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1187……..(Born
O.)
Ulysses S. Grant
(Ap’d O.)………………21
Military
History. – Cadet at the Military Academy, July 1, 1839, to July 1, 1843,
when he was graduated and promoted in the Army to
Bvt. Second Lieut., 4th
Infantry, July 1, 1843.
Served: in
garrison at Jefferson Barracks, Mo., 1843-44; on frontier duty at
Natchitoches, La. (Camp Salubrity), 1844-45; in Military Occupation of
Texas,
(Second Lieut., 4th
Infantry, Sep. 30, 1845)
1845-46; in the War with
Mexico, 1846-48, being engaged in the Battle of Palo Alto, May 8, 1846, --
Battle of Resaca-de-la-Palma, May 9, 1846, -- Battle of Monterey, Sep.
21-23, 1846, -- Siege of Vera Cruz, Mar. 9-29, 1847, -- Battle of Cerro
Gordo, Apr. 17-18, 1847, -- Capture of San Antonio, Aug. 20, 1847, -- Battle
of Churubusco, Aug. 20, 1847, -- Battle of Molino del Rey, Sep. 8, 1847, --
Storming
(Bvt. First Lieut., Sep.
8, 1847, for Gallant and Meritorious
Conduct in the Battle of
Molino del Rey, Mex.)
Chapultepec, Sep. 13,
1847, -- Assault and Capture of the City of
(Bvt. Capt., Sep. 13,
1847, for gallant Conduct at Chapultepec, Mex.)
Mexico, Sep. 13-14, 1847,
-- and as Quartermaster, 4th Infantry, Apr. 1, 1847, to July 23,
1848; in garrison at Sackett’s Harbor, N. Y., 1848-49,
(First Lieut., 4th
Infantry, Sep. 16, 1847)
as Quartermaster, 4th
Infantry, Sep. 11, 1849, to Sep. 30, 1853; in garrison at Detroit, Mich.,
1849-50, 1850-51, -- Sackett’s Harbor, N. Y. 1851-52, -- Ft. Columbus, N.
Y., 1852, -- and at Benicia, Cal., 1852; and on frontier duty at Columbia
Barracks, Or., 1852-53, -- Ft. Vancouver,
(Captain, 4th
Infantry, Aug. 5, 1853)
Or., 1853, -- and Ft.
Humboldt, Cal., 1854.
Resigned, July 31, 1854.
Civil History.
– Farmer, near St. Louis, Mo., 1854-59. Real Estate Agent, St. Louis, Mo.,
1859-60. Merchant, Galena, Ill., 186061.
Military
History. – Served during the Rebellion of the Seceding States, 1861-66: in
command of a Company of Illinois Volunteers, Apr.-May, 1861; assisting in
Organizing and Mustering Volunteers into service, May to June 17, 1861; on
march to Quincy, Ill, and in guarding
(Colonel, 21st
Illinois Volunteers, June 17, 1861)
the Hannibal and St.
Joseph Railroad, Mo., June 17 to Aug. 7, 1861; in command
(Brig.-General, U. S.
Volunteers, May 17, 1861)
of Ironton, Mo., Aug.
7-17, 1861, -- of Jefferson City, Mo., Aug. 17-29, 1861, -- and of the
District of Southwestern Missouri, headquarters Cap-e Girardeau, Mo.,
subsequently extended to embrace Southern Illinois and Western Kentucky,
headquarters Cairo, Ill., Sp. 1, 1861, to Feb. 17, 1862, being engaged in
the Seizure of Paducah, Ky., at the mouth of Tennessee River, Sep. 6, 1861,
-- Expedition to and Combat of Belmont, Mo., Nov. 7, 1861, -- and armed
Reconnoissances into Western Kentucky, making demonstrations upon the Rebel
defenses at Columbus, Ky., and Ft. Henry, Ten., Jan. 10-=22, 1862; in the
Tennessee Campaign (in command), Feb. to Apr., 1862, being engaged in
Operations against Ft. Henry, Feb. 2-6, 1862, -- Investment and Capture of
Ft. Donelson, with 14,623 prisoners and much material of war, Feb. 13-16,
1862,
(Maj.-General, U. S.
