The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1885-08-10


| positions Of science falsely so called"
To those who refuse to believe that their coun-
try and their race are drifting aimlessly down
the ages, the sport of time and chance, Grant
stands revealed among the chosen of God, q
man raised up before our eyes as the special
| immediate instrument of His purpose, as clear
| ly as Moses or Joshua, as David, Daniel or
| Cyrus. To-day, not only the sixty millions
| Of his countrymen, but the six hundred ma
lions of the civilized world acknowledge that
by his invincible valor and consummate wis
dom armed treason was discounted, and that
but for him the sun of our republic must have
gone down at noon.
But peaceful victory still awaited him "not
less renowned than those of war; The con-
queror Of the rebellion was destined te redeem
his country's honor tarnished by demorahzed
and reereant Congress. By his veto of
the initiation bill, President Grant strangled
reputation in its cradle, and to the same good
right arm the nation owes a restored union
and solvent treasury. Later yet, when no
longer general or president, mark the mag
nanimity with which the man who never in
tentionally wronged- n fallaw-heing. publicly
confessed and made noble amends for the in
justice which he had inadvertently done to
Porter.
To Michael Angelo, musing on the vanity
glorious life, has been attributed the reflection,
A name on earth perhaps may live
And travel to posterity.
But can proud R0me's pantheon tell
If for the soul of Rataelle
His gorgeous obsequies could quell
The judgment seats severity"
Turn back then from Westminster Abbey,
through whose long drawn aisles and fretted
vaults the pealing anthem has sounded the
note of praise; turn back from the solemn
pageant on this continent, to that sick room
among the hills, and see the hero Of hundred
battles in mortal conflict with the king of ter
rors in his most appalling form. Without
murmur or a fear, calm, self possessed, serene,
he turns with redoubled energy to the COM
pletion of his work. redeeming the time. Never
was such flood of light poured upon a dying
couch, and never was braver death. The
mighty soldier who had taken many cities, had
been slow to anger, ruling his own spirit; and
during those last weary months of cap
tivity, weakness and pain who can doubt
that he was made emore than conquerors"
The chamber where the good man meets his: fate,
Is privileged beyond the common walk
OF virtuOus life, quite in the verge of heaven.
Heaven waits not the last moment owns her friends
On this side death, and points them out to men.
Behold him there, just rising to a god.
"Mark the perfect man and behold the up
right; for the end of that man is peace"
All, what contrast between Mount Nc
Gregor and Saint Helena!
Grant suffered and was strong. Nor were
his sufferings vain. For as the nation drew
near and watched and listened and wept
around that consecrated bed, the dying embers
of the war seem to have been quenched in
tears. God grant that the country may be re-
united in answer to his last prayers, in the
r !
Illustrious warrior, magnanimous conqueror,
faithful friend, fearless president, true patriot
brave sufferer, blessed peace maker, hail and
farewell!
After Judge Goddard had finished Chand-
ler's Band played HarwoOd's beautiful COM
position, ''Vital Spark, or the Dying Chris
tian." w. H. Clifford, Esq, was then
introduced and spoke as follows:
THE HERO OF THE CIVIL WAR.
Any allusion to the career and services of
Genera. Grant, irresistibly awakens the memory
of that great struggle of the northern
people of the United States for national unity,
with which his name is forever bound. In
this relation, if from no other source he derives
his passport to an immortal fame.
To be the central figure in any conspicuous
popular struggle, incarnating some great pop
ular Ideals to stand-for long stretches Of
time at least, in the brightest light that history
or tradition can shed. The people never suffer
their heroes to die. Through some indestructible
medium they pass their names from race to race.
If not actually deifed as of old, the
peoples heroes survive in legend and men,
ory from age to age. They are independent
of recorded history. Mankinds great chief
tains overstep the dark chasms between sue
cessive and expired civilizations. We behold
their imposing images approaching us over the
immeasurable territories of human time, and
they come down to us lustrous with undi-
minished glory from out of the mists that
shroud the childhood of our race. Thus do
those survive whom the unfailing instinct of
the people have at different periods recog-
nized, as champions of the rights of man.
And it is for this reason that our great soldier
naturally and securely takes his station
among the heroes of the world.
If it be the highest of earthly fortune to
| have a name always sounding IN the halls Of
time, then surely, among the most fortunate Of
| great Americans was General Grant. III be-
| cause his name is so preeminently unrivalled
in the military history of our civil war. To
| appreciate how this shall transmit his name to
limitless future, let us glance at the causes of
| the war, let us look at the inveterate forces
IlaL u0QerldlQ anu uuueISldHQ now dWIully
| in earnest were both North and South. From
| this we can Judge of the impress it has made
upon the people and the lasting nature of the
fame of its great captain.
In the first place, the American people had
never known so intense and determined a con-
test. Our last war appeared upon the stage
of history as the eliminating point in time Of
| two radically irreeoncilable opinions upon q
| great question of human right. But this was
no mere theoretical difference. The antago-
nistic influences that produced the American
| civil war, had flowed IN parallel streams
through almost every hour Of our national
history. Amazing as might seem, in the in
FAINT home and at the freside where American
liberty first hsped its childish numbers, wa.
fostered and cherished also that young mon
star, human slavery. But their an
tagonism slumbered yet while
They grew up together. They were warmed
at the same hearthstone and sucked at the
same breast.
/ But in the progress of time the American
people had forever and sternly divided upor
the problem which slavery had awakened. But
meanwhile slavery as well as liberty, had be-
come ingrained into the warp and woof Of oul
political and social texture. In the march O
tse test dat thH tgoR oRore q s9 s9an sSntest was fore
away. That century unveiled the approach
ing collision of two opposing systems o
civilization. Of each the beliefs AMI
principles were inherited and inveteratt
Both peoples were bred to their beliefs. Slav
ery had appropriated the South, liberty ha
made its home in the North. Bitterness en-
gendered of long difference of opinion land un
measured heat of discussion, had rendere
reconciliation or compromise impossible. The
came the menace to the federal Union. AT tn
the violence of feeling, North and South, wa
inconceivably deepened. The North registere
a vow that the Union should not be sacrificed
Then broke at last the tempest of war. q
rushed the hot and mighty tide sweeping re
bellion and rebellions causes from the lam
The ferceness and heat of that absorbing cor
fict is by sacrifice long suffering, disaster an
final triumph, burnt into the memory of Il
American people. Its chronicle would renal
imbedded in the American mind forever, witt
out page of written history.
On the part of the South it was strugg
: for inherited and cherished institutions. Tht
believed themselves to be defending constitl
tional and moral right. On the part of d
North this was no common warfare-no WI
gar conquest--no mere chapter of crims'
e glory to crafty personal or national amh
4 ton. 1t was not even a selfish warfare for I
), rights of those who fought. 1t presented t
| unusual snectacle of a highly civilized raj