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[No. 182.] 
 
 it 
 
 LET US HAVE PEACE." 
 
 THE 
 
 LIVES AND PUBLIC SERVICES 
 
 GENERAL U. S. GRANT, 
 
 TJ. S. J^. 
 
 v't^^-^ 
 
 HON. SCHUYLER COLFAX 
 
 Weaker of the House of !Represe7itatives, 
 
 1868. 
 
E 
 
 PEACE or WAR. 
 
 U 
 
 rye 
 
 "When General' Grant, in accepting the nomination of- the Republican Party, exclaimed 
 "Let u3 have Peace," he expressed not oaly the sentiment of every patriot, but he em- 
 bodied with his customary terseness the aim of the party that had chosen him as chief. 
 
 In strilving contrast with this is the declared policy of the Democracy. True to its old 
 alliance with the South, during the war it served as the left wing of the Rebellion, and 
 now that its allies have been crushed, it seeks to restore them to power, at the cost of 
 another and a bloodier struggle, that it may enjoy the benefits of a renewal of the old 
 coalition. General Francis P. Blair, Jr., understood this when he sought the nomination 
 by writing his foraous letter to Col. Broadhead, and the Democratic Convention endorsed 
 it when, at the instance of Wade Hampton, of South Carolina, it rewarded him with the 
 nomination for the Vice-Presidency. Read the letter, freemen of Pennsylvania, and judge 
 for yourselves. 
 
 "Washington, June 30, 1868. 
 "Colonel James 0. Broadhead: 
 
 " Dear Colonel : — In reply to your inquiries, I beg leave to say that I leave to you to 
 determine, on consultation with my friends from Missouri, whether my name shall be pre- 
 sented to the Democratic Convention, and to submit the following as what I consider the 
 real and only issue in this contest : 
 
 " The reconstruction policy of the Radicals will be complete before the next election ; the 
 States so long excluded will have been admitted, negro suffrage established, and the 
 carpet-baggers installed in their seats in both branches of Congress. There is no possi- 
 bility of changing the political character of the Senate, even if the Democrats should 
 elect their President and a majority of the popular branch of Congress. We cannot, 
 therefore, undo the radical plan of reconstruction by Congressional action ; the Senate 
 will continue a bar to its repeal. Must we submit to it ? How can it be overthrown ? It 
 can only be overthrown by the authority of the Executive. * * * ^ * 
 
 " If the President elected by the Democracy enforces or permits others to enforce these 
 reconstruction acts, the Radicals, by the accession of twenty spurious Senators and fifty 
 Representatives, will control both branches of Congress, and his Administration will be 
 as powerless as the present one of Mr. Johnson. 
 
 " There is but one way to restore the Government and the Constitution, and that is for 
 the President elect to declare these acts null and void, compel the army to undo its usur- 
 pations at the South, disperse the carpet-bag State governments, and allow the white 
 people to reorganize their own governments and elect Senators and Representatives. The 
 House of Representatives will contain a majority of Democrats from thelvorth, and they 
 will admit the Representatives elected by the white people of the South, and with the co- 
 operation of the President it will not be difficult to compel the Senate to submit once more 
 to tlie obligations of the Constitution. * * * * *.* * * * 
 
 '■ I repeat that this is the real and only question which we should allow to control us. 
 * * * We must restore the Constitution before we can restore the finances, and to do this 
 we must have a President who will execute the will of the people by trampling into dust 
 the usurpations of Congress known as the reconstruction acts. I wish to stand before the 
 convention upon this issue, as it is one which embraces everything else that is of value 
 in its large and comprehensive results. It is the one thing that includes all that is worth 
 a contest, and without it there is nothing that gives dignity, honor, or value to the 
 struggle. Your friend, Frank P. Blair." 
 
 This is the revolutionary programme of the Democracy. The rebel element of the South 
 must be restored to the domination it enjoyed of old ; and if to accomplish this it becomes 
 necessary to plunge the country into blood and anarchy, then blood and anarchy must 
 come. The men, who in 18(34, asked us to ground our arms to rebels in order to put an 
 end to what they called a fratricidal war, now threaten us with another war. Place them 
 in power, and in order to consolidate that power, they avow their readiness to involve us 
 in a bitterer strife than that from which we have just emerged. Tliis is what is meant 
 when the Democracy endeavors to elect a man who proclaims his intention to " trample 
 in the dust" the laws enacted by the representatives of the sovereign people. 
 
 The rebels understand this well. At the Democratic ratification meeting, held in Rich- 
 mond, July 11, ex-confederate Governor Vance of North Carolina declared that what the 
 Confederacy had failed to obtain in its previous .war, would be gained through the election 
 of Seymour and Blair ; and ex-Governor General Wise of Virginia followed this up by 
 assuring .the rebel crowd that the Democratic' platform told a lie when its first resolution 
 assumed that secession was dead, for, in fact, secession was this day more alive than ever. 
 
 Choose then between the tickets — 
 
 Grant and Colfax with Peace and Prosperity. 
 Shymoor and Blair with War and Anarchy. 
 
^ 
 
 LIFE AXD SERVICES 
 
 ULYSSES S. GPlA.ISrT. 
 
 The historian who is to come after us to record the events of this age, and 
 write the lives of the men who put the stamp of their own greatness upon the 
 present period of our country's progress, will linger in reverent admiration over 
 the career of Ulysses S. Grant, seeing in him the twofold greatness of a war- 
 rior and statesman. His impartial biographer will have to record that the Re- 
 public which the hero of the American Conflict preserved by his bravery and 
 skill, he benefitted in the darkest hour of its peril by the exercise of his wisdom 
 in civil capacities. And it will be difficult to decide which of these characters 
 will contribute most to his claims upon the future generations of the American 
 people, for in each his abilities are pre-eminent. 
 
 The early history of the hero and statesman, who has exercised the most power- 
 ful influence upon the welfare of his country, is full of suggcstiveness, teaching 
 anew the lesson which the youth of America can never too frecjuently learn, that 
 here, under the beneficent action of our free institutions, where labor is honored 
 and only incompetency and sloth disdained, the stepping stones to fame and 
 usefulness are lying before them all; that the roads to honor or position are 
 barred against none by either the accidents of poverty or birth. Noble examples 
 of promotion following simple worth embellish the pages of the world's history 
 and crowd about us from among the dead and living heroes of battle fields, from 
 senate halls, from forum and pulpit, from bank and factory and farm, but no 
 nobler example of the rise and progress of an humbly born citizen to greatness 
 and a nation's gratitude is anywhere presented to us in the whole history of our 
 country's life than that of the subject of our sketch, General Ulysses S. Grant. 
 
 In every great crisis of the world's need, its saviour has come from among 
 that humble class of whom Cromwell, Lincoln and Grant are fair representa- 
 tives — not from high places, but surging up from among the hardy sons of the 
 soil, to assert the power of their class by the might of their acts. 
 
 One by one the aristocracy of the army were swept away by the torrent of 
 confederate successes in the early history of the war. Scott had failed, 
 McDowell was driven into "Washington and the Young Napoleon of the war, to 
 whom was given the honor of a hundred victories before one was fairly gained 
 by him, spent the strength of an army and the ransom of a thousand kings in 
 weak parades, drills and reviews, while he permitted his enemies undisturbed to 
 
4 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 
 
 gather armies, enlist the sympathies of Europe, and erect fortresses that he 
 afterwards found impregnable. 
 
 All this was going on while Grant, the tanner's son, was silently, energetically 
 working in his humble place as a clerk in Governor Yates's office in Illinois. 
 
 His family had early settled in the far West and early became inured to that 
 hardy, free pioneer life which acting upon the bold temperament of those who 
 exposed themselves to its influence, seldom failed to produce growths of character 
 of such girth and grain as commanded the respect of succeeding generations, and 
 developed the West into the great stronghold of the Republic. That life which 
 was in itself the highest form of freedom, for it united a close contact with nature 
 to civilization, gave to our country such men as Washington and Lincoln, and 
 also gave us General Grant. 
 
 George Washington exploring and surveying the wildernesses of Virginia, was 
 gaining that hardihood of frame, that patience and those habits of perseverance 
 and that large knowledge which afterwards in the war of the Revolution, were 
 the elements of strength in his character which, together with his stern belief 
 in the sacredness of the cause he served, led him onward to victory and made 
 him endure until he saw his country delivered of its last enemy. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln, rail splitter, raftsman and yeoman, rose through such rough 
 teachings to be hailed second saviour of the Republic. 
 
 Ulysses S. Grant whose veins were filled with the brave, enduring blood of 
 the old Scotch covenanters mingling with that of the New England puritan ; 
 whose heart beat calmly alike under poverty and wealth (as calmly under the 
 General's stars as under the woodman's axe) was a kindred growth, sturdy, 
 patient, persevering, invincible always. 
 
