the achievements at Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge. It was not by luck that he rose from the captaincy of a company, in 1861, to the command of all the armies of the United States, in 1864. Accidents were in his favor, and lucky he certainly was, but if he had not possessed military qualities of a high degree, accidents would not have been favorable to him and good luck would not have been so constantly his attendant. His rise was rapid and with but a single interruption. For some weeks after the capture of Donelson he seemed to have reached the height of his military career, but after his success at Vicksburg his star was again in the ascendant, and it continued to shine with undiminished if not increasing brightness to the end of the war.

On the other hand, it must be admitted that he did not accomplish enough, nor give evidence of possessing all the qualities which were necessary to entitle him to a place by the side of the great captains of the world. If he had capacity for planning campaigns, he lacked the opportunities for exhibiting it. Before the expedition was commenced in which Fort Henry and Fort Donelson were captured and the line of Confederate fortifications was broken, the importance of such an expedition had been freely discussed. The successful movement against Vicksburg was not undertaken until all other plans for reaching the city had failed. The battles on Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge were not fought according to any well-digested plan.

But while General Grant's abilities were not in the line of organizing troops or planning campaigns, it cannot be denied that in all the battles of which he had the direction he displayed indomitable resolution, perfect self-possession, dauntless courage. His conduct at Donelson and before Vicksburg, where he obtained his highest renown, was such as to entitle him to very high rank as a soldier, but in neither of these fields was there, nor could there be, a display of such ability as would sustain the claims of his extreme eulogists. His qualities were such as circumstances required. There was no sentiment in his mode of warfare. He was never seen on a field

after a battle had been fought, or in the hospitals, and he never counted the cost of a victory. His business was to fight. To persistently push the enemy at all points and at all sacrifices, was, in his opinion, the surest as well as the speediest way of terminating the war. It was, he thought, his duty to cripple him in every way. He was opposed therefore, for a time, to the exchange of prisoners, knowing, as he did, that owing to the difference of treatment in Northern and Southern prisons he would be receiving men who were not fit for duty in exchange for those that were, and that the government which he served had far less need of men than its enemies. This was considered by many as inhuman, but war is a business in which humanity is not often brought into lively exercise. He understood both the duties and responsibilities of a commander, and while insensible to fear, he never exposed himself unnecessarily to danger. He lacked personal magnetism. His presence among his troops was never hailed with enthusiastic shouts, as was McClellan's. He never breasted the storm of battle, as did Thomas at Chickamauga. He never personally rallied fleeing troops and led them back to victory, as Sheridan did at Cedar Creek. His soldiers were not strongly attached to him, but they had confidence in his generalship, and they admired him for his coolness and courage.

As I have said, he did not accomplish enough, nor exhibit all the qualities which were required to entitle him to a place by the side of the great captains of the world. What his rank is to be hereafter among the distinguished generals of his own country, cannot be safely predicted. It certainly will be among the highest. His name may not be second to any in the long line of American soldiers; but that it will be regarded by impartial historians as entitled to the pre-eminence that is now so generally accorded to it, is at least doubtful. He gained nothing in reputation after he became lieutenant general. Sherman expressed the opinion that if General C. F. Smith had lived, Grant might not have been heard of after Donelson. He would not have been wide of the

mark if he had said that but for Donelson and Vicksburg Grant would not have been known in history. But Smith did not live to throw Grant into the background, and Donelson and Vicksburg are fixed facts in the annals of the

war.

Naturally, some of my most interesting recollections are connected with two Presidents with whom I was intimately associated as Secretary of the Treasury. No public man in the United States has been so imperfectly understood as Andrew Johnson. None has been so difficult to understand. He had few personal friends; in no one did he entirely confide. He had many faults, but he abounded also in admirable qualities. His love of the Union was a passion intensified by the dangers to which it had been exposed and by his labors in its defence. It was his devotion to the Union which compelled him to oppose the reconstruction acts of Congress, which he thought would greatly retard, if they did not prevent, its perfect restoration. I differed from him upon some subjects, but I never had reason to doubt his patriotism or his personal or official integrity.

