The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-07-27


| it was within their power reflected furnished
rays upon the life of General Grant. That he
| himself Xas often Inundated by this class of
| beings isztoo true but when convinced OF their
| perfdity he never hesitated TO cut them off
| Still ne clung TO them with great tenacIty until
| convinced against his Will
Some of his friends have proved true to him
! under all circumstances, and have been of great
| benefit to him. | refer to one instances The Rev.
| DR.. Newman is one of those favored few whom
| General Grant loved and trusted. During his
| last illness DR.. Newman has given himself up
| entirely to the General and his family, and has
| administered both spiritually and personally to
| the comforts and wants of the distressed and
| care worn friend and grief stricken family de
| has watched the bedside of General Grant as
| tenderly as he could one of his own family.
] Often and when 1t was proper and prudent by
| the bedside of the dying man he has offered
| pious invocation TO the Most High for the preser-
walton OF his life, and has earnestly invoked the
| blessings of Deity upon those whom he loves so
| dearly Friendship is mysterious cement of
| the SOUL" All of us owe it much.
| There is one mysterious characteristic in Gen.
| Grants life which remains unsoived. Some
speak of 1t as retlcence. others as modesty, and
| still others as secretveness. Whatever the char
acterstc or trait may be, one thing is sure, that
. under all circumstances, whether as a cadet at
| West Point an officer in the Mexican war; the
General of the armies Of the United States. com
handing million Of soldiers in time of battle
as President of the United States as the guest
at the head of his family around the domestic
hearthstone, he always preserved an evenness of
| temper and an equipoise of demeanor which is
rare. if not altogether unknown. among men
who have been raised to his exalted station
do not myself pretend to explore this mystic
rious strata in his intellectual make up. l do
| not know what it is. / know what it was like,
for have seen it and felt it. But have never
seen 1t so perfectly developed in any other human
being At times he was a good taIker, and all
baDlSha0
the mind Of the listener At other times he was
still and silent, when it seemed that every in
huence surrounding pressed him to speak.
When victories and all the threats of
his soldiers were full of huZzas his face gave no
evidence Of a participation in or realization of
the noisy enthusiasm about him. Under those
circumstances he was STILL silent, imperturba-
able and gloomy. Everyone who knew him in
life will testify that he possessed the rare
quality of which | am speaking, and almost
everyone will ascrioe to it different interpreta-
ton. Certain it is that he possessed it; what it
was do not pretend to give
General Grant was man of action. He did
not belong to that class which stir mems souls by
fine flights of oratory. Nor will he shine in his
tory by any forensic ability displayed in any of
the stations which he filed
He belongs rather to the classification Of indi-
viduals which was filed by such men as Caesar
and Cromwell at other times and under other
circumstances. That he despised the ambition
which they possessed and which they gratified,
attributes which are known as soldierly quail
ties, without the ambition which they had, is also
true
His life will not, therefore, be written on the
same plane and from the same standpoint as
that OF Lincoln, Stanton, Seward or Morton;
but on that Of plain speech and great action.
He was a man suited TO all the days of human
life, dealing with subjects and objects, however
great OR small as they unfoded themselves pos
sessing such rare common sense and evenness of
tomDaramAnt q P9nahlq red
ability, of successfully graphing with every
emergency that arose. And thus it was with his
other qualities, which raised him when the
emergency required it TO the dangerous but
lofty heights of fame where he securely stood
when death overlook him.
Caesars religion anchored in the philoso-
phies of the anclents. To those of his belief
their souls were llumned by the light of relg
lous stars, beautiful, but faint and cold. ]"
Cicero anchored his fate in the warmer and
more generous thought of an eternal conscious
resting place beyond this life. Their religious
tenets were drawn from hopes and PHILOSOPHERS,
one conveyed by the logic of thought and reason
and the other by desire and impulse.
Grant lived and died in the Nineteenth cen
fury under an inspiration of Christianity IN
known to them. He cherished the notions of
duties as believed and practiced by his Scottish
ancestors. He believed in the death and resurrec-
ton OF Christ, the atOnement for sins and the Dos
sbilitieS OF Christian religion. The prayers
offered at his bedside, the intimate friendship
Win Ut. Newman, ms attendance upon divine
worship, and the last days of his life attest this
faith. But with religion, like all other questions
with which he was brought face to face, he made
no DESTINATIONS professions He simply allowed
his life and acts which he performed to testify
regarding his faith.
His last sickness is rendered lustrious by the
acts which he performed. Perhaps no other man
who has preceded him to the grave ever per-
| formed such an herculean work as he did with
death looking him in the face Nearly a wear
nf ed hat Efa
beSet with an incurable cancerouS growth; that
skill might battle the disease time, but that
slowly and surely it would reach the vital spot
in the short space of few weeks, or months at
most With his life suspended by this slender
thread he bravey worked on, that his family,
then reduced TO poverty, might after his death
have u competence.
But his work meant more than this. 1t meant
that In all future times. and among all reading
people, the history of the most perous period
of his Nations existence, seen by him. should
be preserved for all time TO come. During the
time that he was writing this most notable
work ne was fighting death as equal The
broken sword seemed to make the combat
more furious. A few hours each day, during
the subsistence of his pain, he worked like "a
Trojan, performing prodi gles of mental and physi
cal labor His soul seemed on fire, and his de-
termination to complete his memoirs seemed in
eXorable. And SO he worked day by day, week
10y week, and month by month. until at last he
prepared his dedicatory preface and saw his work
completed.
He then was anxious for the moment to arrive
when his soul and body should be parted and
he laid away to rest in the eternal city of the
dead. And it came The great soldier, without
a struggle or gasp, as if in sleep passed away
and he Is as far away from us to-day as the Pa
triarchs and those who persisted before the flood.
. AT the announcement of his death the whole
world convulsvely stopped, uttered his name,
breathed prayer for his family, aud took up
the burden of life and went on.
AT ROBERTS PARK CHURCH.