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 U. S. GRANT. 
 
 J^IDXDI^ESS 
 
 SHELBY MftULLOM 
 
 —AT THE- 
 
 |i 
 
 MEMORIAL SERVICES, 
 
 SPRINGFIELD, ILL., AUG. 8th, 1885. 
 
no,'' 
 
Fellow Citizens: 
 
 Sorrow and sadness fill the land. The emblems 
 of mourning everywhere appear. A devoted 
 people are paying their last tribute of affection 
 to one whom they had learned to admire ^'id 
 love. Never, perhaps, in the history of the world 
 have the people of any great nation so universally 
 united as with one mind and heart and voice in 
 manifesting their appreciation of the life and 
 services of a great man as in this solemn hour. 
 No SQch spectacle as that of to-day has been 
 witnessed in the United States since our own 
 Lincohi was brought to his resting place in the 
 midst of scenes once so familiar to him. 
 
 The National Government is conducting the 
 funeral of Gen. Grant, in the commercial 
 metropolis of the country, placing his mortal 
 remains in the silent tomb with a pageantry 
 
seldom equalled in any nation or in any age. 
 Nor is that all. In the cities, towns and hamlets 
 in every part of the land the people are assem- 
 bled together to do honor in their own way to 
 the great hero, expressing their high appreciation 
 of his character and manifesting their sorrow at 
 his death. 
 
 Such a demonstration signifies, fellow citizens, 
 a popular recognition of the value to our country 
 and to humanity of the life that is gone. The 
 world is better for Gen, Grant having lived in it. 
 Men live and die and are forgotten because they 
 have done no act which entitles them to a place 
 in the memories and affection of the people. 
 Men live and die having done some act whifh 
 brings upon their names and memories dishonor 
 and disgrace. Not so the man whose loss we 
 mourn to-day. His life has been one of truth, of 
 honor, of simplicity, of true manhood, of great 
 deeds, of devotion to his country, one always 
 characterized by a love of liberty and justice. 
 
 Gen, Grant is no more. His manly form has 
 passed from our sight. We shall see him no 
 more as many here saw him in this city a quarter 
 of a century ago. No more, as many of you 
 soldier citizens saw him at Belmont and Donelson 
 
3 
 
 and Sliiloh and Vicksburg and Lookout Moun- 
 tain, great battles tlirongh wliicli lie led you to 
 a glorious victory. No more, as in the battle of 
 the Wilderness. No more, as at the surrender of 
 Lee and his army. No more, as the Chief 
 Magistrate of a save(\ nation, twice called to that 
 high office by a grateful people. No more, as 
 when, retiring from that exalted office weary of 
 service, he went abroad and received the homage 
 of the crowned heads of the Old World and, 
 which is far better, the plaudits of the millions 
 of people there struggling for liberty and bread. No, 
 fellow citizens, we shall see him no more, but he will 
 still live by his example; he will still live by his 
 great works, his sublime devotion to duty, his 
 willing service and sacrifice for his country. 
 
 Gen. Grant^s history is too well known to all 
 the people of every part of this land to justify 
 men in dwelling upon it in detail to-day. Never 
 was there a man in the world's history who won 
 a high place on the ladder of fame who relied 
 less upon anything but the simple performance 
 of duty in all his walks of life than did Gen. 
 Grant. He was utterly devoid of all disposition 
 to parade his virtues or his work. From boyhood 
 to the end of his life he was the same plain, 
 
simple-minded, simple mannered, truthful, unos- 
 tentatious person, whether in the shop, in the 
 command of a regiment, or an army, as Chief 
 Magistrate of a great nation, or while receiving 
 the plaudits of the world during his travels- 
 For these rare and wonderful characteristics the 
 world admired him and mourns his loss to it 
 to-day. 
 
