Book.9i>(.e7 
 
SPEECH 
 
 JUDGE JAMES SLOANE; 
 
 DELIVERKD IX THK / \^ 
 
 WIGWAM OF THE SEVENTEENTH WARD. 
 
 CINCINNATI, AUGUST 28. 1868. 
 
 AN ANALYSIS AND KSTIM.VTE OF THK CHARACTER OV 
 
 aElSTER^L aHA-ISTT 
 
 WITH KK9PECT TO HIS FITNESS FOR THE PRESIDENCY. 
 
 'Fidelity to Party is, oftentimes, Treason to Country." 
 
 " So long OS man is man, the victorious defender of his country, will, 
 and ought to, receive that country's suffrage for all that the forms 
 of her government allow her to give." — John Eandolph. 
 
 CINCINNATI : 
 
 ROBERT CLARKE & CO., Printers, 
 
 65 West Fourth Street. 
 
 1868. 
 
^''^''.1 
 
 3^^^ 
 
 IN EXCNANQE 
 
SPEECH OF JUDGE JAS. SLOANE. 
 
 Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : 
 
 I DO not believe that General Grant, tis respects either 
 quantity of mental endowments, or quantity of acquired knowl- 
 edge, is better fitted for the Presidency than every other man 
 in the United States : and yet I do " most powerfully and 
 potently believe," that in the present condition of the country, 
 and in view of the troubles which lie before us in the future, 
 General Grant is, by far, the most suitable and safe man to be 
 elected President for the next four years. 
 
 Regarding merely the quantiiy of mental endowments 
 and acquired knowledge, there are thousands his superiors. 
 Not to mention others, that distinguished political hermaph- 
 rodite, Salmon P. Chase, has, perhaps I may admit, more intel- 
 lect than Grant, — for Chase is a man of great intellect ; and in 
 literary attainments, political experience, and knowledge of 
 state-craft, he very far, indeed, surpasses Grant. It is not, 
 then, in quantity, but in quality, that I maintain the superiority 
 of Grant to consist. In determining the fitness of a person for 
 a given work, the question is not so much, what is the quantity 
 of his powers, as, what is the adajJtation of his powers to the 
 proposed work. There were a thousand men of tlie Revolu- 
 tionary period, having more intellect and more learning than 
 "Washington ; but no one of them was so well fitted for the 
 Presidency of the United States as he : and it is to the fact, 
 perhaps, that the people of that day had the good sense to see 
 this, that the people of this day owe their existence as a nation. 
 
4 Speech of Judge Sloane. 
 
 What we want for President of the United States, is a 
 man of the people, in full accord and sympathy loith the people, 
 who has risen to eminence, if eminent he be, from down among 
 the people, — having a good English and scientific education, of 
 plain, good common sense, and fervent, devoted, unselfish 
 patriotism, of clear perception, sound judgment, decision of 
 character, and firmness of purpose, — and withal, a man whose 
 deeds have proved him to be such. Such a man was Washing- 
 ton ; such a man was Monroe ; such a man was Jackson ; such 
 a man was Harrison ; such a man was Taylor ; and such a 
 man is Grant. 
 
 Grant is not a genius : and this we can the better 
 attbrd to concede when we recollect that it is by no means an 
 assured fact that Genius has ever done the world or itself any 
 very great deal of substantial good. Geniuses, for the most 
 part, have been a very thriftless, useless, profitless class of 
 people. I wouldn't employ a genius, if I knew him to be such, 
 to make me a pair of boots, or take a drove of hogs to market. 
 It is the plain, lionest, earnest, common sense man, that in all 
 ages and in all nations, has been useful to his country and his 
 kind. The brilliant, but erratic, meteor may serve some useful 
 purpose in the economy of nature ; but give me the constant 
 light and heat of the steadfast sun. They are far better for 
 the purpose of raising corn and potatoes. Napoleon was a 
 genius, and Washington was not; but whose life and labors 
 were the more beneficial to mankind, and whose work has been 
 tlie mure enduring? 
 
 Grant is not an oratoii : and this, too, we can afford to 
 concede, without offering one word of apology, for the impu- 
 ted deficiency, bearing in mind, the wliile, that if he has not 
 spoken much, he lias thowjht wisely, and acted well. lie has not, 
 in pompous phrase and finely turned sentences, told you how 
 devotedly lie loves his country ; but bji his actions he lias proved 
 it, — at Palo Alto, at Kesaca dc la ralnia, at Monterey, at Vera 
 
Speech of Judge Sloane- 
 
 Cruz, at Cerro Gordo, at Cherubusco, at Molino del Rey, at 
 Chapultepec, at Belmont, at Donelson, at Shiloh, at Port Gib- 
 son, at Champion's Hill, at Vicksburg, at the battle of the 
 Black river, at Chattanooga, at the battles of the Wilderness, 
 at Spottsylvania, at Cold Harbor, at Richmond, at Petersburg, 
 at Appomattox. 
 
 True, indeed, it is, that he has never spoken a great 
 speech ; but he has done more,— he has thought great thoughts, 
 and done great deeds. Carlyle says : 
 
 " He that works, and does some poem, not he that 
 " merely says one, is worthy of the name of poet. Cromwell, 
 " emblem of the dumb English, is interesting to me by the very 
 "' inadequacy of his speech. Heroic insight, valor, and belief, 
 " without words, — how noble it is in comparison to the adroit- 
 '' est flow of words, without heroic insight." 
 
 Carlyle would say that he who does a great speech, is 
 more truly an orator, than he that only sj)eaks one. But this 
 is merely Carlyle-ism, Henry Ward Beecher-ism, Wendell 
 Phillips-ism,— a straining after the striking and the antithet- 
 ical. It is not good sense. Still, there is something in Car- 
 lyle's thought ; and that something may be expressed, without 
 a distortion of language or a contradiction in terms. He that 
 executes a great thought, bringing the principle into practical 
 realization, is a more worthy man, merits more the gratitude 
 and confidence of mankind, than he who merely elaborates the 
 thought into a great speech. And has not Grant greatly exe- 
 cuted great thoughts ? 
 
 From the establishment of the Government to the tiring 
 upon Sumpter, two great questions agitated the public mind, 
 and shook, at times, the Government itself to its very founda- 
 tions. Was our Government a mere league or confederation 
 of States, subject, at any time, to dissolution, at the will of any 
 one of them; or was it a government proper, resting directly 
 upon the people themselves as its basis, bearing within its 
 system no seeds of death, but intended, and constructed with 
 the view, to last while the world should stand ? This was one 
 of the questions. The other was,- should slavery— that dis- 
 grace, not only to the country, but the age,— that standing 
 
S Speed b of Judge Sloane. 
 
