mour, of New York. The election resulted in Grant receiving two hundred and fourteen out of two hundred and ninety-four electoral votes. He was inaugurated on the 4th of March, 1869. Though brought into conflict with some of the prominent men of his party by his determined effort to bring about the annexation of San Domingo to the United States, President Grant's first official term gave satisfaction to the mass of his Republican adherents. During the first six months of his term the public debt was reduced some fifty millions of dollars, order and prosperity were rapidly restored throughout the Southern States, and the hatred and animosities of the war were greatly softened, though Grant's firmness in many instances had begotten severe opposition.

In their National Convention at Philadelphia, on the 5th of June, 1872, he was nominated by acclamation for a second term. His opponent in this contest was Horace Greeley, who was supported by both the Democrats and the so-called Liberal Republicans. The election resulted in the success of General Grant, who received two hundred and sixty-eight out of the three hundred and forty-eight electoral votes cast. He was inaugurated a second time on the 4th of March, 1873.

Grant's second term was one of improving prospects, though the transitions from the excessive inflations attendant on the war to the solid

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business basis of peace made financial affairs unsteady and led to the famous panic of '73. But prosperity returned gradually and on a more solid basis, and the great Centennial Exposition of 1876, at Philadelphia, was a fitting crown upon the final year of Grant's eight years of Presidential work and honor. In his last message to Congress he urged compulsory common-school education where other means of education are not provided; the exclusion of all sectarianism from public schools; the prohibition of voting, after 1890, to all persons unable to read and write; the permanent separation of Church and State; entire religious freedom for all sects, and legislation to speedily secure a return to sound currency.

General Grant was strongly urged to accept the nomination for a third term, but declined the honor and retired to private life, March 4th, 1877. After his long-continued public service, an extended trip abroad was deemed desirable by the General. Arrangements were matured accordingly, and on May 17th, 1877, he sailed from Philadelphia in the steamer Indiana. His journey was prosperous in every respect. He made the tour of the world and reached San Francisco September 20th, 1879. Everywhere he was the recipient of the highest honors. The most distinguished crowned heads and military leaders of all nations were proud to do him honor, and he in return did many personal friendly offices which were most

gratefully recognized. He finally settled in New York city, where fatal sickness overtook him, and he died July 23d, 1885.

R

RUTHERFORD B. HAYES.

UTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES, the nineteenth incumbent of the Presidential chair, was born at Delaware, Ohio, October 4th, 1822. He enjoyed the most favorable surroundings of refinement and culture in his youth, and graduated at Kenyon College in 1842. In 1845, he graduated from the Harvard Law School and began practice in Fremont, Ohio, from which place he removed to Cincinnati in 1849. He served as City Solicitor for several years, until the breaking out of the war, when he took the field as major of the Twenty-third Ohio Volunteers. He had a splendid record, rising to the command of a division, being breveted major-general, and continuing until June 1st, 1865, when he resigned his rank and returned to Cincinnati.

In December, 1865, he entered Congress, to which he had been elected before he left the army. He was re-elected to this position, but resigned to become Governor of Ohio, to which office he was three times chosen, an honor never before conferred in that State. The prominent issues in his last campaign for the Governorship were the

currency and the school questions.

So satis

factory were his views on these measures, that he received much favorable mention for nomination in the Presidential campaign then approaching.

On June 16th, 1876, the Republican Convention met at Cincinnati, and on the seventh ballot Hayes received the nomination over James G. Blaine and Benjamin H. Bristow. Hayes received three hundred and eighty-four votes, Blaine three hundred and fifty-one, and Bristow twenty-one. The contest was bitter in the Convention and in the succeeding canvass, and its close was a disputed election, the electoral votes of Florida, South Carolina, and Louisiana being claimed by both parties, as was one electoral vote of Oregon also. The contest was finally referred to an Electoral Commission, which decided by a vote of eight to seven that Hayes was elected, and he, accordingly, succeeded General Grant in the office on March 4th, 1877, the inauguration occurring on the next day, Monday, March 5th. The great feature of this Administration was the full resumption of specie payments, a success achieved without jar or confusion of any kind in the business of the country.

At the close of his term, March 4th, 1881, Mr. Hayes turned over the Administration to his successor amid peace and prosperity such as the nation seldom enjoyed, and returned to his home in Ohio, where he still lives (July, 1884), respected and beloved by all his fellow-citizens.

T

JAMES A. GARFIELD.

HE nation's choice for the twenty-fourth Presidential term, James Abram Garfield, was born November 19th, 1831, at Orange, Cuyahoga County, Ohio. His ancestors were early immigrants of New England, and they bore noble part in all the hardships and sufferings of the Revolutionary and earlier periods. His parents were Abram and Eliza Garfield, his father dying when James was but a child, and his mother surviving to see his exaltation to the Presidency and his untimely end.

James Garfield's early life was one filled with the struggles incident to poverty on the frontier settlements. On the farm, on the canal, and at the carpenter's bench, he toiled energetically, reading and studying all the while, that he might fit himself for college. He finally betook himself to teaching as a means of subsistence, and while so engaged pressed his own education diligently. He decided to enter Williams College, Mass., which he did, in June, 1854, in a class nearly two years advanced. He had saved some money, but he worked during his vacations and at spare moments, and so was enabled to complete his course, though somewhat in debt, graduating August, 1856. While yet a student, he became much interested in politics and made some speeches on his favorite views.