The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1885-07-24

GENERAL GRANT.

"
For weeks past all have felt that the
event which transpired on Mount Nc
Gregor on Thursday morning was COM
ing. the delay being only a matter of a
few days; all were prepared, as fully az
they could be, for the event, and yet
when the news comes that the slender
thread by which the life of General
Grant has so long been held, is severed
it bows the nation in deepest sorrow,
and bends all in saddest mourning. A
people can never so well prepare for
parting with its great ones that they are
able to undergo the separation without
grief and sadness. Foreknowledge may
soften the sorrow, but it cannot over
come it; we cannot fortify against dis
tress of this character. Grants death,
near as we all knew it to be, comes with
all the force of a sudden shock, and
none can feel that the long expectation
of the dissolution has helped him to bear
the affliction.
How dear to the hearts of the people
was the man who can be with them
no more, was never known until
yesterday, when he left with US only the
name. As a soldier the people shouted
in his presence, but without asking
themselves why; he was a successful
general. triumphant leader Of men In
war, and it was the enthusiasm inspired
by war that caused us to shout and ap-
plaud, and to glory in the name. The
war being over and the man appearing
in the role of statesman, the cooler
reason of the populace asserted itself,
and Grant was gazed upon in the abb
sence of the military halo that had De-
fore surrounded him and dazzled the
ewes of the people. As soldier he had
captured the admiration by storm as
President he was placed in more
trying position; there could be neither
sound nor parade; what he did must
stand by itself and be approved or con-
demned on its merits, and people were
cooler and better prepared to pass judy
ment intelligently and with greater dis
elimination. 1t was then that Grant
found his way to the inside OF the
American heart; it was then that he
showed the man as he had previously
displayed the soldier. And, after all, it
is the man. the true citizen of the re-
public in the broadest sense, rather than
the military hero that the American
people most admire. They are for the
time carried away by sound, parade
and show, but the man who wins his
way into an everlasting place in their
affections must do so through his re-
publican ideas and respect for and ap-
probation of American citizenship. Pol
itics and faction tried Grant, and most
terribly SO, on the question OF his re-
publicanism, and it was because of
doubt that the people were unable TO
make up verdict in his favor. There
was no question as to his military genius
and none as to his patriotism or achieve
ments; all these stood forth and
were acknowledged; but the cry of
Cesarisn was raised, and the
people were not all clear in their minds
as to It's rightfulness or falsity. A
Caesar could not be true American
citizen, and while there existed doubt,
the people dared not trust. But when
that doubt was dispelled and Grant
stood forth as he had in reality been all
the time, the patriot in peace as he had
been the patriot and hero in war. how
the hearts of his countrymen opened to
him, finding for him g warmer and better
protected place than had ever been &C.
cupied save by that other patriot in war
and peace, George Washington. The
test to which Grant was put was severe,
but not too severe for the material be-
ing tried. Coming forth from the
crucible pure and shining, the alteration
that he excited has been growing louder
and deeper, and to-day no mans death
WOulu OCCdSlOH II11c VI tue SOrIOW
that General Grants has inflicted upon
his countrymen. The mourning is
deep and earnest. the feeling of genuine
sadness penetrating all hearts. We
grieve over the dissolution of the great
man and sorrow at the consciousness
that this generation will not look upon
his like.
The life of Ulysses S. Grant is so
familiar to the American people that it
is unnecessary to detail it here, or even
refer to the important events therein.
His death will recall Donelson, Shiloh,
Mission Ridge, and APP
pomattox, and his glories there viii be
sounded afresh; his death will carry
tbo minds of oil hack Ovar tho trriI,o