The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-04-04
senator. and had the literary bearing, the

senator, and had the literary bearing, the
mingled scholastic and military appearance
which charms the superficial lookeron. People
thought, from seeing him in tho Senate. that he
was equal to whole armies OF men. When the
first life was lost in the invasion Of Virginia,
that of Colonel Ellsworth, at Alexandria, the
tavern keeper who killed him had issued card
saying: Virginia is determined and will con-
quer under Jefferson Davis"
But Jefferson Davis as far as the broad view
the capacity to take advice. the ability never to
general cause. was many league below the self
trained poor white, who, in the queer moekery
of events, had come out of the Southern States
to lead the North to victory.
Grant on the other hand, was an especial
scion Of the New England type, mixed with
Pennsylvania stock. In neither Lincoln nor
Davis was there any Puritan blood. Mr.. Lincoln
had faint notion that he might have been
derived from a Pennsylvania originally, with
some German in his constitution But it is more
than probable that Lincoln one of the poor
whites who had wandered off from tide-water.
Maryland, Virginia, or North Carolina. and
would have been lost forever in the Kentucky
hills but for the thoughtful act of the men of the
Revolution, both from the South and the North,
who reserved the whole Western Territories
north of the Ohio river for freedom alone. The
Virginia men did this before slavery got on top
of them and crushed them out.
You will find no considerable degree of re-
semblance between the life of Thomas Jeffer-
son before this slavery question sat down upon
him and after he felt it sitting there. Before
the formation of the federal Constitution, when
the Northwestern Territory was reserved for
freedom only, jefferson and the Virginia men
were as earnestly against slavery as the men OF
Connecticut or New Hampshire. But slavery
got to be great system with its hundreds of
thousands of votes, and by that time they were
so much absorbed in humiliatng their political
rivals that the men of the Virginia school would
rather be wrong about slavery than lose re-
| yenge and power. Indiana received Lincoln,
but Illinois had still freer air. The Ken
| lucky boy went on there and the man he had
to contend with on the divinity of slavery
| who took the position that slavery was
suitable and proper thing, was Stephen A.
| Douglas. a native of Vermont. There is no
doubt that any man looking merely for respecta-
he had read the lives of Lincoln, Grant and JEFF
| ferson Davis, that the latter came nearer the
| standard of the secondary public man now sought
to be elevated as the type of the frst-class Mr..
Davis had been firm in his prejudices, fine in his
address, attentive to his books, brave and stead
| fast in war; dignifed in the Senate.
The great fact concerning him was that the
cause he represented, and to which he had tied
his abilities was sham. He seems to have felt
this so thoroughly that when he had an opportu-
nifty, long after the war, to write book in any
way he should prefer. he addressed himself to
the rightfulness wrongfulness of his position.
Had he felt secure in the cause he supported, his
book would have been retrospective, gentle, even
merry.
Grant had no legal education, nothing but
military experience, and when he left the army,
after being in it for years, he naturally ran
down hill very fast. He had married into one
of those agreeable Maryland families which live
well but manage poorly, and whose capacity is
bounded by some land and negroes. He had no
big friends to push him in the army, and there
was no fighting to be done after the Mexican
| war, and so he was sent from post to post in the
far new domain we had acquired from California
tn N n cad nf hof
ter, and he slipped on to his father-in laws land
too near the big city of st. Louis. The fabric
of the man, however, was there all the time; he
had homely, resolute qualities, and his habits
were merely the ennui of a man only half
| employed. He accepted hard fortune with
out murmuring, and finally had to go back to
his father and became clerk in his store. If the
| big war had never come Grant might have been
| dead long ago. But he had latent in him quail
| ties which only very great war could develop
| harmoniously. he was perfectly dociie While
!! perfectly brave He represented the full spirit
! of the Northern army in lis acquiescence with
all commands; if Haleck sauced him he did not
grow discouraged or sauce back He went and
did something which would be approved To
Lincoln he was perfectly harmonious spirit all
! the while. He never criticised Mr.. Lincoln for
anything
| Grant was like strong field which could Get
strength from the sun and the flood, and even
| from the manure. He despised nothing, grew
up with the events, and the higher the events
| grew the more natural Grant seemed to stand
| toward them
| He, therefore, like Abraham Lincoln was
another Of those remarkable developments
| which illustrate the definition of genius they
were never fully brought out till the terrific and
nearly universal occurrences gave them their
proper proportions, Then it was seen that the
| we'll behaved, courtly and unexceptiona senator
from Mississippi had come to events too big for
himself. 1t is in these men of massive fiber and
great earthly sense that the genius of history
| lies. After the war was over Grant became
| President and notwithstanding he disappointed
many people, affairs in this country took a tre
mendous propulsion from his appreciation and
encouragement We had most productive
and powerful years Immediately following the
war. Then, as happened in his army career,
before the war; the mere posts that Grant was
| sent to after the great pale6 upon his en-
ergies; as the events sank down to mere specua
tion and money making, the Grant of the great
period seemed also to disappear in every thing
| l...4 L. -. Il: