New-York tribune., 1868-05-25
THE WORLD ON GEN GRANT
Eror, The WorId. Nov u. 1888.


upon Richmond, to lavish the lives of thousands Of
American soldiers and to expend hundreds of thou
sands of dollars 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 GENERAL GRANT
From The World, Aprh II, 1865.
Gen. Grants history should teach us to discrimi-
nate better than we Americans apt TO do betwees
glitter and solid work Our proneness to run after
demagogues and spOuters may find wholesome cor
rectiye in the study of such character as his. The
qualities by which great things are accomplished are
here seen to have necessary connection with SNOWY
and superficial accomplishments. When the mass OF
men look upon such a character, they may learn o
tr1er respect for themselves and each other they
taught by it that high qualities and great abilities
are consistent with the simplicity of taste contempt
for parade and painness of manners with which di-
rect and earnest men have strong natural SYM
pathy Ulysses Grant the tanner Ulysses Grant, tho
unsuccessful applicant for the post Of City Surveyor
of ST. Louis Ulysses Grant, the driver into that city
of his two-horse team with load of wood 10 sell.
had within him every manly quality which will
cause the name of Lieutenant-General Grant to live
forever in history His is lesson In practical
democracy it is quiet satire on the dandyism, tho
puppysm and the shallow afectation of our fashion,
able exquisites as well upon the swagger OF our
plausible. glib-tongued demagogues Not by any
means that great qualities inconsistent with cui
tivated manners and fluent elocutiOn; but that
such superficial accomplishments are no measure Of
worth or ability
Gen. Grants last brilliant campaign sets the hnat
seal upon his reputation II stamps him as the SUI
perior Of his able antagonist well as OF all tho
commanders who have served with or under him in
the great campaigns Of the last year II is not neces
sary TO sacrifice any part of their welearned repu-
taions TO his Sherman and Sheridan deserve all that
has ever been said in their praise but there has
never been time, since Grant was made Lieutenant
General, when anybody but Sherman. on our side.
could have been classed with him. Since Shermans
bold march through Georgia and hisscapture OF Sa-
vannah and Charleston. there have been many who.
in their strong admiration Of his great achievements.
inclined to 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 dwariug the repa-
tation of Sherman, which suffers no Just abatement
but by the expansion into rander proportions of that
of Grant.
Grant stands preeminent among all the generals
who have led our armies the late war; IN that ho
has exhibited the utmost strength of will OF which
the highest type of manhood is capable. The de-
fenses Of Vicksburg and the defenses Of Richmond
were both deemed impregnable, and were defended
with proportionabe confidence and obstinacy but
they both yielded at last TO Grants matchless per-
sisence and unequaled strategy. And in both cases.
he not only took the long-contestcd positions, but
compelled the surrender of the whole force defend
ing them. Nothing could be more clean and COM
pete. even in imagination. than Gen. Grants mas
terly execution He did not merely, in each case
acquire a position which was the key of vida
theater of operations he did not merely beat or dis
able the opposing force; he left no fragment Of 1t in
existence except as prisoners of war subject to his
disposal.
If anybody is so obtnse or so wrong-headed a. 10
see nothing great in Gen. Grant beyond his marvel
Gus tenacity of will, let that doubter explain If he
can how it has happened that, since Grant rose to
high command. this quality has always been exerted
in conspicuous energy precisely at the point on whiek
everything in his whole sphere of operations hinged
There has been display of great qualities on small
occasions no expenditure of herculean effort 10 sc
complish objects not of the first magnitude. It's
only a very clear-sighted and very comprehensive
mind that could always thus have laid the whole
emphasis of indomitabe soul so precisely ON tho
emphatic place How, if he be not general of tbs
first order of intellect as well as of the most heroic
determination docs it happen that in assigning great
and brilliant parts to his subordinate commanders.
he has never. when the results of his strategy were
fully unfolded appeared in the picture except the
central igurei However it may seem during the
progress of one of his great combined campaigns, it
always turns out at last, when 1t reaches
that completeness and finish in which he con-
trives TO have his campaigns end, that we see
him standing in the foreground, and that ths
grouping is always such that the glory Of the
other generals instead of eclipsing his own givesn
additional luster 1t is this sureness of Judgment
which sees precisely where lies the turning ponti
which secs precisely what the objects that justify
the utmost stretch of persstenee 1t is this ability 70
take in the whole field of view in just perspective
and due subordnaton of parts, that is the mark OF
a superior mind. Gen. Grant has taken out OF the
hands of all critics the question whether it belongs
to him. He has won his greatest triumph over the
most skillfu and accomplished General on the other
side; over a General who foiled him long enough 70
prove his great mastery of the art of wsr and ths
completeness of whose defeat is testimony 70 b
Grants genius such as victory over any other Ten
era of the Confederacy, or even earlier victory
over Lee himself, could not have given. Apply 70
Gen. Grant what test you will measure him by the
magnitude Of the obstacles he has surmounted Dy
the value of the positions he has gained by the tamo
of the antagonist over whom he has triumphed' py
the achievements of his most illustrous co-worKes.
by the sureness with which he directs his indonia
bic energy TO the vital point which is the Key on
vast field Of operations or by that supreme tes, VI
consummate ability, the absolute completeness OF a's
results, and he yindicates his claim TO stand neas
after Napoleon and Wellington, among the great SOL
diers of this century, If not on level WIN '"s
latter -s.F iesr
Ii. ' vp~rOra nv COW FENTON -Jsf w