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unknown to the country and lacked the peculiar elements of popularity in illustrious service and national reputation, which Grant and Blaine and Sherman, his three competitors before the Convention, all enjoyed.
His friends soon found that there was need to enlist the aid of the great soldier of the country; for the adherents of Grant were chagrined at their defeat and many still held aloof, while the followers of Mr. Blaine, who had thrown their votes for Garfield rather than consent to the nomination of Grant, were not sufficient to secure the election of the unlooked — for candidate.
Representations were accordingly made to Grant of the necessity for his support; and he himself felt that having allowed his name to be presented to the Convention, it was in good faith incumbent on him to acquiesce in its decision.
Besides this he was thoroughly convinced that the interests of the country required the election of a Republican President.
It was at a political meeting in Indiana that he first made public his intention to support his former subordinate.
This utterance was followed by a demonstration from Conkling, not only Grant's most prominent champion at Chicago, but himself only four years before a popular candidate for the Presidency.
When these two had spoken it was plain that the entire Republican party would be united under Garfield as its chief and standard-bearer.
But Grant was not content with a simple expression of opinion.
At Garfield's urgent request he consented to pay him a visit; at Mentor, the home of the candidate, he was met by Mr. Conkling, and the two were entertained by the man who had overtopped them both.
After this Grant took a still more unusual course.
He attended numerous political meetings, at nearly every one of which he made a short address, setting forth his reasons for desiring Republican success.
No ex-President had taken such a step before, and it was still more remarkable in Grant, who had not been a partisan before becoming President, and had never shown an
S. S. Scranton and Co., Hartford, 1887.
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