 contradiction of all that we professed in the science of Govern- 
 ment, and in respect of human rights and Christian civilization 
 and progress — should slavery bo perpetual ? Should it be 
 enduring as the Government itself? Could not the Govern- 
 ment survive, and slavery, in some way or other, be extirpated, 
 •'eradicated"? Or must the lash of the slave driver continue 
 still ceaselessly to swing, and the cries of its victims and the 
 qjanking of their chains continue still to rise, in one horrid 
 chorus, to the ears of an incensed Doit}-, through "-the still 
 lapse of ages "' ? Yes, this, and no less than this, was the other 
 question. These two questions became involved in each other. 
 Lincoln had made application to our political condition, of the 
 axiom that '• a house divided against itself can not stand," 
 and hatl said — what was manifest to all thinking men — '' This 
 Government can not endure permanently, half slave and half 
 free."' The South saw this. They saAv that either the Union 
 must perish, or slavery, sooner or later, be destroyed. They 
 saw that if it was possible to preserve slavery at all, it could 
 only be preserved by means of a separate and independent 
 Government, erected and maintained in the interest of slavery, 
 upon the soil where slavery existed. They saw that slavery 
 was not growing relatively stronger, but, on the contrary 
 weaker. They regretted the time they had lost. They deter- 
 mined to precipitate what, they said, was an inevitable conflict. 
 They then found it convenient to profess, almost universally, 
 a belief in the right of secession ; and they seceded. They 
 iired upon Sumpter. That moment the debate upon the two 
 great questions I have mentioned, so long waged in the Halls 
 of Legislation, in the Court Houses, and on the Stump, was 
 transferred to the battle field. The voice of the brawding poli- 
 tician is hushed. Tlie (piict, silent, sagacious, undemonstrative 
 man of Galena appears upon the scene. He understands the 
 questions. lie compreliends the situation, lie has made up 
 his mind. Hear him : 
 
 "I made up my mind wJiCii thin mar commenced, that the 
 '' North and South could only live together in peace as one 
 " nation, and they could only be one nation by being a free 
 " nation. Slavery, the corner stone of the so-called confederacy. 
 
Speech of Judge Sloane. 
 
 " is knocked out, and it will take more men to keep black men 
 *' slaves than to put down the rebellion. Much as I desire peace, 
 " I am opposed to any peace, till the question of slavery i.s 
 ^'■forever settled." 
 
 There is his opinion on the two great question.s. He 
 proposes now to take a part in the debate. He debates the 
 questions with Floyd, and Pillow, and Buckner, at Donelson ; 
 with Johnson and Beauregard, at Shiloh ; with Pemberton, on 
 the Black river and at Vicksburg; with Lee, in the Wilder- 
 ness, at Spottsylvania, at Cold Harbor, at Richmond, at i'eters- 
 burg. In this high debate, bullets, saber cuts, and bayonet 
 thrusts take the place of words, — and Grant was eloquent in 
 the use of these. The arguments are taken down in blood. 
 The World stands in silence looking and listening to the awful 
 debate, and awaiting the momentous decision. It is rendered 
 at Appomattox : — " Slavery shall be no more, and the Union 
 IS TRIUMPHANT AND PERPETUAL ! '' Here was orator}', elo- 
 quence — the oratory and eloquence, as Carlyle would say, of 
 action — steady, heroic, unselfish, self-sacrificing action. 
 
 Webster, in the greatest speech of his life, and one of 
 the greatest that ever came from the lips of man, had demonstra- 
 ted that the claimed right of secession had no warrant in the 
 constitution ; and in this, he did his country a great service. 
 But the South was not convinced. The secession doctrine still 
 lived. It remained for Grant, in his great debate with the 
 Southern statesmen, to bring conviction home to their minds, 
 and utterly to annihilate the doctrine. He settled the question, 
 and settled it forever. You will hear no more of the right of 
 secession. When next the South rebel, it will be, as they will 
 pretend, in the exercise of the reserved right of Revolution. I 
 think we can aiford to admit that Grant is not an orator. 
 
 I would not be understood as attempting to depreciate 
 the gift of public speaking. It is a valuable and a useful gift, 
 and one greatly to be prized; but it is one which has been 
 greatly abused, and to which, in politics, a great deal too mucli 
 importance has been attached. The late Thomas Corwin said 
 once, in his anger, that he was sometimes tempted to pray 
 
Speech of Judge Sloane. 
 
 Almighty God that the next generation might be born dumb, 
 the present had abused the faculty of speech so damnably. In 
 view of the thousands of political paupers and vagabonds that 
 annually go around the country bawling forth newspaper 
 slang to the people, one feels inclined to excuse the severity of 
 Mr. Corwin's remark. Your political orator is, oftentimes, 
 a fellow who has broken up and cheated his creditors, and 
 being bankrupt in estate and reputation, and having nothing 
 to do at home, generously turns patriot and statesman, and 
 gets about hunting an office ; and, of course, he at once, affects 
 oratory, and attempts to make up in noise and vehemence for 
 what he lacks in knowledge and sense. He is sometimes a 
 fellow whose father happening to make a fortunate speculation, 
 perhaps in hogs, or, it may be, in whiskey, left him a big for- 
 tune, but a little brain. Finding himself unfit for any profes- 
 sion, and yet wishing to be somebod}^ of some consequence, he 
 turns political orator, and in consideration of the money he 
 pays for party purposes, his party permits him to speak. But 
 your real political orator, the genuine article, is apt to be some- 
 body's son-in-law, some fellow who has married a rich and silly 
 woman, wlio finding him good for nothing else in the world, 
 and yet ambitious that somebody should say or write some- 
 thino- about him, recognizing him as somebody, though it were 
 only to abuse him, dresses the fellow up in genteel clothing, 
 and sends him forth to make a noise in politics, taking good 
 care, at the same time, to hire some newspaper reporter to puft 
 him. Thus turned loose upon the unoffending people, the 
 fellow becomes a diligent reader of newspaper articles, treas- 
 uring up in his memory tlieir smart sayings and dirty political 
 badinage. He sits around the doors of hotels, listening to men 
 of cliaraoter and distiiiction, and gathering up all the anecdotes 
 lie can. Being thus provided, he goes from city to city, and 
 from village to village, retailing from the stumj), wiicrevcr lie 
 can get an audience, his stale and trashy stock in trade. And 
 because the fellow speaks much, tlie peo]>le are but too apt to 
 conclude that he tliinks some, and so concluding, they some- 
 times, to the great gratification of his wife, but to the great 
 disgrace of the country, elect him to Congress. Did you ever 
 
Speech of Judge Sloaue. 
 
 know such a thing to take place hereabouts? I once heard of 
 just such a fellow being elected Governor of a certain State* 
 ^o doubt, there are many such fellows now going around the 
 country denouncing Grant because he can't make a speech, and, 
 contending that, therefore, he is not lit for President. It is 
 because too much importance is attached to public speaking, 
 and too high an estimate placed upon the gift, that your most 
 important oflices are, for the most part, HUed with mere word- 
 mongers, who have no practical ability for anything else than 
 speech making, — to the exclusion of men of administrative 
 ability and practical experience. It is very possible that a 
 man who can make a telling stump speech, may be good for 
 nothing else. 
 
 Upon the whole, I think, we should be thankful that 
 Grant is not an orator. The country has reason to congratulate 
 itself in the prospect of the election to the Presidency of a man 
 who is not a political slang whanger. How much better would 
 it have been for his own credit, and the honor of the country, 
 if Andrew Johnson, as soon as he had taken the oath of office 
 of Vice President, had been stricken dumb ! 
 
 Grant is not a politician : and this we can afford, not only 
 freely to admit, but we make it his praise, when we bear in 
 mind that it is the politicians by trade, the shuffling, bargaining, 
 intriguing, self-seeking, office-hunting politicians, that, time 
 and again, have brouglit tliis countr}'' to shame, and, two or 
 three times at least, to the very verge of ruin. The fact, too, 
 that he is not a politician, affords assurance that he is not a 
 partisan. But we do not need this assurance. His whole history 
 and character, and, indeed, the very constitution of his mind, 
 prove that he is not, never was, and never could liave been, a 
 partisan. Grant is pre-eminently a man who does his own 
 thinking: and you might as well undertake to compress the 
 waters of Lake Erie into a pint bottle, as to cut down and 
 dwarf such a man to the pigmy proportions of a partisan. I 
 use the word partisan in the opprobrious sense of the word, as 
 representing one wlio prefers liis party's success to his country's 
 good, who can see his country only in liis party, who sticks 
 
10 Speech of Judge Sloane. 
 
 at nothing that his party's interest or his party's commands 
 may require him to do, one, in short, to Avhom tlie voice of 
 party is as the voice of God. 
 
