The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-12-31

than in the eleven rebel States" which took up
arms against the Union in 1861, and which, more
than any other individual, General Grant con-
tributed to bring back to their pristine allegiance
in 1860. The had scarcely ended before
President Lincoln died in the track of duty-a
martyr ruthlessly murdered by the hand of an
insane and fanatical sympathizer with rebel
lion But few days previously General Robert
f. Lee had surrendered his sword to General
Grant at Appomattox Court house, and the del
icate manner in which the victor received from
his humbled adversary that token of submission
will never be forgotten in the Southern States.
The gratitude of those who fought for the 'lost
cause" was still further augmented when Cen
eral Grant stood firm in his opposition to the
outrageous popular demand that General Lee
should be tried for his life as a criminal aces
sorry to the murder of President Lincoln 1t
was as soldier, urged General Grant that Gen
eral Lee surrendered his sword to another sol
der; and thanks to the indomitable frmness of
the man for whom President Arthur is now
pleading, the escutcheon of the Republic re-
ceiyed no stain
Ulysses S. Grant was born at Point Pleasant,
in Ohio, on April q, 1922 and is now in his
sixty third year. His life mas been of a nature
to expose him to many dangers, and to lay upon
him great responsibilities nor can it be expected
that bearing more than three score years upon
his his head he can with the versatile adapta-
bility and elasticity which have always charac-
terized his eompatriots, take to commercial pur-
suits, for which he never showed any aptitude
before he became famous, when the civil
war broke out Grant" says General Badeau, his
biogFapher twas private citizen, earning his
bread in an Insignificant inland town. He was of
simple habits and tastes without influence
and unambitious. Having never been brought
in contact with men of eminence, he had no
knowledge of great affairs" He had failed as a
farmer in the neighborhood of St Louis; he
could find nothing profitable to do in California
when the 'gold boom" was at its height, and he
was dependent upon, rather than of assistance
to- his father AMI brother, when he joined them
as eather-eurer at Galena, in Illinois, just be-
fore the war. In 1861 came the great opportunity
of his life, and no man could possibly have
turned it to better advantage. Alone among the
federal generals he never experienced the bitter
ness of defeat. He saw from the very commence
ment of the fratricidal strife that victory could
only be won for his side by hard fighting and his
grim tenaeity, his invincible strength of will and
the confidence which he inspired carried him
and the great country which he served safely
and successfully to the end of the stupepdous
crisis We know, however, on the authority of
Napoleon, that men grow old quickly on fields
of battle, and the stern ordeal through which
General Grant has passed. followed by the agony
of mind which he has endured since the failure
of the firm in which his son was a partner, can
hardly be expected to leave him mistaken at the
age of siXty-three. He was, of all Others the
man whom the great Republic most needed in the
hour of its crisis, and he bore his subsequent
honors so meekly that none would have grudged
him the provision which it was proposed to pre-
pare for his declining years