^^ ^>^^,/hh '^ ^ "c i^pw^i "- "V ■.^ M fV^^-^v\\V » S WiWs / ^ <^. \-ii - 'y-o"^ r^^, ^,' .5°^ '5.,. ■>^<:^^' o **'^ * o r. o' v ' ' ' °' ^^ ,^ A-J^" v^,wW:. -. ^_-v ;.^ '^^_ 3O ^ O ' . , s o ^^-^^^ 4 o V '.^-r-v-:- v^^ ^a^S' , -^ c 0' r«o^* ^<;,'^ 4 o ^ o ^' . '%y •>'^^'^'. \,,^^^ ; ^" ^^. <''V^^>* . '^ - ^. "•: > 'n^.o^ r.'s ^ '\ o ^0 ,^ ^ -^ -^ _ ^^:^'^v^v / %^ ^-^i^^ . '^ '^ . ^'^^V: ,^ '^_ gp: .v> '^^b. <^. -^ •^^o'^ A Commemorative Discourse WORK AND CHARACTER OF Ulysses Simpson Grant, Delivered before the Citizens of Watertown, August 8, 1885, BY C. L WOODWORTH, D. D. The Prayer Offered on the Same Occasion LUTHER T. TOWNSEND, D.D. BOSTON: Beacon Press : Thomas Todd, Printer, No. I Somerset Street. 1885. ;,:' l A Commemorative Discourse WORK AND CHARACTER Ulysses Simpson Grant, Delivered before the Citizens of VVatertown, August 8, 1885, BY C. L. WOODWORTH, D, D. 1 * ALSO, The Prayer Offered on the Same Occasion LUTHER T. TOWNSEND, D.D. BOSTON: Beacon Press : Thomas Todd, Printer, No. I Somerset Street. 1885. E-672 VS7 Watertown, August 12, 18S5. Rev. C. L. WoodiLwrth, D.D., and Rev. L. T. Towiisetid, D.D.: Dear Sirs: The Committee havins; in charge the arrangements for the Memo- rial Service of General Grant on the Sth inst., in our town, propose to print the eulogy, and also the prayer which was offered, for public distribution. Will you, gentlemen, please furnish copies of the same, and accept the thanks of the Com- mittee for your services on that occasion ? A. L. Richards, C. W. Smith, A. O. Davidson, John Hallahan, Edward Fitzwilliams, Geo. E. Teele, Alfred Hosmer, Oliver Shaw, Samuel S. Gleason, J. G. Barker, Benj. H. Dow, Wm. H. Ingraham, O. W. DiMicK, Charles Brigham, Geo. F. Robinson, J. H. Hartwell, James F. Lynch, Committee, Boston, August 12, 18S5. A. L. Richards, Esq. : Dear Sir : I have your note of this date in behalf of the Committee which you represent, requesting for publication a copy of the address which I had the honor to deliver on the occasion of General Grant's funeral, August 8. Thank- ing you and the Committee for the opportunity to prepare and to deliver the address which your invitation made possible, I now cheerfully put it at your dis- posal for the purpose named in your note. Very respectfully yours, C. L. Woodworth. A. L. Richards and sixteen others, Committee. Gentlemen : I have the honor of being in the receipt of yours dated August 12th requesting for publication a copy of the prayer offered at the Grant Memo- rial Service. If in your judgment its publication in connection with the admir- able address delivered by Dr. Woodworth will in any measure contribute to the interest of the pamphlet as a commemorative document, I can interpose no objection and herewith place at your disposal a copy of the same. Very respectfully yours, Luther T. Townsend. A. L. Richards, A. O. Davidson, Edward Fitzwilliams, and others. Watertown, September 12, i88j. PRAYER BY LUTHER T. TOWNSEND, D.D. Infinite and ever blessed God, our Heavenly Father, who hast ordained and overruled all the great events of this world and the universe, and who likewise art not unmindful of the fall of a sparrow, it is becoming in us at all times and under all circumstances to recognize Thee and acknowledge our dependence upon Thy mercy. And whether standing amid the stirring scenes of life, or the quiet of death, amid joy or grief, we may well implore Thy presence and Thy blessing. With great multitudes in this and other lands, who at this hour are met to honor the dead, we would thank Thee for such a disposition of events as has permitted us to have our birth and our homes in this land of unmatched opportunities, where all are free and where all may be enlightened in intel- lectual and religious truth; and for such a disposition of events as gave to this nation and brought to the attention of the whole world the great man whose body this day is committed to the tomb. And as Thou canst order all events for Thy glory and our good, we pray that the lessons from the life and death of our great soldier, for whom more symbols of mourning are now to be seen than have ever before been displayed in this world for any one man, whose funeral procession today consists of towns and cities and states and nations, even the nations of all civilized lands, may be deeply impressed upon the hearts of all our people. May the quiet modesty of that heroic man tend to check the noisy impatience that clamors for honor and position, and may it teach our people to work and wait patiently for the divine unfoldings of events, we meanwhile rendering with all diligence the service of today, letting the morrow care for the things of itself. May our people likewise be impressed with the lessons often given, but not always heeded, that the highest and grandest successes are not quickly or easily gained, but must be reached by a patient and trustful continuance in well-doing, and that God will delight to pave the way to honorable prefer- ment, even from the humblest walks of life, when the times demand leaders and when men are found who are seeking to do Thy will. And especially may the lesson be deeply engraved upon all hearts that sterling integrity is pleasing to Thee and will be honored of man. And may we not soon forget that he who was willing to yield the last farthing, seeking in sickness and pain new fields of toil in which to make provision for his family, rather than a creditor should suffer loss, has thus proved himself not only mighty on the field of battle, but equally grand in civil life. We bless Thee for the grace that enabled him to stand without yielding to tempta- tion, whereby a shadow would have been cast upon his fair name, and the honors conferred at this hour would be far less. Hast not Thou ordained that in both time and eternity that they, who honor Thee, Thou wilt honor; and they who