 When General Taylor, then a candidate for the Presi- 
 dency, said to the people of the United States, — "'I am a 
 Whig, but not an ultra Whig,'' he said a very sensible thing. 
 But the politicians of the country could not comprehend it. 
 To be a Whig at all, they thought, was to be one who would 
 go as far as tlie Whig who went farthest, one who would advo- 
 cate and support the extremest measures which might be 
 proposed by the extremest men of the party, one who would, 
 in all cases, substitute for his OAvn deliberate judgment, the 
 dictates of caucuses and leaders. But General Taylor meant, 
 simply, that while he concurred generally in the policy and 
 purposes of the Whig party, he never had been, and he never 
 would be, its slave, its blind and bigoted partisan, — that he 
 would think for himself, and whenever he thought the party 
 was wrong, he would not hesitate to differ from it. 
 
 In the sense in which I have used the word. Grant is 
 not, and never could be, a partisan. The Radical leaders of 
 the Republican party know this, and lament it too ; and hence 
 it is that Grant does not owe his nomination to them. He owes 
 it to the people alone. The Radical leaders and managers of the 
 party never would, could they have prevented it, have per- 
 mitted him to receive the nomination. Indeed, they attempted 
 to bring him into disfavor with the people, and thereby pre- 
 vent his nomination, as in 1864, they had tried to prevent 
 Lincoln's nomination. Grant was known to have entertained 
 opinions which had not been prescribed for him, and indorsed, 
 by Sumner, and Wade, and Stevens. They called him before 
 their Impeachment Committee, and appointed lawyers to 
 examine and cro.ss-examine him; and right well did he stand 
 the test. There was no shuilling, or prevarication, or "wind- 
 ing ill and winding out.'" lie boldly avowed the opinions, 
 and gave them to understand that they might "make the 
 most ol" it.'" lie very clearly saw the iiurjioses of the com- 
 mittee, and, thut they might be well assured that he did, and 
 in order to administer 1o tlu-ni a deserved rebuke, lie very 
 
Speech of Judge Sloane. 11 
 
 quietly, but with great severity, observed that he was at a lo8a 
 to kuow whom they proposed to try, himself or Andrew 
 Johusoii. After this, the examination soon closed. The little 
 great men were foiled. They took nothing by their proceed- 
 ing. The people's faith in their great soldier was not shaken. 
 They admired his fearless candor, and applauded him for it : 
 and the Eadical leaders of the party, finding that to oppose 
 Grant was to lose favor and iniluence with the people, made a 
 virtue of necessity, and gave Grant a seeminghj zealous, but 
 really reluctant, support. Since Grant would not come tf» 
 them, the}' went to Grant; for the}' had no other place to go, 
 because the people went there. It is, therefore, a great mis- 
 take to suppose the Radicals have got Grant. The trntli is 
 otherwise — Grant has got the liadicaU. 
 
 Before the war, Grant was a Democrat, and voted the 
 Democratic ticket : but he was not a Democratic partisan or 
 bigot. Had he been, he never would have been at the head 
 of the armies furnished by the people to crush out the rebel- 
 lion. He might have been a high officer among the Knights 
 of the Golden Circle, or he might have presided over some 
 association of the so-called Sons of Liberty; but anything 
 more or better, he could not, and would not, have been. 
 When the war broke out, and he perceived that his party was 
 taking grounds against his country, he promptly took gi-ound 
 against his party, and for his country, and, at once ofiered his 
 country his services, and, if need were, his life. 
 
 There is no doubt that Grant concurs, gencrall>i, in the 
 policy and purposes of the Union Republican party. But he 
 is not its slave. He is not a political bigot. He is not a mere 
 tool of party leaders, to be used as they sec fit, for the further- 
 ance of their own purposes, and the attainment of their own 
 selfish ends. He is, without question, in general accord with 
 the party. He loves and honors it. It would be strange, in- 
 deed, if he did not; for he loves and honors his country: and 
 though the distinction between one's party and one's country, 
 is a distinction which the patriot will always endeavor to keep 
 steadily in mind; yet, during the war, it was somewhat difli- 
 cult to discriminate between the all-sacrificing and all-conquer- 
 
12 Speech of Judge Sloane. 
 
 a 7 
 
 I] ing Union Republican party and the country whose cause it 
 
 r championed. So completely and exclusively did it represent 
 the cause of the country, that it seemed almost to stand for 
 
 (3 and be the country itself. If it was not the country, where 
 
 "^ was the country. The Southern rebels in arms against the 
 
 I country^ were surely not the country, nor, at that time, any part 
 
 *] of it; and just as little were their ISTorthern sympathisers, 
 
 equally traitorous, but less brave, the country, or at that time, 
 c any part of it. He that is not for his country, is against his 
 T country, and he that is against his country, is not with his 
 i country, and is not, in any ^woper sense, for the time being at 
 (] least, a part of his country. By his opposition, he has alien- 
 s ated himself frotn his country. The Union Republican party 
 r alone, during the war, stood for, and represented, the country. 
 
 V This was its mission, and nobly did it accomplish its mission. 
 
 V With one hand, it held jSforthern treason by the throat, firmly 
 
 V and securely, while with the other, it first struck the shackles 
 from the limbs of four millions of slaves, proclaiming liberty 
 
 E throughout the land, and then indignantly and irresistibly 
 
 t smote the rebellion itself to the dust. 
 
 i; The party that did this, whatever may have been, or 
 
 ii may yet be, the blunders and errors of some of its leaders, 
 
 T must and will be liclil in lionored remembrance. "The past 
 
 1 at least is secure." History and posterity will do it justice. 
 t Its mission now is, the war being ended, to conserve and per- 
 ^ petuate the legitimate results of the war, and to counteract 
 ] the machinations of those, no less traitorous now than before, 
 ( wlio would make the war to have been in vain. The Union 
 I Republican party is the true Conservative party. It would 
 
 be strange, indeed, as I before said, if Grant, the first soldier 
 of the war, was not in full sympathy with this party. lie is: 
 but he is not its slave. lie thiidvs for himself; and doing this, 
 he has, no doubt, disapproved some things which the party lias 
 done, and more which it has proposed and attempted to do. 
 lie docs not believe that in order to be a good Ivepublican, lie 
 must espouse and champion every extreme measure that any 
 Radical Repuljlican zealot may see proper to propose. He 
 does not believe that " The bigger the fool, the better the Re- 
 
Speech of Judge Sloane. 
 
 publican." He never has endorsed, and he never will, as a 
 proper test of Republican orthodoxy, this confession of faith : 
 " Thou shalt endorse and approve whatsoever the Republican 
 party, in past time, hath done, is now doing, and in future 
 may do, and thou shalt love the negro as thyself, and, if any 
 odds, a little better, — for this is the constitution and the plat- 
 form." Nor does he think that he alone is a good Republican 
 who is characterized by a rancorous hatred of the white people 
 of the South, and a disposition constantly to insult and oppress 
 them. He recognizes no such tests: he has spurned them all, 
 and refused to surrender his own judgment. And, yet, he 
 has, nevertheless, received the unanimous nomination of his 
 party: and this simply because those who admired and re- 
 spected him for his independence of thought and action, were 
 so much more numerous and influential than those who would 
 have ostracized him for that same independence, that the latter 
 did not dare even to attempt an open opposition to his nomi- 
 nation. I, therefore, regard Grant's nomination as a decisive 
 victory of the Conservative element of the Republican party, 
 over the Radical element. 
 