Volunteers, Feb. 16, 1862, to July 4, 1863)
and Battle of Shiloh, Apr.
6-7, 1862; in command of the District of West Tennessee, Mar. 5 to Oct. 16,
1862; in the Mississippi Campaign (second in command), Apr. to Oct., 1862,
being engaged in the Advance upon, and Siege of Corinth, Apr. 10 to May 30,
1862, in immediate command of the Right Wing and Reserve of Major-General
Halleck’s Army, -- and subsequently to July 18, 1862, directed the
operations resulting in the Battle of Corinth, Oct. 3-4, and of the Hatchie,
Oct. 5, 1862, and commanded in person at the Battle of Iuka, Sep. 19, 1862;
in command of the Department of the Tennessee, Oct. 16, 1862, to Oct. 16,
1863; in command of the Army on the Mississippi, in the Vicksburg Campaign,
Nov. 4, 1862, to July 18, 1863, comprising the flank movement to Oxford, Mis.,
Nov.-Dec., 1862, from which he was compelled to fall back by Col. Murphy’s
surrender, Dec. 20, 1862, of his principal depot of supplies at Holly
Springs, -- Descent of the Mississippi to Young’s Point, Jan. 1863, --
Advance to Bruinsburg and flanking Grand Gulf, Apr., 1863, after fruitless
efforts to turn Vicksburg by Williams’s Canal, Yazoo Pass, Steele’s Bayou,
Lake Providence, etc., Feb.-Mar., 1863, -- Battle of Port Gibson, May 1,
1863, -- Battle of Raymond, May 12, 1863, -- Capture of Jackson, Mis., May
14, 1863, -- Battle of Champion’s Hill, May 16, 1863, -- Combat of the Big
Black, May 17, 1863, -- Assaults on Vicksburg, May 19 and 22, 1863, and
Siege of the place, May 22, till its unconditional surrender, July 4, 1863,
with stores
(Major-General, U. S.
Army, July 4, 1863)
and garrison of 31,500,
resulting in the Re-occupation of Jackson, Mis., July 16, 1863, and forcing
the retreat of General J. E. Johnston’s Rebel army beyond Brandson, Mis.; in
organizing various Expeditions in the department under his command,
July-Aug., 1863; on tour of Inspection from Cairo, Ill., to Natchez, Mis.,
Aug. 23 to Sep. 2, 1863; in command of the Military Division of the
Mississippi, Oct. 16, 1863, to Mar. 2, 1864, including the Armies of the
Ohio, Cumberland, and Tennessee, being engaged in Defense of and Operations
about Chattanooga, Oct. 23 to Nov. 23, 1863, -- Battle of Chattanooga, Nov.
23-25, 1863,* -- Pursuit of the enemy, with large captures of Prisoners,
Nov. 26-27, 1863, -- and on tour of Inspection, Jan., 1864; and in command,
as General-in-Chief, of the Armies
(Lieut.-General, U. S.
Army, Mar. 2, 1864)
of the United States, Mar.
17, 1864, to Aug. 12, 1866; in the Richmond Campaign, May 4, 1864, to Apr.
9, 1865, in direct command of all the forces in the field, which were
engaged in the Battle of the Wilderness, May 5-6, 1864, -- Battles about
Spottsylvania, May 8-21, 1864, -- Battles of North Anna, May 21-25, 1864, --
Battle of Tolopotomy, May 28-29, 1864, -- Battle of Bethesda Church, May 30,
1864, -- Battles of Cold Harbor, June 1-13, 1864, -- Assaults on Petersburg,
June 16-18, 1864, -- Military Operations about Petersburg, and Siege of the
place, June 18, 1864, to Apr. 3, 1865, -- Pursuit of the Rebel Army, Apr.
