Cedar Falls gazette. [volume] (Cedar Falls, Iowa) 1860-1895, 1868-07-24
The World on General
Grant.
n the N. Y. World, May I2th, 1865.

one llHe' III his advance OF 1864 upon
richmond, TO lavish the lives of thou.
sands of American soldiers and to.
expend hundreds of thousands of dol
lars of the nations treasure upon
new campaign, and so finally wear
and worry down the strength of the
rebellion which had already been
mortally wounded by Meade at
Gettysburg.
LIEUTENANT-GENER GRANT.
From the World April 1ith, 1865.
Gen. Grants history should teach
us to discriminate better than we
| Americans are apt to do between q litter
and solid work. Our proneness to run
after demagogues and spouters may
| find wholesome corrective in the
study of such character as his.
The qualities by which great things
are accomplished are here seen to
snowy and superficial accomplish
ments. When the mass of men look
upon such character, they may
learn q truer respect for themselves
and each other; they are taught by
it that high qualities and great abil-
tiles arc consistent with the simplic-
tiles of taste, contempt for parade,
and plainness of manner with which
direct and earnest men have strong
natural sympathy. Ulysses Grant, the
tanner, Ulysses Grant, the uasuccess-
ful applicant for the post of City Sur
veyor of st. Louis, Ulysses Grant the
driver into that city with his two
horse team with load of wood to sell,
had with him every manly quality
which will cause the name of Lieu
tenant Genearl Grant to live forever
In history. His history Is lesson In
practical democracy; II tisaquiet satire
on the dandyism, the puppyism, and
| the shallow affectation of our FASH
ionable equalities as well as upon the
swagger of our plausible, glib
tongued demagogues. Not by any
means that the great qualities are in
consistent with cultivated manner
and fluent elocution but that such
superficial accomplishments are no
measure of worth or ability.
Gen. Grants last brilliant cam
paign sets the final seal upon his rep
utation. IL stamps him as the supe-
rior of his antagonist as well rs of
all the commanders who have served
with or under him i'm the great cam
paigns of the last year. !t Is not
necessary TO sacrifice any part of
their we'll earned reputation to his.
| Sherman and Sheridan deserves all
that has ever been said in their
praise but there has never been q
time, since Grant was made Lieuten-
nant-General, when anybody but
Sherman, on our side, could have
been classed with him. Since Sher-
mans bold march through Georgia,
and his capture Of Savannah and
Charleston, there have been many
who, in their strong admiration Of
his great achievements. incline to
rank him rs the greater general of
the two. That judgement we take
| IL, Is now reversed by the court of
final appeal not by dwarting the
reputation of Sherman, which suf-
fers no abatement, but by the cxpan-
sion into grander proportions of that
of Grant.
Grant stands pre-eminent among
all the generals who have led our
armies In the late war, i'm that he has
exhibited the utmost strength of his
will of which the highest type of
manhood is capable. The defense of
| Nicksburg and the defense of Rich
mond were both deemed impregna-
BILE, and were defended with pro-
portionable confidence aud obsti-
macy but they both yielded, ut last,
to Grants matchless persistence and
unequaled strategy. And, in both
cases, he not only took the long-con-
test positions, but compelled the
surrender of the whole force defend
ing them. Nothing could be more
clean and complete, even i'm imag-
ination, than Gen. Grants IN 1T rly
execution. He did not merely, I'm
each case acquire position which
was the key OF wide theater of OPP
erations lie did not either beat nor
disable the opposing force; he left no
| fragments of IL in existence except as
prisoners of war subject to his dispo-
sal.
If anybody Is so obtuse or so
wrong-headed AS to see nothing great
in Gen. Grant beyond his marvellous
tenacity Of will, let that doubter ex-
plain, If he can, how 1t happened
that, since Grant rose to high com
mand, this quality has always been
exerted i'm conspicuous energy pre-
cisely Mt the point on which every.
thing i'm his whole sphere of opera
tions hinged. There has been no dis
play of great qualities on small occa-
sons no expenditure of fercniean
efforts to accomplish objects not of
the first magnitude. Ii Is only a
very clear.sighted and q very COM
prehensive mind that could always
thus have laid the whole emphasis
of an indomnitahle soul so precisely
on the emphatic place. How, If he
be not a general of the first order of
intellect, as well as of the most he
role determination, does 1t happen
that I'm assigning great and brilliant
parts of his subordinate comman-
ders, he has never, when the results
of his strategy were fully unfplded,
appeared I'm the picture except rs the
central figure? However 1t may
seem during the progress of one of
his great combined campaigns, 1t
always turns out ut last, when it
reaches that completeness and finish
i'm which he contrives to have his
campaigns end, that we see him
standing In the fore ground, and
that the grouping Is always such
that the glory of the other generals
instead Of eclipsing his own gives it
additional luster. It Is this sureness
of judgement which sees precisely
!, where lies the turning point, which
sees precisely what are the objects
that Justify the utmost stretch of per-
sistencc 1t is this ability to take In
the whole field of view in just pers-
pective and due subordinalt IN of
parts, that In a mark of superior
mind. Gen. Grant has taken out
Of the hands of all critics the qucs-
ton whether 1t belongs to him. He
has won his greatest triumph over
the most skilful and accomplished
General ON the other side; over a
General who foiled him long enough
to prove his great mastery of the art
of war: and the completeness of
whose defeat is testimony to
Grants genius such rs victor over
any other General Of the confederacy,
or even an earlier victory over Lee
himself, could not have given. Apply
to Gen. Grant what test you will !;
measure him by the magnitude OF
the obstacles he has surmounted, by
the value of the positions he has
gained, by the fame Of the antagonist
over whom he has triumphed, by
the achievements of his most illus
trious co-workers, by the sureness
with which he directs his indomita-
,. BILE energy to the vital point which
Is the key ofa vast field Of operations,