The Cecil Whig., 1885-08-01
MIR. DEPEW ON GEN. GRANT.

MIR. DEPEW ON GEN. GRANT.
The most noticeable eulogy yet pro-
nounced on "Our old Commander
was that of Mr.. Chauncey NJ. Depew
the brilliant New York lawyer, before
the New York Chamber of Commerce
on Monday last.
No eloquence, said he, however,
grand or inspiring, is equal to the facts
which illustrate the career of General
Grant. They speak for themselves, and
can be pictured in no words saye in
calm sentences of history. | recall at
this moment the last interview l had
with him some two or three weeks be-
fore he went to Mt. McGregor, because
it illustrates, in a remarkable degree,
that quality of facing death with the
same equanimity and the same
consciousness of the necessity oi
performing his duties to life as he
performed every other duty in life.
He was in his room, engaged in
that last work of love and affection, the
preparation of his autobiography. The
conversation ran, as it always ran with
him, from business to the finest side of
life, and as often as l met him | never
saw him when he seemed to appreciate
all that there was worth living for more
keenly than he did on that occasion.
In bidding him good-by, in remarking
as one would upon the fact that his ap-
pearance justified the hope of his coun-
trymen that his last victory would be
his greatest, and that over death, he
said, calmly and with solemnity:
81 know that my friends want me to
survive l know that my physicians tell
me that l will, but l understand my
own case better than anybody else, and
l know that / shall not survive a very
short time"
1t seems to me eminently fit and
proper that of all the bodies which will
respond to his memory, this Chamber
of Commerce, the oldest commercial
organization in the United States,
should be the first. The results
achieved by Gen. Grants victories were
of momentous importance to every
class and condition of this republic,
but to none more in their victories from
the war and to the measures Of his Ad-
minlstration than the mercantile and
business communities of the country.
The quarter OF century which closes
fifty with the death of Gen. Grant has
been remarkable in the men it has pro-
duced in this country and in the majesty
of the events which have transpired.
A thousand years hence the only men
of this great era who will be reniarka-
Bile will be Abraham Lincoln and Ulys-
ses S. Grant. From two quarters in
the West, the most unlikely places for
statesmen or heroes. came Lincoln the
President and Grant the soldier. AS
| look at it, neither would have sue
ceeded without the other but to them,
both together, we owe the country as
we have it today.
Gen. Grants military career need
not be mentioned here. You may COM
pare him with Napoleon, with Yelling
ton, with the other great Generals with
whom we are familiar in the last hun
dred years, under the conditions which
surrounded him and the extent of coun-
try so vast and the Generals opposed
to him, trained in the same military
schools and distinguished for their bra
very, then we dismiss comparison and
simply say that in the midst of original
conditions an original man achieved
unusual and magnificent results.
said to distinguished diplomatist, who
had been with General Grant through
Europe:
GLOW is it that a man unaccustomed
to the etiquette and presence of royalty
constantly violating in simplicity those
cannons-the violation of which are
crimes-under such circumstances, how
is it that he was received as an equal
by kings and queens?"
He said:
ct is because every order of nobility
every throne in the world, is built upon
the sword"
That acknowledged that the military
order was the source of their creation,
and they looked to Grant as the only
man living who had successfully COM
manded million of men, and there
fore by royal right was the chief of their
order. This body has special cause to
remember Gen. Grant for two acts of
his Administration, one affirmative and
the other negative-one when he affixed
his signature to the Resumption act.
the other when he vetoed the Imitation
act. With the pressure that was brought
to bear at that time, which we all re-
member, with the enormous speculative
interest at stake in every department of
business in this country, with the friends
who had their fortunes based upon the
result, except for what he had behind