The New York herald., 1869-05-11
Grant,s Political Career.

Grants career in politics recalls already
certain of the striking points of his career in
war, and his military history supplies material
for the most likely judgment of his future.
He blundered at first. He was beaten some
times so tremendously that almost any other
soldier would have lost heart, and, facing to
the right about. brought off the demoralized
fragments of an army. Mcdowell at the last
minute of Bull run was nothing like so badly
beaten as Grant was on the first day at Shiloh,
and the force that Mcclellan hustled to Harri-
sons Landing was one flushed with victory
and conscious strength, infinitely superior in
every respect to the force with which Grant
still held his lines ON that first day. One
general retreats with a splendid army, that
moves away from the enemy against its will,
and the other crushes the enemy with force
that hardly hangs together. Without DISPOSE
tion to disparage Grants military achieve
ment, it is still clear that he gained many
battles under a rule limited at by Napoleon,
who said that at the last it was often only
question who would run away first. Grant
always stayed. His tenacity turned the tables.
He always considered that the force that had
worked him down to nearly nothing had in
doing this worked itself down to about the
same figure, and that things were still even.
He could think of the enemy's distress as
well as of his own. He was able 80 far to
command his thoughts that he could lose sight
of everything but the grand object, and he
ever desired to save his army from the ruin
of retreat. Some generals had their retreats
so beautifully planned out before the battle
that they could not bear to close it in any
other way.
In all this is seen a man having faith in him
self and faith in the chapter of accidents,
able to apply the ordinary methods and modes
of common sense to problems of the very
highest Importance, knowing that victory aud
defeat are often so near alike that one must
wait to distinguish between the two, and be
willing to wait-a man not thin-skinned, re-
ceiving no impression from defeat and only
fighting on. Here is q man, then who can
learn by experience and can stand the neces-
sary experience, not only without exhaustion,
but without perturbation. The problems of
our political life are not the most difficult ones.
Indeed, the average man Of our political sys-
TEN is far from being wonder of intellectual
power, and it is no great compliment to Grant
to say that he is decidedly above this average.
Nay, we cannot readily call up in thought
any single man of public life who is so out of
the ordinary proportion, so much above the
average ability, that a comparison of him with
Grant would sound extravagant, and we can
call up multitude of pgmies far below him,
yet successful in politics. Grant, we take it,
is quite equal to any science that could be
mastered by those great chosen men of the
Senate-our foreign ministers. Neither do
we believe that any of the great politicians in
the Cabinet quite dwarf him. Even in
the Senate we have not seen the man that
makes us ashamed of Grant. Grant is equal
to any of these men-greatly superior to the
majority, and needs only the experience Of
their operations to beat them on their own
ground. Epaminondas by beating the Spar
tans taught them how to beat him, and Grant
will learn the trade of politics in that Spartan