 And how did Grant receive and respond to this, the 
 most flattering nomination ever given to any man ? Modestly, 
 simply, sensibly, candidly, but boldly. Let me read you his 
 letter : 
 
 "In formally accepting the nomination of the Union 
 "National Convention of the 21st of May, it seems proper that 
 "some statements of my views, beyond the mere acceptance of 
 "the nomination, should be expressed. 
 
 " The proceedings of the Convention were marked with 
 " wisdom, moderation, and patriotism, and I believe, express 
 "the feelings of the great mass of those who sustained the 
 " country through its trials. I endorse their resolutions ; and, 
 " if elected to the oflice of President of the United States, it 
 "will be my endeavor to administer all the laws, in good faith, 
 "with economy, and witli the view of giving peace, ((uiet, and 
 " protection every wliere. 
 
1^ Speech of Judge Sloane. 
 
 " In times like the present, it is impossible, or, at least 
 " eminently improper, to lay down a policy to be adhered to, 
 " right or wrong, through an administration of four years. 
 "Xew political issues not foreseen are constantly arising. The 
 "views of the public on old ones are constantly changing; 
 "and a purely administrative officer should be left free to 
 "execute the will of the people. I have always respected that 
 "will, and always shall. 
 
 "Peace and universal prosperity, its sequence, with 
 "economy of administration, will lighten the burden of taxa- 
 "tion, while it constantly reduces the National Debt. 
 
 "Let us have peace, 
 
 " With great respect. 
 
 " Your obedient servant, 
 
 " U. S. Grant." 
 
 Buchanan, after his nomination for the Presidency, 
 referring to the platform on which he was nominated, said, "I 
 am no longer James Buchanan, I am the platform.'' 
 
 This aflbrds a fair specimen of real political servility. 
 The sentiment is execrable. The language is the language of 
 a slave — "To hear is to obey." It is the language of a bigot 
 — "The party can do no wrong; it is infallible." Grant is in- 
 capable of such language, of such an atrocious sentiment. Of 
 Buchanan it may have been true enough, that, apart from the 
 platform, he was nothing. It was consistent with his history 
 up to that time, and well avouched by his after doings, that 
 he could and would recognize nothing as jjolitically right 
 that did not scpiarc with declared party dogmas. It was to be 
 expected of him to declare, and those who knew him well 
 were not surprised ivhen he declared, that, if elected, he would 
 administer tiic Government, not in accordance with the consti- 
 tution and the laws, but in accordance with the resolves of 
 party, — not in the interests of the country, but in the interests 
 of liis party. Such, in substance, was his pledge ; and certainly, 
 his administration afforded no grounds for charging him with 
 a violation of his pledge, lie kt'pt the faith faithfully; but 
 "Oh, my countrymen," and my countrywomen, too, what an 
 
Speech of Jitdge Sloafie. 15 
 
 unfaithful faith it Avas — uufaithfnl to the honor a;id best in- 
 terests of his countiy, — a faitli fatal to the good name and 
 memory of the poor old man himself, who died the other day, 
 leaving a fortune of three hundred and iifty thousand dollars, 
 bnt not enough to buy one single affectionate tear of sincere 
 regret; for of his burial most truly may it be said — 
 
 •'The pomp innili' the fiiner:il, and the bhiok, the woe."' 
 
 It was this faith in the infallibility of his party, and 
 this servility to party dictation, that on the outbreak of the 
 rebellion, caused him to make the weak, ridiculous, and treas- 
 onable declaration, tliat while the claimed right of secession 
 had no warrant in the Constitution, the Constitution gave 
 Congress no power to prevent secession; that is to say, the 
 Constitution gave the Government life, but no right or means 
 to preserve its life! This was simply a stultification of the 
 Convention that framed the Constitution. Fidelity to party 
 is, oftentimes, treason to country. It was such in Buchanan's 
 case. 
 
 But let us retui-n to Grant's letter of acceptance. He 
 says, "I endorse the resolutions;" but does he say, "I will, if 
 elected, administer the Government in accordance with the 
 doctrines therein expressed ? " i^ot a bit of it. He says, " I 
 endorse your resolutions. They are Avell enough as an expres- 
 sion of the sentiments and feelings now entertained by the 
 great mass of those who sustained the country through its 
 trials. As such, they are well enough, and I do not dissent 
 from them. As such, I endorse them; but 'if elected to the 
 office of President of the United States, it will be my endeavor 
 to administer (not your resolutions, but) all the l.vws, in good 
 faiih, loith economy, and icith the view of giving i^ace, quiet, and 
 protection everywhere: More than this, I can not promise you ; 
 ' for in times like the present, it is impossible, at least emi- 
 nently improper, to lay down a policy to be adhered to, right 
 or wrong, through an administration of four years.' " 
 
 That is the language of an honest man, a brave man, a 
 patriot, and a statesman, — not the language of a imrtisan. 
 While he does not, perhaps, see any cause to dissent from the 
 
IG Speech of Judge Slocuie. 
 
 Chicago platform, he doesn^t exactly get on it. He doesn't see 
 any necessity for doing so. He is already on a very good 
 platform: and he chooses to remain on it: the platform on 
 which he stood when the people demanded his nomination, 
 and on. which they demanded his nomination: in short, his own 
 platform. "What is it ? It is the platform which he has occupied 
 his whole lifetime in constructing. It is the record of his 
 life, a record which proclaims him a dutiful and industrious 
 boy, an orderly and diligent cadet, an obedient and active 
 lieutenant, a brave, considerate and enterprising captain, a 
 plain, industrious, and unassuming farmer, a capable Adjutant 
 General, an eiJicient Colonel, a faithful, careful, competent 
 Brigadier General, a wise, energetic, far seeing Major General, 
 a prudent, thoughtful, learned, and illustrious General in Chief 
 of the armies of the United States, an energetic, economical, 
 and incorruptible Secretary of AVar, a dutiful son, an afiection- 
 ate brother, husband, and father; and throughout all, and in 
 every relation, a truthful and an honest man, one who never 
 polluted his lips with a lie, or did a mean, cruel, or oppressive 
 thing; a man equal to every responsibility, and unfaithful to 
 none. Ills countrymen have read this record. They have 
 examined every plank of this platform. They like it. It is a 
 safe platform. Political criticism may lind defects, perhaps, in 
 the Chicago platform. I'olitical malice may condemn and de- 
 nounce it. l)Ut political malice can not successfully assail 
 Grant's phitform ; 
 
 " Jt Oiui ,iujt titUe away the ifnico df life; 
 Its corneliiiesi- of look that virtue give^^; 
 Its ))ort erect with consciousness of truth : 
 Its lich attire of honorable deeds; 
 Its fair I'ciHirt that's i-ifc on good men's tongues: 
 it e;in not lay its hands on these, no more 
 Than it can pluck the bri;;htness from the sun. 
 Or with jiollutcd fin^-cr tarnish it." 
 
 h is ;is standing on this platform, rather than as stand- 
 ing on the Chicago })latf()rm, that / i>ropose to vote for him. 
 It is standing on this platform that lie will be able to command 
 the votes necessary to liis election. The Chicago platform may 
 
Speech of Judge Sloane. 17 
 
 do very well vniil the election^ but the people prefer one that 
 will last throughout a whole administration. Grant's will : 
 and not only so, it will last him his lifetime. 
 
