The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1885-07-29

of real estate agent. In 1859 he was
employed by his father in the tannery
and leather trade at Galena, Illinois,
where the breaking out of the rebellion
found him.
In 1861, within four days after Presi-
dent Lincoln's call for troops, General
Grant raised company; in little more
than thirty days he was in the field at
the head of regiment. In August,
1861, he was commissioned brigadier-
general, and assigned to the command
of Southeastern Missouri. From this
point he began the campaign which
ended with the capture of Forts Henry
and Donelson. Grants fame was at
once established, and he was imme-
diately commissioned maior-general.
After defeating General Johnston's
army at Pittsburgh Landing and Cor
NTH, he was made commander of the
department of West Tennessee. He
soon after began the brilliant campaign
that, including victories at Iuka, Ray
mond, Jackson, Champion Hill and Big
Black, ended with the capture of Vicks-
burg and Pemberton's army of twenty
seven thousand men July 4, 1868. Then
he encountered General Bragg, and won
the famous battles of Lookout Noun
tain and Missionary Ridge. Soon after
ward congress revived the grade of
acknowledgement, to which President
Lincoln at once appointed General
Grant, who assumed command of all
the armies of the United States. Send
ing Sherman on the long campaign
I" from Atlanta to the sea-" General
Grant came East and assumed personal
command of the Army of the Po-
tomac. Desperate and sanguinary bat
ties marked every step of his progress
towards Richmond, and the campaign
came to an end in April, 1865, in the
downfall of Petersburg and Richmond
and the surrender of Lees army.
General Grant now established his
headquarters in Washington. Congress
created the rank of general for him,
and he was commissioned in 1867. In
that year, when President Johnson sus-
pended Stanton, Grant was made secre-
tary of war od interim for few months.
In 1868 General Grant was unani-
mously nominated by the republicans as
their candidate for president, and was
triumphantly elected - receiving two
hundred fourteen electoral votes to
eighty for Horatio Seymour. He was
reelected in 1872, when his electoral
vote was two hundred eighty-six to
eighty for all others. His administra-
ton covered period of transition in
the country second in importance to
none of equal length in time ofpeace.
When it is reflected that he was a sol
der in his instincts, and had nothing of
the .fnesse of the politician or the disci-
pline of statesman, it may well excite
surprise that the faults and errors of
his administration were not more nu-
merous. While he was distinguished
for unerring judgment in selecting the
agents for carrying out his plans in the
army, he showed much less sagacity in
the exercise of the appointing power as
civil magistrate. Some of his APP
pointments in the civil service were
notably bad selections; but there is no
reason to suppose that he had any wish
but to appoint honest and competent
men; and there now seems no doubt
that he had an honest purpose to meet
the wishes of the country. General
Grants want of sensitiveness to the
action of the popular will is sufficient
to acquit him of all intentional or DELHI
crate dereliction of duty. His admins
tration had its meritorious side. The
very qualities that made General Grant
persistent in error also made him I'M
wavering in the right and inhexible in
emergencies calling rather for firmness
and resolution than craftsmanship or
diplomacy.
After his retirement from the presi-
dency General Grant spent some months
in the unwonted restfulness of private
life, and then undertook his famous
tour around the world. Everywhere he
went tributes of admiration and respect
were showered upon him, such as no
crowned head of the world could have
secured. He was the honored guest of
royalty and of ancient and famous cor
porations. The freedom of England's
chief cities was voted to him, and in
China he was asked to settle great ques-
tons of domestic and foreign policy.
On his return his friends made great
effort to bring about his nomination to
a third term of the presidency, but ira
ditional opposition to departure from
the example set by Washington defeated
the movement for his nomination.
Since then his only connection with
public affairs was in representing the
United States in the negotiation of a
treaty of commerce with Mexico. The