The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-08-23

speaking from Mt. McGregor, Grants
deathbed, said:
II has been said that q great life went out
here, but great lives like that Of General Grant
do not go out-they go on. lApplsuse.l VIII
ask you, in reverence and snectlonete ana
patriotic remembrance OF that man VINO came
20 recover ali failures in military schievsrnsnt
and with his great gsneralship and innexloie
purpose to carry the republic 20 ultimate
triumph, to recall with reyerent interest his
memory to drink toast in silence as pledge
that we Will ever keep in mind his great
services aud in doing so perpetuate his great
citizenship aud the glory OF the nation he
fought 70 save.
These were noble words fifty spoken,
and yet they read like tardy justice 10 the
man of whom Murat Halstead wrote TO
Secretary Chase, February 10. 1853:
Governor Chase, these things are true. Our
noble Army of the Mississippi is being wasted
by the foolish, drunken, stupid Grant. He can't
organize or control or fight an army. / have no
personal feeling about il, but ! know he Is an
ass. There is not among the whole list Of re-
tired major generals a man who 10 not Grants
superior. We will wake up some of these days
and find we have no Army OF the Mississippi.
The presidents weak. pulling, bidding hui
manitarianism is death and hell TO the army.
Can't you take him by the throat and knock his
head against a wall until he is brought TO his
senses on the war business?
Less than sixty days after this letter was
written Grant started on his famous
Vicksburg campaign, and Mr.. Halstead
found out from that time forward that
the lass" Grant was like Balaam's ass,
altogether wiser than the man who
abused him. Mr.. Halstead's other "ass,"
Lincoln, managed to disappoint Hall
stead and delight his countrymen. Mr..
Halstead is still living. "a brilliant jour-
nalist," on the retired list in Brooklyn.
Grant and Lincoln, while dead in the
material sense, are, as President Harrison
finely suggested, still vital spiritual shapes
in American life; for they are heroic names
to conjure up other heroic shapes here
after. Mr.. Halstead, while nominally alive,
has been spiritually of SO little consequence
for many years that his chief assurance of
immortality is his authorship of the
stupid letter we have quoted; kind Of
notoriety that is akin to the infamous
celebrity of the fellow who fired the
Ephesian dome. The interesting feature
of this Halstead letter is the fact that Grant
and Lincoln, who were the type military ass
and the type incapable statesman in 1863
TO the vision of this brilliant journalist"
were both successful for the same reason,
viz: both were absolutely pure patriots,
who succeeded by trying 10 do their whole
duty without a thought about reputation
or reward. Great was the greatest soldier
of the war for the same reason that Lin
coin was the greatest statesman of the
war, viz: Lincoln was a patriot before he
was a self-seeking statesman, and Grant
was patriot before he was a self-seeking
soldier. That explains Lincoln's vast
superiority to Seward and Chase; explains
Grants vast superiority to Mcclellan,
Buell., Hooker and Meade-the superiority
of moral courage. Mcclellan, Buell.,
Hooker and Meade were all loyal men,
but they were always wondering what
would become of Mcclellan, Buell.,
Hooker and Meade if the battle went
against them. Grant was on a higher
level of patriotism. He invariably sought
to do the enemy as much mischief as pos
sible, and never considered for moment
whether he risked the laurels of Donelson
at Shiloh, the laurels of Vicksburg at
Chattanooga, or the laurels of Chattanooga
at the Wilderness. He was not in search
of fame for Grant, but of success for the
flag, and he struck the enemy increasingly,
allowing himself no breathing spell, giving
the enemy no rest TO rally or recruit, and
in his simplicity of purpose, without
primarily looking for reputation, he was
always finding it and always risking its
loss where he found it.
Superior moral strength of character, as
well as superior military energy, pug
nacity and resolution, was part of the Sc
cret of Grants genius which eludes expls-
nation and defes reproduction as COM
pletely as the sheen on the lip of the car
dinal flower does the brush of the artist.
II is in war as it is in business, in politics
and the whole field OF human effort;
where success is not assured by great
knowledge of books alone, or even by pure
intellectual power; there is a native tenn
peramental quality necessary, which in
cludes sound judgment, push, enterprise
and prompt decision at the golden mo-
ment, the absence of which no knowledge
of books and mere power of pure thought
will supply. The native quality which
compels success by the sound and
prompt application of knowledge to
everyday affairs must be present both
in peace and war, or the man of books.
even when of superior intellectual power
and acuteneSs, will fail of success, not be-
cause he does not see opportunities, but
either because he does not seize them at
all or lacks the judgment that tells a man
without teaching when and where to seize
them and how TO handle himself in action.
Grant was the best general for the battle
field. because he trusted to his power to
meet emergencies as they arose and did
not make his resolution sickly with the
pale east of too much thought over the
phantoms of his fancy, and he was not
prone ito do the right thing at the wrong
time"
Gen. Sherman was sixth in class of A.
members at West Point, while Grant was
2ist in class of 80 members. While
Grants general rank in all his studies was