Adam Badeau, Grant in peace: from Appomattox to Mount McGregor, a personal memoir

[147] only politicians of note who saw him often during the canvass; but they were his intimate personal friends and in his confidence in many ways. Rawlins remained nearly the entire summer at the East. He wrote rarely, but was in constant communication with the political managers. He was without orders or express sanction from Grant for this course, but Grant knew that Rawlins was acting in his interest, just as he knew that I had written his history for the campaign. Comstock, one of the aides-de-camp, was also at Galena, but he abstained scrupulously from politics. He prided himself on being a soldier, pure and simple.

Two instances of Grant's persistent determination not to become a partisan I can now recall. General Frank Blair was the Democratic candidate for the Vice-Presidency, and in his speeches made repeated and offensive reference to Grant, pronouncing him a military despot, a tool of the politicians, etc., etc., etc.; but Grant refused to resent the language. He had been a warm personal friend of Blair and excused the heat of his expressions in a political campaign, though there were many military and political associates of each who thought these expressions unpardonable; for Blair had received advancement and recognition from Grant, and was thoroughly conscious of the purity of Grant's intentions. All this made no difference in their personal relations; and when Grant first met Blair after the canvass was over, he received him as cordially as ever.

The other circumstance relates to Sherman. Many of Grant's friends thought that an expression of sympathy from Sherman, the utterance of a wish for Grant's success, would have great weight with Sherman's old soldiers, as it certainly would have had; but Sherman was determined to keep himself entirely out of practical politics. He had sympathized with those who held that the South should have been allowed to return under milder conditions; and he was unwilling to say one word to imply a contrary feeling, even in