and charged him with the guilt of the public rottenness. Every thing abominable was laid to "Grantism." Did a combination of speculators contract to lay wooden pavements in Washington at ruinous cost, it was all "Grantism." Did Western underlings connive at "whiskey frauds," again

it was "Grantism." Did cold-blooded directors for undue gain invest the scanty earnings of the freedmen in a scandalous manner, most unjustly the cry went up,' "Grantism!"

Hugo revives the story that King James caused suspected witches to be boiled in caldrons, and, tasting the broth, from its flavor would pronounce upon the character of the victim. Self-appointed, moral censors hurled into the seething caldron of public calumny the reputation of Grant, and, tasting the unhallowed brewage, brazenly gave out that all the iniquities of the period had the unmistakable flavor of "Grantism." Grant challenged investigation, but no one dared to impugn his personal purity. Corruption was traced to many places and departments: none ever touched his garments. When the startling revelations broke upon him that those near to him, whom he had chosen to uphold his honor with that of the country, were smirched, though his heart felt the blow of the betrayal, with the sternness of Roman justice he gave the order, "Let no guilty man escape." The storm of personal abuse and the consolidation of attack culminated in the political campaign of 1872. The people read the arraign

ment of his accusers, they heard the bitter words uttered against his fame, and with that majestic emphasis which four millions of intelligent voting citizens only could pronounce, they vindicated the hero of their wars, and bade him once more serve in the place once honored by Washington and Lincoln.

Of his re-election Grant says, —

"I acknowledge before this assembly, representing as it does every section of our country, the obligation I am under to my countrymen for the great honor they have conferred on me by returning me to the highest office within their gift, and the further obligation resting on me to render them the best services within my power.

"This I promise, looking forward with the greatest anxiety to the day when I shall be released from responsibilities that at times are almost overwhelming, and from which I have scarcely had a respite since the eventful firing upon Fort Sumter, in April, 1861, to the present day. My services were then tendered, and accepted under the first call for troops growing out of that event. I did not ask for place or position, and was entirely without influence or the acquaintance of persons of influence, but was resolved to per- . form my part in a struggle threatening the very existence of the nation—a conscientious duty—without asking promotion or command, and without a revengeful feeling towards any section or individual.

"Notwithstanding this, throughout the war, and from my candidacy for my present office in 1868, to the close of the last presidential campaign, I have been the subject of abuse and slander scarcely ever equalled in political history, which to-day I feel that I can afford to disregard in view of your verdict, which I gratefully accept as my vindication." -Second Inaugural Address.

Benton once said, "Every form of government has something in it to excite the pride and to rouse the devotion of its citizens. In monarchy it is the authority of the king; in a republic it is the sanctity of the laws."

One of the certain tests of fealty to law is to honorably adhere to public fiduciary obligations. That test had its full trial under Grant's presidency; and the uncertainty attending Republican integrity was settled, it is to be hoped, finally. The inviolability of public faith, giving as it does the highest evidence of national character, was the crowning feature of his administration. The danger that threatened the public faith prior to 1868 led the loyal people to select Grant as the candidate most sure to receive popular support.

During his eight years of service, so steadily had the public debt been reduced, so rigidly had our engagements with the public creditor been. kept, so judiciously had the public burdens been lessened by funding at low rates of interest and decreased expenditure, that the public credit never stood, up to that time, so high in the estimation of the world as when Grant turned over to his successor the presidential office.

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE OLD FIGHT IN A NEW FORM.

NATURAL leaders of the South, unable to prevent the adoption of the constitutional amendments, combined to render them inoperative. To neutralize in that locality the special features of war legislation relative to the constitutional standing of the freed race - to restore the Democratic party to national control — became the effort and ambition of Southern politics. The political vacuum caused by absence of influential white Southerners from States where the emancipated class were an equal number or a majority, was filled by a class of men termed in derision "carpetbaggers." There were whites some natives, but more "new-comers" who defied the old Southern rule and sentiment, and cast their lot politically with the blacks. To overthrow power thus obtained, the standard of "home rule" was raised, and was made the shibboleth of the "lost cause" in its revived condition.

The old war-yell of independence was exchanged for the new peace-yell of "local government."

It is still an "irrepressible conflict;" and God means that it shall be so until free institutions,

and justice to the negro, shall exist throughout the land. To say that such justice now exists, is to lie before men and before Heaven.

A political confederacy of repudiating States; the disappearance in a few years of Republican majorities by the "shot-gun policy;" and the banks of the Mississippi lined with fleeing blacks, upheld by thoughts as grand as those which nerved the Hebrew exodus, make false all assertions of Southern freedom or its justice. "Better die in Kansas free than live in the South slaves," said a black refugee; and the sentiment gives promise that the race which holds to such ideas will yet have its rights.

May God help it to that end, and may he help us to help it! "The New-Orleans Times" has this incident:

"There was an episode in the convention a day or two ago which ought to be preserved in history. It will be remembered that Mr. T. T. Allain, a colored delegate from West Baton Rouge or Iberville, made a remarkably able and sensible speech in opposition to the abolition of the office of superintendent of public education. As soon as he concluded, Mr. McGloin, of one of the up-town wards of New Orleans, arose, and offered a resolution that his speech be translated into all the known languages and dialects for the information and guidance of humanity. We did not notice whether any one laughed. Mr. Allain at once took the floor, and said,

“Mr. Chairman, I was formerly a slave. The results of the war emancipated me, and simultaneously placed me under the obligation of fitting myself to discharge the duties of citizenship. While the gentleman from Orleans was per