the winter of 1867, he was elected to fill the unexpired term, but a Democratic majority in the New Jersey Legislature prevented his re-election in 1869. In 1870, he was nominated by President Ulysses S. Grant, and confirmed by the Senate, as United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom to succeed John Lothrop Motley, but declined the mission. From 1871 to 1877 he was again a member of the United States Senate, in which he was prominent in debate and in committee work, and was chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs during the Alabama Claims negotiations. He was a strong opponent of the Reconstruction measures of President Andrew Johnson, for whose conviction he voted for in Johnson's impeachment trial. Frelinghuysen supported the Radical Republicans' program for Reconstruction that emphasized a harsh treatment of former Confederates. He later allied with the GOP Stalwart faction whose members tended to utilize corruption/patronage effectively, though was considered to have a clean record. He was a member of the joint committee which drew up and reported (1877) the Electoral Commission Bill, and subsequently served as a member of the Electoral Commission that decided the 1876 Presidential election. As a Republican, he voted with the eight-member majority on all counts. U.S. Secretary of State On December 12, 1881, he was appointed United States Secretary of State by President Chester A. Arthur to succeed James G. Blaine, and served until the inauguration of President Grover Cleveland in 1885. Upon taking the post, Frelinghuysen was tasked with resolving a number of consequences resulted by the actions of his predecessor Blaine. Taking a pacifistic and patient approach, he shared the vision held by William H. Seward of the United States dominating the global market in setting an example for other nations to follow, he withdrew the U.S. from the War of the Pacific between Chile and Peru in which his predecessor unsuccessfully backed the Peruvians. Frelinghuysen's other actions included canceling a scheduled Pan-American conference against President Arthur's wishes that Blaine had originally planned. In addition, he negotiated a treaty change with Hawaii that allowed for a naval base for the U.S. in Pearl Harbor, which was later known for being bombed by Japan in World War II. In contrast to his predecessors in the position of U.S. Secretary of State, Frelinghuysen proved unable to urge Great Britain to modify the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty terms in a re-negotiation