GRANT, HAYES, AND GARFIELD- 1871-1881 179 



and he took his revenge by writing a history of the war 

 from which he left me out. 



The same characteristic which I had found at other 

 meetings with Grant came out even more strongly when, 

 just before the close of his term, he made me a visit at 

 Cornell, where one of his sons was a student. To meet 

 him I invited several of our professors and others who 

 were especially prejudiced against him, and, without ex 

 ception, they afterward expressed the very feeling which 

 had come over me after my first conversation with him 

 surprise at the revelation of his quiet strength and his 

 knowledge of public questions then before the country. 



During a walk on the university grounds he spoke to me 

 of the Santo Domingo matter. 1 He said : The annexation 

 question is doubtless laid aside for the present, but the time 

 will come when the country will have occasion to regret 

 that it was disposed of without adequate discussion. As I 

 am so soon to leave the presidency, I may say to you now 

 that one of my main thoughts in regard to the annexation 

 of the island has been that it might afford a refuge for the 

 negroes of the South in case anything like a war of races 

 should ever arise in the old slave States. &quot; He then alluded 

 to the bitter feeling between the two races which was then 

 shown in the South, and which was leading many of the 

 blacks to take refuge in Kansas and other northwestern 

 States, and said, &quot;If such a refuge as Santo Domingo 

 were open to them, their former masters would soon find 

 that they have not the colored population entirely at their 

 mercy, and would be obliged to compromise with them on 

 far more just terms than would otherwise be likely. 



The President said this with evidently deep conviction, 

 and it seemed to me a very thoughtful and far-sighted 

 view of the possibilities and even probabilities involved. 



During another walk, in speaking of the approaching 

 close of his second presidential term, he said that he found 

 himself looking forward to it with the same longing which 



1 See my chapter on Santo Domingo experiences. 



