so that none could carp, he requested eminent
statesmen to visit South Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana, the electoral
votes of which were claimed by both parties; but the statesmen were,
without exception, the bitterest and most unscrupulous partisans,
personally interested in securing victory for their candidate, and have
since received their hire. Soldiers were quartered in the capitals of
the three States to aid the equitable statesmen in reaching a correct
result by applying the bayonet if the figures proved refractory. With
equity and force at work, the country might confidently expect justice;
and justice was done--that justice ever accorded by unscrupulous power
to weakness.

But one House of the Congress was controlled by the Democrats, and
these, Herod-like, were seeking to slay the child, the Nation. To guard
against this, President Grant ordered other troops to Washington and a
ship of war to be anchored in the Potomac, and the child was preserved.
Again, the 4th of March, appointed by law for the installation of
Presidents, fell on Sunday. President Grant is of Scotch descent, and
doubtless learned in the traditions of the land o' cakes. The example of
Kirkpatrick at Dumfries taught him that it was wise to "mak sicker"; so
the incoming man and the Chief Justice were smuggled into the White
House on the sabbath day, and the oath of office was administered. If
the chair of George Washington was to be filched, it were best done
under cover. The value of the loot inspired caution.

In Paris, at a banquet, Maitre Gambetta recently toasted our
ex-President "as the great commander who had sacredly obeyed and
preserved his country's laws." Whether this was said in irony or
ignorance, had General Grant taken with him to Paris his late Secretary
of the Interior, the accomplished Z. Chandler, the pair might have
furnished suggestions to Marshal MacMahon and Fourtou that would have
changed the dulcet strains of Maitre Gambetta into dismal howls.

CHAPTER XVII.

CONCLUSION.

Dismissing hope of making my small voice heard in mitigation of the woes
of my State, in May, 1873, I went to Europe and remained many months.
Returned to New York, I found that the characters on the wall, so long
invisible, had blazed forth, and the vast factitious wealth, like the
gold of the dervish, withered and faded in a night. The scenes depicted
of Paris and London, after the collapse of Mississippi schemes and South
Sea bubbl