Year: 1877

Paris he was received by the Marshars aide
de-camp in the name Of the Marshal. and
after brief and. of course. appropriate
speeches. allowed without further ceremony
10 proceed 10 his hotel without visit
20 France the European journey 81 our great
soldier would have been incomplete. even as
the simple journey of gentleman on his
travels 10 view what II wonderful or Of deep
iniercsi In the world Al large. But another
character has been given 10 this journey
~ the spirit In which II has been taken
In several countries. and by General
Gmnfn constant recognition that the
sympathy and fsryor With which he
has been received are not intended
merely "A personal tributes. but rather as
demonstrations Of good viii 20 the United
States and 10 the cause with whose triumph
his name Was - gloriously associated.
Much has he seen q cities and Of men.
himself not least. but honorcd Of them all. "
General Grant Is not Of the class Of men
that oycr-appreciafe their personality. lie
never cared to b. hurrahod over even by the
army In the fierce days of the war, and his
downright simplicity of character when II
had hir play led him 10 scon the kind
OF iulsome laudaiion that bubbles up all
around successful men and ruins many,
but did not ruin him. II j. 10 be believed,
therefore. because IL is consistent with the
facts VIC know. that when he was hcnorcd by
many foreign cities and tho great raen of all
tho countries he has visited he acted not from
an affected modesty, but from native inn
pulse. in regarding IL all as a tribute to his
country. not to himself His visit has thus
acquired insensibly, and through eliciiing
international demonstrations, the character
OF an international progress. But the
progress OF former President acquiring
this character becomes charged with OBJ
legations. and the most imperative Of these
must be that the visit should extend 10
that nation that is nearest the heart Of the
American people. pratc n We may over
our relationship with the British races the
fact will not fade from the memory of our
people that in the first Of the momentous
struggles on which our liberties depended
the men Of France were at our side and our
so-called kinsmen against rs and while





forget our comrades in arms and allies in
the great cause of freedom.


1t was wise also to defer this visit 10 the
present moment for IL ~ unpleasant To
happen in a friends house while there is a
family quarrel at issue. But with the elec-
tions over, with n little time OF truce for
the excited spirits OF either side, we sim
cerey rejoice that an occasion has been
seized to take in the capital of our ancient
ally and to exchange good wishes with those
who may also speak for her as identified
with her cause in some Of the great days of
her history Grants victories OF peace"
in the cultivation Of good will toward his
country in foreign lands have been tri-
umphs as substantial in their way as the
more arduous ones of war for though il is
essential to existence that q government
should be saved from enemies ut home few
things rebound more to the power and
greatness and real glory Of q nation than the
bloodless extension of its influence abroad
But the triumphs of this nature that Grant
has gained in the cities Of England and
Scotland are less splendid than what is
before him in the capital of enthusiastic,
ardent, generous, republican France. AL
though that nation is in great crisis of its
destiny, and it might well be deemed that
the thoughts Of the people are so concen-
trated on their own fat ms to hide all else
from their vision, this fact can scarcely
detract from the warmth Of the welcome,
for passion like this does not with the
French people lessen the interest in daily
events, but gloriiies those events with its
feryor. In the blaze of great con-
fiagration we do not the less see the fea-
lures of the ordinary landscape-the stee-
pies, the wood, the rivcr--but we see them
caught up in the common splcndor and
made magnificent. 1t will probably hap
pen thus that the excitement OF the hour
may make Grants visit TO Paris almost rs
significant of the generous relations of two
great people as was Laiayette's visit to this
country in 1924. One of the passions Of
the French is for hero, and they are
fondcr of hero who is man of the people
than of any other kind. Even in one
of their most unfortunate passions the old
gray ovcrcoat will outweigh the imperial
purple any day in the year. 1t is happy
fortune, therefore, that the American who
visits and the Frenchman who receives him
are both old soldiers bronzed in the
wars men who lave exhibited their de-
votion to their country on many bloody
fields If both have not stcered over-hap-
PLY in the deeps and shadows of political
trouble, and have not always perceived
when to suspect and when to trust the full
mnators of party virtne, there is in each
history the coincidence that magnanimous
people does not ungencrously remember the
errors of its great soldiers.


Already the Paris wits have touched
sharply the subject of this visit. They say
that Grant has come to teach AacMahon
how to manage a republic. There is spice