New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1872-07-04
Gen. Grant.

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-Fre-emaseat Amsng al Genersl.-H,,
Heroic Observation-Disclosures or J.ar
msnt, &C, &C., sc.
Gen. Grants history should teach US tc
discriminate better than we Amer;cans ,r :.
apt to do between glitter and solid ,vorL
Our proneness to run after demaoooues onS
spouters may find 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 necessor,
connection with snowy and superficial accom-.
plishments. When the mass of men lool
upon such character they may learn a true,
respect for themselves and each other. tho,
are taught by it that high qualities and prea,
abilities are consistent with the simnlic;fv ~
taste, contempt for parade, and plainness Of
manners with which direct and earnest mer
have strong natural sympathy. Ulysses
Grant the tanner, Ulysses Grant the unsuc.
cessiui applicant for the post of City Surveyor
OF st. Louis, Ulysses Grant the driver into
that Guy OIL ms two-horse team with load OF
Wooa 10 sell, had within him every manly
quality which will cause the name Of Lieut
Gen. Grant to live forever in history. His
career is lesson in practical democracy i,
Is quiet satire on the dandyism, the puppy.
ism, and the shallow affectation of our fash.
lonapie exquisites as well as upon the sway.
ger OF our plausible, glib-tOngued dema.
gogues. Not by any means that great quail.
ties are inconsistent with cultivated manners
anu fluent elOcution but that such superfi.
ciai accomplishments are no measure of worth
or ability.
Zen. Grants last brilliant campaign sets
the final seal upon his reputation. 1t STAMPS
nm as the superior of his able antagonist as
well as of all the commanders that have
NIT Il 4 -
paigns OF the last year. 1t is not necessary
to sacrifice any of their well-earned rcputa-
tons to his. Sherman and Sheridan deserve
all that has ever been said i'm their praise :
Dut there has never been a time, since Grant
was made Lieutenant General, when any
Dody but Sherman, on our side, could have
been classed with him. Since Sherman's
bold march through Georgia, and his CAPTURE
OF savannah 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 judg-
ment, We take it, is now reversed by the court
OF final appeal not by dwarfing the reputa-
ton OF Sherman, who suffers no just abate-
ment, but by the expansion into grander pro-
portions Of that of Grant.
Grant stands pre-cminent among all the
Generals who have served in this war i'm the
completeness of his final results. He has
owed nothing to accident ;.and. both in the
west and the East, he has accomplished the
most arduous things that were to be done.
Ihe great thing in the West, without which
the rebel power could never have been broken
in that vast region, was the reopening of the
Mississippi; the great thing in the East, the
taking of the rebel capital. Richmond was
the right leg Of the rebellion, and the Missis-
sippi river its left Both were contested by
the rebels with full appreciation of their
value. The resistance was, in both cases,
powerful and obstinate enough to put the
most heroic tenacity of the most indomitable
mind to proof sufficient to test its quality.
Gen. Grant has exhibited the utmost strength
OF will of which the highest type of manhood
is capable. The defenses of Vicksburg and
the defenses of Richmond were both deemed
impregnable, and were defended with pro-
pOrtionable confidence and Obstinacy: but
they both yielded, at last, to Grants match
less persistence and unequalled strategy.
And, in both cases, he not only took the
long-contested positions, but compelled the
surrender OF the whole force defending them.
Nothing could be more clean and complete,
even in Imagination, than Gen. Grants mas
terly execution. He did not merely, in each
case, acquire position which was the KEY of
a wide theatre 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.
Ii anybody is SO obtuse or so wrong headed
as to sec nothing great in General Grant be-
yond his marvellous tcnacity of will, let that
doubter explain, if he can, how it has hap
pened that, since Grant rose to high COM
inand, this quality has always been exerted
in conspicuous energy precisely at the point
ON which everything in his whole sphere of
operations hinged. There has been no dis
play of great qualities on small occasions :;
no expenditure of herculean effort to accom-
plish objects not of the first magnitude. 1t
is only very clear-sighted and a very COM
prehensive mind that could always thus have
laid the whole emphasis of an indonitable
soul SO precisely on the emphatic place.
How, if he be not General of the first order
of intellect, as well as of the most heroic de-
termination, does it happen that in assigning
great and brilliant parts to his subordinate
commanders, he has never, when the results
of his strategy were fully mfolded, appeared
in the picture except as the central figure :?
However it may seem during the progress of
one of his great combined campaigns, it al
ways Turns out at last, when it reaches that
completeness and finish m which he con-
trives to have his campaigns end, that we
see him standing in the foreground, and that
the grouping is always such that the glory of
the other Generals instead of eclipsing his
own gives it additional lustre. tits this sure
ness of judgment which sees precisely where
lies the turning point; which sees precisely
where lies the turning point; which sees pre-
cisely what are the objects that justify the
utmost stretch Of persistence; it is this ability
to take in the whole field of view in just per-
spective and due subordination of parts, that
is the mark of superior mind. Gen. Grant
has taken out of the hands of all critics the
question whether it belongs to him. He has
won his greatest triumph over the most skill
full and accomplished General on the other
side; over a General who foiled him long
enough to prove his great mastery af the art
of war; and the completeness Of whose defeat
is a testimony to Grants genins such as a
victory over any other General of the Con-
federacy, or even an earlier victory over Lee
himself could not have given. Apply to
Gen. Grant what test you will measure him
by the magnitude of the obstacles he has sur
mounted, by the value of the positions he
has gained, by the fame of the antagonist
over whom he has triimphed, by the achieve
mcnts of his most illustrious co-wOrkers, by
the sureness with which he directs his indom-
liable energy to the vital point which is the
kew of a vast field of operations, or by that
supreme test of consunmate ability, the alb
soiute completeness Of his results, and he
yindicates his claim to stand next after Ma
pOleon and Wellington, among the great sol