The Hancock Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Ohio) 1857-1870, 1868-07-31
THE WORLD. ON GRANT,

lis Superiority to Gen. Lee and HIS
Pre-eminence Among all tho Cen
erals who Led the Union Armies
The Proof of His Military Genius.
fFrom the World, April, Ii, ls65.l
Gen. Grant history should teach
MS to discriminate better than we
are apt to do between gilt
ter and solid work. Our proneness
to run after demagognes and spouters
may find a wholesome corrective in
the study OF such characters as his.
The qualities by which great things
are accomplished are here seen to have
no necessary connection with snowy
and superficial accomplishments.
When the mass of men look upon
such character, they may learn a
truer respect for themselves and each
other; they are taught by it that
high qualities and general abilities
are consistent with the simplicity OF
taset, contempt forparade, and plain
ness of manners with which direct
and earnest men have strong nstur
al sympathy. Ulysses Grant, the
tanner, Ulysses, the unsuccessful ap-
plicsnt for the post of City Surveyor
OF ST. Louis, Ulysses Grant, the driv
er into that city of his two horse
team of wood to sell, had within him
every manly quality which will cause
the name OfLieutenant General Grant
to live forever in history. His ca
reer is lesson in practical democra-
cy; it is a quiet satire or the dandy
ism, tie puppyism, and the shallow az
fectst on OF our fashionable exquisitos
as well as upon tue swagger of ouI
plausible, glib tongued demagogues.
Not by any means that great quail
ties are inconsistent with cultiyated
manners and fluent elocution but
that such superficial accomplish
ments are no measure of worth ol
ability.
Gen. Grants last brilliant cam
paign sets the final seal upon his rep:
utation. 1t stamps him as the supe
rior of his able antagonist as well as
of all the commanders who have serv-
ed with or under him in the great
campaigns of the last year. 1t is not
necessary to sacrifice any of theil
we'll earned reputation to his. SLer-
man and Sheridan Reserve all that
has been said in their praise; but
there has never been a time, since
Grant was made Lieutenant General,
when anbody but Sherman, on our
side, could have been ciassed with
him. Since Sherman's bold march
through Georgia, and his capture OF
Savannah and Charleston, there have
been many who, in their strong ad.
miration for his achievements, inclin
ed to rank him as the greater general
of the t~o. That judgment, we
take it, is now reversed by the court
of final appeal not by dwarfing the
reputation of Sherman, which suffers
no just abatement, but by the expan-
sion into grander proportions of that
Of Grant. ...t
Grant stands pre-eminent among
all the generals who have led our ar
mics in the late war, in that he has
exhibited the utmost strength of will
of which the highest type of manhood
is capable. The defenses of Vicks-
burg and the defenses of Richmond
were both deemed impregnable, and
were defended with proporIionable
and obstinacy;. but they
both yielded at last, to Grants match
less persistence and unequalled STRAIT
egy. And in both cases, he has not
only taken the long-cOntested posi-
tions, but compelled the surrender
of the whole force defending them.
could be more clean and
even in Imagination. than
Gen. Grants mastery execution
He did not merely, in each case, ac-
luire position which was the key
Of wide theatre of operations; he
lid not merely beat or disable the
force; he left no fragment
Of it in existence except as prisoners
Of war subject to his disposal.
If any body is so obtuse or go
wrong-headed as to see nothing great
in General Grant beyond his marvel
ous tenacity of will, let that doubter
explain, il you can, how it has hap
pened that, since Grant rose to high
this quality has always
been exerted in conspicuous energy
precisely at the point On which every
thing in his whole sphere of opera
lions hinged. There has been no
display of great qualities on small
no expenditure of hercu
lean effort to accomplish objects
not of the first magnitude. 1t is
only very clear sighted and very
mind that could al
ways thus have laid the whole en-
phasis of an indomitable soul so
precisely on the emphatic place.
He, if he be not general OF the first
order of intellect, as well as of the
most heroic determination, how does
it happen that in assigning great and
brilliant parts to his subordinate
he has never, when the
results of his strategy were fully un
folded, appeared in the picture except
Is the central figure? However it
may seem during the progress of one
of his great combined campaigns, it
always turns out at last, when it
reaches that completeness and finish
n which he cOntrives to have his
end, that we see him stand
ng in the foreground, and that the
grouping Is always such that the glo-
" of the other general instead of
his own gives it additional
uafra III 10 this surppoco nf in1o,