The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1869-04-01
General Grant as a Military and az n
Political Leader.

The commencement of General Grants mill
any other circumstances it would have been
pronounced q failure. His first affair at Bel
mont, which was intended as part of grand
movement for the protection of st. Louis and
the suppression Of the rebel sentiment in Mis-
souri, although comparatively Insignificant in
itself, did the Union cause but little good and
the enemy no harm. He was mistrusted by
the commanding general, and even his subse-
Gnent successes, the capture of Forts Henry
and Doneison, could not help shadow being
thrown upon his military reputation by the
disastrous first days fighting at Shiloh and
luminosity OF his superior and the jealousy of
his rival officers from that time even to the fall
of Vicksburg. He refused to fight according
TO the prescribed rules Of war as laid down by
The red tape martinets in Washington, and
worked out problems Of his own, sometimes
with partial and at others with complete
success. lie discarded the old rules
and tactics of European as well as
our own regular armies as being entirely
unadapted to the habits and nature Of the
newly developed American soldier and hav-
ing the instinct to discern the ability of his
officers and the disposition Of his troops he had
lie sagaciIy to use them to advantage and
the genius 10 reap therefrom legitimate fruits.
Being an even-tempered and unambtious man
he reconciled differences which otherwise
might have led to serious embarrassments and
ripened into national disasters. All this time
he was. for obvious reasons, encountering hos
tility in high official quarters, and it was not
until his triumphant banners entered Rich
mond and the rebellion was pronounced ex-
tinet that this hostility ceased.
As General Grant commenced his military
so has he commenced his political career. II
is not brilliant. His first movement, like that
Of Belmont, was comparative failure. His
Cabinet hitched. Here was a bother, II not
blnudcr. He had to make re,rograde move
ment and reform his lines. He finally sue
ceeded in organizing his staff of official coun-
sellers and began the work of his political
campaign. Here he was met by The odious
Tenure Of Office act and here he finds that,
as in his military career he had TO encounter
the opposition Of officials in high quarters In
the War Department in Washington, he mas
now to be embarrassed with a similar hos
tility, through the ambitious designs of the
oligarchy in the United States Sem
ate. The old politicians, too, are an
noying him by their endeavors 10 circum-
vent his plans and to make him believe that
party is superior to country and that public
plumber is the proper reward of those trading
partisans who helped TO elevate him to the
Presidency. We believe he has harder fight
now than he ever had In the field, and that he
would any day rather face the blaze of an enes
my's battery than undergo the daily ordeal of
meeting the battalions of otfice-scckers that
invest the White House. But his day is COM
ing, just as surely as his standard rose above
The capital city OF the foe. He is abused now
rs he was on his partial successes during the
war. and the abuse that Is now bestowed upon
him will In the end, as IL was at the end Of the
war; be turned TO pIans Of praise. He will
overcome obstacles that the envious, the
lanatcal, the ambitious or the treacherous
may cast in his path. He will have political
Vicksburg as he had military one; he will
have political successes similar TO those mill
tary successes which followed in regular train
on the peninsula of Virginia, eliminating in
grand and final political Appomattox. The