ry is gone; the _Tribune_ is gone, and I am gone."
General Grant attended the funeral of his gifted and hapless competitor,
and the nation joined in honor and eulogy of the great editor whose heart
was always true to humanity, and whose very failings leaned to virtue's
side. Fortunately Mr. Greeley's irresponsible utterance was not prophetic
either as to the country or the _Tribune_. Mr. Whitelaw Reid succeeded to
the editorial chair, and has ably kept the _Tribune_ in the front rank of
American journals.

* * *

Mr. Greeley's last editorial expression pleaded with the victors in
behalf of justice and fair dealing for the South. General Grant himself
is said to have arrived at the conclusion before the close of his second
term, that the Federal troops should be withdrawn from the Southern
States, and sagacious Republicans discerned in the growth of Democratic
sentiment both North and South a warning that the people were becoming
tired of bayonet government ten years after Appomattox. The election of
1876, when the Democrats had a popular majority, and the decision between
Rutherford B. Hayes, Republican, and Samuel J. Tilden, Democrat, depended
on a single vote, emphasized the popular protest against military rule in
time of peace, and when the Electoral Commission gave a verdict in favor
of General Hayes, the new President speedily withdrew the National troops
from the reconstructed States.

* * *

While the country witnessed deep agitation and difference of opinion
regarding reconstruction in the South, there was no difference of public
sentiment regarding the vigorous, far-sighted and thoroughly American
policy of the government in dealing with foreign powers. One of the first
steps of Secretary Seward after the close of the war was to demand in
courteous language that the French should evacuate Mexico. Napoleon dared
not challenge the United States by answering no. General Philip H.
Sheridan was on the Rio Grande with fifty thousand men, anxious to cross
over and fight; a million veterans were ready to obey the summons to
battle, and Generals Grant and Sherman would willingly have followed in
the footsteps of Scott and Taylor. The French troops were withdrawn.
Maximilian, deceived as to the strength of his cause with the natives,
refused to accompany Bazaine across the ocean, and the month of May,
1867, saw the usurping emperor sh