The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1872-11-19
MISCELLANY.
GOSSIP ABOUT GRANT.

Grant is not exactly an enigma. 1t is diff
cult to say what he will do next, but if we
know his objective point we can be sure he
will get there within the limits of fair dealing
and honest patriotism. During all this cam
paign he has been provokingly confident in
himself. Those nearest to him say that he
has never for moment betrayed any uneasi-
ness or distrust of the people, that he has
steadily declined to employ any unusual mea-
sures and has seemed to consider himself as
not very much party in interest. AT no time
has he doubted the verdict of the election.
The same imperturbable confidence which he
manifested in the Wilderness and in the long
sieges before Vicksburg and Petersburg has
given him good sleep, keen appetite and sound
digestion through all the turmoil of a Presi-
Dental contest. OF all men he is the most
absolutely Indifferent to hostile criticism, the
most careless of the incense of hattery. Since
Cromwell or Wellington there has not been
such another.
He refused to play figure-head at the White
House during the Summer. Any mere politi-
clan would have assumed the virtue of close
attention to duties which had no existence
and have made a pretence of devotion to the
executive business. He knew that the affairs
of the Government were SO systematized and
in such thorough working order that there was
no need that he should stand sentry twenty
four hours in the day, and that was enough
for him. If all was going ON smoothly, he
would take things easily, even though his alb
sence from Washington subjected him to Sc
we're criticism. For the latter he did not care,
so long as it was unjust. To the charge of
his love for horses and dogs he quietly pleaded
confession. He never smoked a cigar the less
in Difference to the opinion of any man as to
what he should eat or what he should drink
or wherewithal he should be clothed He was
never for moment on parade, except as he
freely accepted the courtesies which belong to
his office and himself. He made no triumphal
tours. In all his modest journeyings he strove
to maintain the role of quiet private citizen.
The same characteristic was evident in the
army. He never cared for anything more
than duty. In 1864 when he had been ap-
pointed to the then unprecedented position Of
Lieutenant-Gen and was on his way from
Chattanooga to Washington, an humble officer,
sitting absorbed in a book one Sunday at the
Burnett House in Cincinnati, aroused to find
himself the centre of very quietly talking
group who had gathered around the same coal
CRATE In their conversation there was much
using of first names, but glance showed that
the group consisted of Grant, his father and
mother and wife, and of Generals Sherman and
Rawlins The ''silent Grant - was then as
warm and chatty as any good son ought to be
with a venerable mother, actually voluble, al
though not loud Afterward, as he passed
down the corridor, amid the laundering cheers
Of the Sunday loungers, his face was as pas
s;on,ess. as utter,y without emotion, as if the
man had been made of bronze.
Grants business rule is always to trust
subordinate, and then, if he fails or is faulty
to be promptly rid of him. One of his personal
staff tells the story of his supreme calmness at
CITY Point, when the rebel iron-clads came
down from Richmond to run the batteries and
cut off communications. He did not leave his
tent, gave not a single order, and when the
rebels were beaten, went to sleep again. He
had anticipated the attack, had instructed
Gen. Meade, and it was Meade's business to
meet the emergency. If Meade had failed in
any effort to prevent such a calamity there
would have been a new commander OF the
Army of the Potomac next day. But Grant
was never fussy, never cared to be the central
figure in scene, and all his army and corps
commanders felt that their work aoas their
work, that they would win the honors to which
they were entitled, and that their responsible.
ties carried with them the guerdon of theiI
reward.
But it follows from this very attention to
the rights and feelings of others that Grant
must himself have a keen sense of popular
approval which he can justify to his own con