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of the country, and watched every step and every indication of feeling, North and South, with the closest solicitude.
Finally, Congress concluded to appoint the Electoral Commission and to abide by its decision, and then Grant felt that he had a definite duty to perform.
He approved the appointment of the commission as the only means to avoid fierce strife, and in spite of the probability that its decision would be in favor of the Democratic candidate; but when, by a change in the composition of the Commission, the choice of a Republican became almost inevitable, he was equally inflexible in the determination that the decisisn should be enforced.
In the dilemma into which the country was thrust Congress was the only authority that could determine anything, and the President, Grant held, was the executive of the Congressional will.
Accordingly, he made every preparation to carry out that will, whichever way it turned.
Had Tilden been declared President by the Commission, Grant would assuredly have taken every step to inaugurate him which he afterward took to inaugurate Hayes.1
As to the exact legality of the Commission I doubt if Grant ever expressed an opinion.
He did not profess to be a lawyer, and was certainly unversed in technicalities and abstruse reasonings; but he felt now as he had felt about the constitutionality of several executive acts during the war—that
1 I never met Mr. Tilden until he went abroad after the inauguration of Hayes. I was then Consul-General at London, and called on him as on a man under whom I might perhaps have served, or who, more probably, would have used his power to remove me. He received me cordially, and was evidently pleased at the mark of respect from a political opponent. He said that he recognized all of the American representatives abroad who had served under Grant. They had been appointed by a President; but he visited none of the nominees of Hayes.
He spoke with respect of General Grant and of his services, although he must have known that, after the result of the Electoral Commission was declared, Grant was determined to place Hayes in the Presidential chair. But he was probably equally certain that if the decision had been different Grant would just as certainly have done all in his power to install him.
S. S. Scranton and Co., Hartford, 1887.
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