Morning journal and courier., 1885-09-28
OUR SILENT CONQUEROR.


 Dr. J. o. Peck-An Eloquent Trib-
 ute To The Dead Hero A dmiral
 Foote Post, G. A. R.. Atte nd 1n A
 Body.
 Last evening at Trinity M. E. church the pastor, Rev. Dr. J. o. Peck, repeated his dis course on the life and character of General Grant in response to request made by Ad- miral Foote post No. IF, G. A. R. The post attended in body, numbering about two hundred and fifty, and occupied the front circle of seats in the body of the church. Long before the doors were opened an immense crowd of people had gathered about the church waiting to gain admission. When the doors were opened at o'clock the seats except those reserved for the Grand Army, were quickly filled. Camp chars were placed in the aisles, inside the altar rail and in all the available space inside the church. Every foot of standing room at the rear of the church was also occupied by at tentive listeners and 8 great many went away who could not secure standing room even.
 The discourse, of which we give full ab stract, was listened to with the deepest at tention by the immense audience in attend ance. As specimen of pulpit eloquence 1t was one of uncommon merit and will well bear repeating either sermon or lec- ture.
 The doctor gave as the basis of his dis 
 ttKnow ye not that there is a prince and a great man fallen this day in IsselF When | the warrior King of Israel announced the death of his great general-in-chief, Abner-"Know ye not that there is prince and great man | fallen this day in Israel?"-he \ new not how gracefully and eloquently his words would beft the death of Americas greatest general l The republic sits beside his tomb widow | Her most distinguished citizen, her peerless chieftain her matchless hero, her prince of meekness, is now and forever a sacred mem ory. Ulysses Simpson Grant, once the mill tary saviour of his country, has been mus l tered out in everlasting honor He whose greatness was once the Gibraltar of an un- | divided Union and an undishonored flag is l greater now in the reverence and gratitude and admiration of a mighty nation. He who vanquished the armed foes of the Union by his superb generalship has conquered his last enemy, death, through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and has reconquered the hearts of the whole republic by the silent fortitude of his unmurmuring suffering and by the full revelation of his intrin- sic nobility of manhood. His greatness at Vicksbu1g and Appomattox shone with far higher resplendence amid the darkness of disaster and the shadows of closing life. Like the setting sun he grew larger on our vision and flooded the land with a golden radiance whose mellowed glory surpassed the splendor Of morning or tho effulgence of monday Great as we had esteemed the hero of Donelson. the conqueror of Vicks burg, the victor of final sure nder, we dis covered, ere the veil of eternity hid him from our view, that he was greater than our proud est conceptions of him. Truly prince and great man passed out of Am merican life on that memorable 23d of July. The political storms and partisan clouds are swept out of the horizon now, and in the calm, clear light, we are able to see the full and noble qualities of the man. As Christian citizens we believe that God is the supreme power in the history and destiny of nations; that he raises up great men in great crises to fulfill | his wise purposes; that he VI Do raised up and prepared Moses to break the bondage and | bring deliverance to Israel; make a slave | babe thus to become the greatest name l in the worlds history; that he who ordain- | ed before his birth that Cyrus should be the conqueror of Babylon and the avenger of his people, that he gave tq our republic, in hours of need, Washington, Lincoln, a \ Grant. Hence we are revdrently acknowl- | edging the sovereignty of God in our nation al history while we review the character and | services of him whom the Providence of God made to be, in many respects, the most illustrious man of our age and American fame, Ulysses s. Grant, the silent conquer or.
 The doctor then followed with a detailed account of General Grants ancestry and his traits of character. Among other things he said: 'The record of this remarka
 ble man is more romantic than the legends O.
 other heroes. He had in his veins the best | yeoman blood of English Puritan stock-not | Scotch as sometimes asserted. His ances tors came to the colonies ten years after the
 Mayfower landed her immortal band, and il 1885 the Grants settled ill Windsor, Conn. They were patriots and warriors in colonial struggles, and thus there were two hundred and fifty years of Puritan, God-fearing, pa | II CTS veins. His grandfather moved from Connecticut to Pennsylvania in 1790 ana thence to Ohio in 1799. His father, Jess. R. Grant, was farmer and tanner; maI of sterling sense ard busih ness tact, with dash of poetic effusion. His mother, whom Ulyses resembled in qualities, was a woman l of strong mind, somewhat reserved and of vigorous moral and religious type. O such stock and percentage, on the 27th O | April, 1S22 at Point Pleasant, Clermon
 county. Ohio, was born Hiram Ulysse ! Grant,"
 Coming do VII to the outbreak of the wa
 the doctor said: The spring of 1861 founC him content and quiet in the tannery, whil, unconsiously he was dwelling on the grea military problems which were co soon to en gage his genius. He read the daily paper with profound thought, for he noted the rum blings of the earthquake that was soon t shake the land and call him from obscurit, to theater where the whole world would b applauding spectators.
 ! The preacher then minutely followed Gen eral Grants military record in the war of tn rebellion, from the time he offered his ser vices and sword to the governor of Illinois t | the time when as he says: ''The Coincidence, was in ruins; but the Union shone resplen dent in victory, and the dear old flag waved in undisputed triumph over forty millions o freemen, without a slave to mock the emblem of liberty"
 No words of tongue or pen can now decid the popularity Of General Grant. Citie vied with each other in presenting him house that they might claim the honor of hi citizenship. Gifts, ovations, hero worship l overwhelmed him with evidences of the na tion's gratitude. Congress creates the ranl of general-a grade higher than Washington enjoyed expressly to do him honor. Th people could scarcely wait to make him Pres ! ident. He was the Saviour of the Republic he must sit in the chair of the Father of hi Country. For two terms he was elected President by overwhelming majorities. No l trained in political science and state-craft i
 was inevitable that he would make some
 mistakes, but they were few and small com | pared with the great and benefcent results o
 his civil administration. Strongly attached to his friends he naturally drew them around him, and trusted them as the soul of honol which he knew himself to be. Sometimes h
 was deceived in them and suffered thereby
 but the conviction IS universal in the Ameri can people that, despite mistakes and error of judgment, the personal integrity and hon or of President Grant unchallengeabl as those of Washington and Lincoln. He en tered the army poor and left i poor. He became President poo
 and retired poor. But for tn
 gifts of admiring friends he would have beer
 without income when he returned to privat
 life. Such, however, was the love of mel
 for him that they coveted the pleasure O
 sharing with him their abundance.
 | Released now from official station he start
 ed on a tour around the world. Everywher
 he was received as the equal of the potentate
 of earth. ''No great parsonage of ancient O
 modern times ever made such journey
 and no man in the worlds history ever en
 joyed such triumphal procession and sue
 cession of honors. The freedom of grea
 cities was bestowed on him; banquets, illu
 minstions, triumphal arches, singing multi i tudes greeted him. And because he remain
 ed the same unaffected, plain American tn
 Earl of Derby declared to be the proof tha
 he "must be very great man." Anothe
 English earl said at public dinner: ''Hat
 General Grant been an Englishman he would
 have been duke" But when he returned
 to his native land greater ovations than eve
 were seen on these shores were crowded upo1
 him from Pacific slope to Atlantic seaboard | culminatinO in Philada1nbia in a Daoaant ent