Bedford inquirer. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1857-1884, 1868-09-18
LTUTEyANT-GENERAL GRANT.
From The World, April II, 1865

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LEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT.
From The World April II, 1865.
Gen. Grants history should teach US to
discriminate better than we Americans are
apt to do between glitter and solid work
Our proueness TO run after demagogues and
spouters may find a wholesome corrective
IN the study of such character as his. The
qualities by which great things are accom-
plished are here seen to have no necessary
connection with snowy and superficial ac-
complishments When the mass of men
look upon such a character, they may learn
q tTuer respect for themselves and each
other; they are taught by it that high qual
tiles aud great abilities are consistent with
the sImI llclty OF taste, contempt for parade,
and plalnness Of manners with which direct
ODD earnest men 5zve = Strar'r, 17l =s-r,7-
pathy. Ulysses tIrant, the tanner, Ulysses
Grant, the unsuccessful applicant for the
post Of City Surveyor Of st. Louis, Ulysses
Grant, the driver into that city Of his two
horse team with a load of wood TO sell, had
within him every manly quality which viii
cause the name of Lieutenant-Jeneral
Grant to live forever in history. His career
IS lesson in practical democracy; it is a
quiet satire on the dandyism; the puppyism,
and the shallow affectatiOn Of our tashiona-
bic exquisites as well as upon the swagger
Of our plausible, glib-tongued demagogues.
Not by any means that great qualities are
inconsistent with cultivated manners and a
fluent eloeution; but that such superficial
accomplishments are no measure Of worth
or ability.
Gen Grant last brilliant campaign sets
Il uaaf .svn, Lfu raryrtaf1or
STAMPS him rs the superior of his able an
taronist as well as Of all the commanders
who have served with OF under him in the
great campaigns of the last year. 1t Is not
necessary to sacrifice any part Of their we'll
earned regulations to his. Sherman and
Sheridan deserve all that has ever been
said in their praise; but there had never
been time, since Grant was made Lieu
tenant General, when anybody but Sher-
man. on our side, could have been classed
with HIM Since Sherman's bold march
through Georgia, and his capture Of Savan-
nah and Charleston, there have been many
who. in their strong admiration of his great
achievements, inclined to rank him as the
greater general of the two. That judgment,
we take it IS now reversed by the court Of
final appeal; not BY dwarfng the rePuta-
ton of Sherman, which suffers no just
abatement, but By the expansion into grand
er proportions of that Of Grant.
Grant stands rreeminent among all the
generals who have led our armies IN the late
war. in that he has exhibited the utmost
strength of viii Of which the highest type
Of manhood is capable The defsnses of
Vicksburg and the defenses of Richmond
we're both deemed impregnable, and were
defended with a prCpOrtionable confidence
| aud ohstinacy; but they both yielded, at
/ last, to Grants matchless persistence and
uaedualed strategy And, in both eases,
he not only took the long contested posi-
| tion, bat compelled the surrender of the
whole force defending them. Nothing
/ could be more clean and complete, even IN
! Imagination, than Gen. Grant mastery
| execution. lie did not merely, 10 each
! case. acquire position which was the key
| Of wide theater of operations; he did not
/ merely beat or disable the opposing force;
| he left no fragment Of it IN existence except
as prisoners Of war subject to his disposal.
! If any body is so obtuse or so wrong
headed as to see nothing great in Gen.
/ Grant, beyond his marvellous tenanclty Of
will, let that doubter explain, if he can, how
il has happened that, since Grant rose to
| high command, this quality has always
been exerted in CONSPICUOUS energy precisely
at the point on which everything in bis
| whole sphere of operations hinged. There
| has been no display OF great qualities on
small occasions; no expenditure of herculeaT
| effort to accomplish objects not Of the frs.
magnitude Il is only very clear-sightec
and a very comprehensive mind that eoulc
always thus have laid the whole emphasis
Of an indomitable soul so precisely on th'
| emphatic Ilaee. How, if he be not ;
! general Of the first order of intellect, as vel
| as Of the most heroic determination, doe
| it happen that in assigning great and bril-
liant parts to his subordinate commanders
he has never, when nthe results of his strateg,
we're fully unfolded, appeared in the picturr
except as the central figure? However
may seem during the progress Of one OF HI
great combined campaigns, It always turn
out at last. when it reaches that complete
ness and finish in which he eontrIves I
have his campaigns end, that we see hln
standing in the foreground, and that tn
grouping is always such that the glory OF tn
other generals, instead Of eelipsing his OWL
gives it additional luster. 1t Is this surenes
ofjudgement which sees precisely where li'
the turning point; which sees precisely wh'
are the objects that justify the utmoi
stretch OF persistence; il Is this ability
take in the whole field Of view IN Just PEI
speetive and due suhordination OF part
that Is the mark of superior mind. Ger
Grant has taken out Of the hands OF a
critics theduestion whether it belongs to hin
lie has won his greatest triumph over th