Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1891-05-01
GREAT HERO GRANT.
Impressive Ceremonies at the Break
ing of the Sod for the Nonu-
ment.
General Horace Porter Delivers an
Address on the Virtues of the
Dead Man.
The Sepulchre, a.Shrine Where True
Americans VIII Worship for
Centuries to Come.

/
broken for monument to be raised at
the Grant tomb at Riverside park.
The ceremonies consisted of singing by
a chorus of three hundred children, music
bv the marine band, and addresses. Gen.
Horace Porter, the orator of the day. deiy
cred an eloquent add9zss. He spoke sub
stantialiy as follows:
Sixty-nine years ago today there was
ushered into the world Il being who was
| destined to stand pre-emjpent in the his
tory of his country, and whose fame was
to reach into the utterm0st parts of the
earth Most Of the conspicuous characters
in history have risen to prominence by
I gradual advances, but Ulysses S. Grant
| came before the people with 4 sudden
| bound. Almost the first sight caught of
| him was in the bdze Of his camp fires and
| the flashes of his guns those wlntry days
! and nights in front of DonelsOn. From
| that time until the crowning triumph at
| Appomattox ne was a leader whose name
was the harbinger of victory. From the
| final sheathing of his sword till his ashes
were laid to rest in yonder tomb, he WAS
| the chisf citizen of the republic and the
great central figure of the world
| His rise from an obscure lieutenant to
| the command of the veteran armies of the
| great republic; his transition from a from
! tier pest of the untrodden west TO the ex-
| ecutive mansion of the nation; his sitting
at one time in a little store in Galena. not
| even known to the congressman from his
| district; at another time stridinG through
| the palaces of the old world, with the des-
| cendants of line of kings rising and
| standing uncovered In his presence; his
| humble birth in an obscure town scarcely
| known 10 the geographer; his agonizing
| illness and courageous death IN the chief
! city of the country he had saved, With a
nations prayers breathed in his behalf
from every pul pit and freside IN the land.
| These are some of the features of MS mar
| vel!ous career which appeal to the iraagin-
alton, excite mems wonder and fascinate
! all who make a study Of his life.
"As youth he had received fair COM
mon school training; subsequently he was
educated at the National Military acad-
eny. In that institution his general
standing upon graduation was No. q IN Il
class of thirtynine members. His highest
standing was In the purely scientific stud
les, his average grade in mathematics be-
ing 13, and IN engineering l6. Through
out his life he was a close reader of public
journals and current literature, and was
He possessed IL. large degree that mosy
uncommon OF all virtues, common sense,
and his most useful requirements were
learned in the great university of expert
encc. While his mind was one great
stOrehouse of useful information, he never
made the slightest claim to any knowledge
he did not possess He believed with Adj
Olson that pedsnJry IN leaning is like
hypocracy in religion. form of knowledge
without the power of 1t.
His writings fully attest the practical
training of his mind. While in speech
he sometimes seemed to labor and hesitate
for a word. he wrote swiftly and uninter
ruptedv. His tlcughts flowed as freely
as the INK from his pen; be was never at
a loss for an expression and seldom inter-
lined a word or made a material cOrrec-
ton. His style was clear, terse and Wig
orouS with no attempt at ornament. He
used Anglo-SaXOn words much more fire.
| uuentIy than those derived from the Greek
or Latin tongues. He seldom INDUCED
| in metaphor, but when he did employ Il
| figure of speech II was always original
| and striking, as when he described a
| hemmed IN amy as being I'm bottle
strongly corked, " referred to our armies
| at one time moving like horses IN a
and spoke of recruiting armies by rob
| bing the cradle and the grave"
His style inclined to the epigrammatiC
apparently without his being conscious of
! it. There is scarcely a document written
| bv him from which brief sentences could
not be selected, fiji to be set in notices or
| placed upon transparenci9s. As examples
may be mentioned, 1 propose to move i'm
| mediatelv upOn yOur works. 1 shall take
| no backward step. The famous. / pro-
! pose to fight it ont on this line # It takes
| all summer The best means of securing
| the repeal Of an obnoxious law is It's Wig
ous enforcement and Let US have peace.
! His memoirs contain many chapters as
| graphic as anything that can be found in
| Caesars Commentaries, and the work
| commands universal admiration not only
on account of It's authoritative statements
and valuable contributions to history, but
for its actual literary merits
Here the speaker alluded to his grand
military record:
80 brilliant vas his career as a soldier
! that we are toe apt to overlook the sue
| cesses he achiPred as statesman, but
when we sum upthe events of his preSi-
| Dental terms ther magnitude Is such that
! they challenge comparison with any other
| chief magistrate since the formation of
| the government Tine permits only
brief alIusion to hem upon an occasion
| like this.
The affairs OF the nation were intrust
! ed to his hands when the country had not
| vet recovered from the demoraiizatiOn
/ always consequent upon civil war. The
! fifteenth amendment to the constitution
! had not vet been ratified bv the requisite
| number of states In the south secret
societies were defying the properly con
! stituted authority and lawless bands of
/ armed men wen defeating the ends Of
| Justice. The executive was clothed with
| doubtful powers In tie restoration Of law
and order. A cldnge Of administration
| had brought doE1 upon him an army Of
| Office seekers n0E formidable than the
| armies he had encountered in the field.
Political rancor hG envenomed whole sec
tions of the country. the public debt was
| oppressive. inHatonists and repudiators
were weakening fac nations credit, our
merchant marine had almost disappeared
| from the seas. Indian wars were brewing.
unsettled disputes with foreign powers
threatened the national peace, and the
formidable problems which confronted the
| new executive were such as to appal
heart less stout than MS.
He began bs administration by declar-
ing that he slouid have no policy Of mis-
own to enforce against the viii of the peo-
pie
In his frstinaugural address he urged
measures which led to the passage Of 'an
act to strengthen the public credit, which
gave to the wold an Official pledge of fnan-
| cial honesty.
His first annual message earnestly rec
ommended the Christianizlng and civiliz-
ing Of the Indians. ana his policy resulted
In placing then on reservations, treating
them as wardl q the nation. preventing
wars and saving vast sums OF money.
He recommended and gave MS active
support to scoring the ratification Of the
fifteenth ameLinent to the constitution
and the next yeE was abe to proclaim its
formal adoption and tie re-admIssion Of
all the states to he union
In $50. be recommended the refund
ing OF the nati0ai debt. and an act was
sooa passed authorizing the creation of
bonds az a rate f interest even as low as
4 per cent. whih were successfully nego-
tated.