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fence of Grant's plan of the Virginia Campaign, so hastily sketched above; and in his journal—the New York Tribune-of July 2d, 1864, he paid the following glowing tribute to the man who "broke the back of the Slaveholder's Rebellion:"

"We loathe man-worship, yet every day's experience strengthens our faith in Lieutenant-General Grant. The task devolved on him is arduous; he is confronted by an able general and a gallant veteran army who enjoy enormous advantages in their defensive attitudes, the nature of the country and their intimate knowledge of its topography; yet from the hour of his crossing the Rapidan, General Grant has gone steadily, sturdily forward, repelling impetuous attacks, assaulting (when necessary) strongly fortified positions; withdrawing unobserved from the immediate front of his wary antagonist and effecting the most daring and difficult flank movements, thereby achieving the fruits of victory without encountering the carnage which is the usual cost of success—and all this with a stern quietude that indicates reserved force and a consciousness of power adapted to any emergency. We are not apt to be over sanguine; we realize that victory is often a happy accident and that occurrences purely fortuitous often derange and defeat the ablest combinations; but, having noted his bearing under every phase of fortune, his quick improvement of advantages and his skillful reparation of mischances; we cannot doubt that he has true military genius, and that he will do whatever one man can do to break the back of the Slaveholder's Rebellion."

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CHAPTER XIII.

GRANT AS PRESIDENT.

Difficulties Encountered on his Induction to the Chair of State-General Policy of the Administration-The Will of the People Supreme-Economy the Rule-Some Figures-Grant and the Civil Service-Important Reforms-Grant and Amnesty-Policy toward the Colored Race-The Treaty with England-History of the Negotiations-Grant's Indian Policy-The Olive Branch Armed with a Switch.

Some of the peculiar difficulties with which President Grant had to contend at the outset of his administration were alluded to in a previous chapter; the two chief being reconstruction and the unhappy state of the civil service. Each of these was partly the natural growth of the war and partly the legacy of Andrew Johnson's cross-grained administration; and the treatment of either of them would have furnished a very good eight years' job to a moderately active President. But General Grant, though commencing his administration very modestly, so far as all his public utterances went, has undertaken not only these Herculean labors which thrust themselves forward the most prominently, but numerous other beneficent works within the sphere of his duties as Executive. Many of these he has happily accomplished; others he has advanced creditably, and seems sure to secure both Congressional and popular co-operation in their

behalf within a year or two; while a single one, having met serious opposition in the legislative branch, which General Grant, unlike his predecessor, consents cheerfully to recognize as a co-ordinate branch of the Government, has been quietly dropped, in lieu of the persistent scolding to which Congress became so accustomed during the incumbency of Johnson.

GRANT'S VIEW OF HIS DUTIES.

Grant's general policy, as mapped out by himself, for himself, at his inauguration, has been made familiar to all. "The office," he said, "has come to me unsought. I commence its duties untrammeled. I bring to it a conscientious desire and determination to fill it to the best of my ability to the satisfaction of the people. On all leading questions agitating the public mind I will always express my views to Congress, and urge them according to my judgment; and when I think it advisable will exercise the constitutional privilege of interposing a veto to defeat measures which I oppose. But all laws will be faithfully executed, whether they meet my approval or not. I shall on all subjects have a policy to recommend, but none to enforce against the will of the people. Laws are to govern all alike, those opposed to as well as those who favor them. I know no method to secure the repeal of bad or obnoxious laws so effective as their stringent execution."

In other words, he proposed to discharge the

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