In 1868 Grant was elected president as the candidate of the Republican party by a vote of two hundred and fourteen to eighty. He tried to withdraw the national government more and more from the South and to leave the state governments in control. He was re-elected in 1872 by two hundred and eighty-six votes, showing the people’s approval of his administration. A noteworthy act of his second term was his vetoing the bill for the inflation of the currency, making paper money legally equal to gold and silver. People wanted him to serve a third term but he refused, and in 1877 started on a tour of the world. He visited Europe and Asia and was everywhere received with honor,--as the guest of Queen Victoria, the kings of Italy, Portugal, Denmark, Sweden, the Czar of Russia, and other rulers. Having received royal honors in many lands, he returned in 1880 to California where he had served thirty years before as an obscure young soldier. His last years were burdened by business misfortunes and physical suffering. He had invested his money in a banking business which failed and involved him in ruin. With poverty came illness, a painful throat disease which was to end in death. From his sickroom in answer to words of sympathy which came from all parts of the country, indeed of the world he sent this message: “I am very much touched and grateful for the sympathy and interest manifested in me by my friends and by those who have not hitherto been regarded as my friends. I desire the good will of all, whether heretofore friends or not.” To make provision for his family, he set about writing his “Memoirs,” the story of his life and battles. In pain and illness, he toiled on and held death at bay till this work was finished, July 1, 1885. A few days later, he died on July 23. He was laid to rest beside the Hudson and over his remains was erected a magnificent marble tomb; over the doorway of this is inscribed his noble words, “Let us have peace.” Robert E. Lee The Leader of the Confederate Armies More and more, Americans are coming to realize that in the great War between the States men on both sides were animated by a sense of duty and devotion to what they thought right. On the one side, brave, loyal-hearted men upheld the Union; on the other, men as brave and loyal upheld the supremacy of the state. You have read how Grant, the victor, won the love and reverence of his countrymen; no less loved and reverenced was his defeated opponent, the great Confederate leader, Lee.