despise Thee and Thy righteous- ness shall be lightly esteemed? May our people also be impressed with the beauty and sacredness of home life as Thou hast ordained it, and as now brought before the eyes of the world, where the wife and mother is both queen and nurse, where the wearied and sick man seeks and finds repose, where children can find protection and inspiration, and where even death knits the hearts of all in a fonder and more loving embrace. And in other ways may this event that calls us together become under the overruling of Thy providence a great national blessing. By it may our land be securer in its union than ever before; may this hour, passed amid the solemn thoughts of death, make men, east and west, north and south, better citizens, nobler patriots, and more devout Christians; and may the bond which this day unites, under the influence of Thy spirit, millions of hearts in this common grief and service, be extended until all English-speaking people shall feel the glow and thrill of fraternal love — even until all nations shall move forward under the sublime conception that they are made of one blood and therefore should seek peace, be governed by Christian charity, and learn war no more. We humbly pray for Thy blessing upon the family of our great soldier and citizen. And especially commend to Thy tender mercy the wife who made the home of the distinguished dead a delight, who shared his successes and helped gain the respect and honors now cheerfully conferred upon him. Comfort her in her great bereavement, give strength in this hour of prostration, and be Thou ever near in the days and nights of her future loneliness. We commend to Thee likewise all who are suffering a like grief. May it please Thee greatly to bless those whose thoughts of the war and their losses are awakened afresh today, and whose response to the beating drum are deep sighs and falling tears; especially those mothers who never cease to mourn for their dead sons, and wives whose husbands never returned, and whose loss is still the burden of their lives. Known only to Thee is the depth of their sorrow. God pity, God bless them ! And we are moved to commend to Thy fatherly goodness the family of our friend and neighbor whose death has just cast an additional shadow over our homes and our hearts. May the infinite compassion not fail the widow and fatherless in this hour of their greatest need.* We pray for the divine favor upon our town ; grant prosperity to its people; may good-will and Christian charity, temperance, and virtue, and all things that make homes happy and communities prosperous be granted unto us and unto our children after us. And now may God bless us in all the exercises of the hour. May Thy grace be given in full measure to Thy servant who is selected to speak for us in praise of the dead ; by the inspiration of his words and of this hour may we all be lifted to a higher and nobler plain of Christian thought and en- deavor — becoming, in all things, more like Thyself — through our ever blessed Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, to whom, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, be glory and dominion world without end. Amen. •This reference is to Mr. George K. Snow, who was drowned, while bathing, August 9th. A COMMEMORATIVE DISCOURSE. Soldiers ; Citizefis ; Ladies and Getitlemen : We stand, today, within the shadows of a great national sorrow. The air is filled with the presence and the memory of the Saviour of his country. The great soldier has fought his last battle, and entered into the rest — "Where the war-drum throbs no longer: And the battle-flags are furled." Fifty millions of people reverently and tenderly, like be- reaved children, are waiting around his open coffin. One more vision of that precious form, which so often rode the crest of battle and led the hosts of God to victory, before it descends into the darkness and silence of the tomb. The citizen whom we mourn was not the property or the inheritance of any church, or nation, or time. His name filled two hemispheres. And the Eastern, as well as the Western, has watched his departure, and answers, in words of sympathy and sorrow, the event which bereaves mankind. Stricken with the common grief, at the going out of this great life, we are met to express our sense of the loss which the Republic has sustained ; and to add our estimate of the value of the man, and of the work which he performed for his generation and his kind. History is too often the mere narration of events, with- out regard for the motives or the living forces out of which they have been evolved. And I know of nothing in litera- ture that is more barren in interest, or more unprofitable in its lessons. History has value, as it reveals the secret springs of character, and accounts for the forces which burst forth into those mighty movements that shape the destiny of empires, and of men. 8 It would be easy to sketch the main events in the life of General Grant. And this has already been done, not only in the labored memoirs, but by the popular press throughout the world. The story of his humble home at Mt. Pleasant, on the banks of the Ohio, where he was born, April 27, 1822, is familiar to us all. We know that his parents were simple- hearted, modest. Christian people. We know that this boy was a tough, brave, tenacious little fellow, who had a won- derful knack at doing things ; and who, when another boy once said to him — "You can't master that" — at once replied, " What does cant mean .? " And it would seem, as though to the end of his life, he never found out the meaning of '• can't." We know the friendly strife there was between the grand- father and the grandmother, with reference to the child's name — the one desiring to call him " Hiram," and the other " Ulysses," and how the matter was finally compromised by calling