I was not present when Mr. Johnson took the oath of Vice-President, in the Senate Chamber, but the reports of his speech on that occasion amazed me. It was so different from what had been expected of him-so incoherent, so rambling, that those who listened to it thought that he was intoxicated. "It was not," said a Senator to me the next morning, "the speech of Andrew Johnson, but the speech of a drunken man," and such it undoubtedly was. He had been ill for some days before he left home, and on his way to Washington had taken brandy as an astringent. On the day of his inauguration as Vice-President he was really ill, and was so unwise as to resort to a stimulant before he went to the Senate Chamber.

Meeting Mr. Lincoln a day or two after, I said to him that the country, in view of the Vice-President's appearance on the 4th, had a deeper stake than ever in his life. He hesitated for a moment, and then remarked, with unusual seriousness, "I have known Andy Johnson

for many years; he made a bad slip the other day, but you need not be scared; Andy ain't a drunkard."

For nearly four years I had daily intercourse with him, frequently at night, and I never saw him under the influence of liquor. I have no hesitation in saying that whatever may have been his faults intemperance was not among them. There was a marked difference between his carefully prepared papers and his off-hand speeches. The former were well written and dignified; the latter were inconsiderate, retaliatory, and in a style which could be tolerated only in the heat of a political campaign. Hence the opinion that they were made when he was under the influence of liquor.

Mr. Johnson was a man of unblemished personal integrity. He was an honest man, and his administration was an honest and clean administration. In this respect it will bear comparison with any that have preceded or have followed. In appointments money was not potent. Offices were not merchandise. The President never permitted himself to be placed under personal obligations to anyone. He received no presents. The horses and carriages which were sent to him soon after he became President were promptly returned. When he was so unwise as to suppose that there might be a third party, of which he was to be the head, he did, under the advice of injudicious friends, make some official changes to accomplish this object, but there were fewer changes than are usually made, even when an administration follows one of the same party. There were more officers connected with the Treasury Department than with any other, and it is due to Mr. Johnson that I should say that his desire seemed always to be that it should be fairly and honestly administered, and, except for a very brief period, independently of political considerations. In no instance did he interfere with its management. In his bitter contest with Congress, although most of the employés of the department were politically opposed to him and his reconstruction policy, he never even suggested that changes should be made for that reason. If he did not

declare that public offices were public trusts, his actions proved that he so regarded them. In some matters I doubted the correctness of his judgment, but I never doubted his devotion to what he considered his duty to his country, and the whole country. He was a laborious, painstaking man. For him fashionable watering-places had no attractions. Neither by him nor by any member of his Cabinet was recuperation sought at the seaside or in the mountains. His administration had little popular and no distinctive party support, but, judged by its merits, as sooner or later it will be, it casts no discredit upon the national honor.

In his administration of the Government Mr. Johnson labored under great disadvantages. He had been a Democrat, but his connection with the Democratic Party was severed when he became the Republican candidate for the Vice-Presidency. He was disowned by the Republicans when he antagonized the reconstruction measures of Congress. For a good part of his term he was President without a party. The Democratic senators in a body stood by him in his impeachment trial, though they did not do so from personal regard, but because the trial was political, and because they approved of his reconstruction policy, which was in harmony with the Democratic doctrine in regard to the constitutional rights of the States; but they never gave to him or to his administration cordial support. By the Republican press, and by some members of Congress, he was denounced as a traitor, not only to his party, but to the country. His services during the war, in recognition of which he had been nominated for the Vice-Presidency; the bravery which he had displayed in his contests with the secessionists of Tennessee; the terrible trials to which his family were subjected by his fidelity to the Union, were all ignored, buried, forgotten. He was accused not only of political offences, but of personal misconduct of which there was not the slightest proof. Unfortunately for himself (such was his temperament), he could not restrain his disposition to repel by intemperate speeches the attacks that were made upon him. He

seemed to forget what was due to his station, to be unmindful that he had been lifted out of the political arena in which he had been so long a combatant. Silence in his case would have been wisdom; defence by retaliatory speeches was a blunder. He ought to have felt that his true defence existed in his public career and his official record, and that, sustained by them, the assaults of his enemies would be harmless.

