OF THE SADDLE AND SIRLOIN CLUB 199 



exterminated the unlawful bands that terrorized the communi- 

 ties where colored and white conflicts were rife. His greatest 

 diplomatic achievement was the referring of the Alabama claims 

 against England to a court of arbitration in Geneva, Switzer- 

 land, which act founded the permanent friendship of the two 

 English-speaking nations. Following his presidency, he made 

 a famous tour of the world during which he visited the rulers 

 of each country through which he traveled. His later years 

 were seriously impoverished by the business treachery of the 

 junior partner of the New York firm of Grant & Ward, and 

 only the publication of his autobiography brought sufficient 

 funds to secure hia wife against real want. In 1884 cancer at 

 the base of the tongue set in, and he passed away July 23, 1885. 

 General Grant was as characteristic an American type as Wash- 

 ington, Webster or Lincoln. His justice and steadfastness were 

 traits that healed great breaches between the North and South 

 during the reconstruction, and his death was mourned in both 

 sections of the country. 



