Bridgeton pioneer., 1885-08-13
MR.. BLAINE'S TRIBUTE.

WIN. bLAl NE RlBOlE.
Hon. James G. Blaine delivered the
following eloquent grafton on General
Grant at memorial meeting held at
Augusta, Maine, on Saturday.
Public sensibility and personal sor-
row over the death of General Grant
are not confined to this continent. A
profound admiration for great quail
ties, and still more profound gratitude
for great services have touched the
heart of the people with true sympathy,
increased even to tender emotions by
the agony of his closing days and the
undoubted heroism with which he NOR
ally conquered last cruel fate.
The world in it's hero-worship is dis
eliminating and practical, if not, in
deed, selfish. Eminent qualities and
rare achievements do not always in
sure lasting fame. A brilliant orator
enchains his hearers with his inspired
and inspiring gifts, but if his speach
be not successfully used to some popu-
lar recollection, his only reward will be
in the titful applause of his forgotten
audience. A victorious General in a
war of mere ambition receives the
cheers of the multitude and the cere-
monial honors of the Government, but
II he brings no boon to his country his
fame will find no abiding place in the
centuries that follow. The hero for
the ages is he who has been chief and
foremost in contributing to the moral
and material progress, to the grandeur
ana glory OF the succeeding generation.
Washington secured the freedom of
the colonies and founded new nation.
Lincoln was the prophet who warned
the people of the evils that were under
mining our free Government, and the
statesman who was called to leader
ship in the work of their eXtirpation.
Grant was the soldier who by victory
IN the field gave vitality and force to
the policies and philanthropic meas
ures which Lincoln defined in the Cab
met for the regeneration and security
of the Republic.
The monopoly of fame by the few in
this world comes from an instinct, per-
haps from deep-seated necessity of
human nature, Heroes cannot be null
tiplied. The gods of mythology lost
their sacredness and their power by
their numbers. The millions pass into
oblivion; the units only survive. Who
asked the great leader of Israel to con-
duct the chosen people over the sands
of the desert and through the waters
ofthe sea into the promised land? Who
marched with Alexander from the Bos-
phor in India? And who commanded
the legion Caesar in the conquest of
Gaul? Who crossed the Atlantic with
Columbus? Who ventured through
the Winter passes of the Alps with the
conqueror of Italy? Who fought with
Wellington at Waterloo? Alas, how
soon it may be asked Who marched
with Sherman from the mountain to
the sea? Who with Meade of the vic
torious field of Gettysburg? Who
shared with Thomas in the glories of
Nashville? Who went with Sheridan
through the trials of the bloodstained
valley?
General Grants name will survive
through the centuries, because it is
lndissolubly connected with the great
est military and moral triumph in the
history of the United States. If the
armies of the Union had ultimately
failed, the vast and beneficent designs
of Lincoln would have been frustrated.
and he would have been known in
history as statesman and philan-
thropist, who, in the cause of humanity
cherished great aims which he could
not realize, and conceived great ends
which he could not attain as an un-
successful ruler whose policies dis
tracted and discovered his country:
while General Grant would have taken
his place with that long and always in
creaslng array of great men who were
found wanting in the supreme hour of
trial. But higher power controlled
the result. God in his gracious mercy
had not raised those men for works
which should come to naught In the
expression of Lincoln, mo human
counsel devised, nor did mortal hand
work out those great things In their
accomplishment those human agents
were sustained by more than human
power, and through them great saliva
tion was wrought for the land.
AS long, therefore, as the American
Union shall abide, with it's blessings of
law and liberty, Grants name shall be
remembered with honor. AS long as
the slavery of human beings shall be
abhorred, and the freedom of man
assured, General Grant shall be re-
called with gratitude, and in the
cycles of the future the story of Lin
coins life can never be told without
associating Grant in the enduring
spendor of his own great name.
General Grants military supremacy
was honestly earned, without fictitious
praise and without eXtraneous help.
He had no influence to urge his promo
tlon, except such as was attracted bv
his own achievements. He had no
potential friends except those whom
his victories won to his support He
rose more rapidly than any military
leader in history from the command of
a single regiment to the supreme direc-
ton of million of men, divided into
many great armies, and operating over
an area as large as the Empires of Ger