 On what platform, tell me, was George "Washington 
 twice unanimously elected President of the United States? 
 On his own platform — the platform of his cliaracter as read in 
 the history of his life. The people of that day said — " Wash- 
 ington made the ISTation and its Government ; we are 
 not afraid to trust him with the administration of the Gov- 
 ernment." Gentlemen, Grant saved your country and its 
 Government : are his countrymen afraid to intrust to liim the 
 administration of that Government ? 
 
 I have conceded that Grant is not a politician ; and in 
 the course of my remarks, I have indicated to you, liow little 
 of a politician he is, and how much of a politician he is, if he 
 is any at all. It will be admitted, I think, that if he is not a 
 political man, he is a very politic one. Political strategy has 
 signally failed to get him into any false position. He has out- 
 generaled all the schemers, and defeated all their machina- 
 tions. While he is perfectly simple in his manners and direct 
 in all his purposes, despising duplicity and indirection, his 
 native shrewdness and good common sense protect liim from 
 imposition by others. Aiming at no ends but honorable ends, 
 and resorting to no means but honorable means, he does not 
 involve himself with tricksters or their trickery, and in at- 
 tempting to deceive others, become himself the victim of their 
 deception. ISTobody ever dupes Ulysses S. Grant — .Who does 
 not wish for the honor of the Nation, that as much could be 
 said of Salmon P. Chase ? Who does not feel that in the 
 transactions connected with Chase's recent candidac}' for the 
 Democratic nomination for the Presidency, the country has 
 been disgraced, and the higli office of Chief Justice degraded 
 and scandalized by the unjudicial and weak conduct of the 
 present incumbent ? He undertook to cajole and deceive the 
 Democratic party, and to catch it Avith a hook that could 
 hardly be said even to be baited. He was vain and weak 
 enough to believe he could succeed, when it was plain to every 
 
 9 
 
28 Speech of Judge Sloane. 
 
 well-iuformed and unbiased mind, that Chase's nomination by 
 the Kew York convention was a political impossibility. He 
 gathered around him reporters to take down and spread before 
 the country his legal opinions upon questions which may come 
 before him, as Chief Justice, for adjudication. He fed full 
 upon the gross flattery of the reporters. He sent his own 
 dauo-hter to New York to electioneer for her father's nomina- 
 tion, and, by flattering address, to win over to the cause as many 
 as possible of the more impressible delegates,— thus setting an 
 example of immodesty to the wives and daughters of America, 
 which, for the honor of our countrywomen, it is to be hoped 
 none of them will ever be so indelicate as to attempt to follow. 
 Has this descendant of a boasted Puritan ancestry, forgotten 
 and repudiated the stern and rugged virtues of his fathers, that 
 he dares to set such an evil and corrupting example? He sub- 
 scribed to everything the Democrats proposed ; he yielded 
 everything they demanded. To borrow a strong expression of 
 Job's, " They poured him oat as milk, and curdled him like 
 cheese." And what was the result of all tliis abasement, this 
 renunciation of party and principle, this humiliating denial 
 of himself, and disgraceful repudiation of his record? Out of 
 three liundred and seventeen votes, he got four and a half, and 
 four of them were only Massachusetts votes. Nobody was 
 deceived but Chase himself. The would-be diipcr was himself 
 duped. The engineer was "hoist with his own petard, and 
 himself blown at the moon,"— aftbrding another proof of the 
 truth of the oft quoted remark— that "a knave is but a rou7uI- 
 about fool." The Democrats, after they had got him fully com- 
 mitted, and had destroyed his influence and moral force as one 
 of the magnates of the "Republican party, contemptuously 
 kicked him out of their convention ; and, as, before, they had 
 always called him "knave" and "demagogue," they now 
 added the epithets—" fool " and " dupe." 
 
 Chase announced himself as opposed to the military 
 and negro suflVage " features" of the reconstruction measures, 
 as being unconstitutional. If he really thought so, why did he 
 not exert liis influence to prevent tlie passage of the measures 
 witli those "features" in them? Because, say his apologists, 
 
Speech of Judge Sloane. 19 
 
 he did not think it proper, for him, being Chief Justice, to ex- 
 press, in advance, his opinion upon the eonstitutionaUty of 
 laws, the vaUdity of whicli, might be brought before him for 
 decision 1 Indeed ! Then, how does he dare now to express 
 his opinion as to the constitutionahty of those same laws, when 
 the question as to their constitutionality is just as likely now 
 as before, to be brought before him for decision ? It is rather 
 amusing to the people of Ohio, to hear Chase talking about 
 his constitutional scruples. If the Chicago convention, ignor- 
 ing Grant's inestimable services, and disregarding the will of 
 the people, had nominated Mr. Chase for the Presidency, the 
 world would never have heard of his constitutional scruples. 
 But failing to get the liepublican nomination, he, all at once, 
 breaks the silence he had maintained for years, and expresses 
 great concern for the outraged constitutional rights of the 
 white people of the South. In view of his past history, and 
 his recent aspirations, Chase's assumed indignation at the im- 
 puted violations of the Constitution, can not but recall Byron's 
 bitter, but brilliant, sarcasm, — 
 
 •' And here and there some stern, high patriot stood, 
 ~\Vho — could not get the place for which he sued.'' 
 
 It can not be denied that Chase's conduct, in the prem- 
 ises, has been improper and disgraceful, and such as his friends 
 can not but regret and lament. Grant will never give his 
 friends such cause to blush. 
 
 I have been, thus far, telling you what Grant is not, 
 and in doing so, have told you, in part, what he is. But some 
 traits of his character need more particular attention than I 
 have, as yet, given them. 
 
 Grant is pre-eminently a prudent man. Of all the 
 men who stood forth prominently during the war. Grant was 
 the most prudent. There was no political empiricism in him. 
 He showed no disposition to usurp the powers and functions 
 of other officers of the Government. He went straight on id 
 the faithful performance of the duties of his own office. Let 
 
Speech of Judge Sloane. 
 
 me give you an example. We have seen that at the very 
 commencement of the war, he believed that one of its conse- 
 quences would be, and should be, the abolition of slavery. 
 But he didn't issue a proclamation to announce this opinion. 
 That was the President's business. But Fremont and Hunter 
 no sooner procured important commands, than they hastened 
 to proclaim that the existence of slavery was incompatible 
 within a state of war, and that, therefore, it was abolished 
 within the limits of their respective commands. Grant, it is 
 evident, held the same opinion that they did, but he had the 
 good sense to see that it was not his right to proclaim it, but 
 that it belonged to the President to do so : and the President 
 had the good sense to see that the people of the North were 
 not then prepared for such a measure, and probably would not 
 sustain it. lie, accordingly, " modified " Fremont and Hunter ; 
 and after a time those two proclaiming gentlemen, so craving 
 of a little notoriety, disappeared from the scene entirely. At 
 no time during the war, did Grant undertake to thrust his own 
 opinions, on political subjects, upou the country. 
 
