UNITED STATES. 



743 



of ex-Governor Seymour for President by the 

 Democracy did not meet his approval, and 

 shortly after that event took place he came 

 out in support of General Grant, defining his 

 position and explaining the motives which act- 

 uated his course, at the same time subscribing 

 the sum of $12,000 toward defraying the elec- 

 tion expenses. This course severed Mr. Pierre- 

 pont's connection with the Democratic party, 

 and he has since acted invariably with the Re- 

 publicans, although always regarded as having 

 conservative leanings. On April 2, 1869, just 

 before the inauguration of General Grant as 

 President, he was appointed United States 

 District Attorney for New York City, a posi- 

 tion which he held until July, 1870, when he 

 was succeeded by Noah Davis, Jr. 



On July 5th. Columbus Delano, the Secretary 

 of the Interior, tendered his resignation to the 

 President. It was accepted on September 22d, 

 and Zachariah Chandler, of Michigan, appoint- 

 ed his successor. Mr. Chandler had been for 

 many years a member of the United States 

 Senate from the State of Michigan. 



Francis E. Spinner, Treasurer of the United 

 States since 1861, tendered his resignation in 

 March, and this office was filled by the appoint- 

 ment of John 0. New, Cashier of the First Na- 

 tional Bank of Indianapolis, Ind. 



J. W. Douglass, the Commissioner of Inter- 

 nal Revenue, tendered his resignation in April, 

 and Daniel D. Pratt, ex-Senator from Indiana, 

 was appointed to the vacant office. Mr. Pratt 

 was born at Palermo, Maine, October 26, 1813. 

 He graduated at Hamilton College, New York, 

 in 1831. In 1832 he emigrated to Indiana. 

 During the next two years he was an assistant 

 in the office of the Secretary of State at Indi- 

 anapolis, and in the mean time studied law and 

 was admitted to the bar. In 1836 Mr. Pratt 

 settled in Logansport, Ind., which, has con- 

 tinued to be his home. In 1847" he became the 

 "Whig candidate for Congress, but sustained a 

 defeat. In the following year he was district 

 elector on the Whig electoral ticket. In 1851 

 and 1853 he was a member of the Lower House 

 of the Legislature ; in 1856, Republican candi- 

 date for elector; in 1860, delegate from the 

 State at large to the Chicago Convention. In 

 1868 he was elected a representative in the 

 Forty-first Congress, but before taking his seat 

 he was elected, in January, 1869, to the United 

 States Senate, as successor to Thomas A. Hen- 

 dricks. His term expired on March 4, 1874. 



The death of Henry Wilson, of Massachusetts, 

 the Vice-President of the United States, brought 

 forward Thomas W. Ferry, a Senator from 

 Michigan, as acting Yice-President. Mr. Ferry 

 was born at Mackinaw, Mich., on June 1, 1827. 

 He received only a common-school education 

 and has occupied a seat in both the House and 

 Senate of his State. He was a member of the 

 Thirty-ninth, Fortieth, and Forty-first Con- 

 gresses, and was elected to the Forty-second, 

 but did not take his seat, having subsequently 

 been elected to the Senate in place of Jacob M. 



Howard. His term of service expires March 3, 

 1877. He took his seat in the Senate, March 

 4, 1871, and was chosen President, ,pro tempore, 

 on March 9 and 19, 1875, and again on Decem- 

 ber 20, 1875. 



The political affairs of the country were un- 

 usually quiet during the year. The following 

 letter from President Grant to General Henry 

 White, President of the Pennsylvania Repub- 

 lican Convention, attracted considerable atten- 

 tion as an expression of the views of the Presi- 

 dent relative to a third term in the presidential 

 office : 



EXECUTIVE MANSION, ) 

 WASHINGTON, D. C., May 29, 1875. J 



DEAR SIB : A short time subsequent to the presi- 

 dential election of 1872, the press, a portion of it 

 hostile to the Republican party, and particularly to 

 the Administration, started the cry of " Csesarism" 

 and u The third term," calling lustily for me to de- 

 fine my position on the latter subject. 



I believed it to be beneath the dignity of the office 

 which 1 have been twice called upon to fill to answer 

 such a question before the subject should be present- 

 ed by competent authority to make a nomination, or 

 by a body of such dignity and authority as not to 

 make a reply a fair subject of ridicule. In fact, I 

 have been surprised that so many sensible persons 

 in the Eepublican party should permit their enemy 

 to force upon them and their party an issue which 

 cannot add strength to the party, no matter how 

 met. 



But a body of the dignity and party authority of 

 a convention to make nominations for the State offi- 

 cers of the second State in the Union having con- 

 sidered this question, I deem it not improper that I 

 should now speak. In the first place, I never sought 

 the office for a second, nor even for a first nomina- 

 tion. To the first 1 was called from a life-position, 

 one created by Congress expressly for me for sup- 

 posed services rendered to the republic. 



The position vacated I liked. It would have been 

 most agreeable to me to have retained it until such 

 time as Congress might have consented to my retire- 

 ment, with the rank and a portion of the emoluments 

 which I so much needed, to a home where the balance 

 of my days might be spent in peace and the enjoy- 

 ment of domestic quiet, relieved from the cares which 

 have oppressed me so constantly now for fourteen 

 years. But I was made to believe that the public 

 good called me to make the sacrifice. 



Without seeking the office for the " second term," 

 the nomination was tendered to me by a unanimous 

 vote of the delegates of all the States and Territories 

 selected by the Republicans of each to represent their 

 whole number for the purpose of making the nomi- 

 nation. I cannot say that 1 was not pleased at this, 

 and at the overwhelming indorsement which their 

 action received at the election following. 



But it must be remembered that all the sacrifices 

 except that of comfort had been made in accepting 

 the " first term." Then, too, such a fire of personal 

 abuse and slander had been kept up for four years, 

 notwithstanding the conscientious performance of 

 my duties to the best of my understanding though 

 I admit, in the light of subsequent events, many 

 times subject to fair criticism that an indorsement 

 from the people, who alone govern republics, was & 

 gratification that it is only human to have appreci- 

 ated and enjoyed. 



Now, for the " third term." I do not want it any 

 more than I did the first. I would not write or utter 

 a word to change the will of the people in expressing 

 and having their choice. The question of the num- 

 ber of terms allowed to any one Executive can only 

 come up fairly in the shape of a proposition to amend 

 the Constitution, a shape in which all political parties 



