The peace, or “Quaker” policy, of which so much has been said, originated about thus:  By the act of Congress, approved March 3,1869, the forty-five regiments of infantry were reduced to twenty-five, and provision was made for the “muster out” of many of the surplus officers, and for retaining others to be absorbed by the usual promotions and casualties.  On the 7th of May of that year, by authority of an act of Congress approved June 30, 1834, nine field-officers and fifty-nine captains and subalterns were detached and ordered to report to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, to serve as Indian superintendents and agents.  Thus by an old law surplus army officers were made to displace the usual civil appointees, undoubtedly a change for the better, but most distasteful to members of Congress, who looked to these appointments as part of their proper patronage.  The consequence was the law of July 15, 1870, which vacated the military commission of any officer who accepted or exercised the functions of a civil officer.  I was then told that certain politicians called on President Grant, informing him that this law was chiefly designed to prevent his using army officers for Indian agents, “civil offices,” which he believed to be both judicious and wise; army officers, as a rule, being better qualified to deal with Indians than the average political appointees.  The President then quietly replied:  “Gentlemen, you have defeated my plan of Indian management; but you shall not succeed in your purpose, for I will divide these appointments up among the religious churches, with which you dare not contend.”  The army officers were consequently relieved of their “civil offices,” and the Indian agencies were apportioned to the several religious churches in about the proportion of their—­supposed strength—­some to the Quakers, some to the Methodists, to the Catholics, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, etc., etc.—­and thus it remains to the present time, these religious communities selecting the agents to be appointed by the Secretary of the Interior.  The Quakers, being first named, gave name to the policy, and it is called the “Quaker” policy to-day.  Meantime railroads and settlements by hardy, bold pioneers have made the character of Indian agents of small concern, and it matters little who are the beneficiaries.

As was clearly foreseen, General U. S. Grant was duly nominated, and on the 7th of November, 1868, was elected President of the United States for the four years beginning with March 4, 1869.

On the 15th and 16th of December, 1868, the four societies of the Armies of the Cumberland, Tennessee, Ohio, and Georgia, held a joint reunion at Chicago, at which were present over two thousand of the surviving officers and soldiers of the war.  The ceremonies consisted of the joint meeting in Crosby’s magnificent opera-house, at which General George H. Thomas presided.  General W. W. Belknap was the orator for the Army