ling's power to secure his election; but he refused to do it. The mighty Achilles sulked in his tent and took no part in the canvass. His immediate friends understood it, and at least a thousand of them refused to vote for the enemy of their idol, many voting for Cleveland. The falling off of the Republican vote in Conkling's home county alone was sufficient to throw the State to the Democrats, and New York, in 1884 as in 1848, was the pivotal state and decided and decided the presidential election. Had Conkling made a single speech, had he raised a finger in favor of Blaine, in spite of the St. John vote, in spite of the opposition of Henry Ward Beecher and George William Curtis, in spite of the unfortunate Burchard alliteration, the Empire State would have cast its vote for the "magnetic man" from Maine, and he would have been elected. But Conkling remembered the insult of eighteen years before, the "turkey-gobbler strut," the "mud to marble, the dunghill to diamond, the singed cat to a Bengal tiger," and his highpoised soul could not forgive. He took his revenge, and Blaine never became President.

The Third Term Movement

For ten years James G. Blaine was the undisputed leader of the Republicans in the House. He was elected Speaker in 1869, and continued to fill the office for six years when the Democrats gained control of that body. After fourteen years' service in the House he entered the Senate. Still he kept his hand upon the helm and was looked upon by the rank and file of his party as the leading Republican of his time. At the National Republican Convention of 1876, his vote on the first ballot far exceeded that of any one else; yet he was not a "favorite son" candidate ; his vote was spontaneous and came from twenty-eight States and seven Territories. Failing to receive the nomination, and President Hayes being pledged to a single term, Blaine was generally looked upon as the coming man for 1880. But a change came o'er the spirit of his dream.

General Grant, on ceasing to be President, had made a tour of the world. He had been highly honored by foreign peoples and poten

tates, not only as an American and an exPresident, but chiefly as a soldier, for the lingering chivalry in the minds of men still places the warrior above the statesman, the poet, or the orator. Grant's reception by the world became a matter of National pride to the whole American people; and when, at the end of three years, the illustrious traveller returned to his native land when the vessel had safely breasted the billows of the broad Pacific and was moored into the haven at the Golden Gate, a wild shout of welcome arose from the people. His tour from San Francisco across the continent to Philadelphia, whence he had started three years before, was one unbroken ovation. Men forgot the scandals of his administration; their minds went back to remoter days; they saw now in his silent dignity the conqueror of the great rebellion, the hero of Fort Donelson, of Vicksburg, of Appomattox.

This unusual honor rendered General Grant by the masses was in the main sincere and spontaneous, and was given on the supposition that the general had retired from public life

and now desired to spend the remainder of his days in rest and quiet. But the wily poli

Why let all this enThere was a faction

tician was on the alert. thusiasm go to waste? in the Republican party, and a large faction, that wanted a man. They looked with dismay on the growing clamor for Blaine, and they must find one to put up against him. They also reasoned, and they reasoned well, that the only man in the party who could at all compare with the Maine statesman in the popular heart was General Grant. This faction now determined to use every available means to undermine the prestige of Blaine and secure the nomination of Grant at the coming Republican convention. The leader of this movement, a man of vast resources and power, was Roscoe Conkling of New York.

We have had two Presidents, and only two, in our history, who, having served two terms, could have been elected to a third (in the writer's opinion) had they desired it; they were George Washington and Andrew Jackson. We have had but one who is known to

have desired a third term, and that was Ulysses S. Grant.

But Grant is not supposed to have aspired to a third election until his friends led him to do so. It must be admitted, however, that he stated in a letter as early as 1875 that he did not desire a third term "any more than he had desired the first," which, being interpreted, means that, as he had accepted a first term without protest, it would not be difficult to induce him to accept a third.

Conkling, however, assisted by two powerful co-workers, Don Cameron of Pennsylvania and John A. Logan of Illinois, was at the bottom of the third term movement. This great triumvirate, each at the head of his State delegation, went to Chicago determined and confident. It is true the recent Grant enthusiasm had subsided when it was found that the general would again enter the arena for public honors. It is also true that a deep-seated anti third term prejudice must be overcome, for an unwritten law, hitherto unbroken, was that no man serve more than eight years in the great office. Nevertheless, these men felt confident, and they