 iSTor since the war, has he become a dabbler in politics. 
 Possessing a high command in the Army, and liable at any 
 time to be called upon, in his military capacity, to enforce the 
 laws of Congress, he has perceived how grossly improper it 
 would be for him to announce to the country his opinions as 
 to the policy or constitutionality of laws, either passed or 
 proposed. He has preserved a discreet silence. And this very 
 silence, by which he has merited the praise of all sensible men, 
 lias brought upon him the denunciations of all the little scrib- 
 bling Paul Prys who, for years, have boon flutter i no' around 
 him, in the vain hope of getting him to say something on 
 "which to found a political letter, — and who have found them- 
 selves constantly repulsed with a good naturcd contempt. 
 They have picked and published almost everybody else. Even 
 the solemn looking and oracular Chase, witli all his imputed 
 wisdom and Yankee cunning, has been the victim of their 
 flattery and address. They can "pluck out the heart of his 
 mystery." They know the " stops " of the rhetorical and con- 
 ceited Sumner. They can set blustering old Ben Wade to 
 
Speech of Judge Sloaue. 21 
 
 swearing any time, and any where, and " sound him from his 
 lowest note to the top of his compass," but Grant is not an in- 
 strument that they can either "fret" or "pLayupon." It is 
 my dehberate and earnest conviction, that General Grant has 
 more good, plain, trustworthy common sense than any other 
 man now prominently before the American people, in any 
 capaci ty. 
 
 Grant is a man of great self-reliance. This his whole 
 military career proves ; and yet it also proves him to be a man 
 ■wholly destitute of presumptnousness. lie never obtrudes his 
 opinions upon others, nor does he slavishly adopt theirs. 
 "When called upon to act, he acts promptly upon his own 
 opinions. Take a few of many instances his military history 
 aftbrds. When he landed his army in Mississippi, below 
 Grand Gulf, it was the opinion of Mr. Lincoln and his cabinet 
 that Grant should turn to the right, down the river, and help 
 Banks take Port Hudson. Grant's opinion was that he should 
 go to the left, up the river, and take Vicksburg, " If I take 
 Vicksburg," said he, " Port Hudson will fall without a tight : 
 and I will take Vicksburg. There is no need, then, of two 
 fights, when one will answer the purpose." He followed his 
 own opinion. He took Vicksburg, and Port Hudson did fall 
 without a fight. " If you want to take Toulon," said Napo- 
 leon, "take little Gibralter, and Toulon will fall." The oflicers 
 in command took the advice of the stripling Brigadier, and 
 the event demonstrated the correctness of his opinion. Little 
 Gibralter being taken, Toulon did fall. We can admire this 
 incident in the history of Napoleon ; but a precisely similar 
 one in that of Grant, his countrymen pass over without notice. 
 
 The whole plan, indeed, in the execution of which 
 Grant took Vicksburg, and thereby broke the enemy's line of 
 defenses, and opened the navigation of the Mississippi, was 
 suggested and devised by himself; and what is more, — it was 
 condemned by the chief officers of his command, and was not 
 approved at Washington. It was thought to be too com- 
 plicated and too hazardous. The Government never did ap- 
 
Speech of Judge Sloane. 
 
 prove, but only permitted, it. But Grant, tlirougliout, was 
 confident in liis opinion, and sure of success. "Once at Grand 
 Gulf," said he, " I do not feel a doubt of success.'* The result 
 well justified this self-confidence. Indeed, it may be said of 
 him, with almost as much truth as it was said of Napoleon, — 
 " To inferior intellects his combinations appeared perfectly im- 
 possible, his plans perfectly impracticable, but in his hands, 
 simplicity marked their development, and success vindicated 
 their adoption." 
 
 When called upon to take command in the East, he 
 told the authorities that they must not interfere with his plans 
 and his arrangements for their execution ; in short, that he 
 must have his own way. On these conditions he promised to 
 whip Lee, take Richmond, and drive the rebels out of Vir- 
 ginia. Grant went to work, and did, not only all he promised, 
 Wtmore; he crushed out the Rebellion. Eo you remember 
 a parallel incident in history? "Will you undertake the de- 
 fence of the Tuilleries," said Barras, to Xapoleon. " Yes, and 
 I am in the habit of accomplishing that which I undertake ; 
 but I must not be interfered with by orders from the Govern- 
 xnent," — was the self-confident reply, of the young, and then 
 obscure ofiicer. But in his case, as in Grant's, subsequent suc- 
 cess justified the self-confidence. In the able, self-confidence 
 is admirable : but in the weak, whose achievements do not 
 answer to the expectations their self-confidence awakens, it is 
 called vanity and presumptuousness. 
 
 Grant is a siihewd observer, a man of (ireat quickness 
 OF PERCEPTION AND PROMPT ACTION. Take an instance or two. 
 In one of the battles near the city of Mexico, while the regi- 
 ment in whicli Grant served as a lieutenant, was, with others, 
 attacking a strong barrier of the enemy, in front, Grant per- 
 ceived, what his Bui)crior ofiicers did not, that l)y means of a 
 movement to the left, the right Hank ol" the enemy could l)e 
 easily turned, and the attack rendered nuich more etiicient. 
 
 Acting promptly ujton the idea, and on his own rcspon- 
 fiibility, he made, with the men under his immediate command. 
 
Speech of Judge Sloane. 23 
 
 a movement to the left, and opening tire on the right flank of 
 the enemy, soon drove them from their position, and — most 
 strange to say — though an officer of humble grade, he got due 
 credit for his adroit and successful movement. 
 
 It will be recollected that at the siege of Donelson, and 
 on the day before the surrender, a division of the enemy, ten 
 thousand strong, with thirty pieces of artillery, came out of 
 their works at day light, and attacked Grant's right wing. 
 The battle, one of the 'most terrible ones fought during the 
 war, lasted till almost noon. The enemy, though they had 
 driven our forces from their position, became disheartened, and 
 slowly retired. The Union forces, greatly cut up and disor- 
 ganized, did not pursue, i^either party, at that time, claimed a 
 victory. Each, no doubt, felt a sense of defeat. Just when 
 affairs were in this condition. Grant was informed that the 
 enemy who had made such a furious assault on his right, had 
 marched to the attack with knapsacks and haversacks on. 
 '•Are the haversacks tilled ?" asked Grant. The haversacks of 
 some prisoners were examined, and it was ascertained that each 
 contained three days' rations. "Then," said Grant, "they 
 mean to cut their way out ; they have no idea of staying here 
 to fight us :" and perceiving that while the enemy were slowly 
 and sullenly retiring, his own fearfully cut up right wing Avas 
 not at all disposed, by pursuing them, to renew the fight. Grant 
 exclaimed — " Whichever party now first attacks will whip, and 
 the rebels will have to be very quick if they beat me :" and he 
 instantly ordered his left wing, under General Smith, and 
 which had not, as yet, been engaged, to assault the enemy's 
 right. The assault was successful, and the fate of Donelson 
 was settled. 
 
 These instances of quick perception, rapid reasoning, 
 and prompt decision may, to some, seem unimportant and 
 scarcely worth mention here. It may be said, "Anybody 
 might have perceived what Grant did ; and it being once per- 
 ceived, everybody would have reasoned and acted just as he 
 did." This is easily said. Anybody can balance an Qg,g on 
 the smaller end after he has seen another do it, — the process is 
 
Speech of Judge Sloane. 
 
 80 simple. But the difference is, in all sncli cases, that one 
 man perceives the simple process, and how easily it is per- 
 formed, while others, with equal opportunity, do not, and, per- 
 haps, never would. 
 
