Grant's course in the Maryland matter and his outspoken advice to the Arkansas delegation had convinced the Administration that he could be induced to take no step at all beyond the strictest line of the law; and when it was seen to be impossible to use him, a scheme was concocted to send him out of the country. The Government did not indeed dare remove the victorious head of the army, but they determined to suspend him from his functions for a while, and to put Sherman, who it was hoped would prove more supple, in his place. Sherman had said and written things which the President construed into an approval of his policy. So Grant was directed to order Sherman to Washington, but was not informed of the reason for the order. Grant had long exhibited a peculiar interest in the expulsion of the French from Mexico and the overthrow of the empire of Maximilian. He regarded the intrusion of foreign armies and institutions on this continent not only as a direct menace to all republican interests, but as an act of hostility towards the United States that would never have been attempted except when we were at war. His opinions were well known to the country and had been repeatedly and earnestly pressed upon the Government; and the device of the Administration now was to make use of these sentiments as an excuse to send him on a mission to the neighboring republic and thus get rid of his presence which had become such an obstruction to many of their designs. The French Emperor, it was true, was tardily preparing to remove his army, and there was neither object nor necessity for Grant's presence or intervention. Nevertheless, in November, 1866, immediately after the failure of the Baltimore scheme, the President informed Grant that he meant to
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S. S. Scranton and Co., Hartford, 1887.
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