3-9, 1865, -- Battle of Sailor’s Creek, Apr. 6, 1865, -- and Capitulation of
General Lee, with the Army of Northern Virginia, at Appomattox C. H., Apr.
9, 1865.
General, U. S. Army, July
25, 1866.
Served: in
command of the Armies of the United States, Aug. 12, 186, to Mar. 4, 1869.
Secretary of War, ad interim, Aug. 12, 1867, to Jan. 14, 1868.
Vacated Commission of
General, U. S. Army, Mar. 4, 1869
Civil History.
-- President of the United States, Mar. 4, 1869, to Mar. 4, 1877.
Military
History. - Re-appointed by Act of Congress,
General, U. S. Army, Mar.
3, 1885, on the Retired List.
Died, July 23, 1885, on
Mount MacGregor, N. Y.: Aged 63.
*The thanks of Congress
were presented, Dec. 17, 1863, to General Grant, and also a Gold Medal.
Resolutions of thanks were also passed by the Legislatures of most of the
loyal States.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
GENERAL ULYSSES
S. GRANT was born, Apr. 27, 1822, at Point Pleasant, Clermont County, Ohio.
His father’s moderate circumstances did not permit his giving his son more
than a common-school education, but sufficient to fit him to creditably pass
the entrance examination to the Military Academy, where, though not studious
nor attentive to the discipline of the institution, he was graduated about
the middle of his class, but stood much higher in the scientific or more
important branches of study (Mathematics, 10th; Natural
Philosophy, 15th; and Engineering, 16th), showing excellent
capacity. Upon leaving West Point, July 1, 1843, he was promoted to the 4th
Infantry, and two years later was ordered to join General Taylor’s army,
about to invade Mexico from the Rio Grande base of operations. In the war
with this country he was engaged in the Battles of Palo Alto and Resca-de-la-Palma,
and, though regimental quartermaster in charge of the train, he took an
active part in the Storming of Monterey; was then transferred to General
Scott’s army and participated in all its operations, from the Siege of Vera
Cruz to the Capture of the Capital, being brevetted for his gallant and
meritorious conduct in the Battle of Molino del Rey, where he was with the
first troops to enter the mills. In the Storming of Chapultepec and Assault
of the City of Mexico, he showed enterprise and great courage. After the
Army returned to the United States, Grant served as regimental Quartermaster
in garrison and on frontier duty till he became a Captain. A year later,
July 31, 1854, he resigned from the Army.
He now settled
on a small farm near St. Louis, Mo.; but finding his life a hard one, he
removed, in 1860, to Galena, Ill., to become on a very small salary a clerk
in his father’s hardware and leather store.
When news was
received at Galena of the outbreak of the Rebellion, Grant presided at a
public meeting called in support of the Union cause; promptly raised and
drilled a company of volunteers; then was employed by Governor Yates in the
Adjutant-General’s Department and made mustering officer; soon after was
appointed Colonel of the 21st Illinois Volunteers; and became,
Aug. 7, 1861, Brig.-General, U. S. Volunteers, and was assigned to the
command of the District of Southwestern Missouri, with headquarters at
Cairo, Ill. Hearing that the enemy designed seizing Paducah, at the mouth
of the Tennessee, he at once occupied the place, which materially aided in
keeping Kentucky loyal.
To prevent
troops being sent from Columbus, Ky., to support Price, then advancing into
Missouri, Grant, with 3,000 men and two gunboats, moved down the Mississippi
to make a demonstration upon Belmont, where a spirited engagement took place
against superior forces, leading to no important results.
