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

[178] General, my friend. From that moment dated a new intimacy, closer than the old. I was with him incessantly during his stay in England. He wrote at once a telegram to the Government asking that I might be permitted to accompany him, but I changed the message and put it in my own name, so that he who had been President should not be placed in the position of soliciting favors from his successor.

But with all my intimacy I noticed now a broader man in manner and character. He was far more conscious; he understood himself better; he knew his powers; he knew what he wanted to do and say under all circumstances. He was a greater man than the one I had left in America seven years before. I was especially struck with his poise in the new situations into which he was thrown. No one had anticipated the great popular enthusiasm that welcomed him everywhere in England; but he was as calm and undisturbed as of old, ready to receive and acknowledge the ovation, for such it was, gratified deeply, but not elated. His fluency of speech amazed me. He had learned the art since I had met him last.

In his association on more than equal terms with the most distinguished Englishmen, at the dinners with dukes and Prime Ministers, at which he was always first, in the company of Princes and of the Queen, he preserved his composure. The etiquette was of course unfamiliar to him, but he advised himself of it in advance, and then conformed just so far as he thought proper and dignified in his position, but no further. He was in no way neglectful of ceremonies, far less offensive, but he did not forget that he was a republican, nor that he had been a President. He said everywhere that the compliments paid to him were meant for the nation that he represented, which was a very proud sort of humility. But it was no assumption in him to assume that he represented America. He remained as simple as ever in his bearing, and still almost plain, but he was seldom awkward or