Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1885-08-06

were some temporary advantages over
in West Virginia which seemed to indi-
cate to us that General Mcclellan was
that man; and you will remember with
what pride and qualification we hailed
the announcement that be had been aps
pointed to command the Army of the
Potomac, and with what pride we en-
deavored to regard him as the Napoleon
of the Republic. But you will remem-
Der, too, as the weeks and the months
went by, carrying us through the sHm~
mer and through the fall into the winter.
without anything substantial being ac-
complished. the tide turning and running
against US. encouragement gave way to
encouragement, disappointment obtain
ed in the minds of the people. .nd final
ly, when the clouds were hanging lower
and growing blacker, even the staunch-
est hearted friends of the Union began
to lose courage, and feared that at last
possibly American institutions were to
perish.
But you will remember, too, that just
! then it was. in the hour of our severest
trial, that a new light broke across the
political heavens, a new light shone down
with encouragement into every patriotic
heart in this land, a new light flashed
when the telegraph announced to the
people of this country that down in Ten
nessee, at ort DOnelsoD, there had been
fought great battle, and there had been
won for the Union great victory. That
was encouragement, but what was even
greater encouragement than that was
the account it gave us of the efforts made
by General Buckner, the rebel command
er. to secure terms of capitulation, and
the ever-memorable answer was what
electrified dropping Nation: That no
terms could be accepted but those of un-
conditional and immediate surrender
81 propose to move Immediately upon
your works." Great applause.) Then
it was that our attention was first at
tracted to this man as the man that ev-
cry American instinctively felt we had
been looking for, and that attention
which was so riveted upon him, was
never taken from him. but it followed
him as he passed on from Fort Donelsen
| to the still blOodier fields of Shiloh,
where he suatched victory from defeat.
1t followed him, too, as be passed on
down to the triumphs at Corinth and
Iuka; and after that followed him into
the bloody trenches about Vicksburg,
where, overcoming almost super-human
difficulties, he finally not only captured
the citadel but also Pemberton and his
entire army of thirty thousand men, and
"bads the Father of Waters go unvexed
to the sea-" (Applanse)
Yes; and it followed him, too. as he
crossed over to Mission Ridge to take
command of both the armies of the Ten
nessee and the Cumberland, and regain
what had been lost at Chickamauga, as
he swept IN triumph over the crests of
Lookout Mountain and Mission Ridge.
(Applause.) And then it followed him,
too, as be went over to Virginia to as
sumo command of all the armies of the
United States; followed him down to
SpottsylvaIia and through the Wilder
ness, from which he again electrified the
Nation with that resOlute and deter
mined declaration that he would fight
it out on that line if it took all summer y
Great applause)
Yes; and IL followed him, too, as he
crossed over to the south side of the
James, invested Petersburg, fought the
battle of Five Forks, and finally finished
the great struggle by the erowning tri>
umph of AppomattOx. Bringing ap-
plause)
No, my friends, we can not too highly
appreciate the military services of Gen.
eral Grant. He was, indeed, the first in
war.
But until that hour of his 6nai tri-
umph we knew him only as great SOL
dier. But in that very moment he dis
closed to US that he was something more
than a soldier; that be was 6rst in peace
also, as he had been in war; for in that
very hour of that triumph, in the very
moment of the surrender of Lee, he
spoke to the people of this country in
a way the most suggestive and the most
creditable to him that it is possible for
one to speak on such a subject, Great
applause.)
You will remember that when Lee
was making his surrender, Gen. Grant
said to him, when they spoke of the
horses: mo, General Lee. keep your
horses, for your people will need them
to pIow, and do farm work with" Thus
it was that this great soldier. who had
been thinking only of arms, as you would
imagine, showed that he also thought
of peace; that he regarded war only as a
means to conquer peace. And thus he
was the first of all the American people
to call the attention of the American
people to peace.
But he was soon to teach US another
lesson, for he was shortly afterwards
made the Chief Magistrate of this great
Nation. He was elected to the Presi-
deaey after one of the most bitter parti|
san contests that ever occurred in this
country. But he signalized his advent
to power by embodying in his inaugural
address that famous supplication to the
American people, "Let us have peace
And shortly after that, while President
of the United States, he taught the same
grand lesson to the civilized nations Of