The impeachment of President Johnson had not been finally disposed of in the Senate when the Fourth Republican National Convention assembled in Crosby's Opera House, Chicago, on May 20, 1868, for the purpose of nominating one whom, it was confidently believed, would succeed President Johnson and thus end the long controversy between the President and Congress, and between the North and the South. There was absolutely no question as to who would be the presidential nominee, for the overwhelming sentiment of the party had long since crystallized in favor of a man whose wonderful career and talents had made him pre-eminently the strongest candidate in the party. [Illustration: Ulysses S. Grant.] Ulysses S. Grant was born in Ohio in 1822, and had graduated from West Point in 1843. He took part in the Mexican War, and was brevetted Captain for gallant services. A few years after the close of that war he resigned his commission and engaged in business until the call to arms in 1861. His great success in the capture of Forts Henry and Donelson brought him the rank of Major General and made him at once one of the most prominent and promising of the Union Generals. His subsequent successes in Tennessee, the capture of Vicksburg and the opening of the Mississippi caused him to be appointed to the revived rank of Lieutenant-General, and taking personal command of the campaign against Richmond, he had, by his dogged persistence, brought success and ended the great conflict. He continued to remain at the head of the Army, and in the bitter contest between the President and Congress during the reconstruction period, though placed in a most trying position, he had displayed rare qualities of tact and judgment, and had gained the confidence of the entire party, and indeed of the American people. Such, briefly, was the career of the man who was now called to accept a presidential nomination.