Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-04-27
GRANTS BIRTHDAY,

Today is the anniversary of the birth Of
Americas immortal hero, Gen. Ulysses
s.. Grant. At Galena, his former home
and in many other places, appropriate
exercises will commemorate the life and
character of the mighty dead.
In modern times no man has arisen to
so high a station in the worlds applause
as this product of the humble American
home. Grant was in the truest sense a
type of the average American working
man, of modest income and still more
modest ambitions, when the war of the
rebellion burst upon the history of the
world with it's chamber of horrors.
1t is true. he had had the advantage of
military training at West Point, as have
many of the sons Of the humble poor who
have mastered the requirements and
made themselves eligible for selection.
But he had betaken himself to the tam
merry and was earning an honest penny
hauling wood, when he felt called upon
to serve his country in the impending
contest. He was like Cincinnatus at the
plow-like old Israel Putnum of rovolu-
tionary fame-inspired by an irresistible
consciousness of a duty that must be per-
formed.
The student of American history knows
the ~rest-how he developed a military
genius thai placed him in control of the
Ap,o,;oar farcac-how he conducted the
war with bulldog t~enacity to the bitter
end-how he brought the flower of the
c~onfederacy to his feet, and at Appomat-
toX rang down the curtain upon the
bloodiest civil conflict of the century
how a grateful people placed him in the
white house to rule over the destinies of
the republic in peace-hoW he was honor
ed as the Napoleon of the new continent
by the princes and potentates of the
civilized world-how his lame burned like
a flame of fire in the hearts of his ad-
miring countrymen-hoW he finally met
the grim messenger of death in the quiet
of the home, with the same bravery that
he had faced it on the battlefields of the
republic he loved so well-how his name
passed into the archives of the truly
great, a mode for mankind, a type OF
American possibilities.
Aside from the services which General
Grant rendered his countrymen in the
wal of the rebellion, he left the ideliblc
impress of his personality upon the peo-
pie. The man who said: II will fight il
out on this line if it takes all summer
possessed q rugged determination to carry
out purposes once formed that has in
spired many a youth with zeal for honest
e%ndeavor and fortified him With the cour
age to WIN.
Grant had his eccentricities, but Preei
dent Lincoln had measured the man ant
weighed his capacity before he placed
him at the front. When carping critics
complained to Lincoln that Grant dranl
whisky to excess, the brave hearted
president told them to find out what brant
it was so that some of the other general.
might use it! A greater tribute of con
fidence could not nave been paid to an,
man. Grant proved himself worthy of it
In war and in peace the general neve
forgot that calm demeanor that charac
terizes the self-possessed man. He neve
got excited. He never lost his equilib
rum. To his powers of self-control h
owed much of the success attained.
Another great element of strength wa,
the consistency and fidelity with which h
stood by his friends. The small Dor,
politician forgets his friends in the fusl
of victory-the great man never does. \,
man who is treacherous to his friends
and false to the men who acted as hi
~step-ladders to fame, can long maintain
eminence in his republic. Withal. til
personality of General Grant is one of tn
best and greatest of American contribu
tions to the century in which we live.
The Minnesota newspapers are YER,