him " Hiram Ulysses." And we know how the name was, at last, changed by a blunder on the part of the member of Congress who secured his appointment, at the age of seventeen, as cadet at West Point, and who wrote the name " Ulysses S. Grant!' It seems almost as if the mistake was both providential and prophetic. For very early the soldiers discovered a significance in the initial letters of the first two names, which had a mysterious and powerful influence upon their minds. Singular, was it not, that " U. S." were abbreviations of United States, Uncle Sam, and uncofiditional surrender'? And it need not surprise us that when " United States " Grant or " Unconditional Surrender" Grant led the column it might be checked, but it could never be conquered. We are sufificiently familiar, no doubt, with young Grant's course at West Point. He was a faithful, but not what would be called a hard student. In a class of thirty-nine he ranked the twenty-first. He was obedient to all the regulations of the Academy ; and was distinguished for his manliness, per- fect truthfulness, freedom from profanity and vulgarity, and utter scorn of anything base and mean. He was the incarna- tion of honor — good-tempered, but would never give nor allow an insult. Grant was graduated from West Point on the 30th of June, 1843 ; and on the next day was brevetted second lieutenant and assigned to duty in the Fourth United States Infantry, then stationed in Jefferson Barracks near St. Louis. Here he remained some two years ; but on the breaking out of the Mexican War in 1845, he, with his regiment, was ordered into Texas. He participated in most of the battles, fought under General Taylor, and was conspicuously brave at Palo Alto, Resaca de la Palma, Monterey, and at Molino del Rey, and finally took part in the storming of Chapultepec. He was in some fourteen different engagements. But peace was declared in 1848, and Grant returned North with the rank of Captain, having been twice brevetted for gallant conduct on the field. Captain Grant now made his way to St. Louis to take ad- vantage of a conquest he had achieved before being ordered on duty into Mexico. This was to be united In marriage to a young lady. Miss Julia T. Dent, who, as the wife of General Grant in the lowest as well as in the most exalted positions, has borne herself with such womanly fidelity and grace ; so meek and modest, calm and true, that she holds today, in the respect and love of the American people, a position only second to that of her illustrious husband. For two years he had his military home in Michigan and New York ; and the two years following was on duty in Cali- fornia and Oregon. Wearying, however, of the monotony of camp life at a military post, he resigned his commission, and left the army, July 31, 1854. For the next five years he occupied a little farm in the State of Missouri, southwest from St. Louis ; and in the winter cut and drew wood to the city market. He came in on the top of his load dressed in farmer's frock, his pants tucked into the tops of his boots, and an old slouched hat drawn down on his head. Simple, poor, unpretending — self- respecting, doing his work after a manly sort, and asking favor of none. In 1859 he entered into a partnership with his father, to carry on the business of tanning, in Galena, Illinois, under the firm name of Grant & Son. Here his annual income is lO said to have reached the munificent sum of $600 per year ; and here it was that, Mrs. Grant has recently said, they passed the happiest years of their life. How the simplicity and the ruooredness of the man remind us of Cincinnatus, who twice left the plow, that he might disperse the enemies of his country and save the Republic. On that fatal morning in April, 1861, Captain Grant walked into his office and read a telegram announcing the fall of Fort Sumter. Instantly walking around the counter on which lay his coat, he drew it on, saying, " I am for the war, to put down this wicked rebellion." The rest you know as well as I. What American has not learned the story of this magnificent soldier by heart .■* From that hour his life becomes historic, and a part of the imperishable renown of his country. Those who witnessed his achievments in war ; his works of peace ; his unflinching struggle with the only enemy he could not conquer, will hold him as the most remarkable figure of the century. Twenty-five years ago he was but a simple, honest tanner in a Western town which, but for him, would hardly be known beyond its own borders. He was content to live frugally, tan good leather, and meet the every- day duties of an American citizen. But the moment his country was in peril, he felt it his duty to offer to her de- fence the benefit of the education which she had conferred upon him. And from Belmont to Richmond all there was in him and of him was laid on his country's altar, Donelson and Shiloh ; Corinth and Vicksburg, and the Appomattox can never be mentioned without suggesting the highest military genius, and the finest qualities of generalship. Four years after leaving the tannery, he was wielding a million of men; sweeping the rebellious States from the James to the Gulf, and compelling the surrender of the last soldier of the Con- federate forces. Four years later he was called to the Presidency of the Republic, to the performance of the highest civic duties, for which he had had no training — four years later still to a second term of that great office — and as we look back to the leading measures of his administration, internal and foreign, II to the unexampled increase of the national wealth, and the vast extension of the national influence and prestige abroad, we say, what a man is this to whom the science of government, and the principles on which a nation's prosperity is founded and promoted are but intuitions ? Who shall say today