The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1872-07-25
GRANT ON GREELEY.

President Grant has the reputation Of
being reticent man. He says but little,
but that little is apt to mean much. He
INDUCES in no sycophantic snarling and
barking at his enemies. He is more ready
to cat his lips with indignation when as
sailed by them. than to spit out his thoughts
in the exnberance and idiomatic graces of
Bilingsgate. Self-feliance is the basis of
his public demeanor, as it is the guaranty
that his powers need not be squandered in
overmuch speaking. A" Whatever is known
to myself alone, has always very great
value" is a courtly maxim not without its
value in republic. The talent of we'll
doing contains vastly more in it than that
of well-speaking. This the world has
always been ready to acknowledge at the
hands Of its great thinkers. .-... .......
Men of few words are very apt to mean
what they say. The fewness of their ut
terances is evidence that they have been
well weighed. President Grants speeches
may not be many, but they are always di-
rect, and strike you as meaning precisely
what the language imports. When he said
in the southwest, 81 am about to move
on the enemies works." the authorities at
Washington needed no second dispatch.
When he said in the Wilderness, "Pn
fight it out on this line if it takes all sum
mer,o he meant precisely what he said,
and no man understood the import of his
words better than General Lee. When he
said Let us have peace" he also meant
precisely what he said. The peace that be
wanted was that which should come from
equal and exact justice to all. This he
was ready to wait for in due time,
for General Grant makes no undue
haste,D but come in due time it must.
If. the the people Of the South were
ready for it, he was if they were not
ready, steps were to be taken to make
them so. This was what General Grant
meant when he made use of those memo
rable words. There was no heroic buster
about them 4; none Of Old Hickory's "by
the Eternal, | will have peace"-Slc r0lo,
ance; but the language was sim pie, plain,
dir1ct-such as child could well under
Standard they meant all that the words
could possibly imply in the more impera-
tive lips Of General Jackson.
This much may be said of General Grant
with absolute justice. He is man of few
words, but these few are words of ex-
act and most emphatic meaning. We doubt
whether the Herald reporter succeeded in in
terviewing him as has been claimed by that
indelatigable journal. But one thing is
certain, the reporter bad sharp eye to the
characteristic utterances of General Grant
in the words he puts into his mouth. They
photograph Mr.. Greeley with such accuracy
that none can mistake the likeness. No
man can doubt that the reason of Mr..
Greeley's detection is here given. The re-
porter has used the quiet, transformations,
non-vituperative language, which would
have come from the Presidents lips, had he
himself chosen to speak on the subject.
Here is what he is reported to have said |:
6 Greeley never made any personal COM
plant to me about government affairs. lie
first grumbled through his paper, l believe,
and then his spokesman, as they call them
selves, came giumbling to me about his
not getting more of the patronage of the
government to dispose of. The truth about
Greeley is, he has always been surround
ing himself with men of dsreputable char
acter and wanting to put them into mpor-
tant offices. could not provide for all of
them, and most of them | could not afford.
the country itself could not afford, to trust
in any decent place. [ had afterwards to
remove, for incompetency or misconduct of
some kind or other, almost every man to
whom gave an appointment on his recon-
mendation. Such persons as Camp and
Lamont and those people. One man, Fur