Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1868-04-10
General Grants Early Life.

! fishing series of biographical sketches
j of General Grant from the first of which
we make the following extracts:
The absence of fear was always a char
+ acteristic of Ulysses. When two years
/ Of age, while Mr.. Grant was carry
4 ing Ulysses in his arms through the
I village on public occasion, q young
/ report on the child, Mr.. Grant consented
saying, sthe boy never saw pistol or
/ gun before in his life
The baby hand was put on the lock
4 and the Tiny finger curIed around the
1 trigger and pressed upon it until the
/ hammer fell, and the charge exploded
/ with a loud report ULYSSES hardly
stirred, but delighted with loud noise
+ the powder had made, pushed The pis-
1 tol away, and clapping his hands, cried
/ tick gain fick again. A bystander
| said, That boy viii make a Central
/ some day, be neither winked or doged. :"
None will question but that the predic-
+ ton has been verified and this man if
7 living, can safely claim procedure over
/ Mr.. W burne in having discovered
( the military talents of General Grant.
! While Gran5 was still a lad, his par
/ ents, who were then living at George
/ town, in Brown county, Ohio, sent him
/ to the village school, and from all we
can learn the future couquerOr was con
/ sidered dull. boy, but Larke tells the
/ following anecdOUe of him during this
period
/ One day Grant was puzzliug his brains
| over 81 sum in arithmetic, when the
| teacher came along, and seeing his per-
/ picked look, said to him kindly:
'Well, Ulysses, can't you master it ?i'
CAN'T returned Grant, 'what does
that mean ?''
why, why, when we an'tdo thing
we say we can't" replied the teacher.
The class had been studying definitions
gF nd Grant took n his rfnf a
after looking through it for some time,
said, 81 can't find it there is no such
word IN MY book" The teacher was
SO struck with the boys reply, that he
commended him tor it and wound up
by saying, "You are quite right Ulysses,
and if in the future struggles of your
life, any one asserts that you can't do
thing, that you have set Your mind TO
do, and which is lawful and right, tell
them, as you have me to-day, that
there is no such word in your diction-
ary." Ib is said that Grant never for
got the lesson of his instructor, and that I
his reply to PenbertOn and Lee, WAS I
only his old answer to his teacher in /
another form,
Abbott tells the following story about /
Grant
''When Ulysses was twelve years old /
his father sent him to a neighbOring
farmer 10 buy horse which had /
been bargaining for. Before ULYSSES i
started his father "a to him.
9 You can tell Mr.. RalstOn thatI have
sent you o buy the horse, and that / |
viii give him $50 for it,. If he viii not /
take that, offer him S55, and rather than /
come away without him, give Mr.. Raj
ston $50 for the horse
Ulysses getting The m after right in |
his mind, set out, but on arriving at |
Mr.. Rals6on's, his plans for bartering /
were Knocked out of balance by Mr.. /
RalstOn asking him directly: : How /
much did your father say you might give |
Tor the horse p
'EGrant's mother had told him he
must never tell a lie, and believing il /
would De wrong TO prevaricate in this /
case, he replied:
s.'Father told me TO offer you $50: if /
that would not do, to give you $50, and 4
that he would be willing to give sixty /
rather than not get the horse" 4'Well,"
replied farmer RalstOn, II can not sell /
the horse for less than sixty dollars
lam sorry for that" was The rejOinder
of young Grant" for since have seen
the-horse, although father said I might,
have determined not to give more than
f. Fly dUfIaTs for MIN. y
Mr.. RalstOn took the fifty dollars. and /
Grant rode the horse home.
Mr.. Grant had brother who had set
tied in Canada, and as there was no
school in the neigh borhOOd, he sent his
son John over to Georgetown to board
with his uncle and go to school with /
ULYSSES. The Canadian was strongly
Cinctured with British prejudices, and
one day the conversation turned upon
Washington when John denounced the
father of his country as ga rebel who h
mad fought against his King"
Ulysses had been taught by his moth
er TO revere the character of Washing
ton, and was indignant at the irrever-
enG language of his cousin. The boys 4
soon came 10 blows, and after pulling
hair and pummeling each other for
TT1n lack off with a hfnnG y .
nose and Ulysses with black eye. On
reaching home, Mrs. Grant desired 20
have her boy punished for fighting, and
called in his father, but after hearing the
case, the old gentleman said, wife 1
tell thee the boy must not be whipped
ne has done nothing but stand up for 1
his country, and no boy should be pun
ished for fighting in defense of his ma
tive land, and Washington
Years after this, when the boys had
grown to be men, they met in Canada,
and John said to Ulysses, ''Do you re
mem ber the thrashing you gave me for
calling Washington a rebel ?''
Eyes" replied Ulysses, "And you
can get fight out of me again on that
question"
Grant was brave lad, and early
manifested and ind0mitable Will. HIS
father relates the following anecdote Of
him
tsOne day ULYSSES was coming from
Agusta, KY, to Georgetown, with some
Young ladies in his wagon. IL had been
raining, and the water IN the Ohio had
backed into the tributary streams
Grants route lay across White Oak
Creek, and, not knowing the depth of
the water he drove in, when the wagon
went down and the horses commenced !
swimming. The young ladies were
terribly frightened, and commenced
screaming, thinking they would surely
all be drowned; but Grant, with great
presence OF mind, steared MS horses to-
ward the opposite bank, saying cOOllY:
Keep still, gin Is /; 1 will take you
through SAFE Ulysses was only about
thirteen years old when this happened"
On3 day Ulysses was sen into the
ytt,,4g 10 maui some logs, when finding +,
the choppers gone, he httched horse to
the logs, aud dragging them to a tree
chat had partly fallen down, drew them
up the slantiug tree, and then backing
he wagon under, pulled the n over in /
10 he bed. This was considerable of "a / I
hank movement for lad Of fourteen. / .
ULYSSES one day said to his father,
when they were working together in :
the tannery; Father, this tanueFy |
business is not the kind Of work I like.
[ viii work at il, to please you, until
am twenty but viii never toll
low it another day after that" Mr.. /
Grant with great good sense, said :
"No, my sen; L do not wish You TO work
at anything that is distastefdl to y0U.
L want N0A 10 WI is ft@ " fAtAA y VA AA&AG
aud stick to 1t. Now what do you think {
you would like to dor" 81 would like {
. be "A farmer, down the river trader,
or get an education" replied Ulysses,
s'Iow would you like 20 so to West
Point and learn 60 be soldier?" said
his father.
First rate, y answered Ulysses; "that {
wOuICe suit exactly"
Mr.. Grant immediately wrote to Mr.. {
Morris, then a Senator in Congress from !
~ Ts5r hsar4n
CIV al West Point which he could control.
senator Morris replied at once that {
there was a vacancy from the Congress :
sional district in which Mr. Grant live q {
the young man VINO had been appointed {
having failed to pass his examination. 7
Mr. Grant then wrote 10 the Hon. Ihos
H. Hamer. the Representative then in !
Congress from the district asking him