Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1870-05-25
President Grant.

Grace Greenwood, in one of her. charm
ing Washington letters, thus speaks of the
President
No man is pleasanter, or gentler in pri-
vate life, than President Grant. l think
it ought to be known, for it is a good thing
to know that the domestic life of the Pres
ident of the United States is singularly
happy and beautiful noble example for
American homes. | have this FROM the
best authority-from friends who have of
late been guests of the White House, and
who, day after day, have been witnesses
of the harmony and loving kindness of its
inmates, unspoiled by prosperity, fattery,
fame and power. That White House
stands like lighthouse, surged about by
sea of hungry ofice-seeking, and more
hungry curiosity but what privacy can
secure is doubly sweet to that merry and
affectionate family circle, who fnd nothing
better in their exalted position, in state
dinners, balls and receptions, than the dear
old love that united them in their home on
the Western prairies, and which they wisely
brought along with them, as their chief
household god. No one can deny to the
President and his wife rare propriety and
evenness of manner, alike without touch
of arrogance or superciliousness. Under
their marvellous changed condition of life,
remain yet the real man and the real wo-
man marvelously unchanged.
Though so quiet and undemonstrative,
President Grants manner is not cold.
Though somewhat set and quite reticent
in expression, his face is neither hard nor
forbidding. Though his eyes of grayish
blue certainly do not radiate geniality and
good-fellowship, L have always seen in them
a still and steady iendliness-impartial
almost undiscriminating, but singularly
unforgetfuI. His look into your eyes on
first meeting is clear, direct, but not
piercing. He makes no deep scrutiny,
into your character. but you feel he reads
you well, as far as he goes, and you may
be sure he will know you next time. His
words are few, as he has occasionally re-
marked, and his address simplicity itself.
Some one once called it courageous
simplicity don't think the term suited
to him f; it implies too much consciousness.
Grant gives no thought to effect-making
no parade of not making a parade In
walking, he carries his head slightly for
ward and he has in public places an ab.
| sent yet acquiescent air, as one of being
taken somewhat rather than of going of his
own volition-which is usually the case, a,
he is the most obliging, informal and un
magisterial of Chief Magistrates. To me
there is something strange in the ordinary
: passivity of such will as his. He seems
not only modest, but difhdent man
: Great heroes before him have been so
This difhdence may often be taken for in
difference and insensibility 1 think
r have seen the sure marks of it in his coun
tenance with children, for whom he reall,
: has the fondness Characteristic of Mr.. Lin
= coin. He has no small talk for small in
terviews, but he is not above listening t
Y them, and have noticed that they neve
). account him as hard or cold. They hav
e perhaps the instinct to understand and tn
n t,grace to interpret that riddle for states
$ men, reporters and dne ladies-the face O
d President Grant.