Nonetheless, Stahel verified Mosby's complaints, and former Union Cavalry Major William H. Forbes (who had once stabbed Col. Mosby's coat during an engagement) who now headed Russell and Co. (major traders in the Far East, including of opium) also supported Mosby against Bailey, Seward and their newspaper friends. Alexander McClure of the "Philadelphia Times" agitated to clean up the consular service. Fred Seward, amidst charges that he was shielding the rascals, resigned by October 1879, and was replaced by John Hay. By January 1880, Grant and journalist John R. Young (who would become consul at Shanghai two years later) briefed Secretary of State William M. Evarts about Sickels and Torrey. George Seward resigned well before the 1880 election, followed by Bailey and Sickels as the President "at last swept the China coast".