whether he was greater, in war, or in peace ? But we will all say that he " is first in the hearts of his countrymen." "A braver soldier never couched the lance ; A gentler heart did never sway a court." But, friends, we shall miss our way in following to its end the life of General Grant, if we take for our guide the or- dinary lights and canons of human history. We find no thread that will lead us into the secret of this man's life, until we take the divine clue, and follow it up to the mind and will of God. Once admit that there is a " divinity in human affairs which shapes their ends," and we have the key to interpret certain singular men whose appearance in the world is a sign from heaven that a new epoch has begun, and that old things are ready to pass away. Men have occasionally come and gone who have con- tained the history of an age, or of a nation ; who have enunciated principles, promulgated laws, founded institutions, which have begotten and molded, and preserved the life and the character, and the power of generations, and of empires. The brevity of a human life sometimes seems unutter- ably sad, as in the case of the Chieftain who lies before us today. But on the other hand what a magnificent thing is a human life — rightly lived, and rightly filling out the measure of its opportunity for God and man ! In order to understand either Lincoln or Grant we must understand our own history. We must understand the divine forces and necessities which led to the formation of the American colonies, and afterwards to the founding of the American Republic. We need to comprehend that the deepest law of this world is a law of righteousness, which God has vindicated, and will vindicate, in history, to the end of time. Our fathers knew this, but they were faithless to their principles, and inserted into that magnificent work on which 12 the Nation was founded, the principle of human chattelhood. It was only a question of time : "The mills of the gods grind slow, But they grind exceeding fine." That instrument, which the original States ratified with orations and songs and bonfires ; with the ringing of bells and the booming of cannon ; with all the expressions of jubilation and thanksgiving which a grateful people could command, held the direst system of slavery that ever dark- ened the earth, and the bloodiest war of the modern centuries, God kept the Open Book, and when the day of reck- oning came. He demanded that we should pay down to the account of eternal righteouness, drop by drop, the blood of three hundred and sixty thousand human lives, and dollar by dollar, $6,000,000,000 of our treasure. In this awful reckoning Abraham Lincoln was God's mouth to proclaim liberty to the captives, and Ulysses Simpson Grant was God's right arm to smite the fetter from the slave. As we make him God's angel of wrath and of mercy to an offending people shall we understand why General Grant was born, and why he lived in a land and age like this. Such a man comes only when there is need of him, and when God has a place for him to fill. It is worse than idle to compare him with such military captains as Caesar and Napoleon — the one of whom de- stroyed the liberties of his country, and the other of whom attempted to destroy the liberties of Europe. Grant's arm was lifted only in defence of his country — to put down her enemies, to deliver her slaves, and to rectify her fundamental law which had built the central column of our temple of liberty on a base concealed with scourges and chains, while serpents writhed and hissed among the leaves which entwined its capital. The great soldier had no ambition but to deliver and save an imperiled country. That he did this, fifty millions of people, scattered from ocean to ocean, and from the St. Law- rence to the Gulf, confess today. Can we analyze and test the qualities of such a man, and find out the secret of his greatness and power } The attempt has been frequently made, but, as it seems to us, even in the judgment of the writers themselves, with no very satisfactory results. His career has been so ex- traordinary that one class of writers resolve it into some happy luck or chance ; while another class refer it to some subtle quality in the nature of the man, which defies detec- tion or definition. The mistake is not unnatural, and is one which will continue to be made, while history is written from a merely human stand-point. Without pretending to a keener insight into men and events, we cannot help the feeling that the investigation into General Grant has failed simply because it was pursued in the wrong direction. The investigators started out on the assumption that there was a mystery to be explored and some vast deep to be fathomed, in order to find out the hiding of his power. The result is, his simple and perfectly obvious qualities were overlooked in the effort to discover something unusual, exceptional, and remote. There was nothing, in General Grant which does not belong to human nature, and the difference between him and the ordinary man is, that he was a full man, rounded and complete in every faculty. His powers were evenly balanced, having nothing in excess, and so moving in harmony, and with prodigious strength. The average man is narrow, shallow, and ofttimes one- sided — perhaps the physical developed at the expense of the intellectual ; or both at the expense of the sensibilities ; and possibly all three at the expense of the will. In such a case the resultant outcome of the powers in action could only be feebleness, pettiness, and indirection. Two words we believe will explain General Grant, as they will explain all men who are great in character and great in action — these words are StrengtJi and Courage. It will be understood that we use these terms as imply- ing the utmost that they can hold, or cover, in a human being. And we apply