Waterbury evening Democrat., 1908-06-01
EXPLANATION BY TAFT
Regrets Construction Put on His
 Speech on Grant.
SPOKE ON LATTER's FAULT.

Secretary Says He Mentioned Gener-
 aI's Fondness For Drink Only to Elm
 phasize His Subsequent Victory Over
 Weakness. .
 Washington, June 1. - Secretary of War William Taft when apprised that comment had been caused by his refer ence in his Memorial day address in New York to General Grants resigna- tion from the. army before the civil war made the following statement:
 T am very much distressed that any. thing I have said should be construed to be an attack upon General Grants memory. yield to no man in my ad-. miration for General Grant. in my high estimate of his remarkable qualities and character and of the great debt that the nation owes him. In my me- morial address I attributed his resigna- tion from the army in 1854 to his weakness for strong drink. because from lIr. Garland's life of General Grant and the evidence he cites and from other histories supposed it was undoubtedly true.
 Gives High Place to Grant.
 "I referred to the matter only be- cause it seemed to me that it was one of the great victories of his life that he subsequently, overcame the weak ness. The wonder of his life was that with all the discouragements that he encountered before the civil war. in- cluding this, he became the nations chief instrument in suppressing the re- bellion. venture to say that no i'm partial man can read my Memorial day address and say do not give to Gen eral Grant a place in history as high as that given him by any of his his torians or his admirers.
 "The lives of our great men belong to the country. If facts are told show ing that they had weaknesses which they overcame the force of their sue cessful example is greater to lift the youth of the country up to emulate them than if they painted as perfect without temptation and without weak nesses."
 Secretary Taft's speech, which was read by him from manuscript in ! Grants tomb on Decoration day before ] General Frederick Dent Grant, his : wife and son, Lieutenant U. $. Grant, | was in part as follows:
 Tt is true that Grant received an , education at West Point. but certainly : nothing was developed there in him to . indicate his fitness or ability to meet i great responsibilities.
 Why Grant Left the Army.
 He did we'll in the Mexican war, as i did other lieutenants. He manifested i as regimental quartermaster energy ! and familiarity with his duties. But in . 1854 he resigned from the army be- 1 cause he had to. He had yielded to the | weakness of taste for strong drink. and rather than be court martialed he left the army. He returned from Van rouver, on the Pacific coast, to his family in St. Louis without money. without property-a disheartened man. He accepted from his father-in-law loan of seventy-five acres of land, upon which he constructed a house for his family to live in, and there he carried on farming operations. His chief busi- ness seemed to be that of selling wood, of cutting it and piling it in the back yards of the we'll to do people of St. Louis.
 After six years of this life he gave lp farming because of i'll health and went into the real estate business for year. He failed in this. His associate dissolved the. partnership. Then at ast his father offered him S600 as clerk in his leather store at Galena, Ill.,, and then he moved from St. Louis. He worked here for year also. Dur ng these seven years. though every hing looked dark. he overcame in a treat measure his weakness for strong irink. But he was so constituted [ t seemed Impossible for him to ear livelihood even when = had giy hostages to fortune in the shape of wife and four children"
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