d the world,
he was my guest at the Executive Mansion in Springfield. He was
then accompanied by Mrs. Grant, and by E. B. Washburne, who had
been one of his closest personal friends during his administration.

The time was approaching for the National Convention at Chicago,
and General Grant's friends had prevailed upon him to permit the
use of his name as a candidate for a third term. Washburne had
become considerably flattered by the demonstration that was made
over him on the road from Galena to Springfield, and I believe he
had an idea that he might be the nominee instead of General Grant,
and hence for some reason or other he did not want to identify
himself with General Grant at all. When the time came to go to
the reception at the State House, Washburne could not be found.
It seemed that he had hid in his bedroom until the party left the
Executive Mansion for the State House, and then went by himself to
the State House, and secreted himself in the office of the Secretary
of State, where he surreptitiously watched proceedings from behind
the sheltering folds of a curtain.

His conduct in the evening was still more remarkable. I had arranged
a reception to General and Mrs. Grant and Mr. Washburne at the
Executive Mansion that same evening, but Mr. Washburne gave some
excuse which he claimed necessitated his presence in the East, and
departed--apparently with the conviction that he might secure the
Presidential nomination himself, and feeling that his presence in
company with General Grant--an avowed candidate--created an
embarrassing situation that he could not endure. I know that
General Grant was deeply grieved at his conduct. The General's
friends were so outraged that they determined Washburne should have
no place upon the ticket at all.

General Grant was not a candidate for re-election at the end of
his second term; I am not at all sure whether he would not have
been glad to be re-elected for a third term--at least, he would
have accepted the nomination had it been tendered to him. But the
third-term proposition, at that time, received a severe blow when,
in December, 1875, the House of Representatives passed a resolution
by a vote of 234 to 18, declaring that in its opinion, the precedent
established by Washington and other Presidents of the United States,
in retiring from the Presidential office after their second terms,
had become, by universal concurrence, a part of our republican
system of go