The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1897-04-29
THE VETERAN, GEN. SCHOFIELD,
TOUCHES ON THE DEAD SOL
DIER'S CHARACTER.
CONFIDENCE IN HIS OWN JUDGMENT
And the Moral Courage to Take Upon
Himself Responsibility Was the
Foundation of n Very Great
Character.

New York, April 25.-Lieut. Gen. John
Nj. Schoheld, United States army ire
tired, has accepted the invitation OF
Mayor Strong ON behalf of the city of
New York to be one of the uests at the
ceremonies attendant upon the dedication
of the Grant monument. In accepting
the city's invitation the general has writ
ten letter concerning Gen. Grant. AS
will be remembered, Gen. Schofeld was
not only under Gen. Grants immediate
command on the field but was intimately
associated with him both during and
since the war. At one time, during the
closing months of Johnson's administra-
ton, he was secretary of war, and there
fore, for the time being, was Grants
them were always of the most intimate
and confidential nature. and Gen. Scho-
fields views of Grant should be most
interesting at the present time. In his
letter the general says in part:
1.-The greatest of all the traits of Gen.
Grants character was that which lay
always on the surface. visible to all who
had eyes to see it. That was his moral
and intellectual honesty, integrity, verac-
any attempt to deceive anybody except
for legitimate purposes, as in military
strategy; and above all, he was incapa-
BILE of deceiving himself. He possessed
that rarest of all human faculties, the
power of q perfectly accurate estimation
of himself. uninfuenced by pride, vanity,
ambition. f1attery or self-interest. Grant
was very far from beng a modest man,
as that word is generally understood. His
just self-esteem was as far above 1T as
it was above flattery.
when Grants attention was called
to any mistake he had committed, he
would see and admit it as quickly and
unreservedly as if it had been made by
anybody else, and with smile which
expressed the exact opposite of that feel,
ing which most men are apt to show un-
der like circumstances. His love of truth
and justice were so far above all per-
sOnal considerations that he showed un-
mstakable evidence of qualification when
was corrected.
"His pride in his own mature opinion
was very great, in that he was as fal
as possible from being modest man. This
, absolute confidence in his own judgment
upon any subject he had mastered. and
the moral courage to take upon himself
alone the highest responsibility and tC
demand full authority and freedom to
act according to his own judgment with
out interference from anybody, added tC
his accurate estimate of his own ability
and his clear perception of the necessity
for undivided authority and responsible
ity in the conduct of military operations
and in all that concerns the efficiency
of armies in time of war, constituted the
foundation of that very great character
at has been said, Grant or Lincoln
was a typical American, and for that
reason was most beloved and respected
by the people. That is true of the states
man and soldier as well as of the people
if it is meant that the highest type is
that ideal which commands the respect
and admiration of the highest and best
in mans nature, however, far above him
self. Soldiers and people saw in Grant
or in Lincoln, not one of themselves, moi
plain man of the people, nor yet a SUI
perior being whom they could not under
stand, but the personiication of theil
highest ideal of a citizen, soldier oil
statesman, man whose greatness they
could see and understand as they coult
anything under the sun. And there was
no more mystery about it than there was
in the popular mind"