The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1875-06-17
eRANr,s DEmENT1A.

1t is no wonder that soldiers never de-
plore the ruin they have wrought. War
means ruin, and its prosecution is a trade,
and the great warrior is the most mercifui,
at least to the extent that he makes the
reign q ruin intolerable, and therefore
brief. But the duties of statesmen involve
the reversal of the policy of warriors, and
the reproduction of peace and prosperity.
Then, what must be the character of
Grants miseriesl He was surely most muir
derous of all leaders of modern armies.
Human life, in his eyes, was absolutely
without value, and however soldiers sacri-
feed may have loved their country,
they had no personal reason for loving
Grant; and, however patriotic Grant was,
his love of country did not embrace men
who fought and fell for it. He may have
been a great soldier because he knew
what given sacrifice of human
life could accomplish, and he never
shuddered when making it.. Recurring to
ghastlY incidents, Grant, even like sur
geon, does not start back appalled,. The
knife in the surgeons hand cleayes the
skull of corpse IN the dissecting room
reeking with horrors and ghastliness, but
he never starts back appalled,. A soldier
never Tecks of woes wrought on battle-6elds,
or of the anguish of hospitals or SORROWS of
desolated hearths and homes. Climbing
over all these, and scaling monstrous pyr-
amid of broken hearts, Grant has almost
grasped the imperial purple. War was
ended statesmanship su2planted it. Grant,
the warrior and gravedigger, was now the
statesman and philanthropist. So civiliza-
ton thought. His greatness CO had been il
lustrated in ruin it had wrought, and was now
to be demonstrated through its creativeness.
His utter failure in statecraft is significant
of incapacity to think. Without this
power he could never have been great
soldier, Napoleon or Cesar or Alexander,
who were alike statesmen and soldiers.
Grant was not; but his armies were great,
and their resistless physical force crowned
him with laurel and bay.
But whatever may be alleged of his ma
chine-like adoption of rules taught at West
Point, his career as a statesman is absolute
ly disgracefuI. He has disgraced and dis
honored the high Office he fills. He has
corrupted the whole country By his
infamous example Offices are for
sale virtue. is mockery, ana
patriotism another name for love OF
place and plumber. He has absorbed inn
mense revenues and destroyed pubIiccredit.
he has destroyed banks and commercial
communities, and public and private cont
dence. He has eonsummated the utter ruin
OF cities and States He has reopened
measureless ehasm between the North and
South, which million men were sacrificed
to close. He is the peerless murderer Of
his race, and simply q murderer because his
conduct as a statesman shows that he never
lzaew Why they fell. That the purpose Of
war vas the rePrOduction Of Union, IS an
idea thst never entered the bead Of q man
who set up Kellogg in Louisiaha, issued the
drunken Arkansas proclamation, OF ap-
proved in his heart the constitutional
amendments.
Wei may the Sphynx-liks man brood
aehast while contempt lating IN llssl,st,Iul 81
Ience and solitude therdin hs wrought when,
q simple murderer, he enacted the role q
s0ldief, and when, oocapTing TIE place of
. statesman. he has been d drunken drir-
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