 It is not amiss in determining by what means a great man arises from the 
 obscurity which surrounds his humbler life, to go back to his youth and learn 
 what lesson of usefulness or honor it may have to teach us concerning him. One 
 who should know him well, has told us not too partially, that " there was a manly 
 dignified modesty in his deportment which made him at least an uncommon lad." 
 
 Those famous words of his, which echoed through the land, carrying with them 
 hope for the doubting and assurance for the timid, " I propose to fight it out on 
 this line ifit takes all summer," read now like an echo of that earlier school boy 
 speech of his, in which he declared he did not know the meaning of the word 
 "Can't." <'It is not in the Dictionary," he added, as if to clinch the matter. , 
 
 The skill, the sublime patience, the steady firm determination to conquer, that 
 he showed when he set his army down before Vicksburg, was only the maturer 
 growth of another incident of his boyhood. 
 
 "I want you to drive the team to such a spot in the woods," said his father, 
 " where you will find the men ready to load it with logs, and you will then drive 
 it home." 
 
 The boy drove to the place indicated, the logs were there, but not the men to 
 load them. ■ He did not, after the manner of boys, sit down to await the coming 
 of the men, but at once devised a plan for getting the immense timbers loaded, 
 and after awhile, when he had succeeded, he quietly drove home, as if th« whole 
 afi'air was a matter of course. 
 
LIFE AND SERVICES OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 5 
 
 ""Where were the men?" asked his father. 
 
 "I don't know, I got the load without them." 
 
 The same spirit actuating the loj, actuated the man on many a battle-field 
 and was recognized by the rebel Lee in the Wilderness, when he declared, after 
 six days fighting that " Grant was whipped, if ho only knew it." 
 
 The early bent of the boy's mind was for a military life, and the appointment 
 to West Point so eagerly desired by him was at length, after a failure or two, 
 obtained. He passed the difiicult preliminary examination safely and entered 
 the school July 1, 1839. Unlike the larger number of the cadets, he had had 
 no academic or collegiate education. Three months in the year was all the 
 time that the stern, hard duties of his pioneer life permitted him for schooling, 
 his father's tannery, the fiirm and the wood chopping occupied the boy the re- 
 maining nine months of each year. But when the opportunities for study and 
 self-improvement were presented to him, and he was brought into rivalry with 
 boys who had had greater advantages than himself, the vital Scotch energy and 
 the natural intelligence of the young man came into play, and these, united to 
 his studious habits and close adherence to the severe rules of the institution, 
 quickly placed him in an advanced position, even among those who had had 
 every advantage that wealth and circumstance cuuld supply. A trait of. mind 
 early developed in the cadet and very characteristic of the greatest General of 
 our age, was remarked of him at West Point, " he attended to his own business 
 and ahoays hided his time." 
 
 When the final examination came on, June 30, 1843, only thirty yount' 
 iuen out of the hundred who had entered upon the race with him four years 
 previously had reached the goal. The Western hoosier boy was nearly in the 
 middle of his class, and had left behind him along his academic road seventy- 
 nine of his classmates many of whom were sons of Senators, or men of larsre 
 wealth and social position. Many of them had been educated at some of the 
 best seminaries of learning in the country, and had sought knowledge by other 
 royal roads, yet the boy of the tannery, with his yearly allowance of three month's 
 schooling in the log echool-house, in whose dictionary the word " Can't" could 
 not be found, outstripped them all. 
 
 It is related of him, that while at the Military Academy he was a singularly 
 quiet, modest and unobtrusive lad, yet that when some severe reflections were 
 made upon his humble origin and the fact of his having worked among the vats, 
 he silenced the insulter, and so effectually, that no further remarks were made 
 concerning his early pursuits. By the sheer force of his excellent habits and of 
 his own self-respect, he obliged others to respect him also. In the battle of life 
 as elsewhere the chances are, that the best man, irrespective of the accident of 
 birth, will win. 
 
 The record of the young soldier in the ^lesican war was the record of a brave 
 and dashing officer, doing noble service in every battle but one that was fought 
 by our armies. Mentioned in the despatches of the commanding generals with 
 distinguished honor, promoted on the field in the terrible struggle of Molino 
 del Key, and outflanking the enemy at Chapultepec, he performed his own share 
 of the labors, and reaped his portion of the honors of that mistaken war. 
 
6 LIFE AND SERVICES OP ULYSSES S. GRANT. 
 
 After all it was but a skirmish compared with that later conflict in which he 
 took part, and a school in which the heroes of the Great KebelHon more com- 
 pletely learned the art of war. 
 
 At its close the regular army was again scattered along our western frontiers, 
 from which they had been called to assist in the conquest of Mexico. The life 
 of the garrisons was one of inglorious ease, devoid of action or excitement, and 
 one calculated to be extremely distasteful to a man of Captain Grant's active, 
 practical temperament. Having grown tired of it, he resigned his commission 
 and retired to a small farm in the neighborhood of St. Louis, adjoining the 
 estate of Mr. Dent, his father-in-law. For fifteen years the Captain had studied 
 the science of war, and now, with equal energy, he applied himself to raising 
 crops in the summer, hewing timber and collecting bills for his neighbors in the 
 winter. He was a good farmer, a good wood cutter, but a bad collector — the 
 gentleness of his nature would not permit him to oppress and disturb such 
 debtors as were unable to pay, and he was often fortunate, if in his demands for 
 a righteous debt, he did not lend his own money to the debtor to assist an im- 
 poverished family. 
 
 When Captain Grant resigned his commission and retired to his farm, he 
 gave up all outward vestiges of the soldier and officer. He put away his uniform, 
 donned an old felt hat,' a blouse coat and cowhide boots, that he might really 
 seem the man he was, simple, earnest, and sincere. Citizens of St. Louis have 
 a peculiar pride in telling the stranger who enters their gates, of the rough, 
 quiet, plainly clad man who, with his pants tucked into his heavy boots, his 
 whip swung about his shoulders, came into town with his load of wood or pro- 
 duce during the winter, delivered it to the purchaser, and as silently trudged 
 back to his farm again. 
 
 In the economy of nature there are no accidents and few miracles. Men do 
 not grow great in a moment, as a mushroom grows to its fullness in a night. 
 From the beginning the elements of greatness are in such men, and when great 
 occasions come, the truly great recognize and go out to meet them. It was so 
 with Grant. He was the same powerful, controlling spirit, as really great that 
 day he walked along the streets of St. Louis beside his load of wood, which he 
 had felled and corded and loaded with his own hands, as on that later day when 
 its citizens welcomed and honored him as the saviour of his country, or when, 
 later still, he and the rebel Loo stood together at Appomattox Court House ar- 
 ranging the terms of the latter's surrender. The difference was not in the man, 
 but in the circumstance, and who shall say when he was bravest, whether on 
 that day at Lookout Mountain, when he rode backward and forward along the 
 lines till nightfall in a shower of leaden hail, or on that day when he surren- 
 dered his commission, and the easy, careless, pleasant life of a captain in the 
 army, and retired to his little farm to win a scanty subsistence from its soil by 
 the rough, coarse labor of his own hands ? The heroism of the one is more than 
 counterbalanced by the moral bravery of the other. 
 
 In the year 1859 a proposal of his father's induced him to again change his 
 plans. The early education received in the tannery was now to be turned to 
 good account, and that that education was like all of his qualities, a thorough 
 
LIFE AND SERVICES OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 7 
 
 one, the following anecdote proves. Sonic one endeavored to engage him in 
 a discussion on political affairs, and he answered : 
 
 " I don't know anything of party politics, and I don't want to. There is one 
 subject on which T feel perfectly at home. Talk to ma of that, and I shall be 
 happy to hear you." 
 
 "What is that?" 
 
 " Tanning leather^" said the quiet little man, who hated politics and politi- 
 cians. 
 
 And yet this man who gave to his business, no matter what it was, his best 
 energies and the ripest powers of his mind, was a capable scholar, a man 
 thoroughly educated in the school of West Point where the range of studies is 
 wider and the discipline more severe than in any other educational establish- 
 ment in the country. He was no boor, but as fitted to embellish society, as to 
 tan leather. His father, when he made the proposal to his son to join him in 
 business as a tanner and saddler, knew his son's abilities in that line. The pro- 
 position was accepted, and Grant removed with his family to the city of Galena, 
 on the banks of Fevre river, in Illinois. Only six miles below the city the 
 Fevre empties into the Mississippi, and Galena was, from the natural advantages 
 of its location, the focus of a large trade for the wide reach of country lying 
 behind it. Here "Grant & Son" set up their sign, opened their shop, and the 
 ex-captain bringing to his new business the same qualities and industry which 
 characterized his early military career, soon won the confidence of the commu- 
 nity, and thereby established a remunerative business. His trade prospered and 
 in its success Grant reaped the reward of his attention and energy, and if not 
 altogether contented with his place in the world, he was measurably satisfied 
 with the work that had been given his hands to do. 
 
