“Mr. Motley was certainly a very able, very honest gentleman, fit to hold any official position.  But he knew long before he went out that he would have to go.  When I was making these appointments, Mr. Sumner came to me and asked me to appoint Mr. Motley as minister to the court of St. James.  I told him I would, and did.  Soon after Mr. Sumner made that violent speech about the Alabama claims, and the British government was greatly offended.  Mr. Sumner was at the time chairman of the committee on foreign affairs.  Mr. Motley had to be instructed.  The instructions were prepared very carefully, and after Governor Fish and I had gone over them for the last time I wrote an addendum charging him that above all things he should handle the subject of the Alabama claims with the greatest delicacy.  Mr. Motley instead of obeying his explicit instructions, deliberately fell in line with Sumner, and thus added insult to the previous injury.  As soon as I heard of it I went over to the State Department and told Governor Fish to dismiss Motley at once.  I was very angry indeed, and I have been sorry many a time since that I did not stick to my first determination.  Mr. Fish advised delay because of Sumner’s position in the Senate and attitude on the treaty question.  We did not want to stir him up just then.  We dispatched a note of severe censure to Motley at once and ordered him to abstain from any further connection with that question.  We thereupon commenced negotiations with the British minister at Washington, and the result was the joint high commission and the Geneva award.  I supposed Mr. Motley would be manly enough to resign after that snub, but he kept on till he was removed.  Mr. Sumner promised me that he would vote for the treaty.  But when it was before the Senate he did all he could to beat it.”

General Grant talked again at Cairo, in Egypt.

“Grant then referred to the statement published at an interview with him in Scotland, and said the publication had some omissions and errors.  He had no ill-will towards Mr. Motley, who, like other estimable men, made mistakes, and Motley made a mistake which made him an improper person to hold office under me.”

“It is proper to say of me that I killed Motley, or that I made war upon Sumner for not supporting the annexation of San Domingo.  But if I dare to answer that I removed Motley from the highest considerations of duty as an executive; if I presume to say that he made a mistake in his office which made him no longer useful to the country; if Fish has the temerity to hint that Sumner’s temper was so unfortunate that business relations with him became impossible, we are slandering the dead.”

“Nothing but Mortimer.”  Those who knew both men—­the Ex-President and the late Senator—­would agree, I do not doubt, that they would not be the most promising pair of human beings to make harmonious members of a political