The record-union., 1897-04-26
He Has Accepted Mayor Strong's In
vitation for the City.
He Gives His Estimate of Grants
Character, and Says He Possessed
the Power of a Perfectly Accurate
Estimate of Himself, and Ills Love
OF Truth and Justice Was Far
Above All Personal Consideration.

| NEW YORK, April 25.-Lieutenant-
General John Nj. Schofeld, L. S. A, re-
tired, has accepted the invitation of
Mayor Strong on behalf of the city OF
New York to be one of the guests at
the ceremonies attendant upon the ded-
ication of the Grant monument.
In accepting the city's invitation, the
General has written letter concerning
General Grant AS Will be remembered,
( General Schofield was not under
Grants immediate command in the
| field, but was intimately associated
with him both during and since the
war. At one time during the closing
months of Johnsons administration, he
was Secretary of War, therefore, for
the time being, was Grants official su-
perior. Their relations were always of
the most intimate and confidential ma
ture, and General Schofeld's views Of
Grant should be interesting at the pres
ent time. In mis- letter the General says
in part:
The greatest Of all the traits Of
| Grants character was that which lays
/ always on the surface, visible to all
who had eyes to see it. That was his
moral and intellectual honesty, integ-
rity. sincerity, Veracity and Justice He
was incapable Of any attempt to de-
ceive anybody, except for legitimate
purposes, as in military strategy. and
above all, he was incapable of deceiv-
1 ing himself. He possessed that rarest
of all human faculties the power of Il
perfectly accurate estimate of himself,
unintiuenced by vanity pride, ambition.
f1attery or self-interest. Grant was
very far from being d modest man as
that word is generally understood. His
/ just self-es TEEN was as far above it as
it was above fattery.
when Grants attention was called
to any mistake he had committed he
would see and admit it as quickly and
unreseryedly as if it had been made
/ by anybody else, and with a smile which
| expressed the exact opposite of that
irS which most men are apt to
| show under like circumstances His
| love of truth and justice were so far
above all personal considerations that
he showed unmistakable evidences of
! qualification when any error into which
| he might have fallen was corrected.
| His pride in his own mature opinion
was very great in that he was as far
as possible from being a 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
responsibilities and to demand fun au-
| thority and freedom to act according
/ to his own judgment, without interfer-
ence from anybody, added to his ac-
curate estimate of his own ability and
! his clear perception of the necessity for
undivided authority and responsibility
| 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.
1T has been said that Grant like
Lincoln, was a typical American, and
! for that reason was most beloved and
respected by the people. That is true
of the statesman and the soldier as
we'll as of the people, if it is meant
! that the highest type, that ideal which
commands the respect and admiration
of the highest and best in mans
nature, however far above himself. Sol
ders and the people saw in Grant, or
/ in Lincoln, not one of themselves, not
plain man of the people. nor yet Su-
perior being whom they could not un-
derstand, but a personifcation of their
| highest ideal of a citizen, soldier or
a statesman, a man whose greatness
| they could see and understand as plain
! ly as they could anything else under
the sun. And there was no more mys-
! terry about it than there was in the
noDnIaT mind -