Part 7
I received your kind letter of the 11th this A.M. This year, owing to election excitement, department reports only came in a few days before the meeting of Congress. When they did come the situation in South Carolina was so critical that dispatches were coming to me, or to members of my cabinet, and brought from them to me in such rapid succession that I do not think I had one single half hour without interruption all the time I was preparing my message. I am sure I did not have four hours in its preparation all told, exclusive of the time consumed in reading the departmental reports. I left out necessarily topics I should liked to have talked about, but would not mention without being sure I was right.
My love to all.
Yours truly,
U.S. GRANT.
[General and Mrs. Grant spent the next two years in a tour around the world.]
Chicago, Ill., April 12th, 1877.
DEAR MR. CORBIN:
To-morrow evening Mrs. Grant and I start for Washington, Pa., where we will spend a few days, then go to Harrisburgh, Washington, D.C., and toward the last of the month get around to Elizabeth to spend a few days with you before taking our departure for Europe. We have not entirely decided whether to take the American line from Philadelphia or the Inman line from New York City. Both have tendered pressing invitations, and both present good accommodations. If we take the former we will sail on the 9th or 16th of May, if the latter on the 19th.
We had a very pleasant trip West but a little hurried. There is much complaint of dull times but really appearances do not justify it. Kindest regards of Mrs. Grant and myself to Mother and Jennie.
Yours truly,
U.S. GRANT.
Ragatz, Switzerland, August 13th, '77.
MY DEAR MR. CRAMER:
Before leaving England I had accepted invitations to visit cities and country houses in Scotland--and places in England not yet visited by me--to take up all the month of September and part of October. I thought there was time for me to visit this interesting country and to make a run through Denmark, Sweden and Norway and get back to Scotland in time to keep my engagements. But I have found so much of interest here, and the modes of conveyance so slow in reaching the points of greatest interest, that it is already too late to go even to Denmark, leaving out Norway and Sweden. Already we have spent eight actual days in carriages in getting from point to point, exclusive of other modes of travel. We have visited most of the lakes and crossed the principal passes in Switzerland and Northern Italy. It has all been exceedingly interesting to me, the greatest regret being that I had not more time.
I intend yet to visit Denmark, and the countries north of it, but whether this fall or next season is not yet determined. Probably about next June. I am sorry not to be able to see Mary before she returns to America. I do not expect to return there before next July a year, and possibly not so early.
All send love to Mary and the children with kindest regards for yourself.
Yours truly,
U.S. GRANT.
DR. M.J. CRAMER, United States Minister, Copenhagen, Denmark.
BRISTOL HOTEL, BURLINGTON GARDENS, LONDON, W.
Aug. 26, '77.
MY DEAR MR. CORBIN:
We arrived here from the Continent yesterday, and found awaiting us your very acceptable letter. On Wednesday we start again to visit Scotland where I have had many invitations from both corporations and from private gentlemen. We will take about three weeks for this trip, after which we will visit some portions of England not yet visited, and Nellie at her home, and get to Paris the latter part of October. The papers no doubt will keep you advised of our movements in advance of anything I could write to go by mail. Our visit has been most agreeable in every particular. People everywhere, both travellers and residents, did all they could to make everything pleasant for us. How long we will remain abroad is not yet determined, but I think for two years yet if the means to do so hold out.
During my visit to the Continent I saw but few American papers so that I am now somewhat behind in information as to what has been going on in the United States. All the foreign papers however have been full of the great strike which has taken place on our roads. It must have been serious but probably not so serious as it seemed at a distance. My judgment is that it should have been put down with a strong hand and so summarily as to prevent a like occurrence for a generation.
We have made a short visit to Nellie at her home. She lives in a delightful part of the country.
All join me in love to Mother and Jennie as well as yourself. I will be glad to hear from you as often as you may feel like writing.
Yours truly,
U.S. GRANT.
We met Mrs. Clark and Roberts in Switzerland. It was like being back home to meet old acquaintances. Except Senator Conkling and some of our Government officials they are the only Americans I have met that I felt I knew very well. Please remember me to Senator Frelinghuysen and such other friends as you meet.
A.R. CORBIN, ESQ., Elizabeth, N.J.
HOTEL BRISTOL 5 PLACE VENDÔME.
Paris, Oct. 25th, '77.
