the future government of Anglo-American
relations, and making impossible other than a friendly rivalry between
the two nations, sent a thrill of satisfaction through the American
people. Until then the settlement of such irritating questions had not
come by the peaceful process of law.

As the campaign progressed both sides indulged in bitter
personalities. In his Cooper Institute speech, an address of great
power, Conkling's invective and sarcasm cut as deeply as Nast's
cartoons.[1409] Greeley's face, dress, and manners readily lent
themselves to caricature. "I have been assailed so bitterly," wrote
Greeley, "that I hardly knew whether I was running for President or
the Penitentiary."[1410] The _Tribune_ told of a negro woman who was
heard cursing him in the streets of an Ohio river town because he had
"sold her baby down South before the war."[1411] Grant did not escape.
Indeed, he was lampooned until he declared that "I have been the
subject of abuse and slander scarcely ever equalled in political
history."[1412]

[Footnote 1409: New York _Times_, July 24. "The longest and greatest
campaign speech of his life."--Alfred R. Conkling, _Life of Conkling_,
p. 436.]

[Footnote 1410: Hollister's _Life of Colfax_, p. 387, note.]

[Footnote 1411: The same article enumerates some of the charges
published against him: "In Washington he was a briber. In Albany he
was the head of the lobby. In New York he was a partner in the Ring
frauds. He defended the rascalities of Tweed. He sold the influence of
his paper to Tammany Hall. He intrigued to restore the thieves to
power. He was involved in schemes for robbing the national treasury.
He was plotting the payment of the Confederate debt. He had promised
pensions to Rebel soldiers. He was an original Secessionist. He was
once a slave-trader in Memphis. He was the friend of the Ku-Klux and
ballot-box stuffers.... Dix blamed him for expressing ten or twelve
years ago sentiments identical with those of Dix himself."--New York
_Tribune_, November 22, 1872.]

[Footnote 1412: _Messages and Papers of the Presidents_, Richardson,
Vol. 7, p. 223.]

Early elections increased Republican confidence. North Carolina, then
a doubtful State, gave a Republican majority in August.[1413] Vermont
and Maine followed in September, and Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana
practically settled the question in October. Finally, the election on
November 5 gave Greeley, by small majorities, Georgia, Kentuck