are not
ungrateful. The American Republic subscribed about $400,000 for the
relief of Mrs. Garfield; voted pensions for Mrs. Polk and Mrs. Tyler;
some years ago subscribed $250,000 for General Grant, and increased it
by vote of Congress in 1885. The Conqueror on the pale horse had already
taken many prisoners among the surviving heroes of the war. It was
fitting that he should make his coming upon the great leader of the
Union Army as gentle as the south wind.

There was a surplus of men fit for official position in America when the
hour of our new appointments arrived. There were hundreds of men
competent to become ministers to England, to France, to Germany, to
Russia; as competent as James Russell Lowell or Mr. Phelps. This was all
due to the affluence of American institutions, that spread the benefits
of education broadcast. I remember when Daniel Webster died, people
said, "We shall have no one now to expound the constitution," but the
chief expositions of the constitution have been written and uttered
since then. There were pigmies in the old days, too. I had a friend who,
as a stenographer some years ago, made a fortune by knocking bad grammar
out of the speeches of Congressmen and Senators, who were illiterate.
They said to him haughtily, "Stenographer, here are a couple of hundred
dollars; fix up that speech I made this morning, and see that it gets
into the Congressional Record all right. If you can't fix it up, write
another."

In 1885, there were plenty of women, too, who understood politics. There
were mean and silly women, of course, but there was a new race springing
up of grand, splendid, competent women, with a knowledge of affairs. The
appointment of Mr. Cox as Minister to Turkey was a compliment to
American literature. In consequence of a picturesque description he gave
of some closing day in a foreign country, he was facetiously nicknamed
"Sunset Cox." I rechristened him "Sunrise Cox." When President Tyler
appointed Washington Irving as Minister to Spain, he set an example for
all time. Men of letters put their blood into their inkstands, but the
sacrifice is poorly recognised.

Some of us were faintly urging world-wide peace, but around the night
sky of 1885 was the glare of many camp fires. Never were there so many
wars on the calendar at the same time. The Soudan war, the threat of a
Russo-English war and of a Franco-Chinese war, the South-American war,
the Colombian war--all the nations restle