Delaware tribune. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1867-1877, 1868-06-18
General Grants CharacterIstIcs.

A new biography of Gen. Grant, by A. ID.
Richardson, has recently been published. or
Gen. Grants characteristics he says
"Sume still see in him only the darling of
iortune-unergetic mediocrity, which has
Numbered into success. ! think such are
mislcd by two of his peculiar qualities -
~. His unimaginativeness When he has
nothing to say he says nothing. In private
he fills no irterstires of conversation by re-
marks upon the weather, or inquiries after
the babies of his visitor. In public he caI
make no speeches simply of form and COM
pimcnt and since the world cared to hear
| his opinions on affairs, his official position
has never allowed him 10 speak freely. But
in public or private, when he has anything
to utter by tongue or pen, he says it with
extreme rapidity and clcarness, in terse,
marrowy, itlomatic English. Even then he
clothes his thoughts in no flowers of rhetoric,
hut presents them in the plainest, homelicst
| words. NlpOleons memorable sayings are
III of this oidcr From these submits forty
centuries look down upon YOU We will
carry our victorious eagles beyond the pillars
OF Hercules. Grants are the exact an
tipodcs: i have no terms but unconditional
surrender. i propose to move Immediately
upon your works Il shall fight it out on
this line IL IL takes all summer i found the
army like bally horse General Butler
was bottled up. Said the dramatic Corsicar
after Austerlitz: Soldiers lam satisfied with
you. You have decorated your eagles with
immortal glory Said the matter-of- tact
American to his shouting men after Fort
Gibson Soldiers, thank you. That is III
l can say. You have done good days
work to-day, but you must do better one
tomorrow. No shining rhetoric, no poetic
gushcs; Only the simple unadorned fact.
FL. lie is the most undramatic of men
Scott was nicknamed by his enemies Fuss
and Feathers Grant has less fuss and few
er feathers than any other public man oil hi
day. He believes With the Chinese provert
that That which is is. lie accepts thing
: just rs he finds them, not troubling himsel
about the Eternal Vcritles, but dolni
: promptly, thoroughly and subordinately lii,
, duty which lies light before Him, howevc
prpsaic and disagrccahle. lie acis his con
, viciions instead of talking them.
" lie is utterly gulcless and genuine II
: still preserv, in his high estate the sweet
ness and simplicity of his country boyhood
$ Altogether fec from cant, his lips, obeyin
the teaching of his mother, have uttered nj
cath. been soilrh by no cOarscncss. lie is
r miracle OF serenity and sclfpoisc Durin
r lhr tcrrors of Belmont. when an aid, wit
2. palll chcca, cried Why, General, we "
: surrounded there WAS ne perccptbl
t change in his pheasant face nr calm voice u
= he answered, 'ilen we will cut our wa
! out Three Years later, rs he read Lee
e despatch prolosng the surrender of tit
Army Of Northern Virginia, he was equal
: unmuyrl; No citation sliunc in his face, 4
/ sounded in The ordinary tone in which II
t a'kad. Wei, General Rawlins, how do yo
+ think that will DOT Tried by both extreme
Z of fortune. and mc,er disturbed 10y either, IL
2 remains as simple aud unaffected to-day d
In his years nf poverty and obscuriy.'