The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1872-04-04

per cent. 10 every OOlIar bno idOOI
3 ing men of this country have earne
: per day these many months; and
has been added because Of the sigma
= fidelity and ability with which rha
pledge has been kept to maintai
! the faith of the nation, honestly col
/ lect the revenues, reduce the expen
, ses, and extinguish the nationa
debt as fast as we could.
We have class of men who ar
} always looking behind them. The!
, have never been satisfied. The.
have taken their position on th
great issues Of the last forty year
and been wrong every time. The!
linger behind their age. All thei
predictions have failed. They arr
the instruments of defeats and fail
ures. Still these men continue tt
|, believe that all the craftsmanship
of the country is gone. They once
looked up at the slave-masters of th'
South, who were their masters, too
when they stood on the heads 0
their negroes. They looked pretty
tall then. A great convulsion came
and it shook them from their higf
position, and they look quite al
Small now as other people. But oul
Democratic friends do not see it; The
old illusion still haunts them. Tt
hear these men talk you would sup
pose General Grant was vastly in
ferior to such great, magnificent
statesmen as Polk, Pierce and Buch
anan. Who is General Grant-this
man 80 denounced? When the wal
opened he was earning a few hun
dred dollars year, tanning leather
in Galena. He offered his services
to the nation, and they were not &C
cepted. He went down to Spring
field and served there for some
weeks, helping to enroll and organ
ize the regiments they were raising
in Illinois. Finally, they gave him
a regiment. He had not money
enough to buy sword with which
Ito fight the battles of his country,
nor horse to ride. You did not
know anything about him; the ma
tion knew nothing about him; few
had heard of him. He had served
Il in the Mexican war when young
man, fresh from West Point, and
won two brevets for gallant conduct,
but nobody knew anything Of this
humble man. He took his regiment
and marched away. He never ask
ed anything of the Government; be
never disobeyed an order; he never
made any complaint. He went
straight forward and did his duty, a
quiet, silent, modest man.
About the first thing we heard
of him was that he took about twen-
ty five thousand men up the Ten
nesSee river, moved on the enemy's
works, attacked an army of twenty
thousand rebels, and captured fifteen
thousand of them. You next heard
of him coming on the field of Shiloh
when it was nearly lost, and when
asked if he had prepared for re-
treat. He defeated the rebel army
that had been nearly victorious.
Then he went down the Mississippi
river, passed Vicksburg, made q
movement into the country, attack.
ed the rebel armies, captured Vicks-
burg; and then you find him al
Chattanooga to restore lost battle
You have heard of the magnificent
victory he won on Mission ridge and
Lookout mountain.
He was then brought to Washing
ton, and took command of the arm
les of the country, led the army o.
the Potomac through the Wilderness
fighting every day in the month O.
May, 1864. He placed his army be
fore Richmond, and when the houl
came, moved upon the doomed city
and received the surrender of the
rebel army at Appomattox. Nine
teen battles behind him, and al
victories! He did not march hi!
army to make parade through the
rebel capital, but started off alone
with his carpet-bag in his hand, fol
Washington, to stop the raising o
troops and the manufacture of muni
tions, to make preparations to dis
band the army and save expense
and to save what he regarded, anC
what we all regarded as a very i'm
portant thing, a general bankruptcy
in the country.
We Republicans turned to thi
man when Andrew Johnson faileC
us, and asked him to be President
, He did not seek the Presidency; h
, felt and said that his place at tn
| head of the Army was the post TO
, him. We made him President, ant
, it was his strength and command
, ing influence that carried the four
teenth amendment. That sam
! potent influence carried the fifteenth
f amendment, and gave the blacl
men the right to vote in all tn
3 States. When a wall of distres
: came up from the South, when blac
r men prayed for protection from tn
e murderous blows of the midnigh
5 assassins of the Ku Klux dens, Cor
: gress hesitated, faltered, divided
: Then it was that he came forth wit
e the brief message that rallied ou
: scattered ranks like battle ordel
f Clothed with authority he has striv