The weekly union record., 1865-05-20
Lieutenant General Grant.

GeneFai GraDtS history sholl0 teacn Us 10
/ discriminate better than we Americans are apt
, TO do between glitter and solid work. Our
proueuess TO run after demsgognes and spout
ers NAV hud wholesome corrective 10 the
study OF such character as his. The quail
( lies by which great things are accomplished
are here seen 10 have no necessary connection
with snowy and superficial accomplishments.
/ When the mass OF men look upon such char
scter they may learn a truer respect for them
selves and each other they are tsnght by It
that high qualities and grea, abilities are con
sistent with the simplicity OF taste, contempt
/ for parade, and plainness OF manners, with
which direct and earnest men have strong
natural sympathy. Ulysses 5. Grant, the tan
DER, Ulysses ). Grant. the unsuccessful appli-
/ cant for the post Of City Surveyor of St.
( Louis, Ulysses s. Grant, the driver into that
/ city of his two horse team with load of wood
/ TO sell, had within him every manly quality
which will cause the name Of Lieu,enaot Gen
eral Grant to live forever in history. His
career is lesson in practical democracy ; it is
quiet satire on the dandyism, the puppyism,
and the shallow sdectation of our fashionable
e1quisites, as we'll as upon the swagger OF our
+ plausible, ghb-touged demagogues. Not by
/ any means that great qualities are Inconsistent
with cultivated manners and fluent elocu-
ton; but that such superficial accomplish
ments are no measure Of worth or ability.
| General Grants last brilliant campaign sets
the final seal upon his reputation. Ii stamps
him as the superior of his able antagonist as
well as of all the commanders who have served
with or under him in the great campaigns Of
the last year. 1t is not necessary to sacrifice
any part of their well earned regulations to
- j . sba.
has ever been said in their praise, but there has
never been time since Grant was made Lieu
tenant General when anybody but Sherman on
our side could have been classed with him.
Since Sherman's bold march through Georgia
and bis capture of Savannah and Charleston,
there have been many who, in their strong ad-
mlration OF his great achievements, Inclined 10
rank him as the greater General of the two.
That Judgment, We take it, is now reversed by
the court OF final appeal-not by dwaring the
reputation of Sherman. which suffers no Just
abatement, but by the expansion into grander
proportions of that of Grant.
Grant stands pre- eminent among all the Gen
erals who have served in this war in the COM
pleieress OF his final results. He has owed
nothing TO accident and. both in the West
and the East he has accomplished the most
great thing 10 the West, without which the
rebel power could never have been broken in
that vast regiol, was the reopening If the Mis-
sissippi; the great thing in the East, the TAX
ing of the rebel Capital. Richmond was the
right leg of the rebellion, and the Mississippi
river its left. But werd contested by the rebels
with full appreciation of their value The
resistance was, in both cases. powerful and OBJ
H. hnr
of the most indomitable mind 10 proof suf
icient to test its quality. General Grant has
exhibited the utmost strength of will of which
the highest type of manhood is capable The
defenses of Vicksburg and the defenses OF
Richmond were both deemed impregnabe, and
were defended with proportonabe confidence
and obstinacy; but they both yielded, at last,
to Grants matchIess persistence and unequaled
strategy And, in both cases, be not only took
the long contested positions but compelled the
surrender of the whole force defending them.
Nothing could be more clean and complete,
even in imagination, than General Grants
mastery execution. He did not merely, 10
each case, acquire position which was the
key of wide theater OF operations he did
not merely beat or disable the opposing force
he left no fragment Of it n existence except as
prisoners of war subject TO his disposal.
If anybody is so obtuse or so wrong headed
as to see nothing great in General Grant be.
yond bis mavelous tenacity Of will, let that
doubter explain, if he can, how it has happen
ed tha, since Grant rose TO high command this
quality has always been exerted in conspicuous
energy precisely at the point on which every
thing in his whole sphere OF operations hinged.
There has been no display of great qualities on
small occasions no expenditure of herculean
effort to accomplish objects not of the first
magnitude. 1t is only very clear sighted
and very comprehensive mind that could al
ways thus have laid the whole emphasis of an
indomitable soul so precisely on the emphatic
place. How, if be be not a General of the
first order of intellect, as well as of the most
heroic determination, does it happen that 10
assigning great and brilliant parts 10 bis sub
ordinate commanders he has Dever, when the
results of his strategy were fully unfolded ap-
peared il the picture except as the central
figure? However it may seem during the
progress of one of his great combined cam
paigns it always turns out at last, when it
reaches that completeness and finish in which
be contrives TO have his campaigns end, that
we see him standing in the foreground, and
that the grouping is always such that the glory
of the other Generals, instead of eclipsing his
own. gives it additional luster 1t is this sure
ness of judgment which sees precisely where
lies the turning point-which sees precisely
what are the objects that justify the utmost
stretch Of persistence it is this ability TO take
| in the whole field Of view in just perspective
and due subordlnation Of parts, that is the
mark OF superior mind. General Grant has
taken out OF the hands OF all critics the ques
tion whether il belongs TO him. He has won
bis greatest triumph over the most skillfull and
accomplished General on the other side; over
a General who foiled him long enough to prove
bic great mastery Of the art of war; and the
completeness of whose defeat is testimony to
Grants genius such as victory over any other
General of the Confederacy, or even an earlier
victory over Lee himself could not have given.
Apply to General Grant what test you will ;
measure him by the magnitude OF the obsta-
cles be has surmounted, by the value of the
positions be has gained, by the fame of the
antagonist over whom be has triumphed, by
the achievements of bis most illustrious CO.