The implicit confidence Mrs. Grant reposed in her husband has long ago been rewarded, and there is now no one to question his ability as a military officer. But there was a time when her faith in him was in marked contrast to the opinions entertained by his and her relatives. They had seen him fail at farming and in the leather business, and a man, in their opinion, who could not make money in either of these pursuits, was not likely to reach success in anything.
But his wife was loyal to him, and, when asked by a party of ladies her opinion concerning her husband’s new responsibilities and prospects, just before the battle of the Wilderness, she replied:
“Mr. Grant has succeeded thus far, wherever the Government has placed him, and he will do the best he can.”
“Do you think he will capture Richmond?”
“Yes, before he gets through: Mr. Grant always was a very obstinate man.”
With the return of peace General Grant settled in Washington City, where his head-quarters as commander-in-chief of the army were established. His family were, for the first time in many years, again with him, and they greatly appreciated the three years of comparative rest they enjoyed. But they were destined to play a still higher part in the national life. General Grant, the idol of the people after Lincoln, and the most successful general of the age, was elected President of the United States.
Mrs. Grant parted reluctantly with her own home and prepared to take up her abode in the White House, but it was not before the fall of the year that she settled down to the routine life there, and prepared to perform the duties expected of her.
The first three years passed away pleasantly and without any very great éclat. The President’s household was accounted an eminently happy one, and there was always in the house some one or more of his own or his wife’s kindred. But the children were at school, and there was less of gayety than when, later, Miss Nellie made her début into society, and the young cadet son had returned from West Point, and was his sister’s escort and companion.
The family travelled a great deal more perhaps than that of any other of the Presidents. Every summer they spent at the sea-shore, and now Long Branch is their permanent home in the warm season. The children travelled abroad during their father’s administration, the daughter receiving the most distinguished attentions while in England and elsewhere; and when at home their young friends gathered about them, eager to enjoy the pleasure of their company and the hospitalities of their splendid home.
But the event that drew the American people to the President and his household, as nothing else could have done, was the marriage of his only daughter. Mrs. Grant and Nellie became, from the moment her engagement was announced, the most interesting persons in the nation. What will the mother do for her child that shall be befitting the occasion? was the question the young and old of the sex asked of each other all over America. And grave old men, who had long ago forgotten the excitements of their own wedding days, caught the prevailing infection and became interested in the sole daughter of the house, soon to be an inmate of it no longer. Mothers’ hearts ached with Mrs. Grant’s over the thoughts of the long separation, for Nellie was to marry an Englishman and live in England; and when at last the time drew near for the nuptials, the entire nation became interested spectators of an event which they could not but feel was the most pleasing, and yet the most sad act of all the grand drama of the double administration.