546 ENORMOUS SAVING FOR THE GOVERNMENT [1868. were of a perishable nature; besides, being borne on the returns of officers accountable for them, they had to be stored and guarded, although the cost of care per annum might be greater than their value. Under my direction all these surplus and useless stores in the quartermaster's department are being sold." He soon reduced the current expenses of the department more than half a million of dollars per month; mustered out superfluous officers; sold stores and material to the amount of many millions of dollars in the quartermaster's department alone, and infused economy and rigid responsibility through every branch of the military service. Sheridan, delighted at Grant's earnest support of the reconstruction laws and the seeming certainty of his election to the Presidency, wrote a friend :— "It is perhaps needless for me to tell you how light my heart is on account of the glorious record, in front of which General Grant now stands before the country. "The country now begins to appreciate that his was the only hand which patted me on the shoulder and gave me encouragement, when I, almost alone, stuck up my little battle flag at New Orleans to assist a second time in saving the country and preserving the record of our soldiers. Had Grant, Sherman, and myself, and others gone over to the enemy, much darkness would have come upon the land. "Two solutions were necessary for the settlement of the rebellion. The first was to take away from it its military strength. That was done at Appomattox. The second, to take away its political strength. That will be done next November. It will be a short campaign, but as decisive as Appomattox." The General-in-Chief thoughtfully reciprocated the esteem of his lieutenant. To a New York editor he said: "The people don't understand Sheridan. Though he has all the popularity any man could desire, his capacity is not appreciated. The impression seems to be that he is only a brave, downright fighter. Really, he is a man of admirable judgment, capable of handling, under any circumstances, the largest army ever seen in the United States." A closing observation or two upon Grant's personal traits. No man has a more tender heart. Many were his unostentatious deeds of kindness, even in his years of poverty; and since Fame and Fortune smiled upon him, all sorts of pensioners have shared his beneficence. To the widows and 1868.] A LETTER FROM PHIL. SHERIDAN. 547 of the rebellwe Tthe first was is take away your he 548 SOME OF GRANT'S PERSONAL TRAITS. [1864. orphans of fallen soldiers particularly, his helpfulness and generosity have been unfailing. Not Abraham Lincoln himself had a more forgiving spirit. If he is capable of malice toward any human being, I have failed to find evidence of it. While a second lieutenant at Jefferson Barracks, soon after leaving the Military Academy, his mess attempted to enforce the rigid social discipline of the English army. Failure to come promptly to meals, or any slight neglect in dress, was punished by a fine of a bottle of wine. Grant, naturally careless in his attire, was frequently mulcted. One day he ventured to suggest that this rule was proving very hard on him. The commandant, a strict martinet, replied coldly :"Lieutenant, young men should be seen and not heard." This quite quenched the modest subaltern. Ten years later, the same rigid colonel was the means of his leaving the army. This would have stirred the eternal enmity of any narrow nature. But Grant, since rising to the chief command, has treated him with the utmost liberality and kindness, helping to secure his promotion and keeping him in responsible positions. In this case he doubtless respected the conscientious performance of duty as the colonel saw it, but his capacity to forget and forgive, even the grossest personal treachery, seems to be boundless. Few men have a quicker or more genial mirthfulness. Once, returning from a wedding in Pennsylvania, in company with Mrs. Grant and General and Mrs. Hillyer, he was beset by throngs at the stations; and many people, unfamiliar with his features, took his former aide for the chief. HILLYER." A droll blunder, isn't it?" GRANT.-"Oh no; these people have read in the newspapers that I am a very plain man. So when they come into the car, of course they don't recognize me by that description, but take you for the General !" His domesticity is exceedingly strong. He is an affectionate father, and a most devoted husband. All the inmates of his pleasant Washington home seem to have caught something of his own modesty, calmness, and gentleness. 1868.] A NATIONAL REPUBLICAN CONVENTION. 