reunion of which General Grant received so many scattered evidences. during his last illness, and it was such a demonstration as he would have longed to see. Alas, he could not have lived to see it, for his death was the one event that could have been its occasion. And in the time of his death his country has been most fortunate. Ten years ago the passions of the war had not yet so far abated that such a demonstration over the open grave of the leader of the Union armies would have been possible. Ten years hence, in the course of nature, not all the famous soldiers of both sides, whose presence so signalized the demonstration of yesterday, would be alive to participate in it. The leaders of a great Rebellion paying the last tribute of honor to the leader of the armies that put it down furnish a spectacle without parallel in human history. Their presence and participation give proof of the generosity and the forbearance of the victorious government, and they give proof also of the magnanimity of the American character.

And so the curtain falls upon an act in the great drama. The period is put to a memorable chapter in American history that is not less memorable as a stage in the development of mankind. Solemn as is the occasion,

it is inspiring also, and of great hope.

"Nothing is here for tears, nothing to wail

Or knock the breast about, nothing but well and fair
And what may quiet us, in a death so noble !".

Or, to quote briefly from the solemn words spoken in his funeral eulogy upon Mt. McGregor, by the pastor who had known him so long and well: "From this better nature and higher mission as a warrior sprang his conduct toward the vanquished. He had no hatred in his heart.

His heart was as tender as a woman's. He was not vindictive. His holy evangel to the Nation was, 'Let us have peace.' Hence, toward the close of the war, those who had fought against him saw that there was no safety but in the arms of their conqueror. In his dying chamber he grasped the hand of him whose sword was the first he had won, and said: 'I have witnessed since my sickness just what I wished to see ever since the war-harmony and good feeling between the sections.' On holy Easter he sent forth this tender message: 'I desire the good will of all, whether hitherto my friends or not.' His was the song of the angels-'On earth peace, good will toward men.'

men.

"This has been the softening ministry of his sufferings to his countryGod permitted him to see the glorious consummation. Our sorrow is National in the broadest sense. And to-day where the magnolia blooms and the palmetto grows 'men in gray' weep as over the death of their best friend. And had he lived to see a foreign foe invade our shores, north and south would have chosen him to lead us to defend our liberty. Doubtless he will be best known in coming ages as the foremost

soldier of the Republic. Unknown generations will read his battles with wonder and admiration. In every hamlet, in every metropolis, his martial form will be cast in bronze and sculptured in marble. Historians will vie with each other in paying homage to his genius; but the time will come when men everywhere will recognize the greatness and beneficence of his administration as President of the United States. It were a crime against history and an injustice to his memory were we to lose sight of the statesman amid the glory of the warrior. Such was the magnitude of those great measures of state, of domestic and foreign policy; so farreaching their influence, so comprehensive their mission, that generations may pass from the vision of the world ere the true and full estimate of his political worth shall be determined. Then his administration of eight years will receive the calm consideration and just approval of his countrymen. When the memories of party strife shall have been forgotten; when the disappointed aspirations for office shall have ceased to fester; when the rival for place and power are no more-then, as comes the sun from the mists of the morning, so shall his administration appear in greatest splendor. Then the historian of that calmer age will wonder how a soldier by endowment and education, accustomed only to camp and field, unlearned in state craft, unfamiliar with political science, unacquainted with the methods of civil administration, could have displayed such breadth of statesmanship in the measures which he originated and approved.

"Great and beneficent as were his measures of reconstruction, amendments to the Constitution, of finance, of the improvement of the laboring classes, of the just treatment of the Indians, of the elevation of the freedmen, of the promotion of education and of the concessions he compelled foreign powers to make, yet in the interests of universal peace, in the ultimate recognition of the brotherhood of nations, in the advancement of Christian civilization in all the earth, the treaty of Washington will be esteemed of immeasurable grandeur and beneficence, not to be estimated by millions of dollars but by the possibility and prophecy that all international disputes may be adjusted by peaceful arbitration, when nations shall learn war no more. Such was his dream of the future, expressed to International Arbitration Union, in Birmingham, England, when he said: 'Nothing would afford me greater happiness than to know, as I believe will be the case, that at some future day the nations of the earth will agree upon some sort of congress which shall take cognizance of international questions of difficulty, and whose decisions will be as binding as the decision of our supreme court is binding upon us.'

UNIV

OF ICH

RUTHERFORD B. HAYES.

HEN Rutherford B. Hayes was nominated to the Presidency of the United States by the National Republican convention of 1876, he was no unknown man, although not before generally numbered among those who, by long training in eminent places, had established a recognized claim upon the Presidential succession. As a successful soldier in the War of the Rebellion, as a member of congress, and by three elections to the governorship of Ohio, he had won a place in the respect and confidence of the people; and by his course in these and minor public positions, had proved himself an honest, liberal-minded and competent official. His nomination was received with unusual satisfaction by the party of which he became the standard-bearer; and although he went into the White House under a title upon which a question must ever rest, he performed his great duties in a manner that gave the country security and confidence, while his administration was as pure and free from scandal as has been any from the days of Washington.

President Hayes came of a Scottish ancestry, the first member of the family in America being George Hayes of Scotland, who settled at Windsor, in the colony of Connecticut, in 1682. One of his direct descendants was Rutherford Hayes, who located in Delaware, Ohio, in 1817, where the future President of the United States was born on October 4, 1822. The death of his father several months before this event left the care of a small family upon the hands of the mother, who proved herself equal to the task. Her entire income came from the rent of a farm lying two miles north of town, but it enabled her, by the closest economy, not only to supply the wants of the day, but to give her children the benefits of the common schools as well. The son, Rutherford, showed an early aptitude for books, and after a preliminary course in the common branches he commenced the study of Latin and Greek under the tuition of a neighbor, and made excellent progress therein. By the kindly aid of an uncle, Sardis Birchard, his mother's brother and his guardian, he was sent, when ready for it, to an academy at Norwalk, Ohio, where he remained one