The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-04-26
GRANT AND SCHOFIELD.
Latter Pays a Most Affectionate
Tribute to the Former

Tribute TO the EOImer.
New York, April 25-Lieutenant-
General John NJ. Schofield. United
States army (retired). has accepted the
invitation of Mayor Strong. on behalf
of the City of New York, to he one
of the guests at the ceremonies at
/ tendant upon the dedication 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 Johnson's administration he
was secretary of war and, therefore.
for the time being was Grants official
superior. Their relations were always
of the most intimate and confident ma
ture. and General SchOfield's views of
Grant should be most interesting at
the present time. In his letter the
general says in part:
The greatest of all the traits of
Grants character was that which laid
always on the surface, visible to all
who had ewes TO see il. That was
his moral and intellectual honesty, in
tegrity. sincerity, veracity and jus
tice He was incapable of any attempt
to deceive anybody, except for legiti-
mate purposes. as in military strategy,
and above all he was incapable of de-
ceiving himself. He possessed that
rarest of all human faculties, the
power of a perfectly accurate estimate
of himself. unin1uenced by vanity,
pride. ambition, fiattery or self-inter-
est.
Grant was very far from being a
modest man, as that word is generally
understood. His just self-esteem was
as far above it as it was above fiat
terry.
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 a smile
which expressed the exact opposite of
that feeling 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 evidence 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 posi-
Bile from being a modest man. This alb
solute confidence in his own judgment
upon any subject he had mastered and
the moral courage to take upon him
self alone the highest responsibility
and to demand full authority and free
dom to act according to his own judg-
ment. without interference from any
body. added to his accurate estimate of
his own ability, and his clear percep-
ton of the necessity of undivided au-
thority and responsibility in the con-
duct of military operations and in all
that concerns the efficiency of armies
in time of war. constituted the foun-
dation of that very great character.
1T has been said that Grant, like /
was a typical American. and |
for that reason was most beloved and J
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 is that ideal |
which commands the respect and ad !
miration of the highest and best in /
mans nature. however far above him.
self. Soldiers and the people saw in /
Grant, or in Lincoln. not one of them
selves. not a plain man of the people,
nor yet superior being whom they
could not understand. but the person.
fcation of their highest ideal of a
,itizen, soldier or a statesman, man
whose greatness they could see and
as plainly as they could
anything else under the sun. And there
vas no more mystery about it than
here was in the popular mind"