Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1868-08-28
Mailed Warriors.

mailed Warri0rs,
GENERAL BLAIR speaks Of General Grant
as mailed warrior" implying that he
will probably prove 10 be Mr.. Caleb Cush-
ing's "man on horseback" who, In the
prophetic visions Of that sage, was to come
riding rapidly over the horizon and tram
pie all our liberties, as General Blair
! wishes the President to trample the Re
construction acts, into dust. The truth is,
however that among all famous and sue
cessful soldiers there is no one who has
shown less of the traditional character of
the ENABLED warrior" than General Grant.
When General Mcclellan was in command
Of the armies the people who now Jealous
! ly portray the perils of the rule of q
"mailed warrior" talked freely of his
marching upon Washington, and regulat.
| ing the Government at his will Indeed,
II Is just the spirit of such people that
makes the despotism of mailed warrior
possible. But when General Grant came
to the chief command all the traditional
danger TO liberty that is supposed TO lurk
In great military success disappeared.
When the friends" of Mr.. Seymour had
no longer a tool in the chief command of
the army, the public liberties and entire
subordination of the military power to the
|
suggested that General Grant had better
march upon Washington and disperse
| Congress.
Indeed, among the most extraordinary
and valuable results of the war Is the
proof II has afforded that self governing
people may be forced to resort to war
upon the largest scale without developing
the slightest tendency toward q military
despotism, either in the aspiration of sue.
cessful Generals or In the subdued spirit of
the nation. Charles James Fox was
severely censured, even by liberal men in
England, for saying at the opening of the
French Revolution that q man did not
cease TO bea citizen by becoming q soldier
The event in France, indeed, disproved
his expectations. The military regime
produced the mailed warrior upon horse.
back whose name was Napoleon Bona
parte. But on this side the sea his words
were verified in the peaceful organization
of constitutional government, and in the
modest patriotism of the victorious Com.
manderin- Chief And still more con-
spicuously has our late history shown that,
In popular system as far advanced as
ours, the "mailed warrior" in General
Blair's sense, is unknown, because the sue
eessful republican soldier spurns the part.
General Grant in the field was as distin-
guished for constant subordination to au-
thority as for universal victory. Not less
remarkable was his instictive generosity
toward all his generals. He would not APP
propriate the least laurel of another.
When he proposed his plan of campaign
against Vicksburg, his friend General Sher-
man, a soldier Of undoubted military ge-
MUS and accomplishment, wrote an elab.
crate criticism of it, censuring 1t as i'm.
proper and impracticable. When the cam.
paign was triumphant, and the fall OF
Vicksburg had opened the Mississippi
General Sherman frankly and generously
owned that he had been mistaken. And
when, after his great march to the sea-
General sherman made what was consid
cred his very grave error in negotiation
In North Carolina-an error so grave that
1t was generally felt to have imperiled all
the advantage he had secured-General
Grant went in person and removed the
difficulty so quietly and considerably, that
not only did he avoid all prominence, but
the sensitive soldier, whose action he over.
ruled, remained more firmly his friend
than ever. This was hardly the act OF
General Blair's "mailed warrior !" it was
the conduct of modest, simple, and most
sagacious citizen.
AS General in Chief intrusted with the
temporary charge of the War Department,
and with enormous discretionary powers
under the military bill, General Grants ac-
tion has still failed to reveal the mailed
warrior 1t has been uniformly that of
an able, skillful administrator, and of the
most lawabiding" citizen. Calumny it.
SELF or even Robert Toombs, who denoun.
ces Grants election as a disaster, cannot
DOint to solitary instance of an uniustlv
arbitrary act in his administration of the
peculiar responsibility laid upon him.
General Grant, indeed, knows Mr. Robert
Toombs and his kind well. He knows the
quality of Southern rebel devotion to the
Union and of Democratic regard for euual
rights. But neither indignation nor con
tempt has for moment disturbed the Just
moderation with which he has exercised
his vast authority. The fear of danger
which General Blair intends to excite by
describing General Grant as a mailed war
rior Is as reasonable as the old Aur0ra at
tacks upon General Washington. Fol
Grant is one of the Washington school o.
mailed warriors. The perils with which
the reckless ambition and depraved char
acter of that tyrannical mailed warrior
George Washington, threatened the Gov
ernment, are precisely those which are tt
be feared from that arrogant, unscrupuloul
and passionate mailed warrior, Ulysses S
Grant Indeed, the only hope of SAVING
our liberties must be--as General Blair in
timates-to intrust them to his tranuui
and judicious care, assisted by those calm
nurses of freedom and patriotism, Rober
Toombs, Howell Cobb, Horatio Seymour
and Henry A. Wise.--Hdrper's Weekly