General Halleck,
a learned strategist, then in command of the Department of the Missouri,
seeing that the efforts of our arms in the West had been only tentative,
decided to break the enemy’s first line of defense, extending from Columbus
to Bowling green, by falling upon its weak center; to accomplish which he
ordered Grant to move up the Tennessee, accompanied by the gunboats. Fort
Henry was bombarded, Feb. 6, 1862, and captured by Flag Officer Foote, after
which Grant moved upon Fort Donelson, invested, assaulted, and captured the
place, which unconditionally surrendered, Feb. 16, the trophies of this
great achievement being 14,623 prisoners of war, 65 cannon, and 17,600
small-arms. The nation, till now bowed down by many defeats, was
electrified by this eminent success of our arms, and Grant’s name was on
every tongue. Upon the immediate recommendation of General Halleck, he was
at once promoted to a Major-Generalcy of Volunteers.
Owing to some
irregularities, which were afterward satisfactorily explained, Grant was
ordered to make his headquarters at Fort Henry, but was never in arrest or
“virtual arrest,” as he and many of his friends have stated, for, had he
been, he could not have held the command of his district, which he never
relinquished for a moment.
General C. F.
Smith, an old and experienced soldier, who had just performed such brilliant
service at Fort Donelson, was ordered to move up the Tennessee with the
advance force destined to break the enemy’s second line of defense, but
unfortunately he received a serious injury to his leg in jumping into a
yawl, which hastened his untimely death. Grant was now ordered by Halleck
to take personal command of all the troops in the field, with orders to
avoid battle till Buell’s army had effected its post on the left bank of the
Tennessee. However, Pittsburg Landing, where most of our troops were
encamped, being flanked on either side by large creeks, was a strong
position, had its front towards the enemy been intrenched, as General Grant
before his death admitted should have been done.
The Confederate
Army, April 6, 1862, numbering nearly 50,000 men commanded by Gen. Albert S.
Johnston, made a vigorous and unexpected attack at daylight, drove back the
advanced National troops in confusion, and continued to press forward till
sunset, every inch of the two miles passed over being desperately contested,
and victory hanging in the balance. Before nightfall the advance of the
Army of the Cumberland under Buell had joined grant, who occupied all night
a strong position defended by artillery near the Tennessee, while the
exhausted enemy withdrew about two miles to rest for the next day’s contest,
which was renewed early on the morning of the 7th by the combined
armies of Grant and Buell, and terminated with the utter defeat of the
Confederate army, which retreated to Corinth.
General Halleck
now took the field in person, Grant being second in command. After the
occupation of Corinth by our army, and the appointment of Halleck to be
General-in-Chief, Grant succeeded him in command of the Army of the
Tennessee.
In this brief
sketch we cannot follow out in detail the operations resulting in the
Battles of Iuka, Corinth, Hatchie, and other operations preceding Grant’s
successful breaking of the enemy’s third line of defense by his masterly
movements, which prevented the junction of Johnston’s and Pemberton’s
armies, and achieved his great triumph in the capture of the strong
fortifications of Vicksburg, its garrison of 31,600 men, 172 cannon, 60,000
muskets, and a large amount of ammunition. These brilliant achievements
caused Grant to be made a Major-General in the Regular Army, and when
Congress assembled it ordered a gold medal to be presented to him with the
thanks of the nation.
Grant, Oct. 16,
1863, was placed in command of the Division of the Mississippi, including
the Armies of the Ohio, Cumberland, and Tennessee; and on the 23d he took
immediate charge of the operations about Chattanooga, resulting, a month
later, in the decisive Battles of Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge,
with large captures of men and arms.
Grant, now the
hero of the war, was appointed, March 2, 1864, to the revived grade of
Lieut.-General, taking command of all the armies of the United States.
Leaving Sherman as his successor in the West, Grant took personal command in
the East, designing to make Johnston’s and Lee’s armies the main objective
points of attack, in accordance with Halleck’s opinion, expressed in his
communication to Grant of March 17, 1864.
The desperate
struggle of the General-in-Chief, from May 4, 1864, to April 9, 1865, of
nearly a year of almost continuous battle, from the Wilderness to
Appomattox, it is unnecessary here to recount, as it is familiar to all
readers of the history of the Rebellion.
