The weekly North-Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 186?-1869, 1868-06-03


thousands of American soldiers and to expend
hundreds of dollars Of the nations treasure
upona new campaign, and SO finally wear and
worry down the strength of the rebellion which
had already been MORALLY wounded by Meade
at Gettysburg
LIEUTRNANT-GENERALG GRANT.
fl2 from The World, April H.. 1861 81
Gen. Grants history should teach us to dis
criminate better than we Americans are apt to do
between glitter aud solid work. Our proneness
to run after demagOgues and spouters may nnd
wholesale corrective in the study of such char
acter as his The qualities by which great
thugs 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 trucr
respect for themselves and each other; they are
taught by it that high qualities and great abilities
are consistent with the simplicity of taste, con-
tempt for parade, and plainness OF manners
with which direct and earnest men have a'strong
natural sympathy. Ulysses Grant, the tanner,
Ulysses Grant, the unsuccessful applicant Tor
the post of City Surveyor of St. Louis, Ulysses
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 Lieutenant General Grant to live forever in
history. His career is lesson in practical DEM
ocracy; it is quiet satire on the dandy1sm, the
fashionable exquisites as well as upon the swag-
gerof our plausible, glib-tongued demagogues.
Not by any means that great qualities are incon-
sistent with cultivated manners and fluent
elocution; but that such superficial accomplish
ments are no measure of worth or ability.
Gen. Grants last brilliant campaign sets the
final seal upon his reputation. 1t 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 his. Sherman
and Sheridan deserve all that has ever been said
in their praise; but there has never been a time,
since Grant was made Northumberland, when
anybody but Sherman, on our side, could have
been classed with him. Since Shermans bold
march through Georgia, and his capture of Sa-
vannah and Charleston, there have been many
who, in their strong admiration of bis great
achievements, inclined to rank him as the greater
general of the two That judgement, 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 ex-
pansion into grandcr proportions of that of
Grant.
Grant stands pre-eminent among all the gen.
erals who have led our armies in the late war;
in that he has exhibited the utmost strength OF
will of which the highest type OF manhood is ca
pable The defenses of Vicksburg and the de-
lenses of Richmond were both deemed impreg-
nable and were defended with prOpOrtionable
confidence and obstinacy; but they both yielded,
at last, to Grants matchless persistence and un-
equaled strategy. And, in both cases, he not
only took the long -cOntested positions, but
compelled the surrender of the whole force de-
Tending them. Nothing could be more clean
and complete, even in Imagination, than Gen.
Grants mastery execution. He did not merely,
In each case, acquire position which was the
merely beat or disable the opposing force; he
left no fragment of it in existence except as pris
oners of war subject to bis disposal.
II anybody is so obtuse or SO wrong-headedas
TO see nothing great in Grant beyond his mar
velous tenacity of will let that doubter explain,
if he can, how it has happened that, since Grant
rose to his high command, this quality has al
ways been exerted in conspicuous energy pre-
cisely at the point on which everything in his
whole sphere of operations hinged There has
been no display of great qualities on small occa-
sions nOeXpenditure OF herculean effort to ac-
complish objects not of the first magnitude. 1t
is only very clear-sighted and q very compre
henslve mind that could always thus have laid
the whole emphasis of an indomtable soul so
precisely on the empla place. How, If he be
not general of the first order of intellect as
of the most heroic determination, does it hap
pen 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 as the central
figure? However it may seem during the pro-
gross OF 0Ic OF his great c0m0lned campaigns,
it always turned out ut last when it reaches that
completeness and finish in which he contrives to
have his campaigns end, that we see him standing
in the foreground, and that the grouping is al
ways such that the glory of the other generals
instruu OF eclipsing his own givee it additional
lustie. 1t Is this .sureness of judgment which
sees precisely where lies the turning poirt which
sees precisely what are the objects that justify
the utmost stretch of persistence; it is this abl
ity to take in the whole field of view in just per-
spectiye and due subordination of parts, that is
the mark of superior mind. Gen. Grant has
taken out of the hands of all critics the ques
ton whether it belongs to him. He has won his
greatest triumph over the most skillful and &C.
complished General on the other side; over a
General who failed 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 as victory 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 meas
ure him by the magnitude of the obstacles he
has surmounted BY the positions he has gained,
by the fame of the antagonist over whom he has
triumphed, by the achievements of his most il
lustrious co-workers, by the sureness with which
be directs his indomitable energy to the vital
point which is the key of a vast field of opera
tions, or by that supreme test OF consummate
ability, the absolute completeness of his results,
and he vindicates his claim to stand next after
Napoleon and wellington, among the great SOL
ders of this century, if not on level with the
latter.