one memorandum concerning his administration. "I hear a good deal in politics about expediency," said the General, one day. "The only time I ever deliberately resolved to do an expedient thing for party reasons, against my own judgment, was on the occasion of the expansion or inflation bill. I never was so pressed in my life to do anything as to sign that bill, never. It was represented to me that the veto would destroy the Republican party in the West; that the West and South would combine and take the country, and agree upon some even worse plan of finance; some plan that would mean repudiation. Morton, Logan, and other men, friends whom I respected, were eloquent in presenting this view. I thought at last I would try and save the party, and at the same time the credit of the nation, from the evils of the bill. I resolved to write a message, embodying my own reasoning and some of the arguments that had been given me, to show that the bill, as passed, did not mean expansion or inflation, and that it need not affect the country's credit. The message was intended to soothe the East, and satisfy the foreign holders of the bonds. I wrote the message with great care, and put in every argument I could call up to show that the bill was harmless and would not accomplish what its friends expected from it. Well, when I finished my wonderful message, which was to do so much good to the party and country, I read it over, and said to myself: 'What is the good of all this? You do not believe it. You know it is not

dispatch from James F. Wilson, of Iowa, a glowing enthusiastic dispatch. Bristow also sent me a warm dispatch, and it was that dispatch, by the way, as much as anything else, that decided me to offer Bristow the Treasury. The results of that veto, which I awaited with apprehension, were of the most salutary character. It was the encouragement which it gave to the friends of honest money in the West that revived and strengthened them in the West. You see its fruits to-day in the action of the Republican Convention of Iowa."

Nothing by the way," says the General, "shows the insincerity of politicians more than the course of the Democratic party on the financial question. During the war they insisted that the legal-tender act was unconstitutional, and that the law making paper legal tender should be repealed. Now they insist that there should be millions of irredeemable currency in circulation. When the country wanted paper they clamored for gold, now when we are rich enough to pay gold they want paper. I am surprised that our writers and speakers do not make

hought, when I was President, to the subject of a canal Central America, a ship canal connecting the two oceans. mehow, I had not influence enough with the administramake it an administration measure. I did all I could to he way for it. My old friend Admiral Ammen did some ble work. Mr. Fish did not feel the same interest, but all that was necessary. There are several routes for canal, but the best one is that through Nicaragua. The s plan cannot succeed. I studied the question thor, and read all the reports. As a young officer I crossed tinent on the Nicaragua route, and I have no doubt that e true one. I may not live to see it done, but it must be ay. The route through Columbia is expensive and diffiaccount of the rocks and streams. The Panama route be difficult and expensive. There would be tunnels to The tropical winter rains, and the torrents that would into the canal, carrying rocks, trees, stones, and other would make the keeping of the canal in order a costly SS. On the Tehuantepec route the water would have raised so high, by a system of locks, that it could not Nature seems to have made the route through Nic. Ammen collected an immense mass of information on ject, which now is in the Navy Department. It will be of inestimable value when the time comes. Ammen 1 great ability and industry in doing this work for aneneration. Mr. Fish made drafts of all the treaties necwith Costa Rica and Nicaragua. He also considered ranged all the questions that might arise with foreign as to the control of the canal, and left everything to the Department ready for action when the time comes. After yes came in, I called on Mr. Evarts and spent an hour m going over the whole subject, telling him what we had nd explaining the exact position in which I had left the n. I urged upon him the value of the work. I suphowever, Mr. Hayes finds the same difficulty that I tered, the difficulty of interesting people in the subject. will come, it must come. If we do not do it, our