The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-04-26
Ulysses S. Grant.

BY common consent the three Amer
leans who occupy the highest place in
the esteem of the people are Washing
ton Lincoln and Grant. There are
others who have wrought great good to
America and to the world; but these
stand pre-eminent for political ser
vice in times when the nations exist
snce was in doubt And here the term
"political" is used in its fullest sig
niflcance as having to do with the ma
tions fundamental welfare. Yet Wash
ington belonged by character and
training to another civilization; and In
the twin developments of the civil
war, Lincoln and Grant, we have re-
vealed with fitting background the two
great types of the Americanism of our
time and kind. The nearness Of to-
morrows ceremonial which will dedi-
cate to the memory of the last named
a monument representing the volun-
tary offerings of the whole American
people suggests the appropriateness of
a brief comment upon the personality
thus honored.
If Abraham Lincoln's tragic story
stands out as the great national epic
of American humor, sympathy and
patience, and presents for the consid-
Grafton OF future ages qualities cer-
tain never to appeal vainly for rever-
ence tempered by love, then the career
of Ulysses S. Grant must take place
beside it as the embodiment of Amer
lean progress to be forever viewed
with admiration and amazement. Gen
eral Grant was untroubled with imag-
tnation; he had only the rudiments Of
a sense of humor; more than any con-
temporary he was self-contained. But
he had the adamantine will which is
greater than electricity in the achieve
ment of the incredible; he marked out
a course and followed it through to the
end; there was almost the relentless
ness of the fatalist in his answering
continuation directly TO the object of
his pursuit He was not without SYM
pathy, he did not lack the humanizing
sentiments-his loyalty to friends was
proverbial and that death struggle
for the familys sake at Mount Nc
Greggor would in itself still all honest
detraction-but to him success was the
end that justified the price; to win,
the behest that admitted no compro-
mise; and to fall a term out of place
in the soldiers vocabulary.
The sharp clamor of his strife-ful
time that represented him as the
demon of Caesarean ambition whose
sole aim was the ACKNOWLEDGMENT of
self missed the real key to his charac-
ter by as wide a space as did those
earlier critics who, during the inferno
of the Wilderness, spoke of him as the
butcher without heart. We believe
that General Grant valued high his
own achievements, but not primarily
because he himself had achieved them
The same frank recognition would have
gone from him to any other had that
other one done what he did. He was
neither a monomaniac nor an egotist
He simply accepted as a trust the po-
sitions Of usefulness which destiny
called to him to fill, and went about
the work of filling them rs a matter
of business. He was heroic only in
deed. The posture of heroism was Ut.
terly absent from his thoughts. Tt
do the work in hand. as soon as pos.
sible and as well as possible with the
resources at command, was his concep.
tion of paramount duty. The stiff
grain of American will-power that ha.
wrought on North American shores the
miracle of history had in him a con.
spicuous exempliication and for thi,
he will live in the annals of the time
to come.
Lincoln and Grant! Twin heroes o
an age of heroism; simple in tastes
poor in origin, plain In manners and II
speech! They wrought for humanity
to its uttermost limits; but thei
equals exist in every county in the re,
public, needing only the occasion L
stand them forth.