 Just before the commencement of the battle of the 
 Pyramids, Napoleon, reconnoitering the enemy's position, per- 
 ceived — what no other ofiiccr did — that the enemy's cannon 
 were on immovable carriages. He instantly ordered such a 
 disposition of his forces, as rendered the enemy's cannon almost 
 wholly Unavailing. This is recorded as aa evidence of ITapo- 
 leon's great military genius. What do the instances I have 
 mentioned of Grant's quickness of perception, rapid reasoning, 
 and prompt action tend to prove ? If I had not already con- 
 ceded that Grant is not a genius, I might be permitted to 
 argue that they prove him a genius. 
 
 Grant is a man of sound judgment and great pertinac- 
 ity OP purpose. Observing with diligence and accuracy, and 
 reasoning carefully, he does not readily abandon an opinion 
 once formed, or relinquish a purpose once conceived. 
 
 "When, in the evening, of the tirst day's fighting at 
 Shiloh, an officer said to Grant, *'Thc rebels have whipped 
 us," he replied, " Yes, they have wliipped us to-day, but we '11 
 whip them to-morrow." No thought of failure entered his 
 mind. " This," said Desaix to Napoleon, on the field of Mar- 
 engo, '' is a battle lost." "/think," said Napoleon, "it is a 
 battle gained, charge with your column, and I will rally the 
 fugitives behind you." 
 
 We all recollect, and few of us will forget, while we live. 
 Grant's cheering words of high resolve — "I propose to light it 
 out on this line if it takes all summer." lie was fighting on 
 ground where all liis predecessors had failed. He was fighting 
 tiie ablest general of the confederate armies, one who had baf- 
 fied and defeated all our other generals whom lu- had encoun- 
 tered, save only that most estimable man and able general, 
 George Gordon Meade. At the time he wrote these words, lie 
 had fought a battle every day, for the six next preceding days, 
 
Speech of Judge Sloane. 25 
 
 and had as the rebels and copperheads said, and as some of 
 the loyal men of the North were but too much inclined to be- 
 lieve, got whipped in every battle. Our minds were in doubt, 
 and our hearts filled with gloomy forebodings. How cheering, 
 then, were the Avords of Grant which gave us assurance that 
 he was not discouraged — " I propose to fight it out on this line, 
 if it takes all summer." Had Grant's heart failed him then, 
 had he faltered, turned back, all would have been lost. But 
 before he left "Washington to take command of the Army of 
 the Potomac, he had, on a thorough examination of the situa- 
 tion, and a careful estimate of resources, formed the opinion 
 that he could, and the resolve that he would, take Richmond, 
 and he never, for a single moment, entertained a doubt of suc- 
 cess. 
 
 "Who, at the time, formed a more correct judgment of 
 the condition of the South, than Grant expressed in his cele- 
 brated letter of the 16th of August, 1864. 
 
 " The rebels have now in their ranks their last man. A 
 man lost by them can not be replaced. They have robbed the 
 cradle and the grave equally to get their present force." 
 
 Grant is a man op great energy and activity. Nothing 
 is more common than for the masses to misinterpret a promi- 
 nent man. From one acknowledged and distinguishing qual- 
 ity, they infer, — and often altogether arbitrarily and unreason- 
 bly — the existence or non-existence of other qualities. Grant 
 is a quiet, unobtrusive, and undemonstrative man : he, there- 
 fore, is, say some, a slow, lethargic, unenterprising man, never 
 disposed to act at all, unless compelled to do so. This his 
 whole history contradicts. No one who has seen him, and 
 observed his firm, steady, emphatic step, can afterwards doubt 
 that he is a man of great energy. He has, through life, been 
 distinguished for restless, untiring energy. Whenever he had 
 before him anything of importance to do, he knew, and would 
 know, no rest until it was done. He was not only always 
 ready and willing to do all that in the position he occupied he 
 was required to do, but more — anything he could do to forward 
 
26 Speech of Judge Sloane. 
 
 tlie enterprise, whatever it might be, in which he, in common 
 with others, was engaged. 
 
 At Vera Cruz he was appointed regimental quarter- 
 master. As such, he was not required to take part in actual 
 battles ; yet he did fight in every battle from Vera Cruz to the 
 city of Mexico : and by his distinguished gallantry on the 
 field, won two promotions. 
 
 While under the command of Halleck, Grant's move- 
 ments in the field were slow, and sometimes had the appear- 
 ance of hesitation, if not timidity ; but the history of those 
 movements proves that they took their character from the slow 
 and timid mind of Halleck, and that Grant was constantly 
 desirous of pressing forward, and chafed at the needless delays 
 which Ilalleck's distrustful, not to say cowardly, mind imposed 
 upon him. But when Grant was left to himself, one brilliant 
 achievement followed another, with a rapidity seldom surpassed 
 by the most celebrated doings of the most distinguished mas- 
 ters of the art of war. 
 
 Grant is an honest man, an incorruptibly honest man. 
 This even his enemies and traducers admit. To be such, in 
 this day and generation, and "as the world goes," "is to be 
 one man picked out of ten thousand." Surrounded by the 
 faithless, he has always proved himself faithful ; in the midst 
 of corruption, he has stood a marked man, pure and untainted. 
 Possessing the very best of opportunities for the acquisition of 
 fortune by the misure of official position and patronage, he 
 has remained heroically poor, while thousands of others with 
 inferior opportunities and less business sense, have accumulated 
 princely fortunes, and now insult the people whom they have 
 plundered, by an ol)trusivc and vainglorious display of thoir 
 iilgotten wealth. 
 
 Grant is a man of uijhual education. That he is a grad- 
 uate of "West I'oint afibrds assurance enough of this truth ; 
 but if more were wanting, I would refer to his military orders 
 and correspondence. These prove liim to be a clear, correct, 
 
Speech of Judge Sloane. 27 
 
 and forcible writer ; and whoever will examine his controversy 
 with President Johnson, will not fail to perceive that his pen 
 is as trenchant as his sword. Of the seventeen persons who 
 have occupied the presidential chair, more than half, namely, 
 nine, were not as well educated as General Grant, and seven of 
 these nine, namely, Washington, Monroe, Jackson, Harrison, 
 Taylor, Fillmore, and Lincoln, gave us administrations among 
 the best we have ever had. 
 
 Grant is a modest man. There never was, I suppose, a 
 man of less self-assertion than he. I do not know what the 
 General's religion is ; but two or three brief interviews with him, 
 convinced me that he has a great deal of that scriptural charity, 
 which " vaunteth not itself, is not putfcd up, doth not behave itself 
 unseemly." To the enemies of his country, in time of war, 
 he is bold and defiant. Peace being restored, among his 
 friends, he is the most backward and retiring of men. No 
 man ever did so much for, who asked so little of, his country- 
 men. Though he has " achieved greatness," honors have had 
 to be "thrust upon " him. He never directly or indirectly, 
 asked a promotion or an office. He never demanded any 
 recognition of his services. He has constantly discouraged and 
 avoided, and is still doing so, all proposed public demonstra- 
 tions to do him honor. 
 
