The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1864-04-15
Gen. Grant the Sc Ma n Of Destiny.,'

10 We E0tOT o. TIE fTOne0T:
Ever since the commencement of this
sad civil war, the Northern public has
been waiting anxiously in hopes that
events would call ont man equal to the
terrible emergency. At the time General
Mcclellan was appointed to the command
of all the armies of the Union, as General
in Chief, Almost all the newspaper presses
and the public united in bestowing upon
him the appellation Of the ''young Ma
poleon!" and confidently looked to him
as the man under whose guidance our
armies loved to march to victory and to
a restoration of the country. In this we
were all disappointed. 1t is not my pur-
pose to discuss the reasons, either pro or
con, why our expectations were not real
lied; for on this point the pablo mind is
very much divided, many believing Gen.
Mcclellan to be an i'll fused officer for po-
litical purposes. whilst others think the
Administration acted entirely right in their
treatment of "Little Mac" This is
question for future historians.
| During the time the army of the Po-
tomac was suffering series of disasters,
under five different commanders, at the
hands of the Confederate army COM
manded by Gen. Lee, man in the South
west was quietly winning victory after
victory over the rebel forces, each success
sive battle being followed by victory
more brilliant than the one which pre-
coded it, until un the heights of Missionary
Ridge, Gen. Grant burst on the full recog-
milton OF the public mind as the bravest
and most successful warrior that has ap-
peared in military annals since the Great
Napoleon.
And the great chieftain, too, is as mod
est as he is brave, and as tair and honor
able to men of all political parties as he is
devoted and self-sacrificing to the good of
his country. A soldier On the battle fields
of Mexico, where bis first laurels were
gathered, he is no new convert to patriot
ism, like many prominent men of this era
who opposed that war with the most ma
lignant bitterness, but he is a patriot at
all times. As sample of his fairness and
impartiality to men of all parties, whilst
the political generals who congregated
around Washington to worship the risen
sun, and who took delight in writing let
tiers to political conventions that their SOL
diers would "rather shoot copperheads in
the North than rebels in the South" Gen.
Grant wrote to the Vallandigham commit
tee, during the canvass for Governor in
that State, that Democrats should have
the same right to distribute documents and
ballots in his army as did the agents OF
the Republican party. For this act he in
Cured the censure of the malignant aboli-
tionists, but it failed in the slightest de-
gree to disturb the equanimity of the hero
of Vicksburg
In my humble opinion, Gen. Grant is
the man above all others to succeed Mr..
Lincoln in the Presidency in March, 1865!
If the Union or Republican convention,
which assemblies in Baltimore in June,
should nominate Lincoln, then Gen. Grant,
by all means, should receive nomination
from the hands of the Democratic Con-
sentative convection which will meet in
Chicago on the 4th day of July, an ami
versary memorable tor the Declaration of
independence, and for the fall of Vicks-
burg, the stronghold of the Confederacy
in the Southwest. Gen. Grant, as the
nominee of either conventien, wonld be
triumphantly elected.
But the objection may be urged that
Grant is unambitious,- that he does not
desire the Presidency; and some may
even go so far as to express doubt Of his
competency. These directors say that al
though he is very skillful General, there
are doubts as to his ability as statesman.
| As to the first objection, there is no dan
ger of truly great man declining such
| an office as President of this great cOun-
try, especially when he is aware that his
own deeds have proved him worthy of the
| high honor. As to the second, l answer
that history, either of current or modern
| times, furnishes no example of man
failing in the cabinet who has shown him.
| self great and successful commander On
the Dattlo-Ilelu. 0leu WHO are competent
to WELD large masses of men or the thea
tire of war, never fail in any position in
which fortune may place them.
During the time the Directory ruled
France in the French Revolution, a man,
small in stature, of a thoughtful visage,
grave and reticent in speech, moody, APP
parently, of humor, appeared as Lieu
tenant of artillery at the siege of Toulor,
and by his superior skill contributed more
than any other officer in the French army,
to the reduction of that strongly fortified
city. A few years later we find him a
General with the command Of the army
of Italy, shifting the foes Of his country
with the restless fury of an avalanche.
All Europe gazed in establishment at the
military prodigy, who disregarded alike
orders received from the Directory and
all the rules of strategy of known warfare.
Now he is so strong in the affections Of
the French people the Directory dare not
remove him. In the meantime complica-
tons thicken in Paris, and still this same,
| silent inscrutable man at the head of
the army of Italy, keeps his own
counsel, and no word of comment on the
many and exciting rumors that reach his