 It was the quietest, most peaceful time of life with him — but it was only the 
 lull in which the tempests waits to take breath before striking its heaviest blow. 
 
 In that same year another pioneer of the great West, Abraham Lincoln, re- 
 ceived a delegation in his home at Springfield, who announced to him that he 
 had been nominated by the great Kepublican party as their candidate for the 
 office of Chief Magistrate of the nation. These men, both of mighty girth of 
 mind, of sturdy growth, were on the first stepping-stones to their greatness. 
 The lawyer, whose kindly eyes are now forever closed, saw that to him the cir- 
 cumstance that leads to advancement and usefulness had already come, but the 
 silent little man in his tannery and shop at Galena, saw nothing for himself 
 beyond the simple profits of his trade. Yet the same occasion which was to 
 surge the tall, gaunt lawyer up into the people's love and gratitude was to raise 
 the other also. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln was elected President, Sumter was fired upon, and the old 
 flag trailed in the dust : then the quiet ex-soldier of the Gailena tannery deserted 
 his vats, drew on his coat and remarked, " Uncle Sam educated me for the 
 army, and although I have served through one war, I feel I am still a little in 
 debt for my education, and I am ready to discharge the obligation." 
 
 Captain Grant was so popular and so energetic in his little town, where the 
 people's patriotism ran high, that in a few days he had succeeded in raising a 
 
8 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 
 
 company, and to liim already great in mind and character, the circumstance of 
 greatness had come also, as well as to the large limbed, gaunt lawyer of the 
 West. 
 
 Captain Grant took his company to Springfield and tendered its services to 
 the authorities there. At the same time an Illinois representative called on 
 Governor Yates to recommend to him Mr. Grant as a gentleman well qualified 
 for some military position. The Governor had been accustomed to men of 
 larger growth, of more pretension and self-assertion, and when the small, 
 modest man, dressed in coarse homespun, stood before him as an applicant for 
 a position, the Governor eyed him curiously, as if not quite certain that he 
 would answer, but on being told that the quiet little man, with the hawk eyes 
 and the square jaw knew something of the organization of troops, he gave him a 
 desk in his ofl&ce as mustering officer. Subsequently he informed Grant that 
 the President had asked him to send in two names for the office of Brigadier- 
 General, and proposed that Grant's should be one of them. The Captain, who 
 had risen under Yates to an Adjutancy, declined the honor. He had no fancy 
 for wearing empty honors, that he had not earned. He meant to be a Briga- 
 dier — but not till after he had received again the soldier's baptism of fire. 
 
 When the call upon the State of Illinois had been answered, about the middle 
 of June, 1861, a commission was issued by Governor Yates, making his late 
 Adjutant-General, Colonel of the Twenty-first Regiment of Illinois Volunteers. 
 This regiment, which had been under the command of an incompetent officer, 
 was, when Grant took charge of it, in a state of insubordination and depleted by 
 desertions to not more than one-half its proper number. But in ten days after 
 assuming direction. Colonel Grant had the depleted ranks filled, and the whole 
 regiment in a thoroughly satisfactory condition of discipline. He was extremely 
 anxious to get his command in the field for active operations, but was informed 
 there was no transportation for it. 
 
 "Give me," said he, " orders to march, and I will find the transportation." 
 
 The orders were accordingly given and Colonel Grant's regiment moved at 
 once, and was the first that had left the camp on foot. 
 
 He moved his regiment into Missouri, where his command was engaged in 
 protecting the line of the Hannibal and Hudson Railroad. The profound mili- 
 tary knowledge and skill of Colonel Grant were here first brought into requisition 
 and given opportunity for development. They exhibited themselves in a series 
 of small operations, commensurate with the slight numbers of his command, yet 
 as brilliant and efiective, and as suggestive of his strategic genius as were many 
 of his later and more formidable movements. They were, fortunately for the 
 country, appreciated, and he was appointed Acting Brigadier-General, and 
 placed in command of all the troops in that section of the State of Missouri. In 
 the same month he was further advanced by being appointed a Brigadier General 
 of volunteers. 
 
 Having followed the subject of our sketch thus far through his youth, his 
 early days in the school, in the forest, and in the army j as a farmer, tanner and 
 later again as a soldier doing heroic service in the cause of his country, we do 
 not propose to enter minutely into the details of his military career. Every one 
 
LIFE AND SERVICES OF ULYSSES 8. GRANT. » 
 
 i-; familiar with the story of his brilliant campaigns. They have passed into 
 history as now and memorable examples in the art of war for study and imitation 
 by future generals. To recount them as facts would be superfluous ; yet from 
 some of their incidents we may obtain a further insight into the man, and learn 
 to appreciate the solid sagacity of his character and his ability to deal with the 
 largest and most perplexing questions, both military and civil, tliat can be pre- 
 sented to a warrior and a statesman. 
 
 Colonel Grant having received his appointment as Brigadier, was soon after 
 placed in command of a district composed of Southern Missouri and Southern 
 Illinois, with his head-quarters at Cairo, at the junction of the Ohio and Mis- 
 sissippi Rivers, a point which subsequently became one of the most important 
 in the loyal states. It was here that the strategic, far-seeing cast of the General's 
 mind was more fully exhibited. Hitherto he had principally shown his abilities 
 as an organizer of troops and small expeditions; but now, when he was com- 
 paratively untramelled by the cares of a petty command and many superiors, the 
 large genius of the soldier asserted itself and led his armies on to noble results- 
 Previous to the General's taking this command at Cairo, the rebels had fortified 
 several positions of great importance on the Mississippi, and appeared to be de- 
 termined to extend their works of defence to the Ohio, but on the sixth of Sep- 
 tember, 18G1, by a brilliant movement, showing great generalship and skill, 
 Grant fell upon Paducah, situated at the mouth of the Tennessee River, 
 and took possession of the town before the rebels were even apprised of his 
 design. Previous to this movement, which was the most daring one that had 
 been made up to that time by our "Western forces, the Army of the West had 
 acted simply as an army of occupation, apparently satisfied if it kept the rebels 
 from making encroachments upon what was then called neutral and loyal terri- 
 tory. But the new policy of General Gi^ant showed the enemy that he meant 
 mischief, and that the future would be fuller of perils to traitors than it had 
 ever before been. A new era of offensive warfare was inaugurated and it had 
 no cessation until Sherman, the able Lieutenant of Grant, had hewed his way 
 to the sea. The seizing of Paducah was the first step made in the great plan 
 of driving the rebels from the West, and the mighty genius that prompted and 
 executed that capture, conceived the whole scheme in all its entirety. And 
 even while General Grant subsequently lay before Richmond in apparent supine- 
 ne.ss, visited with the scorn and abuse of his detractors and enemies, which he 
 never answered by a single word of self-extenuation, but with that large wisdom 
 that can suffer and be silent, he gave all his attention to directing and watching 
 the development of his grand design, first conceived in the early days of his 
 Western military career. With sublime forbearance and moderation he bore 
 abuse and calumny, content in knowing that time would best vindicate his 
 character ; thereby quietly fulfilling the promise of his boyhood when he was 
 remarkable for " biding his time," and teaching his enemies in and out of the 
 rebel ranks a lesson which they were slow to learn, but the full force of which 
 they appreciated on that day when Lee surrendered, that 
 
 " They also serve, who only watch and wait." 
 2 
 
10 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 
 
 On tlie twentietli of December, 1861, General Halleck who had been placed 
 in charge of the Department of Missouri, ordered General Grant to the command 
 of the District of Cairo, which at that time covered a large extent of territory- 
 It was about this time that General Grant issued his order to General Paine, 
 commanding at Bird's Point — an order which gave assurance to the men under 
 his command, that no H/atter how far they were removed from his presence, he 
 still constantly exercised that care and regard for them, which being so often 
 displayed in their behalf, won for him their lasting affection, and which was the 
 occasion in them of the profound devotion for their leader, that they continued 
 to feel to the close of the long and bitter struggle for the nation's life. While 
 those brave men live, to recall the history of those days which tried their 
 courage and approved their patriotism, this celebrated order cannot be devoid of 
 interest. 
 
 Head-Quarters, Cairo, January \Wi, 1862. 
 Brigadier-General Paine, Bird's Point : 
 
 I understand that four of our pickets were shot this morning. If this is so, and 
 appearances indicate that the assassins were citizens, not regulai'ly organized in the 
 rebel army, the whole country should be cleared out for six miles around, and word 
 given that all citizens making their appearance within those limits, are liable to be 
 shot. 
 
