Year: 1869

II you'd win the authors crown.


And every time you write, my friend,


Boil it down.


Gen. John A. Rawlins.


The death Of the late Secretary of War,
at Washington, Sept. 9th, gives rise to
many newspaper comments. We have
only to say that the Government of the
U. 5. must be neglectfully administered
when it is authoritatively said that he, a
sick man, known to be approaching that
marrow house" which destiny has pre-
pared for all, was the only principal
officer Of the Administration then at the
Capitol! The President knew of his
sickness, but the pleasures Of Long
Branch, Mount Washington, and Sarato'
go, caused him to forget the suffering
friend, the Counsellor whose advice ele~
waited him to the military and civil fame
which the world has given him. We ask
Impartiality if the absence of all the
Cabinet during the close Of General
Rowlin's hopeless sickness and particular
ly. the absence Of that Executive acAon,
RAwLINs made, is not a proof Of heartless-
ness, such as history has seldom photo
graphed2 Had duty required Grants
absence, there might be palliatiou set up,
but the frivolity of horse trotting, dancing,
receptions, saying nothing of fishing in
New Hampshire, and on Sunday at that |!
Should such boyish ''play" keep the Exc
cutive of the Nation from the bedside of
bosom friend while Death was feeling
his way to that noble heart whose every
throb was devoted to his superior officer
and friend!


Below we give rather lengthy sketch
of the life of the deceased, and his rela-
tions to President Grant. We clip from
the Chicago Times of the 7th. The Off
cials were prompt in telegraphing sympa-
thy to a dying soldier, but mhy did they
all leave the invalid to battle with Disease,
Anxiety and public Responsibility? Their
neglect of the faithful man whose history
is here written, looks almost like premed;-
tated murder. =.


"The general public knows but little,
either of the intimate relations existing
between John A. Rawlins and Gen. Grant,
or of the great value which the former
was to the latter during all Grants career
from Belmont to the surrender of Lees
army at Appomatox. AS close as the
union Of body and soul was that of these
two; and at least to Grant was this union
almost as much a necessity as the direc-
ton Of the mind is to the logical action of
the body. There was not a movement on
the chess-board of war, on which Grant
was the player, which was not foreknown
by Rawlins. He it was who gave form to
the intentions of Grant; who extricated
order from the tangled ideas of his super
ior; who put into shape the conceptions
of Grant; and who was to the General
what the belt>wheel is to the motive power
Of the steam engine. lie it was who
communicated to the complex machinery
of the war the power which Grant origi-
mated.


Even in assigning him this position, we
scarcely do him justice. There is abun-
dant evidence for the conclusion that he
was less the arm of that complex body
of which Grant was the reported brain
than part of the brain itself. lie was a
combination of both the executive and
suggestive. Ostensibly, his position was
merely clerical. TO the world, and those
of the army not intimate with what was
occurring at headquarters, it appeared as
if his line Of duty was limited to the me-
chanical performance of a mere amanuen
sis. Such was his apparent position. 1t
was one that seemed ministerial to the ex
tent that it was that of an agent who acted
as the interpreter Of the orders Of supe-
rior.


Much Of the evidence which will 60 to
show that Rawlins was more than Grants
secretary is Of kind that cannot well be
given to the public. Some of it rests up
on confidential disclosures which relate to
the mighty secrets of headquarter life.
This much, however, may be said There
were frequent interregnums in Grants adj
ministrative ability, during which Rawlins
was veritable inter req; upon whom de-
volved not merely the duty of concealing
the temporary inability of the commander,
but of placing himself in his stead, and of
continuing, without break, the movements
of the forces, and keeping in motion the
vast and complex mechanism involved in
the guidance and maintenance of vast ar
mics, extending over enormous areas of
territory. What caused these interrup-
tiohs in Grants directing powers, it is not
necessary to mention. Suffice it to assert,
that not only is it well known to few
that these interruptions did occur, but they
were frequent in their occurrence, and ex-
tended in their duration. Particularly
was this the case from the time Grant be-
gan his career at Cairo mp to the capture
Of Vicksburg. In view Of this state of
things, it is not too much to say that Raw
Inns stood often between our armies and
defeat, and between Grant and an exposure
that would have hurled him headlong to
ruin, as Lucifer was thrust down from
heaven.


Few who had much to do with the
movements of our Mississippi armies
during the war will have forgotten the
handsome face and so!dierly form of Raw
lins. His heavy, raven hair and jetty
beard were a setting for face upon which