Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 04.djvu/391

 GRANT

GRANT

appointed Grant secretary ad interim. Grant protested against this action, but retained the position until the senate had refused to confirm the suspension, Jan. 14, 1868, when Grant in- formed the President that lie could not hold the office in opposition to the will of congress and General Thomas was appointed in his place. The Republican national convention of 1868 on its first ballot unanimously nominated General Grant for the presidency and in his letter of ac- ceptance he made use of the famous words, " Let us have peace." In the general election in November, 1868, the electors on his ticket received of the popular vote 3,01,^,071 to 2,709,615 for the Democratic electors and on the meeting of the electoral college in 1869 he received 214 votes to 80 for Horatio Seymour, three states, Mississippi, Texas and Virginia, not voting. He was inaugurated the eighteenth President of the United States, March 4, 1869. He called to his aid as executive advisors Elihu B. Wasliburn of Illinois as secretary of state, and on his resigna- tion the same year to accept the mission to France, Hamilton Fish of New York; George S. Boutwell of Massachusetts as secretary of the treasury; John A. Rawlins of Illinois as secretary of war, and on liis death, Sept. 9, 1869, William W. Belknap of Iowa; Jacob D. Cox of Ohio as secretary of the interior, and on his resignation in December, 1870, Columbus Delano of Ohio; Adolph E. Borie of Pennsylvania as Secretary of the navy, and on his resignation, Jime 23, 1869, George M. Robeson of New Jersey; John A. J. Creswell of Maryland as postmaster-general; and Ebenezer R. Hoar of Massachusetts as attorney general, and on his resignation, June 23, 1870, Amos T. Akerman of Georgia, and on his resigna- tion, Dec. 14, 1871, George H. Williams of Oregon. He advocated in his inaugural address the speedy return to specie payment, and congress passed the act on March 18, 1869, which was a pledge to pay the debts of the United States in coin unless the obligation expressly stipulated to the con- trary, and in accordance with his views as ex- pressed in his annual message t-o congress a bill was passed and approved July 14, 1870. authorizing the funding of the public debt at a lower rate of interest, through the issue of §200,000,000 of bonds at five per cent, .§300.000.000 at four and a half per cent, and SI. 000, 000.000 at four per cent. His Indian policy was sliaped to the end of civil- izing the savages with a view to their ultimate citizenship, and his policy while not always suc- cessful introduced humanity and justice to take the place of brute force. He favored the annexa- tion of Santo Domingo and recommended the adoption of the fifteenth amendment to the con- stitution of the United States He also advanced the principles of civil sei-vice reform in the cixil

administration, appointing a commission which recommended competitive examinations, and it was put in operation June 1, 1872, but failed to be effective at the time on account of opposition from congress. On May 4, 1872, lie issued a proc- lamation ordering all unlawful armed bands to disperse in the states in which conflicts between the vv-hite and colored races were rife, and said that he would " not hesitate to exhaust the powers vested in the executive, whenever and

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wherever it shall become necessary to do so for the purpose of securing to all citizens of the United States the peaceful enjoyment of the rights guaranteed to them by the constitution and the laws. " As the proclamation was disi-e- garded he issued a fiu-ther warning October 12, and on the 17th suspended the writ of habeas corpus in parts of North and South Carolina, and after a few vigorous prosecutions of offenders the outrages ceased. The famous treaty of Washing- ton, made May 8, 1871, by a high joint commis- sion, by its termsreferred the claims of the United States against Great Britain growing out of the operations of the Confederate cruiser Alabama, to a court of arbitration held in Geneva, Switzerland, and in September, 1872, awarded to the United States S15.500,000, which was paid in full. This was largely the result of the policy of President Grant and his secretary of state, and was the beginning of a friendship between the two English speaking nations of the globe that suggested arbitration as an acceptable substitute for war in the settlement of disputes between equally intel- ligent nations. President Grant's first adminis- tration left him some enemies' in the Republican party, who classed his actions as imperial and his measures as arbitrarj' This disaffection resulted in the calling of a national convention at Cincin- nati, Ohio, in 1872, under the name of " Liberal Rejjublicans " and the nomination of Horace Greeley for President. The convention claiming to be regular met at Philadelpliia, Pa., June ">, 1872. and renominated Grant and approved of his administration. In the election in November, 1872, he was re-elected, receiving of the popular vote 3,597,070 to 2,843,079 for Horace Greeley, and