Peace being
restored by the surrender of the Confederate armies, Grant took up his
headquarters at Washington city, and on all sides was hailed as the
deliverer of the nation from its attempted dismemberment. Ovations were
made to him on every side, and the rank of General, before held only by
Washington, was conferred upon him, July 25, 1866, by special act of
Congress. His honors, however, did not make for him a bed of roses, for now
he was engaged in a new war with the politicians, in fighting the
difficulties of reconstruction of the Union. But his strong common sense
triumphed here, as had his good sword throughout the four years of the Civil
War. His popularity increased every day, till he was triumphantly elected
to be, March 4, 1869, the President of the nation he had saved. His
administration of eight5 years, though not as distinguished as that of some
of his predecessors, was highly creditable, considering that the country was
just emerging from a long period of disorder. During his incumbency the
national debt was greatly reduced and the public credit fully established;
the reconstruction of the Southern States was completed, and the right of
suffrage secured to all classes of citizens; Civil Service Reform was
carried out to the full extent of the law; the first transcontinental
railroad was finished; the “Alabama Claims” were paid, and the Northwestern
Boundary dispute adjusted; revenue frauds were prosecuted; and by the
judicious use of the veto power, the country was saved from an inflated
currency, and the early resumption of specie payments was secured.
After retiring
from the Presidency, March 4, 1877, Grant decided to make the tour of the
world. Leaving the United States, May 17, 1887, he visited England, the
continent of Europe, Egypt, Palestine, India, China, Japan, and many Eastern
islands, returning home by California. Everywhere he was received with
enthusiastic greetings and ovation such as would have been paid in olden
days to Roman emperors. Early in 1880, he continued his journeying through
the Southern States, and visited Cuba and Mexico, in which latter country he
was received with every demonstration of gratitude for having relieved its
people from the domination of a foreign usurper.
Most of Grant’s
after days were spent in New York city, but here misfortune overtook him, a
banking-house, of which he was a silent partner, having failed. In the
extremity he undertook writing his Memoirs in order that by the sale of his
work he might leave something for the support of his family.
In 1884 Grant
discovered that he had a cancer of the throat. His sufferings excited the
sympathy of the whole country, extending to Congress, which restored him to
his former rank of General upon the Army retired list. Hovering now between
life and death, he devoted all of his remaining strength to the completion
of his Memoirs, which were finished only four days before his untimely
death, July 23, 1885, on Mount MacGregor, near Saratoga, N. Y. His remains
were borne to their final resting-place at New York Riverside Park, on the
bank of the beautiful Hudson, by a military escort and procession surpassing
in numbers and magnificence any public pageant ever seen in this country.
Every street through which the cortege passed was draped in mourning, and
millions beheld it with heads bowed in deep sorrow. Not only in the United
States were funeral honors paid to the memory of Grant, but England held
impressive services in Westminster Abbey to a distinguished throng, and amid
the myriads of memorials of her illustrious dead. On that day all
differences between the two great Anglo-Saxon families, on either side of
the Atlantic, were forgotten and forgiven, and both peoples were proud of a
common ancestry which had produced such men.
Grant, though of
humble origin and possessing few early advantages, by the strength of mind
and character, and aided by opportunity of which he bravely availed himself,
rose to great eminence; yet he was not a man of genius, though he possessed
that practical common-sense which is often its substitute. He would not
have claimed for himself a high rank in statesmanship, and certainly as a
soldier he is not to be classed among the preeminent captains of ancient and
modern times. Like Wellington, with a valiant army to support him, he was
successful in a great struggle; but, like his prototype, he won victory
rather by hard pounding and perseverance than by strategic skill, and often
at much expense of life and treasure. However, as my estimate of his
qualities is not altogether in accordance with the opinions of many others
more intimate with him than myself, and who had penetrated the thick husk of
his reserve, I prefer to submit their analysis of his character in
preference to my own.
