On our return to Cairo, we were met by the customary evening shower, an
unwelcome attendant upon a steamboat excursion.
My acquaintance with Mr. Dana gave me a high opinion of his business
habits and faculties, and when General Grant became President and I was
in charge of the Treasury, I urged the President to appoint Mr. Dana
collector of the port of New York. The President had already selected
Mr. Grinnell, but whether he had communicated the fact to Mr. Grinnell
I never knew. Moreover, the President had formed an unfavorable
opinion of Mr. Dana, arising from some intercourse during the war.
Consequently, my advice was unavailing. The President said, however,
that I might offer him the post of chief appraiser of the port of New
York. The offer was declined; and from that time forward Mr. Dana was
the President's bitter enemy. As another result, there was no further
communication between Mr. Dana and myself. Once I saw him upon a
steamer, but we did not recognize each other. In the year 1887, in
consequence of a paragraph in the New York _Sun_ in which my name was
mentioned, not unkindly, I wrote a brief note to Mr. Dana. Without
delay I received from him a long and almost affectionate letter, in
which he urged me to let him know when I was in New York, that he might
call upon me, and talk over some things old, and some things new.
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