 To execute this, patrols should be sent out in all directions, and bring into camp, 
 at Bird's Point, all citizens, together with their subsistence, and require them to re- 
 main, under penalty of death and destruction of their property, until properly re- 
 lieved. 
 
 Let no harm befall these people, if they quietly submit, but bring them in and 
 place them in camp below the breastwork, and have them properly guarded. 
 
 The intention is not to make political prisoners of these people, but to cut off a 
 dangerous class of spies. 
 
 This applies to all classes and conditions, age and sex. If, however, women and 
 children prefer other protection than we can afford them, they may be allowed to 
 retire beyond the limits indicated — not to return until authorized. 
 
 By order of U. S. Grant, Brigadier- General Commanding. 
 
 An expedition of vast magnitude was now matured by General Grant against 
 the enemy, and for the success of which, absolute secrecy was necessary. His 
 forces moved in three columns, led respectively by Generals Paine, McClernand, 
 and C. F. Smith, under his own personal command. It was composed of nine- 
 teen regiments of infantry, six of cavalry, and seven batteries of artillery; its 
 destination being Fort Henry. When this splendid force was ready to move, its 
 General issued another order of a different character, strikingly illustrative of 
 his humanity toward the non-combatants of the enemy, and exercised in the 
 interests of a common brotherhood, displaying alike wisdom and that exalted 
 patriotism which have endeared him to the American people. 
 
 Disgrace having been brought upon our brave fellows by the bad conduct of some 
 of their members, showing on all occasions, when marching through territory occu- 
 pied by sympathizers of the enemy, a total disregard of the rights of citizens, and 
 being guilty of wanton destruction of private property, the general commanding de- 
 sires and intends to enforce a change in this respect. ****** 
 It is ordered that the severest punishment be inflicted upon every soldier who is 
 guilty of taking or destroying private property; and any commissioned officer guilty 
 of like conduct, or of countenancing it, shall be deprived of his sword and expelled 
 from tlie camp, not permitted to return. 
 
LIFE AND SERVICES OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 11 
 
 It was mid-winter when this great expedition began its march against tha 
 citadels of the enemy. To most of the men composing that army, the hardships 
 of the camp and the horrors of battle were scarcely known. They moved along 
 the Mississippi, and the broad river on which they were to embark was filled 
 with floating ice, and beyond where they were to take up their march the roads 
 were almost impassable with frost and mire. But there was no faltering, no 
 complaining among those men, so many of whom were fresh from warm firesides, 
 for the quiet little man who marches with them in command, is as plainly 
 dressed as themselves; he shares with them their every hardship, his fare is as 
 humble, his manners as simple, and his care for their welfare is always present 
 to them. He marched on beside or before them, and after awhile when the 
 battle came, they felt as they looked into the lion-like face, that they would 
 know where the fighting was heaviest and the danger thickest by the sound of 
 his voice calling them on. 
 
 Discovering through a force sent out under McClernand, that between Colum- 
 bus and the Maysfield Railroad the strength of the enemy was not great, that 
 Columbus itself was inadequately defended, that there were indirect paths to 
 that place aflfording hitherto unknown facilities of attack, and indeed that that 
 entire portion of Western Kentucky was open to the advance of the Union troops, 
 the genius of the General for daring and comprehensive strategy exhibited 
 itself anew. Within the boundaries of Kentucky there are but twelve miles 
 of country lying between the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers, and on the 
 Eastern side of the latter the enemy had strongly entrenched themselves in Fort 
 Henry, and on the Western side of the former river they had erected the still 
 more formidable works, now famous in our history as Fort Donelson. If those 
 two great fortifications were captured, General Grant saw that there would be 
 nothing to prevent the armies of the Union from pushing up these rivers and 
 cleaving the very heart of the Confederacy. Again the foresight of the Gene- 
 ral embraced in its far-reaching vision all the advantages to be gained by con- 
 trolling these great arteries of the South- West. While he deceived the enemy 
 with pretended assaults upon the City of Columbus, he was preparing for a bold 
 movement into Kentucky; Fort Henry to be the first objective point in his 
 comprehensive programme. Commodore Foote was making ready to co-operate 
 with General Grant, and indeed had already " moved upon the enemy's works " 
 with his terrible iron-clad fleet. Owing however to the character of the roads, 
 over which it was almost impossible to march an army, or to drag his artillery. 
 Grant's forces did not succeed in reaching the Fort until its surrender to Footc, 
 but the fact of his advance being known to the rebel commander hastened the 
 capitulation. 
 
 General Lewis Wallace was left in command of the captured fortress to hold 
 it while General Grant moved on to the conquest of Fort Donelson. The record 
 of that battle, one of the bravest, bloodiest, and most obstinately contested of the 
 war, fills one of the brightest pages of the history of the great American Conflict. 
 If political generals, whose incompetence on that occasion invited disaster, 
 sought by means of subsidizing newspaper correspondents to cast a slur upon 
 their commander's character, the country recognized in him the supreme genius 
 
12 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 
 
 whose appearance upon the field converted defeat into victory. As the glad 
 tidings were flashed over the land, the people, arising from the despondency 
 occasioned by the long series of delays and disasters which followed the brave, 
 but improperly commanded armies of the East, hailed with renewed hope and 
 confidence the conqueror of the West, as the one man competent to guide them 
 out of defeat to victory. , His memorable letter to the rebel General Buckner, 
 who commanded Fort Donelson, awoke a chord of chivalric sympathy in every 
 heart, and gave assurance to the nation that the silent little hero of the \Ve«t 
 would yet preserve their country and their liberties intact, The answer Grant 
 sent to Buckner is as fresh and vital with courage and determination to-day as 
 then, and as suggestive of the character of its author. 
 
 Headquarters, Army in the Field 1 
 
 Camp near Donelson, Feb. 16, 1862. j" 
 1^0 General S. B. Buckner, Confederate Army: 
 
 Yours of this date, proposing an armistice, and appointment of commissioners to 
 settle terms of capitulation, is just received. No terms other than unconditional and 
 immediate surrender can he accepted. I propose to move immediately upon your works. 
 I am, respectfully, your obedient servant, 
 
 U. S. Grant, Brig.-Gen. U. S. A. Commanding. 
 
 To this ringing challenge Buckner had but one reply — that of surrender, and 
 if it was marked with some impatience at the conqueror's tone, it may be par- 
 doned in a beaten foe. 
 
 „ Thus fell into the hands of Grant and his brave army the first large prize of 
 the war, for which they had struggled with such daring and in|repidity through 
 many days, and once more the old flag which had long been banished from por- 
 tions of Kentucky and from Tennessee, resumed its supremacy there. 
 
 This magnificent victory, giving to the country over fifteen thousand prisoners, 
 was hailed with the profoundest expression of joy throughout the land, and as 
 an evidence of the people's appreciation of the value of the conquest, Grant was 
 created a Major-General. His commission dated from the day of the surrender 
 of the fort, February 16th, 1862. 
 
 So much had thus far been successfully achieved by the modest, reticent hero 
 of Donelson, that the Government, believing him competent for any task, no 
 matter how difficult it might prove, laid out for him the new Military District of 
 Tennessee. The power now invested in General Grant, added to the devoted 
 personal attachment of his army, made him absolute ruler of the immense 
 district included within his command. This power, likely to be dangerous in 
 the hands of a weak or wicked man, was never abused by Grant, but wisely used 
 by him with that temperance and moderation which are striking features in the 
 character of the man. 
 
 One of those who won the most distinguished honor in fighting side by side 
 with General Grant, during the whole Western Campaign, being questioned re- 
 garding the General's habits, at the very time when his enemies were circulating 
 the most virulent fabrications concerning his social habits, said : 
 
 I know that he is one of the most moderate of men in his desires. His purity is 
 equal to his modesty. His personal character, to my certain knowledge, is without 
 a blot. He is tenderly devoted to bis wife and family. 
 
LIFE AND SERVICES OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 13 
 
 The same malicious slanders which the public and private enemies of Abraham 
 Lincoln, concocted and published regarding him were then, and are now, re- 
 tailed against General Grant, and in neither case was there, or is there, the 
 slightest foundation of truth. In noticing these slanders, the New York 
 World, the leading Democratic newspaper of America, said in a late issue : 
 
 General Grant's position is above the roach of calumny. Calumny leveled at Iiim 
 will recoil upon the calumniators. No Demncratic journal, however vi<i;orously op- 
 posing General Grant's election, will be so foolish or so unjust as to calumniate him. 
 