the word strength to every department of man's nature — body, mind, heart, and will. We also use the word broadly, as indicating fullness of power in every faculty, and the harmonious blending and play of all. We have men of poetic temperament, eloquent men, brilliant men, logical 14 men ; men of metaphysical and speculative thought ; but no man will stand up colossal and grand among his fellows to receive their homage and their following who lacks the two qualities named above. Test the great characters which loom up along the ages and mark the line of human achievement and human prog- ress, and it will be seen that strength and courage, in the large sense, were their distinguishing qualities. We feel this instantly at the names of Abraham, Moses, Joshua, David, Paul, Augustine, Luther, Calvin, Knox, Edwards, and White- field among the worthies of the church ; Alexander, Caesar, Alfred, Charlemagne, Cromwell, Napoleon, and Washington among the founders of states and rulers of men. General Grant easily and naturally falls into this category of historic men. He was great unconsciously, and without effort. He took his place at the head of Americans, because nature had rounded out all his faculties in her large mold, and added to his character the weight and the force of un- flinching convictions. It is possible to have greatness in certain directions, where there is deficiency in some physical power, or in some mental or moral quality. But we will not have the great man without flaw, unless we have fullness and propor- tion and poise, throughout the combined and complete natures of the man. Physically, General Grant was as nearly perfect as a human being can be. Of medium size, sinewy, compact, tough, broad-chested, inspiration deep and full, digestion per- fect, he could do any amount of work, and readily recuperate from the severest fatigue. His admirable physique was strung with nerves of steel, rendering him calm in danger and equal to the strain of the desperate siege, or the bloody battle. This quality was shown when, only a little child, he fired off a pistol, and exclaimed in his glee — "Pick it again; fick it again." This carried him through all the years of the war, weiglited with cares and responsibilities which would have crushed or killed an ordinary man. But General Grant, after massing and manuoevring larger armies over wider spaces than any general of any age, came out of the war un- 15 broken in health, to enter upon the work of reconstruction, as soldier and President ; and finally to compass the globe, to be the world'' s guest ; to outride, and outstand, and outeat, the courts of the kingdoms. And when he came back to us he was the same son of nature, sound as a nut, his eye flashing as in battle and his hand steady as a child's, for he had gone the world around without tasting a drop of intoxicating liquor. His intellectual qualities were the fit counterpart of his physical. No man could more fully illustrate the Latin prov- erb, " Mens Sana in corpore sano." His perception, his reason, his understanding, and his imagination were large, keen, and discriminating, and so adjusted that they relied upon one another and sustained one another. They enabled him to plan a campaign or a battle with almost the precision and certainty of mathematical demonstration. Had his perception enlarged or distorted his facts, or had his reason reached its conclusions without a severe basis of logic, how easy it would have been to have so misled his understanding as to commit the saddest of blunders. But follow him from the time he received his commission of Cap- tain from the hand of Governor Yates, until he received the surrender of Lee at Appomattox Court House, and who will affirm that he made a military movement for the issues of which he had not thoroughly provided .'* His army was checked, but never defeated. He fixed his eye on the prize to be won, and never lost sight of it until it was within his grasp. It was no mere brilliancy of action — not the dash and rush and dan of the charge which won his battles, but the clear intellectual balancing of forces; the sheer weight and might of heroes who marched to victory when he led the way. He knew men, and he knew war, and weighed perfectly the moral and physical forces which enter into a battle. It was easy for him, therefore, in planning a campaign, to put himself in the place of his adversary, and, taking into account the object at which he aimed and the resources he had in hand, to think out logically, the combinations he would make. Having done this, he would then construct his plan so as to i6 meet his antagonist point by point, and in the end defeat him. The result demonstrated the clearness of his intellect, and the soundness of his judgment. He eliminated, as far as possible, every element of chance from the game of war; he foresaw every movement and provided for every contingency, in such a way that surprise was almost an impossibility. It has been somewhat popular in certain quarters to speak of General Grant as inferior in military genius to some other leaders in the War of the Rebellion. If it be meant by this that some other men had more of abandon and of a headlong plunge and dash, it may be granted ; but he had what was vastly better, a sound military judgment, which enabled him to combine immense and long-protracted military operations, and to calculate results with nearly absolute pre- cision. Only an intellect of the broadest grasp and of the great- est clearness and accuracy could have comprehended and planned the almost infinitely various movements of the Union armies, which finally closed around the Rebellion and strangled it to death. It was an exhibition of pure intellect, which not only sets him among the greatest military captains, but among the greatest men of the world. If there could have been any