MY DEAR MR. CORBIN:
Our trip has been a most agreeable one though the time seems long. I can scarcely realize that but little more than five months have passed since we sailed from Philadelphia. But we have received nothing but kindness wherever we have been. In England, as you may have seen, our reception has been as enthusiastic as anything in the States directly after the war. We are now in Paris for the first time. As yet I have seen but little of it, though enough to know that it is a most beautiful city. We shall probably remain here over a month, and then make a trip through Spain and Portugal, and up the Mediterranean, in a naval vessel, stopping at all points of interest on both sides. Mrs. Grant finds she has brought too much baggage with her and proposes to send two or three trunks back, clothing brought from the States, and wants to send them either to Jennie or Mrs. Sharp to keep until our return. If they are sent to you I will advise you when they are shipped.
We were disappointed in not getting to Copenhagen while Mary was there. But Switzerland was so agreeable, and there were so many points of interest to visit that I found it impossible to get there and return to Scotland at the time I had promised. It is now very doubtful whether we will not have to abandon the idea of going there altogether. That will depend however upon whether we remain over another year. This winter we propose to go up the Nile, and may keep on east and return by San Francisco. But if we return we will stop in Italy until the weather begins to get warm in the Spring and then go north through Austria, North Germany, Russia, Sweden, Norway and back by Denmark and Holland, spend the latter part of the summer again in Switzerland, and go east the following winter. Jesse will hardly go with us unless we go through this winter. He does not wish to leave another year before beginning the battle of life.
Give Mrs. Grant's, Jesse's and my love to Mother and Jennie, and Mary if she is with you.
I keep very little track of political matters at home, knowing from experience the trouble a "new hand at the bellows" has. I hope all will be smooth and satisfactory before my return. I have not yet experienced any discomfort from lack of employment after sixteen years of continuous care and responsibilities. I may however feel it when I once settle down, though I think not.
Very truly yours,
U.S. GRANT.
P.S. Direct letters to the care of Drexel, Harjes, & Co., Bankers, Paris, France.
Paris France, Nov. 27th, '77.
MY DEAR MR. CRAMER:
I am just in receipt of your letter of the 21st inst. enclosing one from the Portuguese Minister to Denmark recounting the cause of his brother-in-law's removal from the diplomatic service. I know Baron de S----, and the Baroness very well and esteem them very highly. There was never any difficulty with him and the State Department, or with any official at Washington that I have any recollection of. I am very sure that no cause of complaint could have existed on our part without my knowing it. It would afford me the greatest pleasure to meet the Baron and his wife during my European tour, but I fear I shall not be able to do so. My trip through Spain and Portugal has been put off, or at least postponed, for this year. On Saturday we leave here for the South of France, from there to take a naval vessel to visit all points of interest on the Mediterranean. We shall probably go up the Nile, and spend the winter in a warm climate, to be ready for our northern tour in the spring. It is barely possible that when we return from up the Nile we may go on East, through China and Japan to San Francisco. But this is not probable for another year. This will probably be the last opportunity I shall ever have of visiting Europe, and there is much to see that I have not seen, and cannot see this winter.
I hear from home occasionally, but not as often, probably, as you do. All were well by the last advices received two days ago from Orville.
Please assure your colleague that I have no recollection of other than the most pleasant relations between U.S. officials and the Baron de S.
With kind regards of Mrs. Grant, Jesse and myself, I am,
Very truly,
U.S. GRANT.
Cairo, Egypt, Jan'y 13th, '78.
MY DEAR MR. CORBIN:
I am in receipt of your letter of December '77 at this remote, but historically interesting quarter of the globe. We have been in Cairo since last Tuesday. This is Sunday. I have seen the city very thoroughly; visited the pyramids; the Virgin Mary's tree where she took shelter some twenty centuries ago; the spring which became sweet from being saline, on her quenching her thirst from it, and which remains sweet to this day,--while I was there water was being pumped from it, by ox power, with a revolving wheel, to irrigate the neighboring ground--; Heliopolis, the great seat of learning in the days of Moses, and where he was taught, and where the father-in-law of Joseph was a teacher. The tree and the well are at Heliopolis, about six miles from here.
On Tuesday we start up the Nile on a special steamer provided by the Khedive. We expect to go as far as to the first rapids stopping at all the points of interest on the way. This will probably take three weeks. On our return we expect to go to Suez, thence by Canal to Port Said, and then take our steamer again. From Port Said we will go to Joppa and out to Jerusalem. Returning to Joppa we will go to Beirout, and out to Damascus--possibly diverging to visit Baalbec, thence to Smyrna from which we will visit Ephesus, thence to Constantinople. Returning we will stop a few days at Athens, thence to old Syracuse on the island of Sicily, then to some convenient point on the Italian coast from which to reach Rome. We will remain in Rome for several weeks. Should you write me any time within six weeks from this directed to the care of our Minister at Rome, the letter will reach me.
