Mr. Arnold’s congressional career ended with the Thirty-eighth Congress March 3, 1865. He had served his country so well, had given the Administration such loyal, able and efficient support and won such a splendid fame that it was generally regretted that he would not consent to be returned. After President Lincoln’s assassination, he accepted the appointment from President Johnson of Auditor of the Treasury for the Port Office department, as a residence in Washington afforded him a more ready access to documents that were necessary to enable him to complete his work entitled the “History of Abraham Lincoln and the Overthrow of Slavery in the United States,” the preparation of which he had commenced before the assassination. He finally resigned the position however, and returned to Chicago in 1867. He then completed his work referred to, which is one of surprising interest and of exceptional historic value. In 1872, he resumed his bar practice in Chicago and continued actively in his profession for two or three years, when failing health compelled him to abandon it. From that time until his death, he lived a retired life in his pleasant home among his books and papers, where surrounded by his family and congenial friends he dispensed an elegant and gracious hospitality. He now had leisure to devote himself to favorite literary pursuits. He devoted himself to historic themes as he had a love for historical research, and a power of analysis which enabled him to do valuable work in historical and biographical writing. In 1880, he brought out a work entitled “Life of Benedict Arnold—His Patriotism and His Treason.” It is generally acknowledged to be a work of ability and fairness. Certainly it showed the independence and courage of the author for it required something of courage to meet the popular prejudice with which the name of Benedict Arnold is regarded. But the author said that he wished to “make known the patriotic service of Benedict Arnold; the sufferings, heroism and the wrongs which drove him to a desperate action and induced one of the most heroic men of an heroic age to perpetrate an unpardonable crime.” The book is really one of great historic value. Mr. Arnold was never quite satisfied with his work on Mr. Lincoln and the overthrow of slavery. About two years before his death, therefore, he began to write the “Life of Abraham Lincoln,” and it is upon this work, says one of his ardent admirers, that his reputation as a biographer and historian must rest.