New-York tribune., 1868-08-29
ULYSSES S. GRANT.
AS A SOLDIER, CITIZEN AND STATESMAN.

OF Schuyler COlfax BY ALBERT ID. RICIARDsoFs
Issued by subscription only and not for sale IN the
booKstoresl Hartford Conn American Publishing
Company. PIP. 672.
MILITARY HISTORY OF ULYSSES 8. GRANT. From
April 1884, TO April 1865 BY ADAM BADEAU. Colonel
and Aidde-Camp to the General-in- Chief, Breyes
BrgadierGeneral United states Army Vol /.
New-York: d. Appleton 81 Co., 1868. pp. Cs3.
MT Richardson has written an extremely interests
| ing book. We have no lite of Gen Grant that come
pares with it for funess and variety Of detail.
| Without ambition it fills every demand Of the
! reader interested in the life Of Gen. Grant. 10
is free from the vices Of campaign liyes-electl0n
romances thrown upon the waters of a troubled cans
vass to float away and be forgotten. The time viii
come to write 1.-THE Life, but this is not the time,
and long may il be before il does come. We shall
| be mistaken if Mr.. Richardson does not find his
volume an authority among books claiming TO relate
the personal history of the General of the Army Tho
work of Gen. Badeau, of which we have the fes
volume is clear and honest analysis of Gen. Grants
military services No one has had better opportnn.
ties for studying them. Staf-Ohicer aud Military
Secretary from the seige of Vicksburg he wul's
from the fullness of official and personal knowledge,
with clearness force, and elOquence. giving Ia b5
dry military detail the interest ot history, and ,on-
sdering bis personal relation 10 the General W'ih
decacy and taste. Tbs lite. IRE OF our rr"lcn
history has produced 10 tHo LDohs when '"m-
mand greater attention.
We find the principle OF voica-ic action in hg "iy
as well as in nature. quiet lain is covered i
grain and hamles sprawling Villages and boats nd
at anchor In an hour all is desoation chaos death
| in day we have Taynes, and torn, ragged rocks
and juttng crags, lifting far into the sky ii an ed'
ior garrulous Father Ritehe for instance, were 10
come from the grave, to which he departed fourteen
years ago, and take up copy of this mornings
| TRIBUNE for political and general inform ahon' 10
haI
and that ne was surrounded by new race of men,
Parties, issues. politicians, compromises, prinel-
pies platforms conventions newspapers States, am'
bitions all swept away, as if by some terrible con'
yulson of nature and all the life he lived and all
the battles he fought during his long careerso many
| Dreams so many tedious lines quietly embroidenng
! two great eras of our history and as such 10 DO
skipped by busy reader. His beloved Virginia
| the Old DOminOn-the mother OF statesmen-tho
| buwark and glory Of the Union, rent asunder, lIs
. glory vanished, its peculiar institution" dark
memory, and its proud aristocracy busy with the
shovel and the hoe His watchwords' and rally
ng-cries" forgotten like tire uabies of bis infancy
his hero Jackson only secOnd-cass hero after all,
great only because his day day of small things
his beloved Jefferson, an idea a phantom, 30
longer the apostle of Democracy which had aban-
doned every tenet of his gospel, race Of strange
men filling the country with their fame. No one
left to welcome this Able Editor, or even to proclaim
who he was but some faded and dismal Treasury
clerk tucked away by Jackson in any Auditors or
Controllers loophole, with the sealingwax and red-
tape and for generation believing that Jackson
closed the limit of American greatness and that men
were no longer what they used TO be when they fol-
| lowed the comforting Leadership Of Tie Rich
| noRd EaQasGl His haf-trused buchanan rest
ing in a despised and almost forgotten grave-Cass
sleeping by the quiet shores of Lake Michigan, john
Bell superannuated and lonely, cha2rned 10y bs M
eectual treason Slide lowering around the saloons
of Paris like an unwclcome ghost, Mason tn poor
relation or the uninyted guest of SOME English lord,
Wise an uneasy drab Davis the disappointed chief OF
a fallen rebellion, exile and a wauderer with
nothing TO round his career but n few days ~ feast
ing in London and dozen lonely years on Leicester
! Square. The President an obscure Locofoco Cone
| gresham, whom he probably deSpsed as pa'-
venu and poor white the Secretary Of State
a mischevous and bloody-minded plotter, who
foamed about "iuepYessible conflicts anda higher
| law" the Chief Justice two-wo-and alas for tho
days of Marshall and TaneyD an abolition aeltator.
who woud nave been whipped and branded IN hisdear
old Richmond town-and all men worshipng the
memory of a man who was an obscure village Iaw-
Yer in Illinois as the greatest statesman since Jeier-
! SON and honoring a dealer in kndlIng wood, as a
greater soldier than Washington. and worthy 10 be
named with Frederick. Wellington, and Bonaparte.
| What manner OF man is Ulysses ;. Grant, and by
what steps has he risen TO his unchallengcd renownf
The vice of modern biography is that it clothes it5
heroes in full dress Take the be-wigged and pow
dered Washington standing forever in that stif mill
itarv crayat and apparently without drop OF blood
In his veins an impossible hero to US, for see no
| humanity in him. The true, real, manly Washing
ron is lost in the smoke of national incense and has
| become almost as impossible as Hercules. Mr. Carlyle
| Is said 10 entertain q desire TO do for Washing
ton what he did for Cromwell and Frederick-to
strip from him the lace and mummy cloths and
show us the real man rs he lived. Theodore Parker
| did something toward this result but family.
We know that Cromwell had warts on his nose
| that he was passionate and imperious We know
| Frederick as we'll as though we lived at Sans
| Souci and heard him read his fimsy and indie
| cent rhyn,es Actor and pantommist though lie
| was We know Bonaparte better than all-how La
boxed his servants ears and pinched the chins of
the ladies of his court and took large quantities of
| snuff and drank moderately of rich Burgundy wine.
We like pre- -Raphaelitsm in biography. Let rs
| know what manner of men our heroes are, their
strength and their weakness. No true greatness suf
fers because we are permitted to see its human ma
| ture A hundred years from now the Englishman
will find instruction in the portraits Of PaHch
than in the highly coored pictures of the national
| gallery He will see the Great Dukes peaked nose,
and ever-present smile and Pamerston as the
aunty, rather overdressed Englishman, forever
chewing o wisp of straw. and Brougham with his
odd clumsy and plaid pantaloons, and Disrael.
dapper and slim, with thin curls struggling
over his keen, intense, Hebrew face. Mr.. Parton
has done more for realism in biography than
apv living writer except Carlyle and 10 il impOs-