The Sunday herald. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1866-1887, 1885-08-16

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Office. seekers who may be tempted TO fol-
low the President into the Adirondacks are
reminded that his party will probably carry
shotguns.
The name Of the famous Zulfcsr pass in
Afghanistan is said TO be derived from the
Arabic su.ol fatdr, meaning lord of the
backbone" This would be good title
to confer upon President Cleveland.
General Grant. II he could speak, would
be the first TO rebuke the excesses Of some of
his fool eulogists. The most intolerable Of
these is the ascription TO him Of all the glory,
honor, and merit Of the hosts Of brave but
obscure men, who, led simply by sublime
sense of duty, gave their blood and their
lives as freely as water in the sacred cause
Of the Union, without thought Of fame or
reward for their sacrifices. 1t is common
remark that in every war the commander
gets the credit due to the courage ofhis men,
but it is true in peculiar and emphatic
sense in regard to the Civil War, which per-
hap5 more than any other on record was
fought out by the individual soldiers, man
against man, until one side gave way through
sheer exhaustion. Certainly this was true
undep commander who said &c I never ma
neuvre." The real "hero Of Appomattox
was the Army Of the Potomac, and no one
would be more ready to admit this than
General Grant. 1t is sickening to find fat
terers so wrapped up in the Zone man
"power" idea that even in the pres
ence of the survivors of the war they seek
to ignore the millions of patriotic citizens in
arms, who kept their dauntless spirit un-
broken through countless reverses, bloody
butcheries, and the constant sense Of blum
dering and mismanagement by those in
authority, until success was reached and
their great end attained. One would think
from some of the eulogies that the heroic
veterans, Of whom he lost over hundred
thousand in year, were mere senseless
counters in a kind of gigantic game General
Grant was playing against General Lee.
This kind of talk must inevitably subsde
when the true proportions and bearings Of
the great struggle of 1s6l-'65 are seen in the
light of history but it is as we'll to check 1t
now, in Justice to the private soldier, who is,
after all, the true pride and reliance of the
Republic.
Another painful ebullition of bad taste is
the haste made TO place General Grant upon
the pedestal hitherto reserved, with the
consent of all mankind, for Washington
alone. To people of proper feeling this
would seem comparison to be carefully
Stunned, rather than courted. Not to de.
scend into particulars, it is sufficient to say
that by his increasing remoteness of time
Washington has already become the name of
an ideal, to be striven after by patriotic citi-
zens, but not to be vulgarized by putting
every new aspirant Oh the same level at
once. General Grant, on the contrary, has
but this moment passed from the bustling
scene of life. Antagonism, criticism, knowl-
edge of his human failings, are all brisk and
rife, and cannot be promptly entombed with
him. To make the comparison fair there is
no way but to 90 back and stir up the pool
of contemporary discussion about Washing
ton, which might possibly lower our ideal,
but certainly could not benefit the reputation
medallions in which profile of the Father
of his Country is overlaid with profile Of
Abraham Lincoln, the whole surmounted
with head Of Grant fully displayed. Some
might go so far as to say that this exhibits 3
sadly descending scale in the country's
greatness, but it is not necessary to condemn
1t further than by pointing out that under
any state of facts 1t is premature, SO much
SO as almost to SAVIOR of burlesque.
One of the quserest of the Grant eulogies
was naturally that delivered at Lowell by
General Butler, who seemed anxious to show
that he bore no spite for the apt phrase the
dead man had affixed TO the hero of Fort
Fisher during the war. But in the midst
Of his careful panegyric he could not help
thinking Of his old enemies, the newspapers,
which always act ON Ben like red rag ON
mad bull. Away he went In this mos. sx-
traordinary and almost incoherent passage
for a funeral address:
His return to the earth, II possible, could hardly
be wished But II 1t were my own case think
should desire 10 return TO that agony of pain and
anguish for short time that might witness the
right about face OF those independent journals which
had accused him Of corruption and " "cgsarism," I"
now flled 10 oyernowng with fulsome praises and
adulafofy notices, extored, not as they should be
by sense OF justice. but by fesrOf the avenging
hand II they dared 70 repeat them put In motion by
the veneraion OF their victim fresh from the peoples
hearts.
The idea of the quiet dead returning to
earth for the poor satisfaction Of seeing that
certain newspapers (of which Buffers own
organ, the Sun, "a by the way a leading ex-
ample) are sometimes shamelessly incon-
sistent, might be treated, in less solemn sur
roundings, as Joke. As II is, II is difficult
TO characterize IL.
Buffers speech has one noteworthy pas
sage. 1t is that in which he claims TO speak
from personal knowledge Of Gen. Grants
policy in his Virginia campaign, from April,
1854. to the end. Iti clear though friendly
statement OF the IDEAS which were apparent
in what was done, and upon this. as upon
an" agreed statement Of facts" the verdict
of impartial history and Of military critics
might eventually be pronounced in fixing
Grants place as a soldier. Public opinion
in this country is certainly divided still upon
the necessity for the dreadful course here
planned out, and probably NO amount Of de-
bate will change the preconceived ideas Of the
present generation one way or the other.
Butler says Of Grant
His proposition was that the enemy should be CON
quered by continual atiriton and innicting loss IA
every way and wearing out their resources, as fast
possible, aud at however great cost, relying upon
our own more abundant money aud men 10 bring
out a successful result lie satd that ne would