Chandler, in the debate, quoted an opinion of Attorney-General Wirt, given in 1828, to the effect that although the circumstances attending the passage of the Act of 1808 showed that Congress was then legislating on contracts for carrying the mails and for the purchase of supplies and not for legal services, yet, in his belief, the law was broad enough to include such services. An opinion of an Attorney-General, however, was not binding on Senators. Trumbull replied that the law had been settled differently as to legal services, and that the only prohibition then in force was against Congressmen practicing for compensation in the Court of Claims or before the executive departments. In this contention he could hardly fail to be correct, since all such laws later than 1861 had emanated from, or had passed through, the committee of which he was chairman. The governing statute was the act of June 11, 1864, introduced by Senator Wade, in 1863. As originally drawn, it prohibited Congressmen from practicing for or against the Government before any court, or department; but the word "court" was stricken out while it was pending in the Senate, and this was good evidence to show what the intention of Congress was. Although the payment was certainly legal, it would have been better for Trumbull if he had not taken it. Whenever he came before the people for public preferment thereafter, the Chandler accusation was brought against him afresh and it required a new refutation. * * * * * After the impeachment fiasco was ended, the nomination of Grant for President by the Republican party was inevitable--not because he was a Republican, but because he was the only man whom the party could certainly elect. Until he quarreled with Andrew Johnson, nobody knew which side he favored. Indeed, the Democrats, until that time, had looked hopefully to him as a possible candidate for themselves. The convention which nominated him was confronted by the fact that Congress had imposed negro suffrage on the South, while some of the largest Northern States had not yet adopted it, but had flatly refused to do so. The platform committee, therefore, reported, and the convention adopted, a resolution declaring: The guaranty by Congress of equal suffrage to all loyal men at the South was demanded by every consideration of public safety, of gratitude, and of justice, and must be maintained, but the question of suffrage in all the loyal states properly belongs to the people of those states. Grant was nominated unanimously May 20, 1868, and Schuyler Colfax was nominated as Vice-President. The Democrats nominated Horatio Seymour for President and Frank P. Blair for Vice-president. In the election, Grant and Colfax received 214 electoral votes and Seymour and Blair 80.