 And — shame to say — this very modesty of Grant's has, 
 with many, done him a positive injury. As he shrinks from 
 public gaze, it must be, they say, because he desires to conceal 
 the weakness of which he is conscious, in the seclusion and 
 retiracy which he affects. Fools ! He did'nt shrink from the 
 gaze and the criticism of the world, when duty called him forth 
 to defend and save an almost ruined country. But in this age of 
 brass and false pretences. Grant's unparalleled modesty seems 
 not to be well understood, or even, by many, likely to be par- 
 doned. "Well may he say with Hamlet : 
 
 '• Forgive me this my virtue, 
 
 For in the fatness of these pursy times, 
 
 Virtue itself of vice must pardon bog, 
 
 Yea, curb and woo for leave to do him good."' 
 
^8 Speech of Judge Sloane. 
 
 Gkant is of good stock. I do not mean that Grant's 
 great-great-grand-father was a deputy bailiff somewhere in 
 England ; that his grand-father was a quarter master in the 
 Revolutionarj War; that his father was county clerk or treas- 
 urer somewhere for twenty-five years, or by political fawning 
 or bullyism succeeded in getting a profitable contract for carry- 
 ing the mail, from some facile or corrupt Post Master General, 
 whereby he made a " little bunch " of money, and thereupon 
 undertook to ape the wealthy and the fashionable ; that one of 
 his uncles was elected a member of some State legislature five 
 or six times in succession ; or that another uncle married a 
 widow woman who was worth one hundred thousand dollars, 
 and converted the whole of it to his own use ; or that he had 
 a cousin who drew a lottery prize of fifty thousand dollars, and 
 afterward lived in " splendid " style, until he killed himself 
 drinking. The Grant family have never been distinguished in 
 any of these ways. I am often amused at obituary notices of 
 little great men, in which it is told how rich they were, but not 
 how they acquired their wealth, how many offices they held, 
 but not how they filled them. A man may have been a very 
 good man, and, yet, have filled a great many offices, but is not 
 the presumption rather the other way? The man who has 
 held office much, has, in most cases, sought it much, and was, 
 most likely, a political sponge and pauper. The Grants never 
 held office much. This we might aptly infer from the charac- 
 ter of the General himself Men do not gather grapes off 
 thorns or figs off thistles. 
 
 We have the history of the Grant family in this country 
 for two hundred and twenty-seven years. They have been just 
 such a people as might have been expected to produce just sucli 
 a man as Ulysses S. Grant — an industrious, self-reliant, retir- 
 ing, quiet, sensible, truthful, upright people ; a people whose 
 industry secured them a competency, which raised them above 
 patronage and dependence, whose honesty and libei-ality [(re- 
 vented them, in most cases, from acquiring great fortunes, and 
 whose modesty and good sense kept most of them out of the 
 crooked and corrupting paths of ambition, leading them to 
 prefer 
 
Speech of Judge Sloane. 29 
 
 — "The cool, sequestered vale of life,'' 
 
 where, for generations, tliey have 
 
 — ••' Kept the noiseless tenor of their way; " 
 
 just that kind and class of people from vrhich Providence fur- 
 nishes to a nation, when need is, a Tell or a Winkelreid, a La 
 Pucelle or a Cromwell, a Marion or a Jackson, a Henry, a 
 Franklin, or a Lincoln. 
 
 Such has been the Grant family. Such was the Wash- 
 mgton family. The one produced a man Avho made your 
 country ; the other one who saxed it. Both are excellent speci- 
 mens of the American citizen, gentleman, soldier. Your 
 fathers almost adored the one ; will you, their children, fail to 
 appreciate, and duly to honor, the other ? 
 
 Such, Gentlemen, as I have described him, is Ulysses S 
 Grant, — a man of good, solid sense, and useful and thorough 
 acquirements, — a man of plain and direct, but shrewd and far 
 seeino- mind, — a quiet and taciturn man, but one who speaks, 
 when called upon to speak, directly to the point, in clear, forci- 
 ble, and fitting, but not in ornate, or even very elegant, 
 language, — a modest and retiring man, who never thrusts him- 
 self upon the public attention, but one who, being called upon 
 to act, acts with promptitude and vigor, " asking no favors, 
 and shrinking from no responsibilities;" a man of activity and 
 energy, without bluster or parade, of firmness, without obsti- 
 nacy, of self-reliance, without vanity or presumptuousness, a 
 man of quick perceptions, rapid reasoning powers, sound judg- 
 ment, and prompt decision, — a man wdio owes nothing to 
 favoritism, but who "by dint of merit," has " ac/i?eivrf great- 
 ness,'' and who, notwithstanding the eminence to which he 
 has risen, has not become dizzy brained, but is the same simple 
 mannered, level headed man he was before, and who walks the 
 toppling mountain heights of fame, with the same lirm step, 
 undazzled eye, calm, clear, steady mind, and modest bearing, 
 for which he was noted in the humble and obscure lowlands of 
 life. 
 
 Possessing the qualities I have enumerated. Grant, if 
 elected, can not be other than a safe President. 
 
 Prudent and moderate himself, in everything, he will 
 
go Speech of Judge Sloane. 
 
 give you an economical administration. Having a competency, 
 and being content therewith, avarice will never tempt him to 
 make any compromise with the corruptionists who have been 
 so lono" plundering the people, but with a whip of cords, he 
 will scourge them from the offices of the government, over- 
 throwing the tables of the money changers and the bribers. 
 Owino- his nomination and his election to the people alone, 
 and not to party leaders and party strategy, he will have " no 
 friends to reward or enemies to punish," and will, therefore, 
 administer the Government for the country at large, and not 
 in the interests of a political party. For the same reason, his 
 appointments to office will be directed and controlled by that 
 o"0od sense and shrewd insight into character, which have enabled 
 him heretofore, in every instance, to select the right man for 
 the given place. A thoughtful and self-reliant man, destitute 
 of vanity, and possessing the very highest order of courage, 
 physical and moral, flattery will not seduce, nor threats, intimi- 
 date him, and he will administer the Government in accord- 
 ance with what may be his own judgment of what is right and 
 proper in each particular case, and not as a clique of party 
 leaders and hangers on about Washington may require him to 
 do. The first citizen of the Kepublic, great without, and inde- 
 pendent of, office, known and admired throughout tlie world, 
 his administration will command the world's respect, and assure 
 the National honor and the recognition of our national rights 
 everywhere. But it is more particularly in respect of our pros- 
 pective domestic troubles, that Grant will be the safest Presi- 
 dent we could possibly have, — for domestic troubles you have, 
 and greatly augmented ones you will have. An attempt is 
 threatened to be made to overthrow, by violence and blood-shed, 
 the reconstructed governments of the lately rebellious States, 
 and to disfranchise the black men of those States. If such 
 attempt is to be made, if the war is to be fought over again, it 
 will be well to have at the head of the Government, the first 
 military man of the nation. Wlien the dark hour of trial does 
 come, if come it must, the loyal peo[)lc of the land, be their 
 numbers great or small, will gather around their President 
 Grant witli no less alacrity and zeal, and with far more hope^ 
 
Speed i of Judge Slourie. 31 
 
 than !n the gloomy days of the late war, they gathered at the 
 call of their beloved President Lincoln. If the battle for equal 
 rights and equal liberties is to be fought over again, no one is 
 so worthy and so fitting to bear the banner of the loyal and the 
 free, and command their forces, as this man of the people, this 
 son of poverty and toil, this scorner of wealth, this contemner 
 of factitious distinctions and dignities, this plain, honest, sensi- 
 ble, modest, economical, prudent, industrious citizen, this 
 thorough gentleman, this most illustrious and successful gen- 
 eral of the age and world, — Ulysses S. Grant. 
 
 Gentlemen, let us go to work and elect him. 
 
t 
 
 ik