Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1868-06-26
Representative Public Men-Grant and
COlfax.

I HAVE Just written the names of the
two most popular favorites in the country
| There are others called greater men, more
| profound statesmen. Yet Grant is the
pride of the army, Colfax the delight of
| civil life.
Destiny snatches her special darlings
from the arms of obscurity, mocking birth
and degree; and she sets them in the
| worlds highest places Scarcely a name
| has burst upon the world in transcendent
| lustre that did not at the first emerge
| from the heavy cloud of defeat and humil-
| iation.
Not many years ago the well-paid little
| to-do officers of the United States army
used to cross the street to avoid meeting a
young ex-Captain, turned farmer, because
| he "bored" them by asking them to use
their influence to assist him in recovering
his former position. To-day no officer,
whatever his rank, would be greatly bored
| by conversation with this same exCap-
tain, nor very likely to cross the street to
avoid meeting the General of the armies,
the certain-to-be President of the. United
States. Less than ten years ago the people
of America had never heard of Ulysses S.
Grant. He was poor, he was disappointed.
He had neither social position nor political
influence. Though he lived but few doors
| away, he had never even spoke to Elihu
Washburne, the brave Congressman, who
afterwards fought his battles through all
defeat, and who washed his escutcheon
white of blame long before Grant himself
could lift it into the keen sunlight of re-
nown.
Not many years ago young man sat in
little Office in a small town of the West,
clipping and writing for the columns of an
obscure newspaper. He could boast of
good blood and an honorable lineage, but
the world did not know it, His name was
historic by right of birth yet, beyond the
narrow arc of a few counties, no one had
ever heard of him. Nature has not stinted
his birthright. Adversely has trained him
for life. He entered the service of his gen.
Grafton with sunny courage, an endless
patience, clear head, and a true heart.
One has said profoundly: Temperament
is greater than ALL" Temperament is fate.
Not one of us is more or less than our tenn
| the temperament of success He began
his career with an honorable ambition and
dauntless faith in the future. Yet through
all the dreaming of youth, it is doubtful if
| the marrow walls" OF the newspaper
office stretched away into stately halls"
| of the capitol Of the nation, or that he be-
held himself the third in rank in the gov
ernment of the country within less than
twenty years.
The prestige of Grant is entirely imper
sonal. Reticent and impassive, he has not
the temperament which inspires sponta-
| neCB individual enthusiasm. You see
him, and find it difficult to associate his
personality with his deeds, and make them
one. The popularity of Colfax is purely
| personal. He has the spontaneity, the heart
| fellowship, which inevitably inspires per-
sonal devotion. Beyond this he has the
answering integrity of character, the sa-
gacity Of intellect, the clear vision, and
| executive gifts which the Americans ad-
mire, if they do not demand them, in their
statesmen. He is the idol of the West
| He is a favorite of the women; not only
because he says very pleasant things to
them, nor because he grew into manhood
revering womanhood, but because all true
women know intuitively that he is true
man, holding his soul blameless in honor
70 believe is necessity of woman-at
least of good woman
l saw in apaper the other day that, off
American women could vote, the next
President would be Schuyler Colfax."
Very likely. If true the fact would be
very much to his credit; for we all know
that those public men who are believed in
and supported by. the best women are the
best men. We know, also, that the most
illustrlous men of all ages have drawn their
highest inspiration and best success from
the friendship and devotion of women.
Schuyler Colfax is politician in the
highest sense of that much abused term
for the best years Of his active manhood
have been devoted to the study of political
science and the administration of public
affairs.
General Grant, by nature, is anything
more than a politician. He has seen the
time when he was too Indifferent as to who
was to be the next President of the
United States to vote for anybody. His
habits of temperament and of thought
led him peaceably along the straight path
of discipline and routine, till destiny sud
denly forced him to the very summit of
success. Grant and Colfax are not antae-
onlstic, though each makes the antithesis
OF the other. They arc in singular de-
gree counterparts-th temperament of
one modifying or supplying the defect or
excess of its opposite.
So utter has been General Grants mega
ton as politician that the most exigent