National Republican., 1884-08-02

and ia q terrible example. No. gam
bled away everything he had, No. Is q |
liar, aud yot with all the cowardice Of q
liar is . good disoiplinarian and officer,
and will fight in time Of battle. Grant had
to turn around and face human nature
and lead follow officers like that TO dSath
or glory. II he had boon smoral reformer
ho would have written to the papers that
1t did not become great country to have
such follows wearing its chevrons. Dick
Yates said to himself: This fellow Grant,
whom Washburno has brought here, shall
have this mutinous regiment, and hopo
they will kill him in day or two"
Grant took tho regiment, marched II
across tho state, put In arrest persons
who misbehaved, gave his confidence to
bad men who for the moment were doing
their duty, and he for tho moment assisted
TO recover character and career among
those black sheep for tho uses Of thoir
taste.
Unlike groat many officers, no did
not koop his eye on tho goyctnnont vt
Washington. He kept ono eye ht least on
tho enemy, and said, II will got whaok
at him directly" The first whack ho got
at tho enemy rather turned him inside
out. But no had been pitched of horse
when q boy. He took whack number
two. All at once, with both eyes on tho
enemy and his heart strong in human
nature, ho captured more men than all tho
union forces had taken altogether in oil
parts of this country. The mon ho cap
tured wcro just as good soldiers as marched
anywhere.
The invincblo spirit native to o no tural
man had given him famo and shortly,
while other men were studying the lives
of Napoleon and Wellington and other old
geese in the graveyards. He fought that
armed enemy with quiot joy. Nothing
delighted him more than q grapple with
the enemy.
As he rose from step to step anonymous
letters were written about him; petty
critics assailed him in the papers. He
made somo mistakes about that time in
thinking that all tho people who wrote
for the papers were bad. The man writing
to tho papers was attending TO his
part of life lust as we'll as Grant. Both
woro making their mistakes. Almost
without record or Biography the namo Of
Grant began to swell, like tune with no
name that people recognize as tho band
goes past. About tho time that the east
ern army was making tho stand-of at
Gettysburg Grant was marching into
Vicksburg after fighting that has no COM
parison in the annals of this country.
|
battle as Grant gave at Vicksburg. Tho
capture Of Yorktown was q foregone con-
clusion two nations had taken ad-
vantage of the folly of rash
young Earl and shut him in with fleet
and soldiory. But at Vioksburg the most
furious, tho fercest men on this globe
were literally worn out and battered to
death by tenacity. Yicksburg had been
of the greatest gambling and dueling
towns on the globo. Almost every man
there had been compelled to kill some
body In self-dofense or to maintain his
character. 1t was within few miles
of tho confederacy, man with all the
confederacy. Vicksburg fell, and
there was no time lost In issuing
proclamations, but the soldiers faced
about and marched against the enemy
at jackson and other places. The
Mississippi river was opened by the poor
clerk of Gslena. Washburne said to him
self: "God Almighty must have sent this
man to me-" Then Grant came east and
had to deal with these moral reformers,
who abound in those old eastern states,
people with the misfortune of having had
graudfathers, folks who arc guided by the
newspapers. He was pronounced In all
|
in tho world. The New York World, with
which l was connected at the close of the
war had an article in 1t every day writ
ten by man named Marble, or inspired
by him, saying that Grant was q colossal
humbug. that he was numbering people
in the Wilderness, that he ought to be
cashiered, that ho was o drunkard, &c.
/ sometimes look with wonder ut somo of
these quill scratcbers who continue to
write platforms for great parties. who
have recorded themselves against such
fame as Grants. When we consider how
hard it is to have great responsib ility,
of tho state, to have scarcely friend on
the press, and at the same time to have
in our faces courageous and prodigious
name taking US by the throat; how hard
it Is in the blackness of tho camp at
night to take up tho paper and find
ourselves put down as scamp, char
latan, u petty villain. This brave hearted
little man read all such things and never
opened his mouth. The splendor of Lee''
generaship never was displayed against
anybody as it was against Grant. HI
seemed for the first time in his career t.
J delight in the rebellion, of which he WA
} the great leader, as he sprang at tha
little western man who had opened thu
|
J toward Richmond with his long lin,
! exposed Lee and all his great captain
sprang at him from the woods. Anticipat
ing the rise Of some such natural man a
, this they had fortified permanently al
the leading positions on the roads. Gran
could fight, but he could make n,
impression on this powerful enemy
, though he did not come back like Nc
Clellan and some others, with his hant
in his mouth, and point to tho presiden
of the United States, himself sOrely de
rided, and say: lyon did this. am a
!, great man and you arc fool.' The
simplicity with which Grant and Lincoln
! hung to each other, like David and iona
than, brings tears to good mems eyes
: now. Grant continued on. He did no
I get to Richmond, but he got to the back
, door of it. There he sat down and ham
; mered away, and at last the valiant con-
tederacy acknowledged that it had Q
master. Tho man Grant received the
sword of Gen. Lee. The little north.
/ ern clerk ut 5000 year mad
, tho heir of Gen. Washington concedehi
superiority. Then what Inagnanimous
l opponent he WAS Take your horses nj
with you, general" said he; 'let all you
, boys ride their horses home. and put then
1 to plowing.' Are we to forget such u maj
4 aS that because his sons had TOO much o
A his faith, and he and they lost their grea
0 apparent wealth? What is 1t, after all
: that man had million yesterday an,
. cannot pay due bill to-day, II he is
0 true-spirited man2 This wretched meas
: uring of everything in the world b.
Q pecuniary success is tho only stigma il
: the American character.
Q Gen. Grant next had to meet the politi
Y clans, and they tried to make every sor
/. of thing out of him. Old Seward attompte
i to handle him; Johnson, tho president
8 endeayored to fondle him; Stanton, th
n secretary of war, cheated him aud lied
o him. He was just as we'll aware Of wha
o was due him as the people who controlle