veto failed in the Senate. Feud with Bristow (1874) When Benjamin Bristow was appointed Secretary of Treasury by Grant in June 1874, a feud developed between Bristow and Robeson within a few months. The controversy centered around Robeson wanting to have Senator A.G. Cattell appointed financial agent in London to negotiate a bond issue. Cattell had performed a similar service in 1873 under previous Secretary Richardson. Bristow refused to make the appointment and believed a Treasury appointee could do the job. Bristow lobbied Grant to appoint John Bigelow, head of the Treasury Department's Loan Division. Grant accepted Bristow's choice of Bigelow, but he warned Bristow that Bigelow had a previous episode of drunkness. Bristow went further to undercut Robeson's influence in the Grant cabinet. Bristow told Grant that Robeson's Navy Department was financially mismanaged, and was under the control of former treasury secretary Hugh McCulloch's banking house. Bristow's advisers warned Bristow to cool things off and take a less confrontational approach. Report on U.S. Navy (1875) On December 6, 1875, Secretary Robeson released his report on the condition of the U.S. Navy. The New York Times stated that the U.S. Navy was "stronger than at any time" since the Civil War. Robeson stated in his report that by 1875 the U.S. Navy was the strongest it had been during Grant's presidential term starting in 1869. The U.S. Navy consisted of 147 ships of every class and description, and twenty-six ships were sailing vessels without any steam power. Robeson stated that of the 147 ships in the U.S. Navy, 80 were available for war, including sixteen ironclads and two torpedo ships, USS Alarm and . Intrepid was the second U.S. propelled torpedo warship, built-in 1874. The British Royal Navy would not have a propelled torpedo warship until 10 years later. There was a total of 1,195 guns on all the ships combined. Robeson commented that the U.S. Navy was introducing and experimenting with breech-loading howitzers in the naval system, that Gatling guns were on every ship in the U.S. Navy, and that the Torpedo School at Newport was developing efficient torpedoes that could cause great destruction. Concerning the five double-turreted monitors that Robeson had designed and ordered over a year ago in June 1874, he pressed Congress for funding to complete the ships. House investigation and corruption (1876) In 1869, when Robeson was appointed Secretary of Navy by Grant, he had