“Executive Mansion,
Washington, D. C., October 25, 1874.
“My dear General:
“Your letter stating that Mr. Sartoris and Nellie had been at your house in London was received while Mrs. Grant and I were in Chicago attending the wedding of Fred to Miss Honoré. Fred’s wife is beautiful and is spoken of by all her acquaintances, male and female, young and old, as being quite as charming for her manners, amiability, good sense, and education, as she is for her beauty. Mrs. Grant and I were charmed with the young lady and her family—father and mother, sister and four brothers. We expect them to spend the winter with us and as Mr. Sartoris and Nellie will be here in January, we will have I hope quite a gay household. Buck is in a law office in New York City, and is a student at the same time in Columbia Law School. Jesse entered Cornell University without a condition, although he has never attended school but three years, then in an infant class. My boys are all growing up. Fred with no surplus weight, weighs 193 lbs., and Buck who is a spare looking young man, weighs 160 lbs., twenty pounds more than I weighed at forty years of age. As my children are all leaving me it is gratifying to know that, so far, they give good promise. They are all of good habits and are very popular with their acquaintances and associates. We have had—Mrs. Grant has—a letter from Nellie this morning. But as I was busy, I have neither read it nor heard its contents; therefore do not know whether it was written before or after her visit to London.
“Although remiss in writing, I am always glad to hear from you and take as warm an interest in your welfare as though I wrote frequently.
“Yours truly,
“U. S. Grant.
“General A. Badeau.”
Among all the brilliant assemblages which have gathered in the Rotunda of the National Capitol throughout its history, it is doubtful if any were more brilliant than filled that place on the evening of December 16, 1874, when the Centennial Tea Party was held there to raise funds for the Centennial Exposition to be held in Philadelphia two years later. The Star of December 17, 1874, says:
“There was but one fault to be found with the Tea Party last night, and that was that it was too much of a success. The crowd was so great from the beginning to the end of the evening that it was almost impossible to see the tables or approach them for refreshments. The effect of the decorations and the toilettes was not as marked as they would have been in a more open space. The ladies who undertook the stupendous work of organizing and carrying out such wonderful entertainment had certainly shown great executive ability. They have proved that they are well versed in the history of their country, and the glory which belonged to the thirteen original states. Each table and each lady’s dress was in perfect keeping with the period represented. The parted hair, and faces with black patches, coquettish caps, prudish handkerchiefs, and dainty aprons were becoming to all. The old Hall of Representatives was wrapped in a dim religious light, which added to the scenic effect of the marble columns and statues. The Marine Band, in uniform, with their music stands, each of which had a candle, made the darkness more visible and supplemented the effect. There was a rostrum from which General Hawley, and afterwards Secretary Robeson, addressed the vast throng. It was impossible to hear the addresses for thousands of people were surging and milling in search of fresh novelties and without any desire to use more than one faculty—sight. No other place in the city but the Capitol could have accommodated the multitude. The Tea Party will be repeated to-night.”
In the opening weeks of 1875, the Treasury Department received information which brought forth an exposure of frauds almost as startling as had been the revelations of the Crédit Mobilier. The case trailed its ugly shadow across the President’s path. This was the Whisky Ring, a fully organized project to defraud the government, which, like that of the railroad graft, had been long flourishing. Possessed of unlimited resources, the Whisky Ring had been able to keep its transactions under cover, since it could engage the most expert of counsel and the most graceless of witnesses to protect its interests.
The Whisky Ring really formed in St. Louis in 1872, and in two years assumed national proportions. Through a coalition of distillers and revenue collectors, the government was defrauded of the internal revenue tax on distilled liquors. The investigators produced evidence that resulted in the indictment of 238 persons showing that the government had been defrauded in the brief space of ten months of $1,650,000.