The weekly North-Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 186?-1869, 1868-06-24
THE CHARACTER OF GENERAL GRANT. &

A. d. Richardson, in his forthcoming
life of Grant, says: mos
Some still see in him only the daring of
fortune-energetic mediocrity which has
Numbered into success. think such are
misled by two of his psculiar qualities
~ ( His unimaginativeness. When he
has nothing to say, he says nothing. In
private he fills no intrestices of converse
ton by remarks upon the weather, or in
quines after the babies of his visitor. In
public he can make no speeches simply Of
form or compliment: and since the world
cared to hear his opinions on affairs, his.
official position has never allowed him to
speak freely. But in public or private.
when he has anything to inter by tongue or
pen, he says it with extreme rapidity and
clearncss, in terse, marrowy. idiomatic
English. Even then he clothes his thoughts
in no flowers of rhetoric, but presents them
in the plainest, homelicst words. Napole-
on's memorable sayings are all ofthis order:
From these SUBMITS forty centuries look
down upon you.' I'VE Will carry our VIC
torious eagles beyond the pillars of Her
cules.' s.H..zae.s .7g He4f
Grants are the exact antipodes Il
have no terms but unconditional surrender
'Ipropose to move Immediately upon your
works.. L shall fight it out on this line if
it takes all Summer 1 found the army
like balky horse Gen Butler was bot
tied up Said the dramatic Corsican after
Austerlitz, Soldiers, l am satisfied with you.
You have decorated your eagles with i'm
mortal glory SAID the matter-of-fact
American to his shouting men at Port Glib
son: Soldiers, thank you. That is all
can say. You have done a good days work
to-day, but you must do a better one to
morrow No shining rhetoric, no poetic
gushes; only the simple unadorned facts
/" II. He is the most undramatic ofmen.-
Scott was nicknamed by his enemies Fuss
and Feathers Grant has less fuss and
fewer feathers than any other public man of
his day. He believes with the Chinese pro-
erb, THAT which is, u.s. He accepts
things Just as he finds them, not troubling
himself about the Eternal Verities,' but
doing promptly, thoroughly and subordi-
nately the duty which lies right before him.
however prosaic and disagreeable. He
acts his convictions instead of taking
them.
"He is utterly genuine and
guileless. He still preserves in his high es-
tate the sweetness and simplicity OF his coun-
| try boyhood. " Altogether free from cant,
1 his lips obeying the teachings of his mother,
. have uttered no oath, been soiled by no
coarseness.
Hels miracle of serenity and self poise.
During the terrors of Belmont, when an aid.
with pallid cheeks, said General, we are sur
rounded there was no perceptible change
in his pleasant face or calm voice as be an
swered, Then we will cut our way out
Three years later, as he read Lees dispatch
proposing the surrender of the Army of
Northern Virginia, he was equally unmoved
no elation shone in his face, or sounded in
the ordinary tone in which he asked, Well,
Gen. Rawllns, how do you think that will
do9" Tried by both extremes of fortune,
and never disturbed by either he remains
as simple and unaffected to-day as in his
years ofpoverty and obscurity. Exchange.