549 CHAPTER XLVII. WHITE HOUSE. ON the nineteenth of May, 1868, a national republican convention, in Chicago, every State of the Union being represented, adopted this declaration of principles : "1. We congratulate the country on the assured success of the reconstruction policy of Congress, as evinced by the adoption, in the majority of the States lately in rebellion, of constitutions securing equal civil and political rights to all, and it is the duty of the Government to sustain those institutions, and to prevent the people of such States from being remitted to a state of anarchy. "2. The guaranty by Congress of equal suffrage to all loyal men at the South, was demanded by every consideration of public safety, of gratitude, and of justice, and must be maintained; while the question of suffrage in all the loyal States properly belongs to the people of those States. "3. We denounce all forms of repudiation as a national crime; and the national honor requires the payment of the public indebtedness in the uttermost good faith to all creditors at home and abroad, not only according to the letter but the spirit of the laws under which it was contracted. "4. It is due to the labor of the nation that taxation should be equalized, and reduced as rapidly as the national faith will permit. "5. The national debt, contracted, as it has been, for the preservation of the Union for all time to come, should be extended over a fair period for redemption; and it is the duty of Congress to reduce the rate of interest thereon, whenever it can be honestly done. "6. That the best policy to diminish our burden of debt is to so improve our credit that capitalists will seek to loan us money at lower rates of interest than we now pay, and must continue to pay, so long as repudiation, partial or total, open or covert, is threatened or suspected. "7. The Government of the United States should be administered with the strictest economy, and the corruptions which have been so shamefully nursed and fostered by Andrew Johnson call loudly for radical reform. 8. We professedly deplore the untimely and tragic death of Abraham Lincoln, and regret the accession of Andrew Johnson to the Presidency, who has acted treacherously to the people who elected him, and the cause he was pledged to support; who has warped high legislative and judicial functions; who has refused to execute the laws; who has used his high office to induce other officers to ignore and violate the laws; who has employed his execu 550 ITS DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES. [1868. tive powers to render insecure the property, the peace, liberty, and life of the citizen; who has abused the pardoning power; who has denounced the National Legislature as unconstitutional; who has persistently and corruptly resisted, by every measure in his power, every proper attempt at the reconstruction of the States lately in rebellion; who has perverted the public patronage into an engine of wholesale corruption, and who has been justly impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors, and properly pronounced guilty thereof by the vote of thirty-five Senators. "9. The doctrine of Great Britain, and other European powers, that because a man is once a subject he is always so, must be resisted at every hazard by the United States, as a relic of the feudal times, not authorized by the law of nations, and at war with our national honor and independence. Naturalized citizens are entitled to be protected in all their rights of citizenship as though they were native-born, and no citizen of the United States, native or naturalized, must be liable to arrest and imprisonment by any foreign power for acts done or words spoken in this country; and if so arrested and imprisoned, it is the duty of the Government to interfere in his behalf. "10. Of all who were faithful in the trials of the late war, there were none entitled to more especial honor than the brave soldiers and seamen who endured the hardships of campaign and cruise, and imperiled their lives in the service of the country; the bounties and pensions provided by the laws for these brave defenders of the nation are obligations never to be forgotten; the widows and orphans of the gallant dead are the wards of the people, a sacred legacy bequeathed to the nation's protecting care. "11. Foreign emigration-which in the past has added so much to the wealth, development, and resources, and increase of power to this nation, the asylum of the oppressed of all nations-should be fostered and encouraged by a liberal and just policy. "12. This convention declares itself in sympathy with all the oppressed peoples which are struggling for their rights; "13. That we highly commend the spirit of magnanimity and forbearance with which the men who have served in the rebellion, but now frankly and honestly co-operate with us in restoring the peace of the country and reconstructing the Southern State governments upon the basis of impartial justice and equal rights, are received back into the communion of the loyal people; and we favor the removal of the disqualifications and restrictions imposed upon the late rebels in the same measure as their spirit of loyalty will direct, and so may be consistent with the safety of the loyal people; and "14. That we recognize the great principles laid down in the immortal Declaration of Independence as the true foundation of democratic government, and we hail with gladness every effort toward making these principles a living reality on every inch of American soil." Six hundred and fifty delegates were in attendance; and when the roll of States was called to name a Presidential |