of the Treasury, Alexander T. Stewart, of New York; for Secretary of the Interior, Jacob D. Cox, of Ohio; for Secretary of the Navy, Adolph E. Borie, of Pennsylvania; for Secretary of War, John M. Schofield, of Illinois; for Postmaster-General, John A. J. Cresswell, of Maryland; for Attorney-General, E. R. Hoar, of Massachusetts. The nominations were at once confirmed, but it was soon discovered that Mr. Stewart, being an importer of foreign goods, was ineligible to a position in the cabinet. George S. Boutwell, of Massachusetts, was accordingly appointed to the vacant position. Mr. Washburne also gave up his place to become Minister of the United States to France; the vacancy was filled by the appointment of Hamilton Fish, of New York.

Now came the completion of the Pacific railway. The first division of that great trans-continental line extended from Omaha, Nebraska, to Ogden, Utah, a distance of a thousand and thirty-two miles. This span was known as the Union Pacific Railway. The western division, called the Central Pacific, stretched from Ogden to San Francisco, a distance of eight hundred and eighty-two miles. On the 10th of May, 1869, the great work was completed with appropriate ceremonies.

The Civil War entailed the necessity for certain amendments to the Constitution of the United States. The first of these, known as the Fourteenth Amendment, extended the rights of citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and declared the validity of the public debt. Just before the expiration of Johnson's term in the Presidency, the Fifteenth Amendment was adopted, providing that the right of citizens of the United States to vote should not be denied or abridged on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude. This article received the sanction of three-fourths of the legislatures, and on the 30th

named by the Republicans as their standard-bearer. On the Democratic side Horatio Seymour, of New York, was nominated. The questions dividing the people arose out of the issues of the Civil War. Should the measures of the recent Congress be upheld and carried into effect? On that question General Grant was elected by a large majority. The electoral votes of twenty-six States, amounting to two hundred and fourteen ballots, were cast in his favor, while his competitor received only the eighty votes of eleven States. Of the popular vote Grant received 3,013,188, against 2,703,600 for Seymour. The choice for the Vice-Presidency fell on Schuyler Colfax, of Indiana.

The new President was a native of Point Pleasant, Ohio, where he was born on the 27th of April, 1822. His boyhood was uneventful, but not without promise. At seventeen he entered the United States Military Academy at West Point, and was graduated in 1843. He served with distinction in the Mexican War, in which he was promoted to a captaincy for gallantry in the field. After that conflict he became a merchant in St. Louis, but afterwards resided at Galena, Illinois. At the outbreak of the Civil War he was living in obscurity, following the vocation of tanner and leather merchant. Nor could any have foreseen the probability of his emergence to fame. His military career has been recited in the preceding pages. At the close of the war his reputation was very great, and during the difficulties between President Johnson and Congress the fame of Grant rose still higher in the estimation of his countrymen. At the Republican Convention in Chicago, on the 21st of May, 1868, he had no competitor; he was unanimously nominated on the first ballot.

Entering on his duties as President, the new Executive sent to the Senate the following nominations: For Secretary of State, Elihu B. Washburne, of Illinois; for Secretary

of the Treasury, Alexander T. Stewart, of New York; for Secretary of the Interior, Jacob D. Cox, of Ohio; for Secretary of the Navy, Adolph E. Borie, of Pennsylvania; for Secretary of War, John M. Schofield, of Illinois; for Postmaster-General, John A. J. Cresswell, of Maryland; for Attorney-General, E. R. Hoar, of Massachusetts. The nominations were at once confirmed, but it was soon discovered that Mr. Stewart, being an importer of foreign goods, was ineligible to a position in the cabinet. George S. Boutwell, of Massachusetts, was accordingly appointed to the vacant position. Mr. Washburne also gave up his place to become Minister of the United States to France; the vacancy was filled by the appointment of Hamilton Fish, of New York.

Now came the completion of the Pacific railway. The first division of that great trans-continental line extended from Omaha, Nebraska, to Ogden, Utah, a distance of a thousand and thirty-two miles. This span was known as the Union Pacific Railway. The western division, called the Central Pacific, stretched from Ogden to San Francisco, a distance of eight hundred and eighty-two miles. On the 10th of May, 1869, the great work was completed with appropriate ceremonies.

The Civil War entailed the necessity for certain amendments to the Constitution of the United States. The first of these, known as the Fourteenth Amendment, extended the rights of citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and declared the validity of the public debt. Just before the expiration of Johnson's term in the Presidency, the Fifteenth Amendment was adopted, providing that the right of citizens of the United States to vote should not be denied or abridged on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude. This article received the sanction of three-fourths of the legislatures, and on the 30th

of March, 1870, was proclaimed by the President as a part of the Constitution.

It was in this year (October 12) that Robert E. Lee, the great general and the magnanimous man, died at Lexington, Virginia, aged sixty-three years. He tried strenuously to prevent the South from seceding, but when that fatal action was taken he cast in his fortunes with his people and strove with all his might for that Southern independence which he had before used his influence to oppose. After the close of the war he became the patriotic citizen and educator, and devoted his energies to repairing the losses sustained by the great conflict. A man of finished education and lofty character, he was made president of the Washington University, of Lexington, Virginia, which was renamed, in his honor, the Washington and Lee University, in which position he continued until the close of his eventful life. His death was not only a loss to the South, but to the whole nation, and was sincerely mourned by all classes, but especially grief was manifested by his people, who knew him best as a wise, brave, faithful, able and generous general, citizen and educator.

Great opportunities for frauds and speculations were furnished by the financial conditions now present in the country. The buying and selling of gold became a business. The art of manipulating the gold market was acquired to perfection, and the Gold Room in New York City became the scene of such audacious transactions as had never been known before. In the fall of 1869 occurred the most extraordinary event of all. No other scheme of equal extent and audacity was ever concocted in the financial marts of the world. A conspiracy was laid under the leadership of Jay Gould and James Fisk, Jr., to produce what is known as a corner in the gold market, and the success of the scheme was so considerable as to bring the business interests of the