Altogether we have had a most pleasant visit. Our return to America during this year depends somewhat on circumstances, principally the means to stay away longer. It is likely this will be the last opportunity I shall ever have of travelling abroad and I am desirous of making the most of the pleasant opportunity.--Give our love to Mother, Jennie and Mary, and accept my thanks for your kind offers.
Very truly yours,
U.S. GRANT.
Constantinople, March 5th, '78.
MY DEAR MR. CRAMER:
On my arrival here I found your letter inquiring especially about the time I expect to be in Copenhagen. My plan is to be in Sweden by the middle of June, and after visiting that country and Norway, to return by way of Copenhagen. It is not likely that I shall be there before the fifth to the tenth of July, and it may be that I shall like the northern country so well that my visit to Copenhagen will be postponed even a month longer.
We have had a delightful winter. Over a month was spent in Egypt, visiting the old ruins of that country under the most favorable circumstances. Leaving Cairo we visited Suez and passed through the Suez Canal to Port Said. From the latter place we went to Joppa and out to Jerusalem. Since then we visited Smyrna and Ephesus and are now here. The Russians are outside of the city but do not come in. A stranger would not detect from appearances that an enemy was so near. In fact I think the Turks now regard the Russians as about the only people in Europe from whom they can expect anything.
When you write home give my love to Mother, Mary and children, and Jennie.
I will inform you later, when I know definitely, about the time to expect me in Copenhagen.
Very truly yours,
U.S. GRANT.
Rome, Italy, March 29th, '78.
MY DEAR MR. CORBIN:
Mr. Young, of the New York _Herald_, has been with us from the time we went on shipboard until we arrived here. His letters published in the papers are all good, and save me writing descriptive letters. Presuming that you have read them I will say nothing further than that my winter travels, in the Mediterranean, on the Nile, and in the Levant generally have been the pleasantest of my life. I should enjoy doing it over again next winter. We have been in Rome eight days. It is a city of great interest. But one should visit it before making the Nile trip. Here you see modern and comparatively insignificant ruins, not dating back many centuries before the beginning of the Christian era. On the Nile one sees grand ruins, with the inscriptions as plain and distinct as when they were first made, that antedate Moses by many centuries.
It was our plan on leaving Suez to go to Florence, Venice, Vienna, Berlin, Dresden, St. Petersburgh, through Sweden, Norway, back to Denmark, through Holland to Paris, reaching the latter place about the middle of July, and to spend six or eight weeks there to see the Exposition and the people that will fill the city. I think now I will change my plan and go from Venice, by easy stages, to Paris, reaching there early in May, and make my visit while the weather is pleasant. I will then go north in the summer, taking Holland first, Denmark next, and Sweden and Norway in August. I fear from present indications that Mr. Cramer and Mary will not be there.
It looks to me that unless the North rallies by 1880 the Government will be in the hands of those who tried so hard fourteen--seventeen--years ago to destroy it. B---- is evidently paving a way for re-organizing an army favorable to such a change.
I think now we will not return to the States until about a year from May. I have no idea where we will live on our return, and if we should go back in the fall we would have to determine the question without delay. We can go back in May and occupy our Long Branch house and have all summer to prepare for the winter.
I was getting some little mosaics--specialties of Rome--to-day and I bought, among other things, what I think a very pretty pin and earrings for Jennie. I have also got bracelets for Clara Cramer and Jennie Grant. If I see an opportunity of sending them home before going myself I will send them. I have written to Buck to come over and spend his vacation with us. I can send them with him.
Give our love to Mother, Jennie, Mary and the children.
Yours very truly,
U.S. GRANT.
P.S. It is very kind in Mr. Clark, and the gentlemen associated with him, to send the message you convey from them; but they must recollect that I had the harness on for sixteen years and feel no inclination to wear it again. I sincerely hope that the North will so thoroughly rally by next election as to bury the last remnant of secession proclivities, and put in the Executive chair a firm and steady hand, free from Utopian ideas purifying the party electing him out of existence.
Hotel Liverpool, Paris, May 25th, '78.
MY DEAR MR. CRAMER:
I am now for the first time able to fix approximately the time of my visit to Copenhagen. We shall leave here on Saturday, three weeks from to-day, or on the following Tuesday. We shall stop at The Hague three or four days. Jesse leaves for home so as to take the steamer of the fourth of June from Liverpool. Our party therefore will consist only of Mrs. Grant with her maid and myself. If your arrangements are made to be away from Copenhagen at the time mentioned above, I beg that you will not change your plans. Should you be there, we shall probably remain over about one week. Should you be away, we shall stop only a couple of days.
