Chapter Fourteen 
INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS 
IN THE AUTUMN of 1868, Field returned from England in 
time to vote for General Grant for president. He had enjoyed 
cordial relations with President Pierce, who signed the bill 
granting government aid for the cable; with President Bu- 
chanan, to whom Queen Victoria sent the first cable message; 
with President Lincoln through his friend, Secretary of State 
Seward; and with President Johnson, to whom the Duke of 
Argyll sent the cable message. Later he became intimate 
with President Grant and was a still closer friend of Presi- 
dent Garfield, for whose family he did a great service. Cyrus’ 
brother, David Dudley Field, was still better known at Wash- 
ington, because of his influence in politics and law; and Ste- 
phen Field by this time was serving on the United States Su- 
preme Court. Both David and Stephen were feared by poli- 
ticians, because of their rigid opinions; Cyrus was more ap- 
proachable and sociable. 
It is said that the movement for the nomination of Grant 
began in the Fifth Avenue Hotel, a few blocks from Field’s 
residence. This hotel, at Fifth Avenue and Twenty-Third 
street, was a favorite resort of Republican leaders. Field 
often dropped in there of an evening and was a familiar fig- 
ure on the Avenue. 
There was important work for him in New York in im- 
proving the relations between the American and British of- 
ficials of the cable companies. The friction between the va- 
rious cliques of directors, especially in England was growing 
worse, in spite of Field’s intermediary efforts and the benefi- 
cent influence of the grandfatherly Peter Cooper. The best 
conception of these departmental jealousies and tempera- 
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