 Testimony like this, forced from the lips of a political enemy, bears such 
 authority that its weight cannot be denied. General Grant is thoroughly tem- 
 perate in all his conduct, and many of his Christian friends believe him to be a 
 deeply and sincerely religious man. Early in the late struggle, the General re- 
 cognized the barbarity of any warfare, and from the beginning to the end his 
 humanity toward his enemies obliged them to respect his clemency and to honor 
 the efforts he employed to render warfare less barbarous. But while accepting 
 war, with all its multiplying horrors, he was committed to the cause of freedom 
 and union, against which the people of the Confederacy fought. No inhumanity 
 of the enemy, however, could make him inhuman in his treatment of them. 
 The large wisdom, consideration, and magnanimity which he exercised on all 
 occasions were part of his great plan for their absolute subjugation. 
 
 After the breaking up of the rebel military line (running lengthwise through 
 the State of Kentucky) by the great victory of Donelson, the rebel leaders 
 sought to maintain another line along the important Memphis and Charleston 
 Railroad, and the 'rebel General Johnson with this view, concentrated his troops 
 at Corinth on that railroad. Halleck, who now had command of the entire De- 
 partment of the Missii^sippi, made preparations for a movement upon Corinth, 
 and accordingly Grant's army was moved up the Tennessee and encamped 
 at Shiloh. The rebels seeing the advantage of beating Halleck in detail, did 
 not wait for his attack, but swept down upon the small and detached forces of 
 the victors of Donelson, hoping to defeat them, and then by marching to the 
 North regain their lost strongholds. 
 
 Before the battle opened, Beauregard said to his men : " To-morrow night we 
 sleep in the enemy's camp," and the next day, in his vainglory he blasphemously 
 exclaimed, " I will water my horse in the Tennessee or in hell." 
 
 On the morning of April Gth, 18G2, one of the finest armies of the Confeder- 
 acy, commanded by the flower of its generals, composed of the most magnificent 
 material ever assembled by them, made its desperate assault upon the forces of 
 Grant. The General was absent, if being at his headquarters in Savannah, ten 
 miles away, could be called absent, when the fight began. He hastened to the 
 front at the earliest moment possible, and the magnetism of his presence accom- 
 plished much toward saving his army from annihilation. "When Buell arrived 
 upon the field, he asked Grant what preparations he had made for retreat ? 
 
 " I have not despaired of whipping them yet," was the brief reply. 
 
 The Honorablo E. B. Washburne, of Illinois, in defending General Grant 
 from the attacks of his calumniators on the floor of Congress, said in regard to 
 this battle and of its hero : 
 
14 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 
 
 Tlie attack waa made on Sunday morning by a vastly superior force. In five 
 minutes after the first firing was heard, General Grant and stafi' wore on their way 
 to the battle-field, and instead of not reaching the field till ten o'clock, or, as has 
 been still more falsely represented, till noon, he arrived there at eight o'clock in the 
 morning, and immediately assumed command. There he directed the movements and 
 was always on that part of the field where his presence was most required, exposing 
 his life, and evincing in his dispositions the genius of the greatest commanders. 
 
 Further on, in speaking of the personal habits of the Greneral, in reply to the 
 vile calumny then being circulated against him, Mr. Washburne said : 
 
 There is no more temperate man in the army than General Grant. He never in- 
 dulges in the use of intoxicating liquors at all. He is an example of courage, honor, 
 fortitude, activity, temperance and modesty, for he is as modest as he is brave, and 
 as incorruptible. 
 
 This tribute vras justly and nobly spoken. History furnishes few instances 
 of more determined valor, more skillful generalship than were shown by the 
 army of the Union at Shiloh, where the choicest troops of the Confederacy, 
 eighty thousand strong, were beaten back and almost annihilated by no more 
 than half their own number. Yet, at this very time, the present detractors and 
 foes of General Grant were loudest in their demands for his removal. They 
 thronged the Senate Chamber, besieged the President, and scattered broadcast 
 the same envious and malicious lies that they are circulating now. They felt 
 that they must crush this hero of the West, or he would crush their beloved 
 Confederacy. But his enemies failed and he did not. 
 
 The results of the battle of Shiloh were the abandonment by the rebels of 
 Corinth, their second line of defence, the frustration of their march northward, 
 and of their plan to hold the Memphis and Charleston line of road. It also re- 
 sulted in the opening of all Tennessee, of portions of Mississippi and Alabama 
 to the Union forces j the opening of the Mississippi from Memphis to Vicks- 
 burg, and Grant's after movements upon Murfreesboro, Chattanooga, and Yicks- 
 burg. In fact, Shiloh was the staggering blow administered to the rebellion in 
 the south-west, from which it never recovered. It was the beginning of the end. 
 
 Having now won the control of the Cumberland and Tennessee, there yet only 
 remained to free the great river of the Mississippi, from Vicksburg to Port 
 Hudson. General Grant was naturally considered as the man most capable of 
 reducing these strongholds, as he had done the others. Here Halleck for awhile 
 assumed the chief command, Grant occupying a subordinate position in the move- 
 ment against Corinth. It was while the two Generals occupied these respective 
 pu.^itions that two anecdotes are told of Grant losing his temper. It was his 
 wish to "move at once upon the works" of Beauregard at Corinth ten days 
 before Halleck was ready, Grant believing that an immediate assault would lead 
 to the capture of the entire rebel force. The General's father says of his son, 
 '•Ke is sure he used stronger language to General Halleck than he had ever 
 used before to any person and expected to be arrested and tried for it. But 
 Halleck said to him, ' If I had let you take your own course, you would have 
 taken the rebel army.'" It is said that the other occasion which excited the 
 General's wrath, was when he discovered a soldier defiling the water which the 
 army were obliged to use. 
 
LIFE AND SERVICES OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 1") 
 
 Fortunately for the country, Halleck was appointed Gcneral-in-Chiof nvA 
 Grant became Commander of the Army of Tennessee and of the military dis- 
 tricts of Cairo, West Tennessee and Mississippi. The rebels knew that his 
 daring and energy would soon induce him to lead his army against Vieksburp-, 
 and to weaken his forces and delay his plans they attacked him at Corinth and 
 luka with great force and desperation, but with most disastrous results to them- 
 selves. General Pemberton was in command of the Confederate forces in northern 
 IMississippi with his head-quarters at Vicksburg and in the last two months of 
 1862 Grant made his first attempt on Vicksburg. Already had the combined 
 fleets of Farragut and Davis been hammering at it for seventy days without 
 success, and it soon was manifest that nothing short of a regular siege and 
 persistent fighting would reduce the strongest citadel of the South-west. 
 
 In February, ISGo, General Grant had reached Young's Point, a little beyond 
 the city, having his army there and at Milliken's Bend, just below. He intended 
 to get h's army across to the Vicksburg side and attack from that locality, but 
 first a flood and afterwards a fall in the river frustrated his plans in that direction. 
 
 For four months brilliant schemes of scientific engineering were tried. Six 
 plans failed, one after the other, but yet the indomitable Grant was still undis- 
 mayed; and when he found that success was unattainable by the operations of 
 his engineers, he fell back upon his own resources of skillful strategy and hard 
 fighting. Yet his final plan appeared to be the most difiicult of all, and one which 
 seemed to his Generals to involve insurmountable difliculties. It was a line of 
 operations by the South and one which even General Sherman would not advi.se. 
 A writer on the war has said concerning it, " It can only be said that there was 
 that in the composition of General Grant's mind that prompted him to undertake 
 that on which no one else would 'have ventured." 
 
 Part of this magnificent plan was for Grierson with his cavalry to march down 
 through Tennessee, dash through the interior of Mississippi and break up bridges, 
 railroads and other means of the enemy's communication leading to points of im- 
 portance. General Grierson was fully competent to manage the duty assigned 
 him, and by his rapid movements around Vicksburg he soon isolated it from its 
 bases of support. . 
 
 Meantime the fleet and transports had run the batteries, while the array under 
 General Grant moved seventy-five miles down the river, over which it was ferried 
 at Bruinsburg. Moving eastward he whipped Bowen at Port Gibson, drove 
 Johnson out of Jackson, the centre of the most important Confederate railroad 
 lines, and then by forced marches rapidly approached his objective point; he met 
 Pemberton at Champion Hills, defeated him, and then with consummate skill 
 drove him before him, forced the passage of the Big Black, caged Pemberton in 
 the city and immediately drew around it his lines of attack. 
 