General Horace
Porter, who was Grant’s Aide-de-Camp in the Rebellion and his Private
Secretary while he was President says: “Grant possessed in a striking
degree the essential characteristics of a successful soldier. His
self-reliance was one of his most pronounced traits, and enabled him at
critical moments to decide promptly the most important questions without
useless delay in seeking advice from others, and to assume the gravest
responsibilities without asking any one to share them. He had a fertility
of resource, and a faculty of adapting the means at hand to the
accomplishment of his purposes, which contributed no small share to his
success. His moral and physical courage were equal to every emergency in
which he was placed. His unassuming manner, purity of character, and
absolute loyalty to his superiors and to the work in which he was engaged,
inspired loyalty in others, and gained him the devotion of the humblest of
his subordinates. He was singularly calm and patient under all
circumstances, was never unduly elated by victory or depressed by defeat,
never became excited, and never uttered an oath or imprecation. His habits
of life were simple, and he possessed a physical constitution that enabled
him to endure every form of fatigue and privation incident to military
service in the field. He had an intuitive knowledge of topography, and
never became confused as to locality in directing the movements of large
bodies of men. He exhibited a rapidity of thought and action on the filed
that enabled him to move troops in the presence of an enemy with a
promptness that rarely has been equaled. He had no hobby as to the use of
any particular arm and the service. He naturally placed his main reliance
on his infantry, but made a more vigorous use of cavalry than any of the
generals of his day, and was judicious in apportioning the amount of his
artillery to the character of the country in which he was operating. While
his achievements in actual battle eclipse by their brilliance the strategy
and grand tactics employed in his campaigns, yet the extraordinary
combinations effected, and the skill and boldness exhibited in moving large
armies into position, entitle him, perhaps, to as much credit as the
qualities he displayed in the face of the enemy….
“General Grant,
while President, exhibited the same executive ability as in the Army,
insisting upon a proper division of labor among the different branches of
the Government, leaving the had of each Department great freedom of action,
and holding each to a strict accountability for the conduct of the affairs
of his office. He decided with great promptness all questions referred to
him, and suggested many measures for improving the Government service, but
left the carrying out of details to the proper chiefs. While positive in
his views, and tenacious of his opinions where they had once been formed
after due reflection, he listened patiently to suggestions and arguments,
and had no pride of opinion as to changing his mind, if convincing reasons
were presented to him. He was generally a patient listener while others
presented their views, and seldom gave his opinions until they were
thoroughly matured; then he talked freely and with great force and effect.
He was one of the most accessible of all the Presidents. He reserved no
hours that he could call his own, but was ready to see all classes of people
at all times, whether they were high in position or from the ranks of the
plain people. His patience was one of the most characteristic traits of his
character, and his treatment of those who came in contact with him was frank
and cordial to the highest degree. His devotion to his friends was
proverbial, and his loyalty to others commanded loyalty from them, and
accounted, in great measure, for the warmth and devotion of his followers.
Wherever he placed trust he reposed rare confidence, until it was shaken by
actual proofs of betrayal. This characteristic of his nature led him at
times to be imposed upon by those who were not worthy of the faith he placed
in them; but persons that once lost his confidence never regained it.”
