The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-04-27
AN EPITOME OF GRANT
(By the Associated Press.)
BY PRESIDENT HARDING,

Point Pleasant, Ohio, April 81
President Harding here today paid
tribute to General Grant. at memorial
exercises celebrating the one hun
dredth anniversary of Grants birth
here, as 1.-The military hero of the re-
public; a commanding figure in the
military history of the world: the sur
passing example of magnanimity OF
all times; the most striking example
of the possibilities in American life;
the confident and relentless COM
nander in war, and the modest and
sympathetic petitioner for peace after
victory
One Surrender-tO Death.
I'VE know his cherishment of peace, in
tensified by his intimate knowledge of the
horrors of war the president continued.
of all that the republic has so recently
done in joining other nations in lifting
the burdens of armament and promoting
understandings which make war less like
ly. 1 know he would have approved, be-
cause we surrendered no independence;
we gave up none of nationality for which
we fought, but We have furthered the as
suranees Of peace: which was the supreme
lit is forty-seven years since Grant gar
landed victory with magnanimity. 1t is
wearied 2utobiographers pen and made his
one and only surrender. His fame is Sc
cure. The republic has not forgotten and
what Of the republic itself? 1t will not
be unseemly to say that American example
and American conception of justice and
liberty since then have influenced the
world little less significantly than Grants
service to the union shaped the course or
our land.
He Believed in Armament.
"a score of new republics nave unfurled
avenues of liberty and made Justice more
secure. Civilization meanwhile has made
vinity pointing the way. And yet that
very civilization, more advancing than en-
trenched, was Threatened by the world war,
and in wars aftermath established order
has been assaulted and revolution has
threatened thruout the world. In our own
threatening than those without. Greed
and anarchy have menaced, but calm
survey gives every assurance. Twenty CEN
turtles of modern civilization could not have
been builded on foundations which are
false A century and a half of gratifying
American achievement dates from the sac
rifices of the founding fathers, and their
firm structure was preserved by the
be held secure by the patriotic citizenship
of the republic today and the grateful
Americans of the morrow.
''Tho he proclaimed the doctrine of moral
disarmament at Appomsttox, he believed |
in nation equipped for a righteous cause"
Mr. Harding declared. But no aggression
Declaring at the outset that he had pom
dered over the attributes of the character
of Grant, the president said the union
leader looms majestic in the blend of
zone must revere his military genius.
even tho its development was one of those |
miracles Of grim war itself" he continued. |
NO one would have picked him in youth !
or early manhood, or in his early career |
as a regular officer, for the great com
ablaze the latent genius. Donelson was a |
flash of daring, Vicksburg his trophy of !
Petersburg the revelation of his genius |
But at AppomattoX he was Grant the mag |
unanimous, who spoke for reunion as he had |
fought for union, and turned from grim |
warrior to the ambassador Of peace. He |
could neither hate nor humiliate. and in /
the very glow of surprising triumph he |
could not be ungracious or inconsiderate.
Peace Always In His Heart.
'In that supreme moment Of victory, with /
union saved at unutterable cost, he seemed
to have surveyed the many d1sappoint- =
ments. the me1sureless sacrifices and ths |
indescrtbable scrrows. He felt the assur-
ance of the nation preserved and yet the |
one sweeping utterance from his great !
heart was let US have peace
Undoubtedly the task of reconstruction
was lighted, because of Grants moderation. I
" 1 cannot but feel that there is
for us a lesson in the concluding sentences
the surrender of the army of northern
Virginia. These sentences read: The
armies, artillery and public property to be
parked and stacked, and turned over to the
officer appointed by me to receive them.
This will not embrace the side arms of the
officers, nor their private horses or bag
gage. This done, each officer and man will
be allowed to return to their homes, not
TO be disturbed by United states authority
as long as they observe their paroles and
the laws in force where they may reside
ITO that he added the verbal agreement
with General Lee that every man of the
confederate army who claimed to own a
Horse mule, should be permitted to take
the animal home. General Lee observed
that these conditions would have a happy
fleet upon his army. In max
nG such conditions, in thus recognizing
he vast difficulties of consolidating the
peace won thru years of suffering and
Drivation, there spoke the great, true heart
# the man who could see in the future
md realize its problems.
All Joined Against Common Foe.
ebbing. and he struggled to the end of
his memoirs, all the American people knew
# his brave fight and the inevitable out
,ome- and the man of msgnanimity found
himself the recipient of genuinely nation
vide SympathV. = =
--Seemingly. it was long time in which
% re-establish concord manifestly es-
Dut the understanding of the magnificent
Lee was not universal turnout the South,
he ma gnanimity of Grant was not mani
est thruout thea North Wounds had to be
lealed. and partisan politics temporarily
,rofited more in irritation than in healing.
BUT the war with Spain consecrated North Z,
md South to a common cause, and the sac
var revealed the common American soul.
Grant, the great nationalist, who appraised
lnion and nationality above all the fright
uI cost and suffering, would rejoice to &C
lain the republic of today.
Il do not mean TO say that eyeryw here
n our land we are all in complete accord
bout fundamentals of government or the
ounded. But the sectiOna1ism Of Grants
md time has hpau nffaerd and