to be gained by the change. His letter to the President, above quoted, unquestionably reflected his true feelings about the matter.

Very naturally the country was greatly astonished to see Grant enter the cabinet which was struggling to nullify his own. glorious achievements as a soldier. The people could not know of his agreement with Stanton, nor see that what seemed to be a master-stroke on the part of the rampant President was really the first step toward ultimate defeat.

Major A. E. H. Johnson, confidential clerk to Stanton, continued in that capacity with Grant, reporting now and then to his former chief the inconsequential developments of the War Department. He says:

Had General McClellan or General Steedman or General Ewing or General Cox or General Sherman, to all of whom, I believe, the War Department was offered, accepted, Mr. Stanton would have resisted because Congress, by the tenure-of-office law of March, 1867, had placed him above the President; but he trusted Grant.

When Grant accepted, the Democratic and copperhead and even the Southern press took him under its wing and patted and petted him as one of them. The Richmond Dispatch declared gleefully that the President now had a right arm and the Inquirer observed that Johnson did not appoint Grant until "satisfied of his support." Other Southern papers commented in the same vein, and with unconcealed satisfaction.

However, they as well as the President and his advisers, as we shall soon see, were doomed to the keenest disappointment; for Grant kept sacred to the end not his direct promise to Johnson, but his implied promise to Stanton.

CHAPTER LVIII.

A BRIEF RESPITE — McCARDLE CASE.

At the time of his suspension Stanton was penniless* so far as cash was concerned, and in a precarious condition, physically. He said to General J. K. Moorhead, his old Pittsburg friend: “General, I have no money, not even enough to pay my marketing bills. I wish you would loan three thousand dollars to me. You know my Monongahela coal lands are ample security."

The loan was promptly made, but no security accepted; and with these funds he proceeded at once to the shores of Cape Cod with his family, as the guest of Samuel Hooper at fresh and beautiful Cotuit. There, wholly relaxed, like one set free from prison, he drank in the ocean air and seemed to live a year in every day. Declining an invitation to accept the hospitalities of the City of Boston, tendered on August 22, 1867, he left Cotuit for St. Albans, Vermont, to visit ex-Governor and Mrs. Gregory Smith. Of this visit the hostess says:

Mr. Stanton's enjoyment of the surroundings astonished me. The evening of his arrival he immediately went out of the house and ran across the garden like a boy, exclaiming: "How delightful the air is. I can breathe! See, I can breathe!"

His terrible enemy, asthma, retired for a moment and the weary warworn veteran threw aside his armor and, forgetting the nightmare horrors from which he had so recently emerged, drank in the repose and recreation he so greatly needed.

All the sternness and severity of his countenance passed away. He joked and laughed with the children; rode often with my young daughter in a single carriage; walked alone in the grove and garden and when, late in the evening, we gathered in the library, discussed various subjects or told us stories of the war.

*Says Major A. E. H. Johnson: "When the Secretary left the Department to General Grant, he had $4.76 as a balance from his last month's salary, and by my confidential relations with him I knew that he had not another dollar."

He remained with us about a week, submitting graciously to a large reception given in his honor and to various diversions planned for his enjoyment. After he returned to Washington he wrote me a very beautiful letter, breathing throughout the spirit of a gentle, tender, and sympathetic nature that would astonish those who knew him only in his official capacity. That letter I cannot find, but I enclose another written a year later, briefer than the first, yet full of tenderness, gratitude, and affection.

The letter mentioned is as follows:

My Dear Mrs. Smith:

Washington City, August 31, 1868.

As the anniversary of our visit to St. Albans last year approaches, my thoughts often turn to you and my esteemed friend, your husband, and your interesting family group, and the strangers then but no longer so who extended to me, as your friend, so kind a reception. But especially to your household my heart's cherished remembrance is chiefly due for the many acts of kindness never to be forgotten. I hope you and the Governor and your children are well. You all live in our thoughts, and even our own little Bessie talks of Anna and asks why she does not write her a letter.

We have spent at home a very pleasant summer, except for the illness of Mrs. Stanton's mother-that broke up my arrangements for a trip to the Northwest, including Lake Superior, to which I had been looking forward with much anticipated pleasure.

I beg you to give my kindest regards to the Governor and all your children, especially my dear Miss Anna, whose health I regretted to hear was not good in the spring. I indulge the hope that she has many pleasant drives such as I enjoyed in her company. Please tell your father I was disappointed that he did not make his contemplated visit to Washington, although there was not much here that would have gratified him last winter. I had the pleasure of seeing Mr. and Mrs. Dutcher when they were here and beg you to give them my kind regards and also their son, whom I met at Sunday school.

Mrs. Stanton has just come in from a morning visit and learning that I am writing to you, insists on my sending you her love with kindest regards to the Governor and her friend Anna and the other members of your family, while Bessie sends a "heartful" on her own account.

For yourself, dear madam, I shall always cherish sentiments of profound admiration and respect, ever remaining most sincerely,

Mrs. Governor Smith.

Your friend,

Edwin M. Stanton.

His enjoyment was more perfect at St. Albans because he was receiving reports from his faithful clerk that Grant, as he had agreed, was "doing nothing beyond holding the fort, driving his horses, and visiting with his cronies." In other words, Grant was