"As to politics, you see I stick to Grant. I determined in 1868 that there should be no ill-feeling, alienation, or discord between President and Vice this term. And I feel sure that it is to be Grant or a Democrat in '72. I am more than ever resolved to quit public life myself, as you will see when the time comes."

Mr. Bowles writes again, June 14th :

"In public affairs, you see the Republican, and note that we still fight with a free lance. Greeley's speech and position delight me immensely. They will do great good. He is wiser than the Administration, broader than his party, and if he had brought the Tribune up to the standard of his speech in the last year or two, we should not have been in the hard condition that we are now, in some respects. I recognize, of course, the possibility-say probability—that Grant will be our candidate again. If he is, I expect to support him. But we ought to do better, and to go up higher. We ought to have a man of higher tone, personally, and of larger experience, politically. But this is politics, and as one of your doctors, I forbid such exciting themes. Good-by!"

In the fall Mr. Greeley had come to the conclusion that he could not support Grant in 1872. He thought it looked as though Colfax might become an available candidate. November 15th Sinclair wrote Colfax: "Seriously now, I beg you not to say again that you are in earnest in your statements that you shall retire from public life. Nobody doubts the fact, and nobody believes that you would be seeking a nomination, even if you had not retired; but it may be necessary to insist on your being a candidate. I told Mr. Greeley I should write you, and he asked me to 'tell Schuyler that he may publish once a week that he is for Grant, but not to say anything more about his own retirement.'

This letter reached Mr. Colfax while he was characteristically "taking a circuit round via Indianapolis, to meet with the Odd Fellows' Grand Lodge and dedicate a Young Men's Christian Association Hall, visit Senator Lane at Crawfordsville, and see about the public buildings at Chicago." He replied, November 25th:

"I guess I will obey your injunctions and H. G.'s as to ceasing to talk about retiring; but, as H. G. concedes, I shall have to say about once a week that I am for Grant, as I really am, and even that does not pre

vent the John Russell Youngs, General Butlers, etc., from persistently asserting that I am in a conspiracy to supplant him. If I had not been so distinctly pronounced, mischief-makers would have succeeded in producing alienations between us, as they always have heretofore done between President and Vice. But they have failed utterly; and I rejoice that whatever discords there may be, none can be traced to any ill-feeling between the two men the Republicans elected to their highest offices in '68. So it shall be to the end. Doubtless General Grant has made mistakes. So has every public man. I have made many in appointments in my district, but my constituents always forgave me. Mr. Lincoln made many, some of them almost ruinous to the nation, And doubtless I would have made numberless ones if I had been in Grant's place. One reason why I couldn't be in a combination for his place is that I never wanted it. I would not exchange offices with him to-day. I prefer mine to any other in the Government, but I concluded to retire to get out of every one's way, and because my ambition was really satisfied. I think still that it might be better for me to be withdrawn from the ticket, but I guess I will say no more about it, though if I am silent two weeks the papers will be after me in full cry as a candidate again.”

On the 9th of November he wrote President Grant, with the view of preventing misunderstanding, which many were trying to create. He says:

"Everywhere, to friend and foe, in print and in correspondence, I have said to all who spoke to me on the subject of politics that I was for your renomination and re-election, and that I was a candidate or aspirant for nothing. And whenever the dissatisfied have come to me with their complaints, they have obtained no sympathy, nor aid, nor comfort. I have abstained from criticism, even when I thought it deserved, so that no one should be able to use my comments in an unfriendly way. If I have had any influence with the people, it has been used to discourage and condemn the petty carping and fault-finding against you, and to endeavor to increase, not to diminish, the public confidence in you. Indeed, I have written long letters to several editors, old friends of mine, but who have been unjust to you, refuting in detail, one by one, their charges. It is easy to repeat it now, when the auspicious result of the elections leaves no doubt as to next year's campaign, but I ask you to remember, in justice to me, that I have for ten years said exactly what I am still saying on this point."

President Grant replied:

Confidential.

"EXECUTIVE

WASHINGTON, D. U., NO MANSION, 1871.}

"MY DEAR MR. VICE-PRESIDENT: I have your letter of the 9th instant, and hasten to answer it, merely to set your mind at rest concerning

the possible effect on me made by such publications as those enclosed. From the time of our election there have been people intent upon creating jealousy between us. So far as I am concerned, their efforts have totally failed, and I want no evidence but my senses to tell me that their failure with you is equally complete.

