d even minor offices, from which he could have derive no
distinction, and, in his own phrase, had dissolved the firm of Seward,
Weed, and Greeley because, as he conceived, his claims to official
promotion were not fairly recognized. This known aspiration added to
the reasons which discredited his unnatural alliance with the
Democracy. His personal characteristics, always marked, were
exaggerated and distorted in the portraitures drawn by his adversaries.
All adverse considerations were brought to bear with irresistible
effect as the canvass proceeded, and his splendid services and
undeniable greatness could not weigh in the scale against the political
elements and personal disqualifications with which his Presidential
candidacy was identified.

The political agitation became general in the country as early as July.
Senator Conkling inaugurated the Grant campaign in New York with an
elaborate and comprehensive review of the personal and public issues on
trial. Senator Sherman and other leading speakers took the field with
equal promptness. On the opposite side, Senator Sumner, who had sought
in May to challenge and prevent the renomination of General Grant by
concentrating in one massive broadside all that could be suggested
against him, now appeared in a public letter advising the colored
people to vote for Greeley. Mr. Blaine replied in a letter pointing
out that Mr. Greeley, in denying the power of the General Government
to interpose, had committed himself to a policy which left the colored
people without protection.(2)

The September elections had ordinarily given the earliest indication in
Presidential campaigns; but circumstances conspired this year to make
the North-Carolina election, which was held on the 1st of August, the
preliminary test of popular feeling. The earliest returns from North
Carolina, coming from the eastern part of the State, were favorable to
the partisans of Mr. Greeley. They claimed a decided victory, and were
highly elated. The returns from the Western and mountain counties,
which were not all received for several days, reversed the first
reports, and established a Republican success. This change produced
a re-action, and set the tide in the opposite direction. From this
hour the popular current was clearly with the Republicans. The
September elections in Vermont and Maine resulted in more than the
average Republican majorities, and demonstrated that Mr. Greeley's
candidacy had