I have not heard directly from Elizabeth for some time; it is probably my own fault, for Mr. Corbin is very prompt in answering every letter; but Bucky writes regularly every week from New York, so I hear indirectly. When you write home give my love to all of them at Elizabeth.
Very truly yours,
U.S. GRANT.
P.S. I go from Copenhagen directly to Stockholm. I am not personally acquainted with our present Minister there, though I once appointed him to a South American Mission.
U.S.G.
Paris, France, June 3d, '78.
MY DEAR MR. CRAMER:
Your letter of the 31st of May is just received. I should have written to you within a day or two to inform you of a slight change of plan, which will bring me into Copenhagen from ten days to two weeks later than I wrote you I should be there, even if I had not received your letter. To save retracing my steps, as I should be obliged to do by the routes laid out in my last letter, I now intend to go from The Hague to Berlin and visit a few of the German cities before going to Denmark. From Copenhagen I shall go by water to Norway, thence to Sweden, St. Petersburg, Moscow, and to Vienna.
I shall be very glad indeed to see Mary and the children and hope they may be back by the time I reach Copenhagen, about from the fifth to the tenth of July.
Jesse sails from Liverpool to-morrow for home. He has been very homesick for some time.
With best regards of Mrs. Grant and myself, I am,
Very truly,
U.S. GRANT.
Hanover, Germany, June 25th, '78.
MY DEAR MR. CRAMER:
Mrs. Grant and I are now here on our way to the German capital. We shall probably remain in Berlin until Monday, the first of July. We shall stop over by the way from Berlin to Copenhagen, particularly at Hamburg, so as to reach Copenhagen about the fifth of July. If you will drop me a line to the Kissenhof Hotel, Berlin, to let me know if Mary will be home at the time designated I shall be obliged. If she is not to be at home I may change my plan and go direct to Sweden, thence to Norway, and return thence by Denmark.
Mrs. Grant and I are both well and send much love to Mary and the children.
Very truly yours,
U.S. GRANT.
Paris, France. Dec. 10th, '78.
MY DEAR MR. CRAMER:
Since leaving Copenhagen Mrs. Grant and I have visited every capital in Europe not previously visited by us.
I can say with great earnestness that no part of our journeyings gave us more pleasure than that through the Scandinavian countries, and no public have impressed me more favorably. If I were going to remain over another year I should go back to Norway at least and far enough north to see the midnight sun. But we expect to leave Paris about the middle of January, to return to the States by the way of India, China, and Japan. The Secretary of the Navy has been kind enough to invite us to go on a man-of-war which leaves the United States to-day for the Chinese squadron, via the Mediterranean and Suez. I first declined but since cabled my acceptance. This will probably bring us around home about next October or November.
I am sorry to say that I do not get favorable news from Orvil. He does not seem to improve.
Julia joins me in love to Mary and the children and in kindest regards to yourself.
I hope you did not forward the stones presented by the Consul.--Julia says to tell Mary that she got a very rich fur cloak in Paris and hopes she got one also. Is there anything we can do for you in Paris?
Very truly yours,
U.S. GRANT.
Rangoon, Burma, March 20th, '79.
MY DEAR MR. CRAMER:
We have now been very well through India and are this far on our way to the farther East. The weather has been pleasant until within the last few days. But now it is becoming very warm, and as we have yet to go through the Straits of Malacca near the equator before turning north, we must expect some discomfort. I have been very much pleased with English rule and English hospitality in India. With that rule two hundred and fifty millions of uncivilized people are living at peace with each other, and are not only drawing their subsistence from the soil but are exporting a large excess over imports from it. It would be a sad day for the people of India and for the commerce of the world if the English should withdraw. We hope to be in Hong Kong by the middle of April, and farther north in China as soon thereafter as possible. When a good climate is reached we shall regulate our further movements by the reports of weather on seas to be traversed, and climate of places to be visited. At present, however, we expect to reach San Francisco about the first half of July. Although homesick to be settled down I dread getting back. The clamor of the partisan and so-called independent press win be such as to make life there unpleasant for a time.
Mrs. Grant joins me in love to you, Mary, and the children.
I have to-day written a letter to Mr. Corbin.
Very truly yours,
U.S. GRANT.
P.S. Julia asks me to add, to tell Mary that the English speak in the highest terms of the work being done all through this country by the missionaries, especially in an educational way. They say they are doing much good.
[To his niece, Clara Cramer.]