were then on the verge of
war with Great Britain, and demands were made in very responsible
quarters which offered no alternative but war. The treaty of 1871,
which was the outcome of Mr. Fish's diplomacy, re-established our
relations of friendship with Great Britain, and the treaty was then
accepted as a step in the direction of general peace.

In the month of February, 1869, I received an invitation from General
Grant to call upon him on an evening named and at an hour specified.
At the interview General Grant asked me to take the office of Secretary
of the Interior. As reasons for declining the place, I said that my
duties and position in the House were agreeable to me and that my
services there might be as valuable to the Administration as my
services in the Cabinet. General Grant then said that he intended to
give a place to Massachusetts, and it might be the Secretary of the
Interior or the Attorney-Generalship. He then asked for my advice as
to persons, and said that if he named an Attorney-General from
Massachusetts, he had in mind Governor Clifford, whom he had met.
Governor Clifford was my personal friend, he had been the Attorney-
General of the State during my term as Governor, he was a gentleman of
great urbanity of manner, a well-equipped lawyer, and as an advocate he
had secured and maintained a good standing in the profession and through
many years. He had come into the Republican Party from the Webster
wing of the Whig Party. To me he was a conservative, and I was
apprehensive that his views upon questions arising, or that might
arise, from our plan of reconstruction might not be in harmony with the
policy of the party. Upon this ground, which I stated to General
Grant, I advised against his appointment. I named Judge Hoar for
Attorney-General and Governor Claflin for the Interior Department. I
wrote the full address of Judge Hoar upon a card, which I gave to
General Grant. Judge Hoar was nominated and confirmed.

At the same time, Alexander T. Stewart, of New York, was nominated
and confirmed as Secretary of the Treasury. It was soon discovered
that Mr. Stewart, being an importer, was ineligible for the office.
Mr. Conkling said there were nine statutes in his way. A more
effectual bar was in the reason on which the statutes rested, namely,
that no man should be put in a situation to be a judge in his own
cause. The President made a vain effort to secure legislation for the
removal of th