Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1900-05-01

at Washington The country was saved
by the fact that our people as whole
We're steadfast and unshaken.
Both at Washington and at the
front the leaders We're men of un-
daunted resolution, who would not
abandon the policy to which the ma
ton was definitely committed; who
regarded disaster as merely a spur
TO fresh effort; who saw in each plum
der merely something to be retrieved
and not a reason for abandoning the
long determined course. Above all the
great man of the people. possessed a
tough and stubborn fibre of character.
There was ample room for criticism,
and there was every reason why mis-
takes would be corrected. But in the
long run our gratitude was due pri-
marily not to the critics, not to the
fault-finders. but to the men who ac-
tually did the work; not to the men of
negative policy, but to those who
struggled toward the given goal. Aler-
ciful oblivion has swallowed up the
names OF those who rallied at the men
who were saving the union, while it
has given us the memory of
these men as heritage Of
honor forever; and brightest
among their names flame the
names of Lincoln and Grant, the stead
fast. the answering, the enduring, the
finally triumphant.
Grants supreme virtue as Il soldier
was his 'doggedness,' the quality which
found expression in his famous phrases
unconditional surrender and fighting
it out on this line ii it takes all sum
mer. he was a master of strategy
and tactics, but he was also master
of hard hitting, of that continuous
hammering' which finally broke thru
even Lees guard. While an armed foe
was in the field it never occurred to
Grant that any question could be so
important as his overthrow. He felt
nothing but impatient contempt for
the weak souls who wished to parley
with the enemy while that enemy was
still capable of resistance.
There is fine lesson in this to the
people who have been asking us to in
vite the certain destruction of our
power in the Philippines, and there
fore the certain destruction of the
islands themselves, by putting any
concession on our part ahead of the
duty of reducing the islands to quiet,
lat all costs. and of stamping out the
last embers of armed resistance. At
the time of the civil war the only
way to secure peace was to fight for
it, and il would have been crime
against humanity to have stopped
lighting before peace was conquered.
$50, in the far less important, but still
very important, crisis which confronts
us today, it would be crime against
humanity. if whether from weakness
or from mistaken sentimentalism, we
failed to perceive that in the Philip
pines the all-important duty is to re-
store order, because peace and the
gradually increasing measure of self
government for the islands which will
| follow peace, will only come When
armed resistance has completely van
ished.
Grant was no brawler, no lover of
fighting for fighting's sake. He was a
plain, quiet man, not seeking for glo-
| ry; but a man, who when aroused,
was always in deadly earnest and who
never shrank from duty. He was al
ways slow to strike, but he never
struck softly. He was nos in the least
of the type which gets up mass meet
ings, makes infamatory speeches OF
passes inaamatory resolutions, and
| then permits over forcible ELK to be
| followed 10y over-feeble action. His
promise squared with his performance.
His deeds made good his words. He
| did not denounce an evil in strained
an hyperbolic language; but when he
did denounce it, he strove to make his
denunciation effective by his action, he
did not plunge lightly into war. but
once in, he saw the war thru, and
when it was over. it was over entirely
Unsparing in battle, he was very mer
ciful in victory. There was not let up il
his grim attack, his grim pursuit, unit
the last body of armed foes surrend
cred. But that feat once accomplish
ed, his first thought was for the vail
ent defeated; to let them take bacl
4 their horses to their little homes, be
cause they would use them to worl
on their farms. Grant, the champion
whose sword was sharpcst in the great
i fight for liberty, was no less sternlN
insstant upon the need of order ant
| of obedience to law. No stouter foe o
anarchy in every form ever lived with
in our borders. The man who NOR,
i than any other save Lincoln ha<
changed us into nation whose. citi
zens We're all freemen. realized entire
3 ly that these freemen would remain
free only while they keep mastery ov
er their own evil passions. He saw
that lawlessness in all its forms wa
The hand-maiden of tyranny. No ma
ton ever yet retained it's freedom TO
any length of time after losing it's re
spect for the law. after losing the law
i abiding spirit, the spirit that reall,
makes orderly liberty.
4 ''Grant, in short, stood for the grea
elementary virtues, for justice, TO
freedom, for order, for llnyielding res
olution, for manliness in its Droades
and highest sense. His greatness wa
not so much greatness of intellect a.
greatness of character; including il
the word character all the strong vir
lie virtues. 1t is character that count.
in a nation as in man. 1t is a COCO
thing to have clean, fine, intellectual
development in nation, to produce
; orators, artists, successful bushes
men; but it is an infinitely greater
thing to have those solid qualitie
which we group together under tn,
name of character, Sobriety. steadfas ST