Some months
after Grant’s death, the Rev. Dr. Henry Ward Beecher, in Troment Temple,
Boston, Mas., pronounced the following glowing eulogy upon the great
soldier: ---
After tracing
the march of events which culminated in the war, Mr. Beecher said: “Into
the sulphurous storm of war grant entered almost unknown. It was with
difficulty that he could obtain a command. Once set forward, Donelson,
Shiloh, Vicksburg, Missionary Ridge, the Wilderness, Spottsylvania,
Petersburg, Appomattox, -- these were his footsteps. In four years he had
risen, without political favor, from the bottom to the very highest command,
-- not second to any living commander in all the world! His plans were
large, his undiscouraged will was patient to obduracy. He was not fighting
for reputation, nor for the display of generalship, nor for a future
Presidency. He had but one motive, and that as intense as life itself, --
the subjugation of the rebellion and restoration of the broken Union. He
embodied the feelings of the common people. He was their perfect
representative. The war was waged for the maintenance of the Union, the
suppression of armed resistance, and, at length, for the eradication of
slavery. Every step, from Donelson to Appomattox, evinced with increasing
intensity this his one terrible purpose. He never wavered, turned aside, or
dallied. He waded through blood to the horses’ bridles. In all this career
he never lost courage or equanimity. With a million men, for whose
movements he was responsible, he yet carried a tranquil mind, neither
depressed by disasters nor elated by success. Gentle of heart, familiar
with all, never boasting, always modest, Grant came of the old,
self-contained sock, men of a sublime force of being, which allied his
genius to the great elemental forces of nature, -- silent, invisible,
irresistible. When his work was done, and the defeat of Confederate armies
was final, this dreadful man of blood was tender toward his late adversaries
as a woman toward her son. He imposed no humiliating conditions, spared the
feelings of his antagonists, sent home the disbanded Southern men with food
and with horses for working their crops; and when a revengeful spirit in the
Executive chair showed itself, and threatened the chief Southern generals,
Grant, with a holy indignation, interposed himself, and compelled his
superior to relinquish his rash purpose.
“He had the
patience of fate and the force of Thor. If he neglected the rules of war,
as t Vicksburg, it was to make better rules for those who were strong enough
to employ them. Counselors gave him materials. He formed his own plans.
Abhorring show, simple in manner, gentle in his intercourse, modest and even
diffident in regard to his own personality, he seems to have been the only
man in camp who was ignorant of his own greatness. Never was a commander
better served , never were subordinates more magnanimously treated. The
fame of his Generals was as dear to him as his own. Those who might have
been expected to be his rivals were his bosom friends. While there were
envies and jealousies among minor officers, the great names – Thomas,
Sherman, Sheridan – give to history a new instance of a great friendship
between great warriors.
“Having brought
the long and disastrous war to a close, in his own heart Grant would have
chosen to have rested upon his laurels and lived a retired military life.
It was not to be permitted. He was called to the Presidency by universal
acclaim, and it fell to him to conduct a campaign of reconstruction even
more burdensome than the war. In the readjustment of the political
relations of the South he was wise, generous, and magnanimous in his
career. Not a line in letter, speech, or message can be found that would
wound the self-respect of Southern citizens. When the dangerous heresy of a
greenback currency had gained political power, and Congress was disposed to
open the flood-gates of a rotten currency, his veto – an act of courage –
turned back the deluge and saved the land from a whole generation of
mischief. Had he done but this one thing, he would have deserved well of
history. The respects in which he fell below the line of sound
statesmanship – and these are not a few – are to be attributed to the
influence of advisers whom he had taken into his confidence. Such was his
loyalty to friendship that it must be set down as a fault, -- a fault rarely
found among public men.”
In conclusion,
Mr. Beecher said: “A man he was without vices, with an absolute hatred for
lies, and an ineradicable love of truth, of a perfect loyalty to friendship,
neither envious of others nor selfish for himself. With a zeal for the
public good unfeigned, he has left to memory only such weaknesses as connect
him with humanity, and such virtues as will rank him among heroes. The
tidings of his death, long expected, gave a shock to the whole world.
Governments, rulers, eminent statesmen, and scholars from all civilized
nations gave sincere tokens of sympathy. For the hour, sympathy rolled as a
wave over all our own land. It closed the last furrow of war, it
extinguished the last prejudice, it effaced the last vestige of hatred, and
cursed be the hand that shall bring them back! Johnston and Buckner on one
side, Sherman and Sheridan upon the other of his bier, he has come to his
tomb a silent symbol that liberty had conquered slavery, patriotism
rebellion, and peace war. He rests in peace. No drum or cannon shall
disturb his rest. Sleep, hero, until another trumpet shall shake the
heavens and the earth. Then come forth to glory in immortality.” |
