Johnson’s energy and dominant will would not let him retire to idleness. Not only did he still continue to study diction, but he began another congressional race. He was defeated successively for both the House and the Senate. He ran again for the Senate as an independent and was elected, taking his seat March 5, 1875, at a special session called by President Grant, and was the most interesting member of that body. At the close of the special session, he returned to his home. On July 29, 1875, he suffered a stroke of paralysis, and on the 31st he died at the home of his daughter Mrs. Stover, where he was visiting for a few days. CHAPTER II FIRST ADMINISTRATION OF ULYSSES S. GRANT _March 4, 1869, to March 4, 1873_ During the strife and turmoil of the régime of President Johnson, the prestige and popularity of General Grant continued to increase. His brilliant military exploits, his magnanimity to the Southern generals, his unostentatious demeanour upon all occasions, and the wisdom of the silence he maintained upon the issues of the day, combined to invest him in public opinion with superlative acumen and the qualities of a superstatesman. The result of the adulation was the creation of a gigantic tide of public approval that expressed itself in a universal demand for him as President of the United States. At this particular crisis, he was regarded with a sort of reverent affection as the man of destiny to handle the troubled political situation with the same brilliant strategy that had characterized his military achievements. Yet none remembered that this peerless soldier became the victorious war general through long training in military technique. Following an expert military education, his skill in this science had been amplified, concentrated, and forged into a life vocation by years of hard service and bitter experience in Texas, Mexico, and California. Every single success of the Civil War had come through the application to each situation of the knowledge derived through years of experience and observation. In all his busy life as soldier, farmer, tanner, store clerk, and real-estate dealer, politics had had no place. Politics had never interested him. He seems to have given but the most casual attention to the political struggles of the great parties. His political inclination was shown by the only ballot he ever cast before he came to the White House--for James Buchanan. So it was upon his military record alone that he was swept into the Presidency, with a million and a half majority of votes. That the American public did not underestimate the character of General Grant is proved by the fact that the maelstrom of political intrigue, scandal, and crookedness into which he was precipitated wholly unprepared by previous experiences left him a greater man at the close of his eight years of administration--in spite of his Presidency rather than because of it.