nge the line of battle.

He started the week following the October elections, and went through
Western New York, Ohio, Illinois and Pennsylvania; ending his tour
only with the close of the National canvass. Delivering at least one
extended address each day at some central point, and speaking
frequently by the way, his journey fastened the attention of the
country and amply illustrated his versatile and brilliant intellectual
powers. No man was more seductive in appeal, or more impressive in
sedate and stately eloquence. With his art of persuasion he combined
rare skill in evading difficult questions while preserving an
appearance of candor. His speeches were as elusive and illusive as
they were smooth and graceful. In his present series of arguments he
labored to convince the country that if the Democrats elected the
President they would still be practically powerless, and that
apprehension of disturbance and upheaval from their success was
unfounded. He sought also to draw the public thought away from this
subject and give it a new direction by dwelling on the cost of
government, the oppression of taxes, the losses from the disordered
currency and the various evils that had followed the trials and perils
through which the country had passed. But it was not in the power of
any man to change the current of public feeling. The popular judgment
had been fixed by events and by a long course of concurrent evidences,
and no single plea or pledge could shake it. The election resulted in
the success of General Grant. Virginia, Mississippi, and Texas, in
which Reconstruction was not yet completed, did not choose electors.
Of the remaining thirty-four States Mr. Seymour carried but eight.
General Grant's majority on the popular vote was 309,584. Of the
electors he had 214 and Mr. Seymour had 80.

CHAPTER XVI.

While the result of the Presidential election of 1868 was, upon the
record of the electoral votes, an overwhelming victory for the
Republican party and its illustrious candidate, certain facts tended to
qualify the sense of gratulation and triumph on the part of those who
give serious study to the progress and results of partisan contests.
It was the first Presidential election since the close of the war, and
the candidates represented in sharp and definite outline the
antagonistic views which had prevailed among Northern men during the
period of the struggle. General Grant was the embodiment of the war
fe