Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1881-03-24
What s,a,l u n.ss for General Grant.
Dignitn

Ss00eA0aA - 000 1AdG mas grown
up, or been pushed up, before the public
mind only. within a few months. When
we first began to know the Genera.
there was nobody's dignity in all tie
world that took care of itself more
efectnally. without the slightest stten-
tipn rom any body, than U. S.. G14ntsA
ferhaas the reason why ;. needsdR %
Little care was that it got so lite from
himself. in those DAYS when there was
such Tremendous work to do, and he
w;G. ne OF those rare men who stuck
-dpggedig to the work, without any side
gI;,u at the newspapers to see how
his III -n.ty was getting on. He did not
write .ir amatic dispatches nor put him.
sell r,,, impressive attitudes. When
it ca ne to that kind of thing. General
Ban s vas unspeakably more majestic
His d. hity was sedulously taken care
of and SO, in a different way, was Gen.
era. Butler's. But Grant kept driving
ahea, at his business, knowing imme-
diate!y on the enemy works, sas if he
-didn' have any such baggage Is Dig
nifty to look after. After that tremen-
dpns lighting that ended in the fall of
Vicksburg; he-wass sent for to- Wash
fngton, where he was the. universal ad-
n1irftion; but he told the President and
his Council of War that he wished they
would hurry up and give him his orders,
for he was ''tired of this show business"
Aud when the American people heard
that, they clapped their hads, like
the multitudinousH waves, and said
to one another: there's digni-
ty now Here's "a man that
is not thinking about feathers in his
cap or stars on his shoulder! Here's
another man as Abraham Lincoln!" By
and by some of the politicians succeed
ed in getting at him in his tent in Vir-
ginia and whispered to him confidential
ly that a gentlemapin his position could
have anything he wished for that was
in the gift of the people. Couldn't be
think OF something he would 1ikep And,
alter reflection, he said there was one
thing. He did wish the Coun-
Gil OF Galena would. make plank walk
as far as his front gate. But the finest
thing, it seems to me, in all Grants ca
Meer. was his willingness to sit still and
ihardly hold his own along the trenches
looking toward Richmond, with all the
country impatientlys wondering why
Grant did not strike, while Sheridan
and Sherman, his subordinates, were in
the fllil blaze Unpopular admiration and
The himself little in the shadow This
was heroic. In those brave old days
it probably did not occur to any one in
the civilized world that measures were
necessary to secure Ulysses Grants dig
nifty, But now things have changed.
The z snses is passing round the hat,
and the f'sdependent is bidding for a
pension and title, and Mr.. Hayes is
trl ing to invent new pattern of epau-
let all because Mr.. Grants dignity is
in peril and something must be done
for it. What can have made the differ
encep Il
suppose that there were people
who voted for Grant for President in
1865, because he observed - it, or
was entitled to it, or it was "con-
ferf.ng honor" on him. In every
ele, .tien, great or small, there are fools
who give their votes for such reasons.
But good citizens, worthy of the trust
OF azenship. voted for him not for
Grants sake, but for the i country's
saAe. We thought that he had quail
ties that-were needed in the Presidency
the simple straightforwardness; the
devotion to public duty, without re-
gard to public interest; the, faculty and
the VIII to find the rig bit place; the set
resolution that would fight it through
on a weil-considered line of back-doOr
influence; opposition in front and rear
We thought we knew our man, and
were voting for things like these when
we voted for Grant for President. We
thought we were doing a good thing
for the dignity not of Grant, but of the
office. by putting worthy man into it,
Well, there is no denying it, the
country was partly disappointed.
Without repeating Mr.. Summers
overstrained Indictment against Grants
Administration, we have to acknowl-
edge that at the very points a5 which
we most relied on him he failed US.
The faculty of picking his subordinates,
which had been conspicuous in the
Presidency. The logged tenacity of
policy on which he committed himself
most resolutely-the Civil Service Re-
form. And the superiority to all self-seek-
ing here was the most lamentable lack.
No citizen since Washington refused
crown. no President since Presidents
began to be had had so many and such
noble opportunities for acts OF dignity.
So many occasions there were when,
with the highest propriety, he might
have .courteously declined gifts from
persons who might be candidates for
ffiaiaI favor; but he missed these OPP
portunities The SALARY Grab" bill
in which Congress, for instance, Of
fered Mr. Grant. then President. more
or less, for himself. as a reward for
his signing the bill that was to
enrich them, might have been returned
to the House which it originated. with
sharp rebuke for the insult it implied.
But it was not. He pocketed the in
suit and the cash.
1t was part Of the dignity of General
Grant character, as we first knew him,
that he Ibid not like the show bust
ness" But, after eight years in the
White House. he found that there was
hardly ANYTHING in the world that he
liked so much, and straightways he set
out. like Mrs. farley wax figure, for
a ''tour among the crowned heads of
Europe The tour of the world to see
and learn is worthy thing TO under
take; but tour to be seen is different.