Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1872-12-18
TIE PRESIDENT.
General SherHOOd's Response to the
Toast to the President at Dayton
ReuniOn.

The President Of the United States,
The central force % the freest, the
most muscular, and the most thor
ougbly alive nation upon. earth-is
too much of subject for ten min.
utes' talk at soldiers supper. Wheth-
er this sentiment be to the Office, or
the man who holds it, have neither
language to exalt the position, nor
fresh tributes to the man who exalts
the Office.
The pinnacle of the American poll
tician-the Presidential chair, which,
judging from the present, by the past,
is liable to be warmed by a soldier,
but never by philosophers near
and so dear To ambition, is too elabo-
rate place of upholstery TO be Jostied
around this eonvivial board. Let US
rather talk of that broad based, strong
nerved, eminently just and practical
man, who led our armies through the
breakers of war, who has guided this
nation so calmly through the break
ers of civil strife. 1t is difficult, how
ever, to separate the man Grant from
the President Grant. The name is SO
indissolubly connected with the great
events of the past decade, civil as well
a. martial, that we can scarcely read
our history without finding it shining
on every page. 1t is one Of the fell
cities OF General Grants public life
that he is SO honorabiy associated with
both war and peace. With war as
the commander of all our armies,
with peace rs the successful advocate
OF arbitration for the settlement Of
international controversies. He GOds
first in war; he is first in peace, and
the November tribute of thirty great
States warrants the assertion that he
is first IN the hearts of his country
men.
The name of Washington always
calls I'D the war of the revolution
And vet the career of Washington,
rs President, in hzrmOnizing the poll
cies among the great leaders OF the
revolution, in avoiding entangling
alliances with foreign natious; in
crystalizing the inbreathing spirit OF
q new born liberty into a national
life-and setting the yOang republic
on the track of empire-give him q
higher place in history and more
strongly sndear his memory TO the
hearts of his countrymen than his
career as q soldier.
The mention of Grant always calls
up his career as a soldier. and yet,
when we shall Sll be under the sod
when the political chickering's and AMI
mosities of the hour shall have been
forgotten-when the impartial histo-
rian, seeking the salient events of
this epoch, not from living witness
es but dead books-shall give Grant
his place In history, it will be found
that his career as President cOntrlbu
ted more TO the great cause OF unity
and fraternal love among his people
than his unequaled services in war
and his treaty at Washington Will
take its place as the most magnificent
contribution TO the cause OF civiliza--
ton and the peace of nations in all
history. In saying this do not be-
little Grants services As soldier
nor do / desire that those services
should be forgotten. / would not
hide the soldier in the President.-
Grant fought the rebellion in manly
combat, with bullets and bayonets,
and through red mouthed cRnnon.-
A more learned man than he, in the
National Capitol, fought the same re-
belIion with Greek fire from the Pa
gan Classics, through the Congress
sional Globe. Each had q mission,
aud each fulfilled IL well. The pres
ence of Que at the White House Is no
more a menace to the defeated South
than the other in the Senate. Grants
presence at the White House is peace.
Grants presence at the White House
secures peace To the inmate of the low
est cabin in this land. Grants pres
euce at the White House is shining
light in the nations pathway to glory
and refutation of the slander to mans
humanity that republics are migrate
full, Nor do believe that oft-quOted
assertion that the pen is mightier than
the sword. l bell We it is q cheap
5entimentalism that bellies the logic
of history. Every conquest OF yalne
since God made man has been thTO'
heroic sacrifice, and the blood Of
martyrs, II was not the Dlosscming
rod OF Moses, but the swift sword OF
Joshua, that gave the promised land
10 IsIael. 1t was not the Declaration
of Independence that msde possible
our nationality, but Washington at
Valley Forge. The unihcstlon OF both
Germany aud Italy have been accom-
plished py the sword. Lincoih's
proclamation. of Emancipation has
been cited as a great triumph OF the
pen, but this WAS but the sentiment
of a nation quickened into life BY. the
mad havoc of war, aid intensified
into EXPRESSION through the despera-
tion of the conflict. Not all the ink
jugs in this land, preaching emanei.
patton through n million pens, would
have created such all Outburst of patri-
otic emotion as that crash of cannon
shot against the walls of Sumpter.-
When cannon speak, nations think,
and amid the CLASH of great armies
they think great thoughts. Old John
Brown wrote the Emancipation Proc
lamation on the mountains of Vir-
Rinia before Lincoln dreamed, or
dreaming would dared TO have uttered
il. But he wrote it with his blood
Was il not bis soul that went march
ing OIL? But it was not PrOelama-
tiUn of Emancipation that freed the
slaves it was Lincoln, as comman 4
der in chief of the army. 1t was not
the phiiipics OF Sumner in the Senate,
magnificent and classic, ana cold, that
DESTROYED slavery and rescued our
nationality; il was Grant in front of
Lee. Thomas in Tennessee, and Sher-
man and his boys laundering 10 the
sea. That wonderful English barris-
ter, Phillip James Bailey, says in his
Festus: "Nhile men are what they
are while rights are worth maintain
ing, freedom keeping or life having,
so long shall the sword shine" .s. +.
1t was Mazzini who said: "The
angel of marty rdom and the angel of
victory are brothers; the one looks up
from the earth and the other looks
down from Heaven-and it is only
from epoch TO epoch that their eyes
meet between earth and Heaven, that
creation is embelished with new life,
and people arise, evangelist or prophet,
from the cradle or the tomb" .7-r n
Was that not grander epoch-f6r
US and for all humanity when the
war ouds lifted above the last Grim.
son batde feld, and the angels OF
peace, serenely grand in the bright
aurora of a new nation, came forth 10
meet the angel of marty rdOm and the
angel of victory? And is it not a
fitting climax TO this the grandtst
epoch of the ages, that the greatest
Slider no swung his victorious eagles
through the sulphry smoke of battle
H. Al of naafo and nur