The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1885-04-09
THE END OF A GRAND LIFE.

strange mutations, richer in honors and
achievements, and more striking in its rapid
succession of sharply contrasting conditions
than any other in modern history.
Sixty-three years ago, the last Of this
month, U. 8. Grant was the newborn infant
of young couple of penniless farmer people,
who had begun their married life in the
wilds of Southern Ohio. Fifty years ago he
was rong-limbed, ill-educated country
boy, employed in helping his father about
the tannery in hauling wood and in driving
the horse that worked the bark-mill Forty
two years ago he graduated from West Point,
plain, lumpy cadet, distinguished only for
common-sense and persistence, and standing
as low down as 81 in class of 80. Thirty
nine years ago, as Second Lieutenant of
Infantry, he saw his first battle, and was
honorably mentioned for gallant conduct
Twenty-eight years ago he was making
stubborn but unsuccessful effort to earn the
commonest kind Of a living for himself and
young family by hauling wood to St. Louis,
by auctioneering, surveying, and collecting
other peoples bad debts. Twenty-Five years
ago he was working in his brothers leather
store at $50 month. Twenty-four years
ago he was one of the batch of experimental
Brigadier- Generals commissioned to COM
mand our levies of raw troops; % years ago
he leaped into fame as the captor of Fort
Donelson; % years ago he led his army into
captured Vicksburg; 81 years ago the tan
ner's clerk Of four years before was the Com
mander- in Chief of 100000 of the best sol
diers the world ever saw in ranks; 81 years
ago, next week, at his command half million
trained veterans hurled themselves against
the rebel power at every assailable point,
and the ground on the Rapidan and the
James, in the fair Valley of the Shenandoah,
amid the beetling nights of the Southern
Alleganies, and the far-off swamps of the
Lower Mississippi, shook and trembled
under the thunder of cannon and the NOR
tai grapple Of myriads Of fighting men.
Twenty years ago he received the submits
sion of every armed foe of his country, and
stood before the world as the greatest of
living soldiers, and II years ago he was
elected President of the Nation his general
ship had saved, and was charged with per-
fecting in peaceful ways the work done with
the sword. Thirteen years ago he was re-
elected President. Nine years ago, when
disputed election threatened to engulf the
country anew in civil war, the fact of his
knowledge that he stood ready to use the
entire power of the Nation to repress disor-
der, helped immensely to preserve peace
Eight years ago he started ON tour around
the world. The overwhelming attentions
he received everywhere from cities, peoples,
Governments and crowned heads, and the
simple, seemly dignity with which he de-
meaned himself placed him higher than
ever in the popular esteem. One year ago
his own fortune and those of his sons were
swept away from him and them by the
trickery of constituencies scoundrel, and
he was buried under q mountain of debt
Three months ago the world was startled by
the official announcement of his physicians
that he was swiftly dying of an incurable
disease. A few weeks ago the President
and Senate of the United States placed him
on the retired list with the rank and pay of
General, the act being performed in a man
ner most complimentary to him.
Such is a bare outline of one of the most
remarkable careers in the history of man.
The people of the United States are only
beginning to appreciate how wonderful that
career was. Partisan and factional preu-
dices, the bitterness rising out of great
civil war, and the very nearness of all the
facts and actors in the struggle have tended
to obscure their vision. Now, as these re-
cede farther and farther into history, they
begin to compare them with other history,
and they find, almost to their amazement,
that the son of the Ohio tanner-the plain
unassuming man, whose unpretentiousness
concealed his merits-rises to stature that
threatens to overtop the giants of the worlds
annals The soldiership of his advance
against Fort Donelson, the splendid courage
Of Shiloh, the brilliant campaign against
Vicksburg, the magnificent strategy at Chat
tanooga, his unbroken series of successes
from first to last, the inevitable destruction
of every enemy he moved against, place him
on a plane with the worlds famous Captains
with Hannibal, Cesar, Frederick the Great,
Napoleon, and Wellington. Nothing that
any of them ever did surpasses the Vicks-
burg campaign.
When we follow him East, and study that
marvellous Virginia campaign-the setting
in motion against the rebel capital of half
dozen converging columns of attack, the
smallest as large as the average grand army