154 POLITICAL LIFE-VII 



sible to induce one or two of the delegations with which I 

 had some influence to vote for him, dwelling especially 

 upon his former judgeship, his long acquaintance with the 

 legislation of the State, and his high character, and at last 

 he was elected by a slight majority. 



The convention having adjourned, I was on my way to 

 the train when I was met by Judge Folger, who had just 

 arrived. He put out his hand and greeted me most heart 

 ily, showing very deep feeling as he expressed his regret 

 over our estrangement. Of course I was glad that bygones 

 were to be bygones, and that our old relations were re 

 stored. He became a most excellent judge, and finally 

 chief justice of the State, which position he left to become 

 Secretary of the Treasury. 



To the political cataclysm which ended his public activ 

 ity and doubtless hastened his death, I refer elsewhere. 

 As long as he lived our friendly relations continued, and 

 this has been to me ever since a great satisfaction. 



In this same year, 1870, occurred my first extended con 

 versation with General Grant. At my earlier meeting with 

 him when he was with President Johnson in Albany, I had 

 merely been stiffly presented to him, and we had ex 

 changed a few commonplaces ; but I was now invited to his 

 cottage at Long Branch and enjoyed a long and pleasant 

 talk with him. Its main subject was the Franco-German 

 War then going on, and his sympathies were evidently 

 with Germany. His comments on the war were prophetic. 

 There was nothing dogmatic in them; nothing could be 

 more simple and modest than his manner and utterance, 

 but there was a clearness and quiet force in them which 

 impressed me greatly. He was the first great general I 

 had ever seen, and I was strongly reminded of his mingled 

 diffidence and mastery when, some years afterward, I 

 talked with Moltke in Berlin. 



Another experience of that summer dwells in my mem 

 ory. I was staying, during the first week of September, 

 with my dear old friend, Dr. Henry M. Field, at Stock- 

 bridge, in the Berkshire Mountains of Massachusetts, and 



