1876. Krakowie: Nakladem Ksiegarni Adolfa Dygasinkskiego, 1876.

8vo.; full red morocco stamped in gilt and blind; upper and lower boards gilt and blind tooled; edges gilt; moire endpapers.

First edition. A presentation copy, inscribed: “The author presents this book to General Ulysses S. Grant, President of the United States of America, in memory of the Hundredth Anniversary of the Declaration of Liberty and Independence, and as a token of his profound respect for the patriotic virtues of the illustrious representative of that Great Nation. Setphan Buszczynskiego Citizen of the Polish Nation Fellow of the Academy of Sciences at Krakow, of the Polish Hist. Lit. Society at Paris, etc. Dresden  12 February 1876,” on the front free endpaper; with the author’s calling card affixed beneath the inscription.

April 19, 1875 marked the centennial of the other great war fought on American soil, and President Grant led a contingent of government officials and other dignitaries on a two-mile parade through the town of Concord, where a massive Minuteman statue was to be unveiled. Henry Wilson, Hamilton Fish and Orville Babcock joined the president on that chilly April morning. One of Grant’s former subordinates, Ambrose Burnside, the newly elected Senator from Rhode Island, marched with the infantry veterans in the parade.

The following year Grant attended the far more spectacular centennial celebration of the Declaration of Independence. Herman Melville described the 1876 Philadelphia Exhibition as an “immense…sort of tremendous Vanity Fair.” The Grants opened the fair on May 10, and the president gave a short address expressing his optimism about the technological future awaiting the United States and the world. Together with Brazilian Emperor Dom Pedro II, Grant started the massive Corliss Engine that was the centerpiece of Machinery Hall. The Grants returned to the exhibition several times before it closed on November 10.