The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-02-10
GRANT IN I'll CHURCH
OME RECOLLECTIONS OF JUDGE
sPENSLEY, OF GALENA, ILL.,.
A Friend and Neighbor OF the Great
Commander Presents Evidence of
the Latter's Spirituality.
Chicago Herald.

William Spensley, of Galena, ILL.,, occu-
pied the pulpit at Garfield Methodist Church
last night and delivered an address on Les
sons from the Religious Side of General
Grants Life" Judge Spensely was a warm
friend of Grants, and is well known through
out the State as a lawyer and Republican.
Judge Spensley said:
In this world good and evil are continu-
ally at war. and will be until the final tri-
umph of the good. Historians tell US that
while the Mayf1ower was in midoceaE, wend-
ing its way to the new world in search of re-
ligious liberty, at the same moment a ship
freighted with slaves was tending in the
same direction, and that almost simultane-
ously the standards of liberty and slavery
were planted upon the soil of this CONT
nent. They continued to grow side by side
until suddenly, as though the very gates of
hell were opened, slavery sent a shot at
the emblem of liberty, which caused a shud-
der to run to the very heart of the Nation.
1t seemed as though liberty was to perish;
that equality was to hide in darkness and
gloom; that government of the people. for
the people and by tie people was to for
ever perish.
That shot kindled a fire of patriotism
all over the land. Your sons, husbands
and brothers, forgetting politics, casting
aside religious differences, remembering
only that the life of the Nation was in
danger-that their homes might be destroyed
-grasped with determined energy the weap-
ons of war, ready to rush with lion-like
vigor upon the hideous monster slavery and
destroy it forever. The finest and bravest
army that ever trod the earth was called
into being. But where was the leader?
Living in an unpretentious brick house,
but one door from where / now live, was a
small, quiet, u~nassuming man, unknown to
the world; unknown to his neighbors; I'M
known to himself. But God knew him, and
knew where he lived, and had been prepar-
ing him for the great work in which he
was about to engage With q modesty
born of greatness. and yet all unconscious
of his powers, Grant rendered his services
to his country, and in the short space of
four years, from his obscure home in the
hill of Galena, he developed into the first
military genius Of the age, if not in the
world. l assert with confidence that this
could not have been accomplished without
great faith in the business of the cause in
which he was engaged and a firm reliance
upon his God.
of Grant as a military genius, pleasant as
such a task would be. His history along
that line is familiar to us all. The more
his inner life Is known, the more we know
Of him as he was, the higher his character
and the higher our appreciation of that
character. l am aware of the fact that he
reckless of the lives of his soldiers, and
while 1t is true that with him war meant
war, yet never was criticism more unjust.
l believe l state facts when I say that Gen.
Grant abhorred war and it's attending hor-
rors, and that a military life had few, if
any. attractions for him. Educated at the
the government, in it's time of distress, had
the moral right to call upon him and all
the faculties he possessed for aid. When
a student at West Point a bill was intro
duced in Congress to abolish that school,,
and Grant was anxious that the bill should
PASS that he might be relieved from mill
tary duties.
TIRED OF MILITARY DISPLAY.
when the rebellion was crushed and
Grant stood at the height of his military
fame, and while in Paris on his tour around
the world, 1 nave the word of Congressman
r. r. Hit, who was then secretary of lega-
ton. that General Grant declined to re-
main in Paris and witness the grand review
of the French troops, saying, as he de-
clined: Il have seen all the soldiers I
care to see.' If any stronger proof were
needed 1 nave but to call your attention to
the fact that after the rebellion was crushed
di4 tiiC INV ASolol GU tAAAo iC2iAO Aiii4-
tary man of the age quietly sheathed his
sword and said to his fallen foe: Go home
and till the soil for your impoverished fam
lilies And then, looking over the Nation,
which was a military camp, no vision of
empire crossed his mind, no desire for a
crown entered his soul, but in the spirit of
the meek and lowly One he said: Let US
have peace I challenge history to pro-
duce a parallel.
That Grant was ambitious there can be
no doubt, but he never had an ambition
which did mt ipplI6p the wa1f9 re- 0f hio
country. l do not believe that on personal
grounds he ever desired a third term of the
presidency, and only became a candidate be-
cause the best man of the Nation asked him
to become such and because he believed that
he could be of further service to his coun-
try. My individual judgment is that 1t was
a mistake that he was not nominated and
elected. One reason why I believe he did
not desire a nomination on personal grounds
is, L spent an evening in his presence dur
ing the session of the convention before
which his name was presented for a third
term. He was in the midst of a descrip-
ton of his tour in Japan, when the an
nouncement was made that Garfield was
nominated. He simply remarked that the
nomination was one we could all support,
and continued his remarks. the most un.
concerned man in the whole company. If
he felt disappointed he certainly did not
show it. In May, 1868, he said: I have
no policy of my own to enforce against the
will of the people. 1 have always respect
ed that will and always shall. Upon the
evening in question he acted upon that pri-
ciple, yet / doubt il that convention ex-
pressed the will OF the people.
HIS HONESTY UNQUESTIONED.
"Tha he was pre-eminently an honest
man it is hardly necessary to state. We all
remember with what e~arnestness, when the
government was being defrauded by the
whisky ring, he urged that no guilty man
should escape-words which should come d.
rect as light to the good people OF this city
as it exists to-day. Were / to single out one
utterance of Grant as an Individual, 1 would
select in preference to all others that mag
niicent address he delivered at the reunion
of the Army Of the Tennessee in Des Moines
in 1876. 1t is an address which should be
burned into the very soul Of every American
citizen. He said:
"I do not bring into this assemblage poll
tics-certainly not partisan politics, but it
is a fair subject for soldiers, in their DELHI
erations, TO consider what may be neces-
sary to secure the prize for which they bat
tied in a republic like ours; where the citi-
zen is the sovereign and the official the
servant; where no power is exercised except
by the will of the people. 1t is important
that the sovereign, the people. should foster
intelligence, and the promoter of that intel
lgence which is to preserve US as a free ma
ton. If we are 10 have another contest in
the near future for our national existence.
/ predict that the dividing line will not be
Mason and Dixon's line, but between pa
triotism and Intelligence on the one side.
and superstition, ambition and ignorance on
the other.