doubt of this at the close of the war, his civil career has since dispelled it all. Twice called to the Presidency when our home affairs were most in- tricate and delicate, and when our foreign relations needed the wisest and most careful treatment, he so administered his high office as to command the respect of mankind. Not that he was endowed with infinite foresight and infinite wisdom — not that he was never deceived in men, and that every measure of his government was the best possible — but that he was z. patriot from the crown of his head to the sole of his foot, and that he so grasped the principles and the traditions and methods of the Republic that he guided its affairs with a rare fidelity and skill. We maintain that his views on finance, on education, on immigration, on the rights of citizens, and on the duty of the government to protect them, here and elsewhere ; his Indian policy of peace and good-will, and his strong, just, and digni- fied foreign policy, all prove him to be as broad and able and clear-headed in statesmanship as he was in generalship. If by statesmanship is meant the comprehension of the forces which enter into a nation's material, mental, and moral welfare, and the capacity to follow to the conclusion their logical results, then we claim that by a single act General Grant put himself above the wisest of American statesmen. That act was the terms he offered to Lee for the surrender of his army, written with pencil on a leaf of his order-book, amid the hurry and pressure of stupendous military opera- tions, in a few, clear, simple lines which solved at once the problem of peace, and the possible unity and fraternity of the American people. Let any one remember what Mr. Johnson and Mr. Stan- ton attempted to do, and what might have happened had this question been submitted to Congress for decision, and he will be made only the more sensible that we owe to the wis- dom of General Grant a restored Union and a reconciled people. Had not the passions of that mad hour been held in check by that calm, resolute will, no man can tell when blood would have ceased to flow, or when the people of con- tending States would have looked in each other's faces as brethren. But twenty years ago General Grant saw what we now see, and the generations to come will see even more clearly than we do, that this act stamps him as great in war, greater in peace, and greatest in the hearts of his country- men. Nevertheless, it is'quite the fashion in a certain circle to speak of General Grant as merely a military man, limited in scholarship, in the range of his reading, in the breadth of his thought, and in his capacity for affairs. In confirmation of this, we are referred to his inability, or indisposition for pro- tracted, popular address, and to his distaste for what is called literary work. He is a silent man, it is said ; less wise than he seems, and enjoys a dash over the road, or a chase across the country, more than he does the Atlantic Monthly or the latest novel. But what will these critics say of the articles recently published in the Century, and of that wonderful book of his campaigns composed and revised under great weakness and pain, while battling with fatal disease ? They forget that the glibbest men are ofttimes the shallowest, and that the most voracious book-men are frequently the weakest and the silli- est. They should know, also, that every healthy, robust soul lives near to nature, and loves the open country, and the fresh air, and the bounding steed which gives one the sense of a freer, larger life. General Grant was a child of nature, who saw "Tongues in trees; books In the running brooks, Sermons in stones, and Good in everything." The time which common men spend in mastering other men's thoughts. General Grant spent in mastering and ma- turing his own. What he knew he had thought down and through and 02it for himself. His mental insight, pure and simple, unaffected by learned quirks and quibbles, went straight to the heart of a subject. Those who knew him best suspected least his lack of scholastic training. One who knew him intimately has said that had he made constitutional or international law a special study he could hardly have guided our affairs, home and foreign, more wisely than he did. His honest judgment and his thorough common sense simply reduced to practice certain broad prin- ciples of equity and justice, which were matters both of in- tuition and intelligence ; and the result was an administration as brilliant as it was strong and just. Test him by a comparison with the ablest men of his own cabinet, and does he suffer anything by the comparison } No one of them ever got the impression that his chief needed his advice in order to know how to proceed. It was a com- mon thing for him to ask the opinions of his cabinet in a doubtful matter, and then to announce his own decision in such a manner as to show that he had reached his conclusion by a thorough and independent study of the case. Test him, moreover, by his power to condense his thought into words that drop into language and become a part of the every-day speech of men, and it may be a question whether there is another man of his generation who has said so many things that will live. How much of the strength 19 and beauty and point of the orations and sermons and eulogies which will be pronounced on General Grant, today, would be wanting, if they were shorn of such sayings as these — "The only terms I have to offer are those of uncon- ditional surrender. I propose to move on your works at once." " I intend to fight it out on this line if it takes all summer." " Now is the time to drive them." " I have no time to bury my own dead, and shall advance at once." " Let us have peace." But the best thing waits to be said of General Grant, viz. : that his moral nature was the fit setting for