 The whole movement, which was in itself one of the most daring and compre- 
 hensive of the war, was a succession of victories for the Army of the Union, 
 and after it had settled down before Vicksburg for the long seige, it only rested 
 there waiting for the result of what had gone before, for Pemberton had been 
 defeated and the fate of Vicksburg sealed a long while previous to its surrender. 
 The desperate assaults upon its works, and the lingering patient siege were only 
 
13 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 
 
 parts of a great scheme whicli had had its development before that time. Pem- 
 berton was simply driven into the trap set to capture him by the quiet, far-seeing 
 General. Far away in distant sections, each apparently working for himself, 
 yet each really being but a component part of Grant's great plan, was Grierson 
 with his cavalry, destroying railroads and bridges, and Sherman with his in- 
 fantry, watching Johnson who was endeavoring to gather an army with which 
 to fall upon Grant and raise the seige. "They seem," wrote Grant, " to put a 
 good deal of faith in Joe Johnson, but you must whip him at least fifteen miles 
 from here." 
 
 During the progress of the siege the probabilities of the capture of Vicksburg 
 were everywhere eagerly discussed. In a store in Cincinnati the opinion of a 
 bystander, an old fellow whose country garb betokened his ptrsuit, was solicited. 
 
 " I think he'll do it," said the stranger. 
 
 "Why?" some asked. 
 
 "Well, I don't know; but our Ulysses always did do what he said he would." 
 
 And this is one of the secrets of the man's greatness, of always hammering 
 away at any object he has in view until he conquers it. On the fourth of July, 
 18G-3, Vicksburg in the West and Gettysburg in the East sealed the doom of the 
 Confederacy. 
 
 The General now received his commission as a Major General in the regular 
 army, dating from the day of the surrender of Vicksburg. 
 
 His next great triumph was won at Chattanooga, November 23, 1863, when 
 the battle above the clouds, gave to the country possession of the mountain 
 barrier, from which the victorious forces of Sherman marched on with unbroken 
 front to the sea. 
 
 The tide of victory in the West under Grant had swept onward without let 
 or hindrance, but in the East it ebbed and flowed uncertainly. If Antietam 
 made some amends for the Peninsula, and if Gettysburg counterbalanced Fred- 
 ricksburg and Chancellorsville, yet the army under Lee still presented a menacing 
 front, and its capacity for evil seemed undiminished. It was felt that if the brave 
 soldiers of both East and West were to achieve success worthy of their valor and 
 sacrifices, there must be a comprehensive plan of campaign in Which one supreme 
 and directing mind should regulate the movements of all the armies, so that by 
 concentrated and simultaneous attacks along a battle front of a thousand miles 
 they might annihilate the rebellion. To work out this stupendous plan, on a 
 scale unprecedented in the history of war, the people instinctively turned 
 to the man who had never lost a battle. 
 
 In accordance with this expression of the popular will, General Grant, after 
 the brilliant victory of Lookout Mountain was called to Washington and given 
 the rank of Lieutenant General, a grade till then worn by none since Washing- 
 ton but General Scott. He assumed the command of the Army of the Potoma^ 
 in person and had control of the combined armies of the Union. He had ab- 
 solute power, the whole country to draw upon for his commissariat, the whole South 
 and South-west for his battle-fields to oriranize or to fig-ht his armies in. He 
 gathered them altogether in one comprehensive design, and now although, 
 thousands of miles might separate them, they all obeyed one lead and they all 
 began to pull together toward one central point — Richmond. 
 
LIFE AXD SERVICES OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 17 
 
 When the Army of the Potomac was crossing the Rapidan at the bcginniug 
 of the last Richmond campaign, the General seated on a log overlooking the 
 river, improved the time by telegraphing a few lines to Washington, which 
 flashed over the wires to Chattanooga and to Winchester, sent Sherman's army 
 pouring down like an avalanche from his mountain citadel through Georgia to the 
 sea, told Sheridan to "go in," and when those few lines sent from the Rapidan 
 had been acted upon, the great rebellion was dead — its life crushed out by the 
 combinations of the great soldier Grant, and the execution of his Generals and 
 men. The Confederacy was an old story when these brief messages of the quiet 
 hero had been carried out, and thereafter men began to speak of the Lost Cause. 
 
 In his last great movemect by which he ground to dust the rebellion, he first 
 fought the battles of the Wilderness. For six days of continuous battles he 
 slowly conquered his way, foot by foot into the enemy's country, daily gaining 
 ground, slowly and surely beating them back into the trap at Richmond which 
 he laid for Lee, as he had before time laid one for Pemberton at Vicksburff, and 
 at the end of those terrible six days, he sent to Washington his grim resolve, 
 "I propose to fight it out on this line if it takes all summer." 
 
 Then followed Spottsylvania, Cold Harbor, the investment of Petersburg, and 
 that long series of assaults, forays, battles, surprises, mines and feints, which 
 concluded with the surrender of Lee and the collapse of tiie Confederacy. 
 
 It may suit his political enemies now to effect to undervalue his services in 
 the field, but at that time no one questioned the pre-eminent ability of the man 
 or the value of those services. Thus his present bitter detractor, the New 
 York World, of April 11, 1865, remarked: 
 
 General Grant's last brilliant campaign sets the final seal upon his reputation. It 
 stamps him as the superior of liisable antagonist as well as of all the commanders who 
 have served with or under him in the great campaigns of the last year. It is not 
 necessary to sacrifice any part of their well-earned reputations to his. Sherman and 
 Sheridan deserve all that has ever been said in their praise ; but there has never been 
 a time, since Grant was made Lieut. -General, when anybody but Sherman on our 
 side, could have been classed with him. Since Sherman's bold march through Georgia, 
 and his capture of Savannah and Charleston, there have been many who, in their 
 strong admiration of his great achievements, inclined to rank him as the greater 
 General of the two. That judgment, we take it, is now reversed by the court, of 
 final appeal ; not by dwariii^g the reputation of Sherman, which sutlers no just 
 abatemeut, but by the expansion into grander proportions of that of Grant. 
 
 The strongest characteristics of General Grant's mind and heart are those 
 ■which eminently fit him to be a ruler of men. It is the instinctive recognition 
 of this which has prompted the people to make that si^ntancoiis offering of their 
 support for the highest ofiice in their gift which has no parallel since the elec- 
 tion of Washington. He is felt to be a man who has proved, by the exercise of 
 his genius and his moral attributes, his entire fitness for the position of Chief- 
 Executive ofiicer at this time, when more than at any other the condition of 
 public affairs demand for their adjustment abilities of the highest order. In 
 this crisis of the nation's troubles, untried or weak men can hope to receive 
 no public support for its places of honor and responsibility. The hour is full of 
 perils, requiring wisdom, patience and firmness of brain and nerve to direct the 
 ship of state safely through the dangers that encompass it. 
 
18 LIFE AXD SERVICES OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 
 
 General Grant's comprehensiveness of mind, which conceived, elaborated and 
 executed the gigantic scheme that finally crushed out the llebellion, is sufScieut 
 proof in itself of his ability. 
 
 He showed his stern, unflinching integrity, when he refused to yield his 
 principles to the insidious assaults of Andrew Johnson, whose bribe of the w;ii- 
 office was quietly spurned by the great soldier. 
 
 He exhibited his magnanimity in the generous, wise, and statesmanlike terms 
 he granted to his beaten enemy at Appomattox Court House. 
 
 He showed the nobleness of his mind, when he passed by, without entering, 
 the Capitol of the Confederacy which he had just conquered, and although the 
 fall of Richmond meant the fall of the Confederacy, he would not add to its 
 peoples' discomfiture by entering it as a victor, to triumphant music and the 
 waving of banners, surrounded by the trophies of his conquest. 
 
 He showed his devotion to the people of the Union, whose servant he was, by 
 hurrying to Washington within the hour of receiving Lee's surrender, and 
 stopping the dreaded draft. 
 
 Other victorious generals have celebrated their triumphs by surrounding them- 
 selves with military state, and crushing the people under accumulated burdens. 
 Grant, the single-hearted American citizen, turned without pausing, from the 
 glories of Appomattox Court House to the less brilliant but equally useful task 
 of disbanding the armies under his command, thus restoring to their homes and 
 to industry a million of citizens, and saving to the country an expenditure of 
 more than a million dollars a day. History records but two conquerors who have 
 proved thus simply and patriotically self-denying, and they are both Americans 
 — Washington and Grant. Yet in those two men the inborn simplicity of true 
 gi-eatness is so thoroughly understood, that what is elsewhere unexampled is in 
 them regarded as a matter of course. A man less self-poised in his unselfish 
 patriotism would have paused by the way to receive the plaudits of the people 
 he had saved, but Grant's sole idea was the performance of duty, and the relief 
 of his fellow-citizens from the burdens of war. 
 
 His courage is written on a score of bloody fields — is daily recorded in the 
 legends of a million heroes. 
 