No matter how unpopular or severely criticised a man occupying a high position may have been while in active life, there is usually a disposition, even on the part of those who were the most hostile to him, to be generous to his memory. This disposition has not been manifested in Mr. Johnson's case. It is not often that kindly mention is made of him upon the platform or in the press. Among those who have filled high places with ability or rendered distinguished services to their country his name is rarely classed; and yet when the history of the great events with which he was connected has been faithfully written, there will appear few names entitled to greater honor and respect than that of Andrew Johnson. His faults were patent: he was incapable of disguise. He was a combatant by temperament. If he did not court controversy, he enjoyed it. He rarely tried to accomplish his ends by policy; when he did, he subjected himself to the charge of demagogism. In tact he was utterly deficient, and he ran against snags which he might easily have avoided. Naturally distrustful, he gave his confidence reluctantly-never without reserve; he had, therefore, few constant friends. These peculiarities and defects in his character were manifest, and they were severe drawbacks upon his usefulness in public life. On the other hand, he never cherished animosity after a contest was over. He never failed in generosity toward a defeated foe. He was brave, honest, truthful. He never shrank from danger, disregarded an engagement, or unfaithful to his pledges. His devotion to the Union was a passion. There was no sacrifice that he was not willing to make, no peril that he was not willing to encounter in its defence. It was not

was

mere emotion that prompted the direction that the flag of his country-the stripes and stars-should be his winding-sheet, but it was the expression of his devotion to the principles which it represented. He was a kind and helpful neighbor, a tender and indulgent father. He was proud of his daughters, and he had reason to be, for they were devoted to him; and more sensible, unpretending women never occupied the Executive Mansion. In intellectual force he had few superiors. He had, as has been stated, no educational advantages, but he made such use of opportunities that he never failed to fill with credit the various places which he held in his way up to the highest position in the Government.

Of Mr. Johnson's patriotism there ought not to have been a question, for he had given the highest evidence of it. He believed that the Southern States which attempted to secede were never out of the Union, and that when they had laid down their arms, submitted to the authority of the Government, and given honest pledges of future loyalty, they should at once have been permitted to resume their places. In this he may have been wrong, but he was backed by what was understood to be Mr. Lincoln's opinion, and by a respectable minority of the people of the North. There was no indication of a want of patriotism in this, nor was there in any of his utterances or acts. No member of his Cabinet ever heard from him an expression which savored of unfaithfulness to the Constitution. Mr. Dennison, Mr. Harlan, and Mr. Speed resigned their places not because they distrusted him, but because they could not stand by him in his contest with Congress. Their successors and the rest of the members, including Mr. Evarts, who had been one of his counsel in the impeachment trial, and who became his Attorney-General, never had the slightest reason to doubt his personal or his political integrity, or his unselfish patriotism.

I had no desire to enter again into public life, even for a short period, but I was nevertheless gratified when President Arthur came out to my house in the country-a short distance from

Washington-one afternoon in October' 1884, to inform me that Mr. Gresham had resigned the office of Secretary of the Treasury to become a Circuit Judge of the United States, and to request me to take his place and help him close up his administration. I was still more

gratified by the favorable manner my appointment was spoken of by the press, as it seemed like an endorsement of my management of the Treasury from 1865 to 1869.

The highest pleasure that I had during the short period that I held the office of Secretary for the second time was in the intimate acquaintance which I formed with President Arthur. I had known him as Collector of Customs in New York, and as a sagacious politician, but I was not prepared for the ability and tact which he exhibited when he became President of the United States. That high office is a very difficult one to fill by men who have been elected to it; it is much more difficult for one to fill who succeeds to it by being VicePresident. It was with great diffidence that he entered upon the discharge of his high duties; but his self-distrust begot carefulness, and he was content to administer the government as he found it. Day by day his hold upon the situation became firmer, and in a few weeks he was master of it. His position was a trying one, not only for the reasons that have been named, but by the fact that he had been a very active politician in New York, and had used men for political purposes who expected to be rewarded for them by the patronage which was at his disposal. The claims of all such men were disregarded. They became very pressing, as I had good reason for knowing, toward the close of his administration, but Mr. Arthur paid none of his political debts in New York at the expense of the Federal Treasury or to the detriment of the public service. I did not know which most to admire, his firmness in resisting their importunities or his tact in retaining their good-will, notwithstanding his refusal to comply with their urgent requests.

Mr. Arthur during his administration attempted no feats of diplomacy. His recommendations to Congress had been