"The New York Standard is largely owned and completely controlled by General Butler. He, Butler-to repeat none of our conversations except what is here pertinent—said to me that your letter published in the Independent was a bid for the Presidency, that you were Horace Greeley's candidate, etc. I simply replied testifying my entire confidence in the earnestness you felt in declaring (your position) to the country, but that if you should be the choice of the Republican Party I did not know a better man to lead them, nor one that I could more earnestly work in support of; that my great ambition was to save all that has been gained by so much sacrifice of blood and treasure; that I religiously believed that that could only be done through the triumph of the Republican Party until their opponents get on a national, patriotic, Union platform; that the choice of the Republican Party was my choice; that I held no patent right to the office, and probably had the least desire for it of any one who had ever held it, or was ever prominently mentioned in connection with it. Give yourself not the least concern about the effect on me of anything the papers may say to disturb our relations. "Yours very truly,

"U. S. GRANT.

"HON. S. COLFAX."

General Butler would not have been far out of the way respecting the Independent article had any other man with Colfax's standing been its author. It expressed with clearness and precision the popular demand for reform. In view of the growing dissatisfaction with Grant's leadership, of Colfax's faculty of gauging the direction and force of public sentiment, and of the fact that the article was republished with approving comments by the entire Republican press, any other man than Grant would have thought it cause for jealousy. The party could not afford, said the writer, to ignore the increasing popular demand for revenue reform, for civil service reform; that the incompetent and unworthy shall not be appointed to office; that the appropriations shall be reduced, land grants and subsidies cease, and general amnesty be proclaimed. It was a very significant article, saying in effect that all that the Greeley Republicans were demanding, and more, should

be acceded to as a matter of course; and its publication, under the circumstances, was conclusive proof of the VicePresident's disinterestedness and sincerity; of his confidence that the President and the country would take it in the spirit in which it was put forth.

It is easy to criticise, to point out what ought to be done; as easy as it is hard to do it. In his December message to Congress, President Grant showed that he could talk reform as well as any of his critics. "How completely our good President comes over to the advanced platform in his message!" Bowles wrote Colfax, December 14th. "Really, it is pretty discouraging to those of us who are trying to have the convention nominate another man! If he would only practise as well as he preaches, he would not leave a single inch for us to stand upon. tainly, he encourages us to go on in the cause of reform administration, of advancing simplicity and purity of government. Still, I insist he is the weakest candidate the Republican Party can nominate. And yet, again, I don't see how it is possible to nominate anybody else. And yet I hope!"

Cer

CHAPTER XII.

FORTY-SECOND CONGRESS.

1871-1873.

THE PARTY APPARENTLY NEGATIVES HIS RETIREMENT.-HE REFUSES TO BE A CANDIDATE FOR THE PRESIDENCY AGAINST GRANT.-THE CONVENTION, GRANT'S FRIENDS NOMINATE HENRY WILSON.-GIVES IN HIS ADHESION TO THE TICKET.-BUT DECLINES TO ACTIVELY ENGAGE IN THE CANVASS.-FORCED TO, HOWEVER, TO SAVE THE DAY.-DEATH OF HIS MOTHER.-REPLIES TO THE CREDIT MOBILIER CAMPAIGN SLANDERS.-VISITS THE INDIANA LEGislature.-DEATH OF HORACE GREELEY.-INVITED TO TAKE GREELEY'S PLACE ON THE Tribune.-THE NEGOTIATION, WHY IT FAILED,

THE elections of November, 1871, were carried by the Republicans, and there was no longer any reasonable doubt of Grant's renomination. Part of the old ticket being inevitable, the demand for all of it grew stronger. After the meeting of Congress urgent appeals were made to Colfax to reconsider his determination to retire, and a determination to nominate him whether or no was manifested. "The Republican Party demands (we use the strong word as the right word; it is not a mere request) that Hon. Schuyler Colfax shall again be its candidate for Vice-President." This was the position taken by a large part of the Republican press. His declining two years in advance was termed a "breach of discipline," "and the best rebuke," said Senator Anthony's paper, the Providence Journal—and in this it spoke for the leading Administration Senators-" will be a renomination, which, whatever he may think or say, it will be hardly possible for him to refuse when imposed upon him by the convention representing the general wish of the party." Speaking of this afterward, Colonel C. C. Fulton said in the