 His executive ability and scrupulous official economy is testified to by his 
 enemy, Andrew Johnson, in these words, in a message to Congress while Grant 
 was acting Secretary of War. "■ Great reductions of expenses have been eflfected 
 under his administration of the War Department to the saving of millions to the 
 Treasury." 
 
 Two of his most remarkable qualifications are, the largest and most generous 
 justice in giving credit to his subordinates who earned it, and his intuitive 
 knowledge of men, in selecting those subordinates. As an evidence of the 
 former there are all the official reports of his battles in which the credit is en- 
 tirely given 'to others, none retained for himself; and more particularly is it 
 shown in his noble letter to Sherman, acknowledging the latter's and McPher- 
 son's share of all the honors won in their many battles together. As to his 
 wisdom in selecting the men to whom he entrusted the execution of his plans^ 
 we need but simply refer to their names and their heroic deeds. 
 
LIFE AND SERVICES OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 
 
 19 
 
 That he is fit to govern the nation which his wisdom and valor saved, no one 
 can doubt, who will see with what temperance and moderation he governed 
 armies, with what simplicity and lack of ostentation he has borne the honors 
 heaped so thickly on him. Given almost absolute power, no living man com- 
 plains that he abused it; given unparalleled honor he yet walks humbly. His 
 public and private morals challenge the admiration of the good, and his great 
 qualities of heart extort unmeasured praise even from his political enemies. 
 
 TuE Pittsburg Post, the leading Democratic organ of Western Pennsylvania 
 
 says of him : 
 
 Suppose General Grant should be nominated for the Presidency by the RepuV 
 lican party, what course ought the Domdcratic party to pursue? Ou(jht we to nomi- 
 nate a man in opposition to General Grant/' Oiif/hi we to charr/e him with being an 
 enemy to his country, or in favor of unjust Pleasures, merely because he may have re- 
 ceived said nominationf 
 
 "We arc inclined to believe that more depends upon General Grant now than upon 
 any other individual in the United States. We believe him to he far superior to the 
 majority of the far-si<jht(d politicians tcho have been ridinfi the nation without brin<2;ing 
 peace or economy to our legislation, lie is known to all the people as A STRAIGllT- 
 FORWARD MAN, and so far as can be judged, a man well-disposed iOydenl Jairly 
 with thejyeople of all sections of the Union. Certainly if such a man were nominated 
 by the Democratic party, we would advocate his election in the hope that his election 
 would conduce to the public welfare. The question is, then, if he is nomiuated by 
 the Republican party, whether we ought as a party to oppose his election? 
 
 ** ** ** * * * * * 
 
 What better thin"- can we do in case of General Grant's nomination by the Repub- 
 lican party than to VOTE FOR HIM fop. tue PRESIDENCY ? Our aim should be 
 to strengthen his hands : to render him as much as possible independent of party, 
 and to ELECT HIM TO THE PRESIDENCY OF TUE PEOPLE. If unanimously, 
 so much the better. 
 
 We solemnly believe that if the people generally of the United States can come to- 
 gether with real unanimity on General Grant, in regard to the Presidency, it will be 
 the happiest thing for our country that could ocx:ur. The future good effects of this 
 course are almost incalculable. We earnestly ask our Democratic friends every- 
 where to consider this subject carefully." 
 
 The New York World, the most prominent journal of the Democratic 
 party says : 
 
 Of the steadiness and staunchness of General Grant's patriotism, or the upright- 
 ness and solidity of his character, no man in the country doubts or affects to doubt. 
 On the score of loyalty and solid public services, no man in the country can come 
 into competition With this illustrious soldier. The Presidency can be nothing to him ; 
 he has a more valuable office. But if, in the hands of Providence, he could be an in- 
 strument for tranquilizing the country, that is an honor for which he could afford to 
 sacrifice ease, congenial pursuits, and the possibilities of still greater fiime as a soldier. 
 As Washington was elected and re-elected on the strength of his character and ser- 
 vices, without pledge being asked or given, we trust that Grant will be eleeted in the 
 same Avay. Having restored the authority of the Government, we hope he niay add 
 the highest civic to the highest military fame by restoring long-lost cordiality of 
 feeling. 
 
 We need not fear to trust one who compels the admiration and praise of his 
 enemies. In all things General Grant has shown himself to be worthy of the 
 position left vacant by Abraham Lincoln. He is brave, true in his speech and 
 policy; wise, firm and resolute in danger, fearing no circumstances, relying upon 
 
20 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 
 
 Providence for results beyond his control; modest, unambitious, full of love for 
 his country, and desiring only its welfare. 
 
 In accepting the nomination tendered him by the great party of freedom and 
 Union through their late Convention at Chicago, he says with wise statesman- 
 ship : 
 
 If elected to the ofSce of President of the United States, it will be my endeavor to 
 administer all the laws in good faith, with economy and with the view of giving 
 Peace, quiet and protection everywhere. * * * * 
 
 A purely administrative officer should ^.Iways be left free to execute the will of the 
 people. 
 
 And in conclusion he echoes the cry that Andrew Johnson's selfish and 
 irritating policy has placed on every man's tongue, an appeal that only Ulysses 
 S. G-rant can satisfy — 
 
 ''LET US HAVE PEACE." 
 
LIFE OF SCHUYLER COLFAX. 
 
 Few names in the political history of the present day shine with so pure a 
 lustre as that of Schuyler Colfax ; to the qualifications of a great statesman, and 
 the graces of an orator, he unites the largest parliaiuentary abilities, the record 
 of a stainless life and habits of the strictest morality and temperance. 
 
 The fatal mistakes committed by the people of the United States, in giving to 
 a man of such ordinary ability and laxity of morals as Andrew Johnson the 
 second office in the country's gift, have made them wisely demand that the 
 future candidates for the Viee-Presidency shall be men of such acknowledged 
 power and sterling worth, as to command the respect and esteem of their country- 
 men. The inscrutable Providence that removed from their high places of trust 
 and usefulness Harrison, Taylor, and Lincoln, may also remove future Presi- 
 dents, and it is fitting that those selected to succeed to their places in case of 
 death or accident, should not be unworthy to fill the vacancy. 
 
 The Hon. Schuyler Colfox was born in the City of New York, November 
 twenty-third, 1823. He sprang from a Hterlisg old llevolutionary stock. His 
 grandfather, General "William Colfox, who was a warm and intimately attached 
 friend of Washington, and the commander of his Life Guards during the whole 
 of the war, married a cousin of General Philip Schuyler. The father of the 
 subject of our sketch was a clerk in a bank in New York City, and died four 
 mouths previous to the birth of his son. 
 
 The early history of that child is one fraught with lessons of deep importance 
 to the young, for it shows that the hardest condition of poverty or youthful dis- 
 advantages are no hindrance to a brilliant and successful career. His family 
 having been left in very straightened circumstances by the death of his father, 
 he was sent to the public school, where the boy eagerly availed himself of such 
 educational advantages as it could aflford. But the pressing necessities of his 
 family early made it necessary for the lad to seek employment, which he found 
 as clerk in a store; feeling, however, after a three years' service, that his abili- 
 ties and energies might be better employed for the benefit of his mother and 
 near relatives, he removed to the West, settling in St. Joseph's County, Indiana, 
 and again serving as clerk to a storekeeper in the village of New Carlisle. 
 
 Here his modesty, his pushing energy, his stern probity so strongly impressed 
 his friends and neighbors, that while he was yet but seventeen years old, he was 
 made Second Auditor of the county. To enable him to attend to the duties of 
 his appointmfnt, he removed to South Bend, the county town, where he has 
 ever since continued to reside, excepting when his public duties called him to 
 the City of Washington. 
 
22 LIFE OF SCHUYLER COLFAX. 
 
 As early as he could vote he showed a decided inclination for a political life, 
 yet he has always been so upright and clear in his duties to his country, that ho 
 has been regarded even by his political enemies as more of a statesman than as 
 a mere politician. 
 
 Having been in the employ of the Indianapolis Journal for a time as reporter 
 of the proceedings of the State Senate, he became conversant with newspaper 
 management, and in 1845, while he was still in his twenty-second year, he pur- 
 chased the St. Joseph's Valley Register. Being still hampered by poverty and 
 those natural claims of his family which it was his happiness to fulfill, he had 
 many and great difficulties in sustaining his newspaper enterprise during the 
 first year or two ; but his natural energy of character and the appreciation of 
 the community, soon placed his paper in a flom-ishing condition. He was not 
 wealthy, but he was out of debt ; he had a business, a home, and felt that he 
 was doing a good and honest work in the world, when his printing office, presses, 
 type and paper were all destroyed by fire. This loss, great as it was, only im- 
 pelled the young printer to new exertions. The fire had taken his wealth, but 
 his neighbors and patrons, knowing how tender and devoted a son he had proved 
 himself, how industrious and trustworthy he was, and feeling that the loss of a 
 paper so ably and honestly conducted as his had been, would be a public calamity, 
 eagerly stepped forward with ready help for the young man. Again he might 
 be seen working at the case, or bending over the imposing-stone, or pulling 
 the lever of his press, or sitting at his little square pine table in his new office, 
 with all new material around him, getting out the next edition of the " Register." 
 It was not only a political paper, but one very active and useful in the temper- 
 ance reform movement, of which Schuyler Colfax has always been an earnest 
 and able advocate. 
 
