Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-04-27
A PAclFiST CAPTAIN EARNS
TODAY THE NATIONS HOMAGE
The Centenary Of the Birth Of Grant EN-.
phaslxes the Appealing Attributes Of
Hero Unique In History

foremost national fgutes whose deeds and
fnme the Nation most delights to honor.
The ''live- wire type. the efficiency engi-
neer, the astute magnifco of business, the
technically virtuous ''strong man. scientific
embodiment of every maxim In the success
chart. the breezy hustler impatient of OBJ
stacles - these are among the specimens
sometimes adjudged representative.
This estimate is either fallacious - in
which case the hand of an attentive Provl-
dence may be perhaps discerned-or else the
makers and preservers of the Republic were
strangely untypical. Plainly. it u only on a
Procrustes bed that Washington or Lincoln
can be made to conform.
In the case of Ulysses simpson Grant,
born one hundred years ago today in a two
roomed cottage in the hamlet of Mount
Pleasant on the banks of the Ohio, even the
attempt is hopeless. The anomaly. to put it
bluntly. is not in Grant. but in the present
rather widely prevalent misconceptions of
the fiber of authentic moral nobility and
ethical heroism. Centenaries of the great
are significant opportunities for repairing
defective apprchensions and unthinking
judgments.
The fame Of Grant Is. of course. secure.
A united Nation attests it. Gorgeous monu-
ments proclaim it now and for posterity.
The glory of the indomitable captain is pre-,
served in Orations innumerable. in the for
malized patter of school histories. in in
evitable anecdotal apocrypha and in the
talismanic magic of his name. He will be
eulogized today throughout the land.
Public gratitude in this instance. so freely
and richly bestowed, differs, however, from
popular understanding. 1t may be qucs-
toned whether the processes of splendid con-
ion, ho,.n 1,,,,;x e
one of the most touching and intimately
appealing figures in all history.
Moreover, it should be easier today than
ever before to grasp the psychology of this
extraordinary military leader. who hated
war. who ardently hoped. while a cadet at
West Point. that this institution would he
abolished by an act of Congress then pend
ing. who was at once one of the sincerest
pacifists and magnifcently obstinate fighters
the world has ever known.
In his informative and unusually dispas-
siOnate account of the Civil War, from an
English standpoint. John Formby in some
bewilderment asserts that. though Grant de-
tested war, "it is a curious fact that he
never succeeded in anything else
This is general statement. taking no
account of certain vital and enduring
achievements of Grant as President such as
recognition of the arbitration principle
through the treaty of Washington and the
adjudication Of the Alabama claims, the
appeal for civil service reform, the deter
mined protection of national credit and the
Inauguration of a humane policy toward the
Indians.
Nevertheless the political ingenuousness
of Grant, born of an unimpeachable sim
plicity of SOUL is familiarly regarded as re.
grettable. But the mistakes and blunders-
or better, perhaps. the unaffected loyalties-
which so perplexed the politicians exhibited
no new phase Of character.
The miracle of Grants career is the utter
consistency of ethical attributes amid the
most amazing shift of circumstances. now
humdrum, now epic, now romantic. now
pitiful.
1t was the outward scene which changed
Grant, the incarnation of will in crisis,
the straightforward. modest. reserved Amer
lean. never.
This ascription of merits will hold through
situations such as his days of shabbiness
and despondency on the Pacific Slope before
the war. and his alleged incorporate habits
over which laudatory biographers would
prefer TO gloss.
But there is no real occasion to indulge in
all his contemporaries. Abraham Lincoln
understood how to differentiate the splendor
of that inspirational will, that supreme in
tuition which conquered Buckner at Donel-
son. Pemberton at Vicksburg and Lee at
AppOmattOx from intensely human weak
nesses, trivial in the scale.
For it is the unmatchable distinction of
Grants career that of the vices of the hero
he had none. His modesty. which must not
be construed as ever inhbitng the most
intense convictions, was fundamentally
genuine.
Under these conditions the unadorned
candor naturally followed Il voted for
Buchanan for President explained Grant
in justfying his political oscillations. "be-
cause ] knew Fremont
The memoirs are replete with personal
revelations of this sort. Indeed. this auto
biographical chronicle rounds out a remark.
atie Recommendation in the history of human
character. Authentic stories of Grant. of
his iron resolution In need of his tenderness
as toward his old friend the hapless Buckner
at Donelson of his hatred of sham and pre-
tense of his aversion to hord heroics. as
instanced in his curt go back to your quar-.
ters" to the new recruits expectant of more
oratory in the Logan -McClernand vein, are
innumerable.
Fortunately, Grant has been spared a
Weems. that sentimentally prim biographer
who made Of Washington an icy monster of
virtue. The great captain, who fought for
peace and unity, surpasses in the basic
beauty of his poignantly comprehensive
character all the stiff and formal patterns of
the legend mongers.
The inspiration of Grant in emergencies,
the qualities which made for epic victory In
the field forbids the assumption, for all the
dramatic play of events upon his life, that
he was of average American makeup. Yet
If there are points OF contact with the nn
tive character today, it is upon belief in
such that hope for the Republic can be
based.