his superb physique and his magnificent intellect. And we include in the term "moral nature" both the sensibilities and the will. There is an impression, quite general, we think, that he lacked the finer and gentler feelings of our nature. The mistake is, perhaps, natural, and arises from the fact that people judge him as a professional soldier. Whereas he was a soldier only when his country was in danger, and needed his defence. He hated war, and his whole nature revolted at its unutter- able atrocities. In that interview with Lee for the surrender of his army, he said, " I will not be responsible for the life of another man." But like the surgeon who probes the wound or am- putates the limb, he was compelled to inflict suffering for the sake of the health and the life of the Nation. The sacrifices which he was constrained to make were only such as the highest benevolence would choose, in order to the most beneficent end. Does not the Divine Benevolence proceed on the same principle .-' But, it is said, he is stern, hard, and unfeeling. Is he ? That impassable man who, without the quiver of a muscle or the change of a feature, looked on the slaughter of tens of thousands, could go to his tent and weep like a child over the fall of McPherson ; could go from cot to cot through the hospitals and lay his hand tenderly and gently on the head of his wounded boys ; could take a little girl on his knee and press her to his bosom, while gay women and glittering men were making the hours dizzy with the dance. Not a man of sympathy, do you say ? Look into that home 20 in Sixty-Sixth Street, New York, any day within the last nine months — into that darkened cottage on Mt. McGregor, and say, did you ever see domestic love and peace more sweet and pure and deep ? Where shall we match the affection of that father — his love for wife and daughter and sons? Do we forget when that daughter went forth from the White House, a bright and gleesome bride, how her iron father fled to his room and broke down in almost uncontrollable tears ? And the kindness which brooded over his household, while living, would shield it from pain to the end. That letter to Doctor Douglass, not to be shown his family until after his decease, reveals a heart which was as an ocean of tenderness and love. But that letter found upon his person after he was gone, and directed to his wife, must stand unmatched for simple pathos and undying affection. Hear him : " Look after our dear children and direct them in the paths of rectitude. It would distress me far more to think that one of them could depart from an honorable, upright and virtuous life, than it would to know that they were pros- trated on a bed of sickness from which they were never to arise alive. They have never given us any cause for alarm, on, their account, and I constantly pray they never will. With these few injunctions, and the knowledge I have of your love and affection and the dutiful affection of all our children, I bid you a final farewell until we meet in another, and I trust, a better world. You will find this on my person after my demise. ''Mt. McGregor, July 9, iSSj." Will we, then, go on repeating that General Grant was a hard man, or will we confess that his heart was as tender as a girl's, and that his love passed the love of woman ? He was the soul of honor ; faithful in friendship, untar- nished in integrity, true in feeling, and generous and noble in impulse and action. He never violated a confidence, or betrayed the cause entrusted to his keeping. In the light that has radiated from the Grant home, within the passing months, we understand better than we did, the simple words of his incomparable wife : " Mr. Grant is as good as he can be." Absolutely, he seemed destitute of the little piques and passions and weaknesses and prejudices of ordinary men. " Sleep sweetly, tender heart, in peace. Sleep, loving spirit, matchless soul, While the stars burn, the moons increase, And the great ages onward roll. His memory long will live, alone, In all our hearts, as mournful light, That broods above the fallen sun And dwells in heaven half the night." From the hour he received his commission as captain of volunteers until as lieutenant-general of the armies of the United States the Confederate power lay crushed and crum- bled at his feet, his one ambition was to wipe out the Rebell- ion. To this end every man was spurred to his best. No finer magnanimity was ever seen than that which he ex- hibited towards his officers in high command. Jealousy was no part of his nature. No one rejoiced as he did over every laurel won by Sherman and Meade, Thomas, Sheridan, and the rest. Planning their campaigns and putting at their dis- posal every resource which the government could furnish, he was content to wait and watch behind his entrenchments in front of Richmond until the final issues brought to light the master-mover of the all conquering forces. And then, since the war, how he has disclaimed merit for himself, and declared that Sherman or Sheridan, or even others, might have done the work better than he. And, almost within the year, how bravely and royally he undertook to undo a great wrong, as he believed, inflicted upon General Fitz John Por- ter, twenty years ago — reopening and rearguing the question on military grounds ; putting himself in opposition to some of his warmest friends, and braving a settled public opinion. But he believed a great injustice had been done a brave sol- dier, and he had the courage to undertake its rectification. But while he was thus broadly and grandly magnani- mous, no weakness for friends could blind his eyes or pervert his judgment. But he demanded proof irrefragable before he surrendered a friendship or displaced a confidence. The public service and the public weal were supreme, and they never suffered because he insisted on