Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1885-08-11
A SOUTHERN TRIBUTE.

General Robert Toombs, OF Georgia,
paws General Grant a Just tribute as to
his military qualities. He says Grant
was the greatest soldier produced by the
war, fact which is now generally recog-
nized People have been wont to say
that Grants success came far more from
his tenacity OF purpose than from his
qualities as a military leader. Tenaclty
of purpose in a military leader is as es-
sential as any other quality; tenacity of
purpose is that which leads men to sue
cess in all walks of life Can there be
any place in which a man needs firmness
so much as in war? On the field of battle
everything is not dependent on brilliant
plans alone, for there must be deter
mination and discipline in the ranks.
Perhaps no battle was eyer better planned
than that of Waterloo; but the genius OF
Napoleon, with the aid of such lieutenants
of Ney and others of that wonderful corps
of field marshals, was not able to conquer
Wellington, and because Wellington
possessed that same tenacity of purpose
that was so distinguishing a characteris-
tic of Grant. But tenacity Of purpose was
not the only eminent military quality
possessed by Grant; it was found
in combination with others. Gen
eral Toombs says that Lee was very
good engineer officer and man to head
an army Perhaps the war produced no
one man who planned all his campaigns
and fought his battles according to strict
rules of military science so much as did
Robert E. Lee. 1t was military science
which made him recognize that at Ap-
pomatox Court House the war was vir
tually over Lees military ability was
military talent attaining its greatest per-
lection through study and loyalty to the
art of war Talent is never safe beyond
the domain of art and fixed rules; genius
may go where it chooses and do as it
pleases. Genius shows what can be
done, while talent shows how it was done.
Genius is its own guide, while talent
formulates rules from the ways of genius.
Talent knows how to meet every move
ment that comes within the rules, while
genius knows how to meet every move
ment without as well as within the rules.
Talent is limited; genius is unlimited.
General Toombs is frank as to another
matter. He says that Jefferson Davis
was the wrong man at the head of the
Confederacy. This has been recog-
nized fact by Southern men for many
years past. Davis was a military man by
nature and by education. He was
graduate of West Point, and West Point
turns out nothing but military men. 1t
must be said in favor OF Davis that at the
outbreak of the war he desired military
command, but was finally prevailed up
on to accept the Presidency of the Con-
federacy. What would have been the
result of the war had Alexander III. Steph-
ems or Robert Toombs been President of
the Confederacy is an interesting ques-
ton. Certain it is that Davis was
not good Judge OF men, while he pos
-sessed in a great degree the quality of
antagonizing those whose friendship
he should have cultivated. He succeeded
in creating a coldness between himself
and Beauregard and j. f. Johnston, and
that he did not antagonize the Nice-Pres-
ident of the Republic himself was owing
more to the irrisistability of Stevens ami
able manner than the tact of Davis.
The estimate which Toombs puts upon
Grant is correct, and his judgment of
Davis is likewise correct. 1t is genuine
pleasure to know that a man Of such bit
ter and unbending hatred to the Union
recognizes the worth of Grant and pays
him the tribute he deserved; but that
which is the most complimentary to
Grants memory in Toomb's remarks is
this: "Grant was simple minded and
honest, and had no more animosity to-
ward the South than toward the North" F"