tirement, 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 enjoyment of domestic quiet, relieved from the cares which have oppressed me 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 a second term, the nomination was tendered 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 their nomination. I cannot say that I was not pleased at this, and at the overwhelming endorsement 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 duty to the best of my understanding-though I admit, in the light of subsequent events, subject to fair criticism-that an endorsement from the people, who alone govern republics, was a gratification that it is only human to have appreciated and enjoyed. Now for a 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 ex

AND THEY SAY, HE WANTS A THIRD TERM

pressing or having their choice.

The idea that any man could elect himself president, or

even renominate himself, is preposterous. It is a reflection on the intelligence and patriotism of the people to suppose such a thing possible. Any man can destroy his chances for the office, but no one can force an election, or even a nomination.

To recapitulate, I am not, nor have I ever been, a candidate for renomination. I would not accept a nomination if it were tendered, unless it should come under such circumstances as to make it an imperative duty-circumstances not likely to arise.

Nast celebrated the publication of the Grant letter with a caricature of himself, surrounded by little caricatures of his numerous cartoons against

"Cæsarism," his coat decorated

with a peacock appendage. It may be said here that Nast has been charged with conceit, but no one ever charged it against him more directly than he did himself, and no one ever caricatured him more savagely than he did his own features.

"Please send us your photograph," wrote an unknown lady. yourself are horrid."

J. G. B., Jun. "If GRANT isn't careful, I'll let the Wild Animals loose again."

"Those pictures you make of

As the most positive political factor of his time, it will hardly be denied that Nast belonged in many of its pictures. Other caricaturists recognized this, and no other maker of pictures was ever so continuously and fiercely cartooned as was Thomas Nast.

The Grant letter was variously received by the press. Friendly journals declared that it settled the question of his non-candidacy. Critical editors protested that it was not sufficiently direct. Violent anti-Grant papers avowed that it was clearly a bid for the nomination. Nast depicted Mr. Bennett declaring," If Grant isn't careful, I'll let the wild animals loose again."

It was just at this period that we meet with another pictorial invention of Nast in the Greenback" Rag-baby," which Senator

Thurman of Ohio, on the morning of September 4th (in Harper's Weekly), finds deposited by his party on his door-step. The Rag-baby-the lineal descendant of the Inflation Baby killed by Grant's veto-became immediately the enduring symbol of fiat money and other bodiless and boneless measures. Like Nast's former inventions it was immediately adopted by his fellow illustrators and became a cartoon property that would not die. We see it crying "Holy Murder!!!" however, about a month later, when Governor Tilden, whose financial instincts prompted

him to the policy of hard money, is discovered choking it at the Ohio senator's threshold. A little later we find the Rag-baby tossed into an ash-barrel, with the pertinent

query "Is it dead?" The serial element in Nast's work is well illustrated in this brief comedy. He seldom drew one picture that others of a like nature did not follow it in a logical sequence, terminating in a climax effective and complete.

"I follow your pictures just as I do a story in parts," a

correspondent wrote. "I know when you begin a subject it will be continued in our next,' and the end will be worth waiting for."

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Time proved that the Rag-baby was not dead, and with its relatives it became an important feature in the political cartoons. Meantime Mr. Tilden's war record had been raked up, as of course it would be, and it was shown that during 1863 he had been associated with other doubtful patriots in forming the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge," which issued "pamphlets decrying the usurpation' of Lincoln, and showing the blessings of slavery, the failure of emancipation, and in every way short of making an appeal to arms, giving aid to those who were engaged in attacking the Government."*

These and other developments must have had their effect, for the autumn elections of 1875 indicated Republican gains, and a new expression of confidence began to manifest itself in that party. The Republican Elephant Harper's Weekly, November 20, 1875.

TAMMANY DOWN AGAIN. THE "REFORM

TRAP SMASHED

climbed out of the pitfall and stood triumphant again amid the ruins of Tammany Hall. Had it not been for the "Whisky Ring" exposures, which began about this period, the prospects of the Elephant remaining out of the pitfall might have been more hopeful.

The Whisky Ring was made up of a number of prominent Republican officials, who had been assessing the distillers, ostensibly for campaign purposes, but pocketing, themselves, a large portion of the funds thus obtained. It is true that Secretary of the Treasury, Benj. H. Bristow, promptly and mercilessly instituted war against the offenders, and not only punished them, but recovered a large portion of the stealings. Yet the disgrace was regarded as a stain on the Administration, and remains as such to this day.

CALLING IN FRAUDS.

"Step up, Gentlemen. (7) Don't be Bashful!"

The release of "Boss" Tweed after a year's imprisonment, and

the clutch of the Ring attorney, David Dudley Field, upon Tweed's

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Big Six Millions " became a part of the pictorial history of 1875. It is noticeable that even the money bag wore the stripes of crime at this period, though this, it would seem, made it none the less fascinating to Mr. Field. The hound of justice hampered by red tape, and Tweed balancing gleefully upon the upturned, though "upright" bench, recorded a brief period of the Boss's triumph. But the State was desirous of obtaining for itself the six millions of stolen money, and ere long we have Tweed, with the striped money bag for a body, about to be squeezed by the heavy tomes of the law. He did in fact presently find himself once more secluded-this time committed to Ludlow Street prison, in default of a three million dollar bail.