retaining in com- mand or in office, incompetent or unworthy men. His will 22 was master of all his powers and severely held him to his country's needs. He was stern and impartial in discipline, and no man, however high in position, or controlling in influence, could brave it with impunity. It is well known, that up to the time when General Grant took command of the Army of the Potomac, it had had no commander who was strong enough to put every man in his place, and exact from him full and faithful service. But from the moment that army moved and fought under the eye of Grant every officer knew that to criticise or to oppose the commander, or to fail in efficiency or endeavor to do his best, would bring down upon him an iron hand that would crush him. In him were centered the strength and the courage and the purpose which saved the country. When others were agitated, he was calm. When others trembled for the result of a battle, he simply puffed his cigar, giving no sign of perturbation or alarm. When Buell, near the the close of the first day's fight at Shiloh, came upon the field with his reserves, and asked Grant what provision he had made in case of defeat, " I am not going to be defeated," said Grant. " But in case you should be," pressed the timid Buell. " TJiere" pointing to ' the boats in the river, was Grant's only reply. " But the boats would not take ten thousand men, and you have thirty thousand," said Buell. " When I retreat there will be boats enough to accommodate my army," was the reply. It was that terrible persistency of purpose which rolled the rebel army back upon Corinth the next day, and won the battle. It was the same clear grit which said to the note of Buckner — his old fellow student and warm personal friend — in command at Fort Donelson, "The only terms I have to offer are those of unconditional surrender. I propose to move upon your works at once." That reply won the Fort, and the surrender of twenty thousand men. And today. General Buckner is one of the pall-bearers at the funeral of General Grant ; and it was Buckner, who, it is said, last January when the fortunes of the Grant family were swept into irretrievable ruin, sent his old schoolmate and con- 23 queror his check of ten thousand dollars as a loan, so long as it might be needed. There were noble men on both sides ; but it was only the noblest of men who could have retained the respect and the love of the proud soldier whom he had humbled. The elements of General Grant's courage were twofold — intelligence and conviction. He knew and he believed. He saw clearly the end to be gained, and then as clearly passed in review the means necessary to its attainment. His courage was not the blind, rash impulse of the brute, holding on to its antagonist against whatever odds. On the other hand it held to its purpose because his hand held the forces which he knew would conquer success. He had an insight into men and their motives, and thus dealt with them rationally. His heroism, therefore, was per- fectly natural ; for no man will run away while he feels equal to his own defence, and that of the cause entrusted to his keeping. It is only when men see no way out of the laby- rinth, or the danger, that they lose their heads and begin to tremble. And because General Grant had a clear head and a sound judgment, he was never bewildered, and never lost his way. And when with the clear head we unite thorough moral purpose, we have the perfection of courage, the incorruptible and the unconquerable hero. And in the complete fusion of these two qualities, we have that rarest of characters which he exhibited so beautifully — simplicity, child-like modesty, self-forgetfulness, and unconsciousness of any ends but the good of men. And now what shall I say more } This man of deeds, and not of words, was not a thoughtless man. The currents of his life moved so deep that they were unobserved by or- dinary men, among whom he ofttimes sat silent, absorbed and apart. The weights which he carried in behalf of an im- periled country made him profoundly serious and thoughtful. Commodore Porter relates that after the capture of Vicks- burg. General Grant, with other officers in high command, came on board his vessel lying in the river. And while they were celebrating: the event with shout and song and wine, he 24 alone neither drank nor laughed nor spoke. The silent man seemed looking far away as if he would penetrate the mists and read the future of his country. We do not claim that there have not been other men as brave, as intelligent, as decided as was General Grant. What we claim is, that his great qualities were devoted solely to the welfare of his country ; that he fought battles only to put down rebellion and to restore the integrity of the Union — that when that end was accomplished he sheathed his sword and became the simplest of American citizens. He outranks the great men of his generation not merely on account of the fullness of his faculties, the clearness and unselfishness of his motives, and the supreme will that swayed him and held him to whatever he believed to be right, but because he was affected with no taint of personal ambition, such as has smitten and destroyed so many of our public men. The cry of " Caesarism " died in the throats of those who shouted it. The time was ready for this man, and the man was made for the time. He was one of those elect souls — " Who makes by force his merit i> V, .^^ '^- ^ /.r.^^/i:'^ '^^ .<: C" ^:i^y '- -X lir^^J^! V ' ^' V '.V c\ O „ « * o. •^q 0^ ^^-^ Jm^ .s\^. ^^^^iii^^" .s^v '•• r .-. "-^ ^""V, •\/ v^^-/ \-W\.-' v--%o- . .'.^-, -..^/ ,^-, ^,^^,. .-•^^.-, -.^^^,.* ,-, \3 'o . » • .A. ^ ' "^ ^ r. O " O " ^ A^^ **-» t' /%^^ .^-^ v^^ Z"^. ^ f!^ A*© .% ^ ., BOMS BROS. ^^VC- "V^ ^ ^^ ,^^ FLA. -^S'*^ ,Jv^ / ^> LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 013 789 079 3 %