The National tribune., 1888-03-22
hat YerItabIe humbug!
BApEAU,s INGRATITuDE.

An unpleasant sensation was created last
week by the announcement that Gen. Adam
Badeau had sued Mrs. Grant and her chill
dren for $35,OOO alleged to be due for valu-
able assistance rendered by Badeau to Gen.
Grant in the preparation of the latter's me-
moirs. Badeau fastened to place his side of
the matter before the public, alleging that
he had brought about the arrangement by
which Gen. Grant had begun writing for the
Century Magazine, and that he gave him
great assistance in writing the articles on
Shiloh, Yicksburg, Chattanooga and the
Wilderness; that his (Badeau's) was the
p" governing mind in the narrative, and
that he worked with Gen. Grant for months,
making suggestions, recalling incidents, and
planning the work. For this service Gen.
Grant agreed to pay him $4,000 of the first
$4,000 profits, $4,000 of the next $4,000,
or oue-third of $4,000 should that sum be
received.
Col Fred Grant took the wisest way of
replying to this by laying the whole cor
respondence before the public, and the result
places Badeau in most unenviable light.
The first paper is an agreement which Gen.
Grant, who was one of the most generous of
men, was doubtless induced to sign upon
Badeau's pitiful plea that the Memoirs
were likely to do great pecuniary injury
to Badeau's book. It reads:
In consideration of the fact that the book which
I am now en- gagged upon viii be in competition
with Badeau's history of my npaigns which was
written with my consent and with the expectation
that it would take the place Of all that / would
have to say upon the subject in further considcra-
ton of the fact that shall use maps which he had
prepared with great care and at great expense as
the basis of my maps; in further consideration of
the assistance which he is to give in the prepare
ton of my forthcoming book, have voluntarily
stipulated a small compensation for his various
services rendered TO me, proposed and do propose
and bind myself TO give him, Gen. Badeau. five
thousand dollars $4,000 from the first twenty
thousand dollars $50 COO realized from the sale of
my book and an additional five thousand dollars
$4,000 from the next ten thousand dollars $4,000
so realized. q. S. GRANT.
NEW YORK CRY Feb :, 1886
A letter from Badeau, dated May 2, 1885,
makes a complaining statement of the diff
culties under which Badeau had labored
in his service for Grant, his devotion to his
chief and his sacrifices for him. He says
that he is'the only man who can be of real
assistance in writing he Memoirs, and con-
tinues:
No literary man has the military knowledge; no
military has the literary experience; no liter
airy military living not one Of your old
staff even, has one 1.-THE Of my knowledge and ex-
perieuce this subject. the result OF 20 years study
and devotion and labor Besides which no man
alive but your own sons loves you so well. No one
but myself can destroy my own book. If / don't
help you it viii retain It's place, for you have
neither the physical strength the habits OF
mind yourself to make the researches, to verify
or correct your own memory. II you cannot your
self finish the work, nobody can do it but me.
He then demands that the General pay
him at the rate of $1,000 a month in adj
vance, and 10 per cent of the entire profits.
Gen. Grant was in his mortal illness when
this letter was received, and was exceedingly
angry He wrote Badeau such a letter as
few men would care to receive under any
circumstance, and which showed that what
ever might be the old hero's bodily weak
ness, his mind had lost none of its cIearness
and vigor. He characterized Badeau's liter
airy and military pretensions in his own
incisive, fOrceful way; rebuked him for his
overbearing, quauelsome petuIant DISPOSE
ton -; told him that if he got 81 900 a month
for the work it would never be done; re,
minded him that he Grant when a General
always wrote his own orders and dispatches
and as President his own messages and State
papers, and concluded:
You imply that a literary man must supply
some deficiencies and that you the only mar
who can do it, II this is the case, General do 40
want book bearing my TO go before the
world which did not write to such extent as Il
be fully entitled to the credit of authorship 1 dC
not want secret between me and someone els,
| which would destroy my honor if it was dvuged
/ cannot think Of holding myself as dependen
upon any person to supply a capacity which an
lacking. l may fail, but will not put myself il
any such position.
The truth is that if there is any man il
the world who should go barefoot, if neces
cessary, to serve Gen. Grant and his family
it is Adam Badeau. All that he is or has
or ever had, he owes to Gen. Grants unde
served favor. He was appointed into tn
army in 1862 as an Additional Abide Camp
with the rank of Captain He had no pre-
vious military training. Finding Gran
was rising man, he attached himself t
him, and finally became his Military Secre
tary At the conclusion of the war h
wanted to 60 into the Regular Army, but tn
best thing he could get was a Secon
Lieutenant's commission in the 4th [
S. Infantry. When Gen. Grant becam
President, Badeau struck for the most lucr,
tive Office in his gift-that of Consul I
London-and got it. He had it all throug
both of Grants terms, and at Grants pc
sonal request was continued under Hayes