As election time approached, many friends and admirers urged upon General Grant a third term, their theory being that, if any man could receive that extraordinary proof of the regard and confidence of the American people, Ulysses S. Grant was that man. While the President was not indifferent to the honour a third term would convey to the world, he was not altogether assured it would be a wise move for him to enter the contest again. Such vindication would be particularly pleasant after the stormy period which the Democratic majority in the House had created with fully fifty committees bent upon investigating every act of his administration. In their efforts to find cause for charging him with other and graver faults and mistakes than being a poor judge of men, and being so constituted as to remain loyal to his friends even when they abused his trust and imposed upon his confidence. He realized that he was blamed for much of the distressing financial condition of the country. The third term idea was unpopular in the House, and that body expressed itself in a resolution by a vote of 234 to 18 against the third term, the reason being that the precedent set by General Washington and adhered to by all his successors was a fixed custom, and to make a departure from it would be unwise, if not actually unpatriotic. According to his habit, the President gave the matter due consideration from every angle and then declined. Brigadier General Adam Badeau, who spent much time at the White House and in travelling in Europe with his former chief, was the first to read this letter declining a third term. In his “Grant in Peace,” General Badeau says: “I recollect dining with him [President Grant] more than once in 1875. His table was always laid so that half a dozen unexpected guests might be entertained, and one Sunday we lunched informally in the library, no one but himself and me. He had just finished writing the letter in which he declined a nomination for a third term. The paper had not been read as yet to any of his Cabinet, and Mrs. Grant did not know of his decision. He asked my opinion of the letter, and I told him it was a good one, if he had determined to withdraw from the contest, but I had supposed he would not so determine. The letter was sent to the press the same day without Mrs. Grant’s knowledge, for the General was sure it would be disagreeable to her, and he wished his decision to be irrevocable before she learned it. Years afterward, when I told her I had heard that letter before it was sent, she reproached me more than half in earnest for not striving harder to prevent its issue.” Being relieved of the necessity of again going through the uncertainties and anxieties of a campaign, President Grant and his wife began their preparations for their release from public service. As they had long wanted to travel abroad, that plan was developed while the eyes of the people turned toward the choice of a successor.