The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1885-09-09

Sarueu us MS friends. DuCn ne was us
the public knew him, but the inner side
of his life, which, during the most of
his quiet and humble career, the public
did not know, shows these traits in the
full bloom and fruitage of domestic life.
We know that good fruit is the sure
proof that the tree which bore it was a
good tree. We do not gather figs of
thistles. And so we may know that
these cardinal graces of the great gen.
eral and president are to be traced to
the wise and loving Christian training
of that humble home on the banks of
the Ohio. OF this home we know but
little. We know that riches and rank
and learning were not there. We know
from the result that there was there do
mestic purity, Christian faith and loving
devotion on the part of those who shaped
its life. AS the world has long since
learned to recognize in the mother of
Washington the source of his character,
his love of truth, his self-control, his de-
votion to family, and so hispatriotism, so
will men yet trace to that humble home,
and to the moulding influence of that
devoted Christian mother of the hero
of AppomattoX, the foundation of his
mestic love. That character, even
now in all the glamour of success,
shines brighter than his greatest deeds.
We are sure that the home he loved so
well was worthy of his love. Its at
fractions lay not in outer things, for it
was rude in itself and in its surround
ings, as must needs be in the cabin of
the pioneer. Its true attraction for
him was the love which reigned there,
and which he both gave and shared in
full measure. AT the age of seventeen
Ulysses S. Grant went forth from that
home of which he was never again to
be member. But his character, as to
its essentials, was there fully formed.
The foundation was laid, broad and
deep, in the love of truth and purity
and right. In the love of the son for
parents and home and domestic enjoy
ments was the germ of that love of the
husband, the father and the friend,
which has made the home life of Gen
eral Grant so beautiful. To him that
home was more than victory and more
than fame. Victory, fame and power
owed their chief charms to him in that
their richest fruits but gave pleasure
in his home. After his career in Mex
leo, full of honor and promise as it was,
General Grant married. Aswas natural
in such a man, it was love match.
The love which the young lieutenant
brought to his bride but burned the
deeper with the flow of years, until the
dying general, at the summit of earthly
fame, closed his palsied eyelids upon
her pale and fearful face. He resigned
his commission in the army because the
life of an army officer in those days of
frontier duty made it impossible for
him to have his family with him and
to enjoy the domestic life he loved so
well. Nor was he willing, unless at the
call of imperative duty, to be severed
from the responsibilities and sweetness
of his family life. The years which sue
ceeded, from 1854 to 1861, were years of
tolls and struggles, and close tread upon
poverty. But in whatever else he may
have been disappointed, our great
hearted lover always found in his home,
in the wife who gave back love for love,
and in the children who nestled there
solace for all care, a compensation for
all his trials and disappointments. His
army life, during the years of the re-
bellion, was very largely an exile from
his family. He counted it the greatest
of his sacrifices. But in those years no
counter attraction took the place of
home in his heart. Like the bent bow,
when the cord was loosed he was found
as straight as before. Peace brought
to him renown, riches and power, but,
more than all, it brought to him the pos
sibilities of home life. Henceforth,
whether in command of the armies, or
in the White House, or on his triumph
ant tour of the world, the home of the
great soldier was the shrine of the
greater lover, husband and father. 1t
is not without significance in this con-
nection that the one indispensable con-
dtion which he demanded as to his
burial was that it should be where his
grave should be shared by the wife,
who, for so many years of shower and
sunshine, had held his heart in hers.
Attention has been called of late, per-
haps from the name, TO the coincidence
of life and character between General
Homer sang: The many-sided man,
who saw many trials, but was always
equal to every emergency of stormy
lie. IL Is WOTln our WIllle mere 10 re-
call that the sweetest conception of the
bard was the home of Ulysses, where
for score of weary years, the faithful
Penelope, not knowing his fate, kept
the fire blrning on the hearth, and her.
self, with all the chaste affection of hel
bridal days, waiting and watching fol-
his coming. To that island home the
great hero, after every storm and ship
wreck, turns his prov, loving most OF
all his wife and those at home In
these days of SANDER of public men il
means much that no one has found the
shadow of occasion to charge upon
General Grant the slightest stain on his
domestic life. 1t assures us of the per
sonal purity of the man, of the sanctity
of his home and his mastery of himself
in all that goes to make home the sane
tuary of the heart. The domestic life
of General Grant should be dwelt upon
held up and exalted by every woman
as by every man, as model for every
home. We must remember that neither
husband nor wife can alone make {
happy home. In all purity, and love
and devotion they twain must be one
Nor need we, as women, be jealous i
the name of that one should be tn,
name of the man. No matter how higl