presidency. The election resulted in the choice of General Grant by a popular vote of 2,985,031 to 2,648,830 votes cast for Mr. Seymour, In the electoral college Grant received two hundred and seventeen votes and Seymour seventy-seven. The States of Virginia, Mississippi and Texas were not allowed to take part in this election, being still out of the Union.

In February, 1869, the two houses of Congress adopted the fifteenth amendment to the constitution of the United States, and submitted it to the various States for ratification by them. It was in the following words: "The right of the citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States, or any State, on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude."

CHAPTER XLIV.

THE ADMINISTRATION OF ULYSSES S. GRANT.

Early Life of President Grant-Completion of the Pacific Railway-Death of ex-President Pierce-The Fifteenth Amendment Ratified-Prosperity of the Country-The Enforcement Act-The Test-oath Abolished-The Constitutionality of the Legal Tender Act Affirmed-Death of Admiral Farragut-Death of General Lee-The Income Tax Repealed-The Alabama Claims-Treaty of Washington-The Geneva Conference-Award in favor of the United States-The San Juan Boundary Question settled-Efforts to annex St. Domingo-Burning of Chicago-Forest Fires-The Civil Disabilities removed from the Southern People-Re-election of General Grant-Death of Horace Greeley-Great Fire at Boston-The Modoc War-Murder of General Canby and the Peace Commissioners-Execution of the Modoc Chiefs-The Cuban Revolution-Capture of the "Virgirius"-Execution of the Prisoners-Action of the Federal Government -The Panic of 1873-Bill for the Resumption of Specie Payments-Preparations for the Centennial Exhibition.

LYSSES S. GRANT, the eighteenth president of the United States, was inaugurated at Washington with imposing ceremonies on the 4th of March, 1869. He was born at Mount Pleasant, Ohio, on the 27th of April, 1822. His father was a tanner, and wished him to follow his trade, but the boy had more ambitious hopes, and at the age of seventeen a friend secured for him an appointment as a cadet at West Point, where he was educated. Upon graduating he entered the army. Two years later he was sent to Mexico, and served through the war with that country with distinction. He was specially noticed by his commanders, and was promoted for gallant conduct. Soon after the close of the war he resigned his commission, and remained in civil life and obscurity until the breaking out of the civil war, when he volunteered his services, and was commissioned by Governor Yates colonel of the twenty-first Illinois regiment. He was soon made a brigadier-general, and fought his first battle at Belmont. His subsequent career has already been related in these pages. He selected the members of his cabinet more because of his personal friendship for them than for their weight and influence in the party that had elected him. Hamilton Fish of New York was made secretary of state.

The most important event of the year 1869 was the opening of the Pacific railway from the Missouri river to the Pacific ocean. The eastern

division of this road is known as the Union Pacific railway, and was begun at Omaha, Nebraska, in December, 1863, and carried westward. But little progress was made in the work until 1865, when it was pushed rapidly forward. The western division, known as the Central Pacific 'railway, was begun at San Francisco near about the same time, and carried eastward across the Sierra Nevada. The two roads unite at Ogden, near Salt Lake City, in Utah, and the union was accomplished on the 10th of May, 1869, on which day the last rail was laid. The Union Pacific railway, from Omaha to Ogden, is one thousand and thirty-two miles in length; the Central Pacific, from Ogden to San Francisco, eight hundred and eighty-two miles; making a total line of nineteen hundred and fourteen miles, and constituting/by far the most important railway enterprise in the world. By the completion of this great road, to the construction of which the general government contributed liberally in

money and lands, Portland, Maine, and San Francisco, the extremes of the continent, are brought within a week's travel. The long and difficult journey across the plains has been dispensed with, and the traveller may now pass over this once terrible and dangerous route with speed and safety, enjoying all the while the highest comforts of the most advanced civilization, The east and the west are no longer separated, and the rapid development of the resources of the rich Pacific slope has more than repaid the enormous cost of the road. A direct trade with China and Japan has been opened, and the wealth of the Orient is beginning to pour into America through the portals of the Golden Gate. The shortest route to Indiathe dream of Columbus and the old mariners-has indeed been found.

ULYSSES S. GRANT.

On the 8th of October, 1869, ex-President Franklin Pierce died, at the age of sixty-five years.

The fifteenth amendment, having been ratified by the necessary number of States, was formally proclaimed by Hamilton Fish, secretary of state, a part of the constitution of the United States, on the 30th of March, 1870.

In the year 1870 the ninth census of the United States was taken, and showed the population of the country to be 38,558,371 souls.

The country had now attained a marked degree of prosperity. Gold fell to 110, and during the first two years of President Grant's administration, $204,000,000 of the national debt were paid. The effects of the

war were being rapidly overcome, and the bitter feelings engendered by the struggle were giving way to a more friendly intercourse between the north and the south. The manufacturing industries of the country had nearly doubled since 1860, and the five years that had elapsed since the war had witnessed a marked improvement in the condition of the scuth,

which was gradually adjusting her industry upon the basis of free labor, and entering upon new and profitable enterprises of manufacture and

commerce.

The work of reconstruction was concluded in the year 1870. On the 8th of October, 1869, the State of Virginia ratified the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments, and on the 26th of January, 1870, was readmitted