Provision had been made for the resumption of specie payments and inflation, which was rampant, had been dealt a deadly blow.

For one who entered on his service with no political experience whatever, who was a stranger to the ways of statecraft and diplomacy, Grant's Presidency presents a record of success almost as striking though less dramatic than his career in war. His messages, from which citations have been made, were mostly written with his own hand, and he was always in close touch with the innumerable important questions in which the various members of his Cabinet were immediately concerned.

Considering all these things there is a needless note of pathos in the personal reference which he incorporated in his last message in December, 1876:

"It was my fortune, or misfortune, to be called to the office of Chief Executive without any previous political training. From the age of seventeen I had never even witnessed the excitement attending a presidential campaign but twice antecedent to my own candidacy, and at but one of them was I eligible as a voter.

"Under such circumstances it is but reasonable to suppose that errors of judgment must have occurred. Even had they not, differences of opinion between the Executive, bound by an oath to the strict per

formance of his duties, and writers and debaters, must have arisen. It is not necessarily evidence of blunder on the part of the Executive because there are these differences of views. Mistakes have been made, as all can see, and I admit, but it seems to me oftener in the selections made in the assistants appointed to aid in carrying out the various duties of administering the government-in nearly every case selected without a personal acquaintance with the appointee, but upon recommendation of the representatives chosen directly by the people. It is impossible, where so many trusts are to be allotted, that the right parties should be chosen in every instance. History shows that no Administration from the time of Washington to the present has been free from these mistakes. But I leave comparisons to history, claiming only that I have acted in every instance from a conscientious desire to do what was right, constitutional, within the law, and for the very best interests of the whole people. Failures have been errors of judgment, not of intent." 1

In constructive achievements, coming as it did directly after the demoralization of the war and the upset of traditions due to Lincoln's military measures in that imperative emergency, Grant's Administration ranks second only to that of Washington, who

1 Richardson, Messages and Papers, vol. vii, pp. 399–400.

had to set the Government in motion under the Constitution. He might safely "leave comparisons to history." If we except the baneful Southern problem which was bequeathed to him, and where his fault, if fault there was, lay in the rigid execution of the law, it would be hard to place the finger now on an executive policy approved by him which subsequent experience has condemned.

CHAPTER XLVI

THE TRIP AROUND THE WORLD-THE THIRD

TERM

A FEW weeks of adulation and then Grant went abroad. He sailed from Philadelphia in middle May. His daughter Nellie, who had married Algernon Sartoris in the White House, was living in her husband's home in England. Beyond seeing her he had few plans.

Great crowds bade him good-bye in Philadelphia, thronging the wharves from which he sailed with Mrs. Grant and Jesse, his youngest boy. To his amazement even greater crowds were at the wharves in Liverpool. Ten thousand Englishmen pushed through the custom house to welcome him. He was presented with the freedom of the city, both at Liverpool and Manchester, and his run toward London was like a triumph. In London the experience was repeated. English tradespeople and workingmen held him in higher honor than he thought. To them he was the world's most famous living general, personifying in their eyes the marvel of democracy.

Shortly, the scions of nobility took him in hand.

When Fillmore and Van Buren were visitors in England they had little more attention than any other private citizen and trudged along complacently at the tail end of the line, but Grant, through some diplomacy by our Minister in London, was treated as a former sovereign- not that he cared for it especially, but Pierrepont felt that as a former President of the United States he must not be slighted. Whatever those at home might think about it, the Englishman familiar with court etiquette would size it up as an indignity, not alone to Grant, but to the country whence he hailed.

Aside from minor incidents the pleasure of the English visit was undimmed and the example of the London court followed Grant around the world. He visited every capital of Europe and almost every important town. He talked with Bismarck and Von Moltke in Germany, with Gambetta and MacMahon in France, with Gortchakoff in Russia, with Castelar in Spain, with kings and queens and emperors, the Czar, the Pope. In almost every capital he was asked to witness a review of troops and he invariably declined. To the Crown Prince of Germany he said: "The truth is I am more of a farmer than a soldier. I take little or no interest in military affairs. I never went into the army without regret and I never retired without pleasure." He wandered dumbly through