This seventh and final volume explores the life of the Civil War congressman, secretary of state, and the American minister to France, Elihu Washburne—from his retirement from public office to his death in 1887. During this final chapter in his life, Elihu Washburne was a presidential candidate for the Republican nomination in 1880, receiving over forty delegate votes in a losing cause to General James Garfield, who later became president. At that same Republican convention, Washburne came in second place in the balloting for vice president. In the contest for the number-two spot, Elihu Washburne lost to Chester Arthur, who replaced Garfield as the president after that chief executive was assassinated in 1881.