 Politically, Mr. Colfax was a Whig until the disruption of that organization, 
 when he joined the Republican party. He was a staunch, working Republican 
 long before the war. A hater of slavery in those days when, to be an abolition- 
 ist, especially in the "West, was to be infamous in the eyes of many very sincere 
 people. His belief was not a matter of policy with him, but rather a profound 
 conviction of right and justice, and, consequently, he has never changed it. His 
 whole career has been singularly honorable, useful and consistent. 
 
 He was first elected to the Thirty-fourth Congress as an Anti-Nebraska man, 
 and it was during the opening session of that Congress that the first decided 
 triumph of the anti-slavery sentiment was won in the election of Banks to the 
 speakership, after a parliamentary struggle which lasted for two months. 
 
 On June twenty-first, 1856, Mr. Colfax delivered his remarkable address on 
 the " Bogus Laws of Nebraska," which was a word-for-word quotation, clause 
 after clause, of the infamous code of that territory, with explanations of its 
 operations. One clause in this monstrous system of laws declared it to be " ille- 
 gal for any person to say that it was wrong to hold slaves," and subjected that 
 ofi'ence to the penalty of wearing " a ball and chain to the ankle." To give point 
 to his speech, Mr. Colfax produced from his desk one of the regulation iron 
 balls, weighing thirty pounds, and apologized for the absence of the six feet of 
 shain belonging to it. Mr. Alexander H. Stephens, the subsequent Vice-Presi- 
 
LIFE OF SCHUYLER COLFAX. 23 
 
 dent of the Confederacy, desired to inspect the article, when Mr. Colfax /cour- 
 teously handed it to the gentleman, and obliged him to hold it while the South 
 Bend Printer explained its use. The speech was considered so able that the 
 Republican party circulated a million copies of it as a campaign document. 
 
 At the expiration of his term he was re-elected by a large majority, though 
 the presidential election of that fall went against his party in his own district. 
 He marked the inevitable results of the elections of 1844, 1848, 1852, and 
 1856, and foresaw, with unerring intuition, that the party of freedom and justice 
 would be the party of the future. lie once wrote to Mr. Fillmore : — 
 
 Whether the Republican Ticket shall be successful or defeated this year, the duty 
 to support it, to proclaim and defend its principles, to arouse the conscience of the 
 nation is none the less incumbesit. The Kopul^lican movement is based on Justice 
 and Right, consecrated to Freedom, commended liy the teachings of our Revolutionary 
 Fathers, and demanded by the extraordinary events of our recent history, and though 
 its triumph may be delayed, nothing is more certain. 
 
 In 1858 he was again re-elected to Congress, and he has been in each sub- 
 sequent session. As chairman of the Committee on Post Offices and Post 
 Roads, he labored against much opposition to afford postal facilities to the popu- 
 lation of the Rocky Mountain gold fields, and having succeeded in accomplish- 
 ing this, he turned his attention and energies toward the establishment of an 
 overland post route and overland telegraph to San Francisco by way of Pike's 
 Peak and Utah, the same which are now in successful operation. He was also 
 foremost iu all the movements to secure cheap postage, to increase the facilities 
 of the post-office department, and to perfect its workings. In all this his prac- 
 tical experience as publisher of a newspaper was of great value. 
 
 In 1860, Mr. Colfax was very earnest and active in securing the election of 
 Mr.' Lincoln, whose friendship he had for many years enjoyed. The mutual 
 confidence of these two patriots, and their appreciation of each other's charac- 
 ter and abilities, is the best testimony of the fitness of both for exalted station. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln's admiration for and confidence in Mr. Colfax's statesmanship 
 and patriotism were very great, and it is on record that " he rarely took any 
 steps affecting the interest of the nation without making his intentions known to 
 Mr. Colfax, in whose judgment he placed the firmest reliance." 
 
 In 1803, Mr. Colfax was chosen Speaker of the House of Representatives by 
 the largest political majority ever given for that position. He has remained in 
 that arduous post ever since, where his practical sagacity, his strict impartiality, 
 his profound acquaintance with parliamentary usage, and his uniform courtesy, 
 have won the admiration of his political associates, and extorted the encomiums 
 even of his adversaries. When we consider that his term of service in this posi- 
 tion has extended over a large portion of the war, and through the whole exciting 
 period of the antagonism between the President and Congress, it will be seen 
 what rare powers were required to deal with the novel and exciting questions 
 which have so rapidly succeeded each other. 
 
 Notwithstanding these arduous labors, Mr. Colfdx found time to devote one 
 day in every week to visiting the hospitals of Washington, where his presence 
 ever brought cheer and comfort to the disabled heroes of the conflict with rebel- 
 lion Despite, too, the limited fortune which his devotion to public affairs had 
 
24 LIFE OF SCHUYLER COLFAX.' 
 
 enabled him to accumulate, his hand was ever open to the claims of the defen- 
 ders of their country. On one occasion he devoted the whole mileage of a 
 session of Congress to relieving the necessities of the soldiers. On another, the 
 proceeds of a series of popular lectures were generously contributed to the same 
 patriotic purpose. It is questionable, indeed, whether during the war any citi- 
 zen contributed so large a proportion of his means to these benevolent and patri- 
 otic purposes. 
 
 On the occasion of his being the second time elected Speaker, he said, in re- 
 lation to Congress : 
 
 Its duties are as obvious as the sun's pathway in the heavens. Representing in its 
 two branches the States and the people, its first and highest obligation is to guarantee 
 to every State a republican form of government. The rebellion having overthrown 
 constitutional State governments in many States, it is yours to mature and enact 
 legislation which, with the concurrence of the Executive, shall establish them anew 
 on such a basis of enduring justice as will guarantee all necessary safeguards to the 
 people, and afford what our Magna Charta, the Declaration of Independence, pro- 
 claims is the chief object of government — protection to all men in their inalienable 
 rights. The world should witness, in this great work, the most inflexible fidelity, 
 the most earnest devotion to the principles ofliberty and humanity, the truest patri- 
 otism and the wisest statesmanship. 
 
 Heroic men, by hundreds of thousands, have died that the Republic might live. 
 The emblems of mourning have darkened the "White House and the cabin alike ; but 
 the fires of civil war have melted every fetter in the land, and proved the funeral 
 pyre of slavery. It is for you. Representatives, to do your work as faithfully and 
 as well as the fearless saviours of the Union in their more dangerous nrena of duty. 
 Then we may hope to see the vacant and once abandoned seats around us gradually 
 filling up, until this hall shall contain Representatires from every State andDistrict ; 
 their hearts devoted to the Union for which they are to le^^islate, jealous of its honor, 
 proud of its glory, watchful of its rights, and hostile to its enemies. And the stars 
 on our banner, that paled when the States they represented arrayed themselves in arms 
 against the nation, will shine with a more brilliant light of loyalty than ever before. 
 
 As presiding officer of the House of Representatives, Mr. Colfax has been re- 
 markable for his even good temper, his untiring energy, his exhaustless patience, 
 a calm, prompt presence of mind, a grave dignity of demeanor, and a gentle 
 courteousness, a profound knowledge of the intricacies of parliamentary laws and 
 usaires, a fairness and honesty, and a decision of character that have given to 
 his countrymen the assurance of his entire fitness for any position requiring 
 large ability and statesmanship. 
 
 Mr. Colfax possesses vigorous health, a constitution unimpaired by excess, and 
 an enduring physical frame, which have enabled him to bear long and arduous 
 labors, session after session, without losing either his readiness or decision of 
 thought or action. 
 
 Schuyler Colfax, who has, by the simple merit of his own great abilities, pure 
 life and concentrated energies, risen from the humble position of a shop-boy, by 
 such honorable means as are open to all American youth, who are not ashamed 
 of honest labor or too indifferent to be ambitious, is to-day, the candidate of the 
 party whose princinles he has so long and manfully upheld, lor the office of 
 Vice-President of the United States. 
 
 His claims upon his country are many and great. Patriotism and admiration for 
 one who has builded his own fortunes, and done noble service for his country in its 
 tioiee of need, demand that his reward should be commensurate with his merits.