Daily globe., 1878-05-31
GR1NT, WELLES IND IAYLOR

Gen. Grant appears to be no little in
censed at Con. Richard Taylor and the late
Gideon Welles, Mr.. Lincoln's secretary of
the navy, for having accused him of waving
his own judgment concerning the proper
route for marching on Richmond in 1868,
and consenting to the plans of Others, there
by causing the needless loss Of the lives Of
100000 soldiers. Elsewhere We print state
ent of Grants in which the General de-
MES that either Lincoln OF Stanton had any
share in planning his Virginia campaign.
1t would have been in better taste for Gen.
Grant to have left unsaid his bitter and un-
called for utterances in reference to Mr..
Welles. Mr.. Welles' devotion to the Union
was quite as we'll assured as that of Grant.
He labored as long and as faithfully, If in
position less adapted to attract great re-
nown, to help to preserve the Union as did
Grant himself, and his efforts were Gro ned
with distinguished degree of success. Es-
pecially unwise was it for Grant to intimate
that Mr.. Welles was actuated by sordid
motives. There is not shadow of fact to
support such base allegation, and if there
were, Grant is the last man who should VEN
ture to thrust it forward. His own repu-
tation for avarice and venality is unequalled
by that of any other person who ever held
prominent position in our public affairs, and
for him to hint that some one else was in
huenced by the love of pecuniary gain is at
once to bring forcibly to mind the
o1o nh hnrf {ha %hn
kettle black. 1t is enough to say
that Grant was himself Democrat, if he
had any political leanings whatever, through
out the war, and that he never became con-
verted to Republicanism until he saw the
Republican nomination for President within
his reach. Up to the last moment he would
have accepted the Democratic nomination
quite as readily as the other, had the pros
poets of election been about equal.
1t is an unfortunate popularity of Gen.
acters of men after they have been laid in
their graves. 1t was thus in the case of Mr..
Sumner, and the ugly part of that affair is
repeated in the case of Mr.. Welles. When
speaking of Gen. Taylor, who is yet alive,
and who was Mr.. Welles' authority for the
article which offends Grant, the latter says
that Gen. Taylor would not Intentionally ut
ter what is not true but has made mistake.
1t would look little better if Gen. Grant
were to speak as mildly Of the dead as he
does of the living.
AS to the truth of the matter in dispute
between Gen. Grant and Gen. Taylor, the
GLOBE of course knows nothing. It is a
subject of which only three or four men
could ever have spoken with personal knowl-
edge, and two of those men, Lincoln and
Stanton. are dead. It must, however, be
remembered that Gen. Grants reputation
for veracity is spotted all over with rust. In
the dispute with Andrew johnson about
the promise that Grant gave to
hold the Office of secretary of war,
it was proved beyond question that Grant
said the thing that was not in the most un-
blushing manner. During the whisky ring
war, too, his truthfulness was impugned re-
peatedly, and other occasions have not been
lacking on which his word has been shown
to be worthless when his own interests were
at stake.
Doubtless Gen. Taylor will have some
thing to say in answer to the ''greatest of
Americans" The subject has now an his
torical value only but the course of the con-
troversy will nevertheless be watched with
interest.