 I do not know that it is expected of me to- 
 day to refer to Gen. Grant's military achievements 
 and I shall not do so at length, but I will say 
 what I believe, that no military man Jias ever 
 lived who was his superior in war. He did not 
 appear to be a brilliant man, and yet the brilliancy 
 of his achievements in the field placed him fore- 
 most among the soldiers in all history. The late 
 civil war gave ample opportunity to men on both 
 sides to prove their military genius and show 
 their capacity to command armies and win 
 battles. During the progress of the struggle 
 many men showed themselves worthy to be ranked 
 as among the ablest military chieftains of any 
 age, but by common consent of mankind the 
 name of Grant was far above them all. 
 
 Of the long line of illustrious men who have 
 left their impress upon our country's history. 
 
there hive bean three who will «tand above all 
 the rest and side by side with each other— 
 Washington, of revolutionary fame, who is called 
 the father- of his country; Lincoln, who guided 
 the ship of State through the late storm of civil 
 war; and Grant, the great general, who saved the 
 nation from overthrow in the sanguinary 
 struggle for national life. What a glorious trio 
 of patriots, each and all of them worthy examples 
 of purity, truth, courage, devotion to duty, and 
 guided by their convictions in their admhiistra- 
 tion of our nation's affairs. While the American 
 people cherish the names and imitate the virtues 
 of these great patriots and benefactors of their 
 race the nation which the one founded and the 
 others saved will live and prosper. Bacon said 
 that "death openeth the good fame and extin- 
 guisheth envy." So of these three— Washington, 
 Lincoln ani Grant, while they lived lives of 
 truth and were each raised up in the providence 
 of God for a great work, which they performed 
 as though specially guided by divine wisdom, 
 yet they did not escape the shafts of envy and 
 malice, and their great lives were often ulouded 
 with sadness because the world could not read 
 the secrets of their hearts as they struggled for 
 
6 
 
 the right. But death in each case openeth the 
 good fame and extingiiishetli envy. Washington 
 is called the father of his country, first in war, 
 first in peace, first in the hearts of his country- 
 men. Lincoln, by universal consent of mankind, 
 is recognized as the emancipator of a race, and 
 the friend of oppressed humanity everywhere. 
 Grant, with firm step, steady hand, and heart 
 full of devotion to duty, with faith in God and 
 man, moved on and on in the work assigned to 
 him in the field, and still on as a statesman in 
 the councils of the nation, amid the fierce shafts 
 of opposition until his work was finished. And 
 now that he has passed beyond the reach of 
 envy and hate, the world assigns him his place 
 as an honest man, the greatest general of the 
 century, and a patriot without a blot upon his 
 record. 
 
 As Illinoisans we have good right to be 
 proud of the fact that of the three characters who 
 stand out most conspicuously in the history of 
 our (country two were citizens of Illinois when 
 they entered upon their grand careers. Lincoln, 
 the martyr President, whose sacred ashes sleep 
 beneath yonder monument, and Grant, the suc- 
 cessful military chieftain, were your and my 
 
fellow citizens. It is matter of pride to us as 
 citizens of Springfield and Sangamon county that 
 while one of them grew up among uy to those 
 magnificent proportions of statesmanship which 
 drew towards him the eyes of the nation and 
 made him the foremost man in this republic, the 
 other received here the fiirst recognition of that 
 genius which astonished the world and won a 
 glorious triumph for the cause of freedom and 
 union. The one departed from among us at the 
 call of the nation to undergo four years of 
 crucial anxiety and suffering, which ended with 
 his assassination, and was returned to us just as 
 the sunbeams of a restored union began to 
 struggle through the smoke of battle; the other 
 went from us as the modest and unassuming 
 soldier to fight the battles of his country and 
 finally, as commander of the armies of the 
 republic in the field, to recei\e the sword of the 
 leader of the rebel armies at Appomattox. 
 
 After enjoying unsought the highest honors 
 which his country could bestow upon him, and 
 receiving the plaudits of the principal nations of 
 the world, the little cottage in New York became 
 to him a "Mount of Transfiguration," and he has 
 joined his great chief. Lincoln was struck down 
 
in the midst of liis life work, just as the dawn 
 of assured victory had be^im to iUuminate the 
 land. Grant lays down his life when -his work 
 is ended. Our grief to-day is all the more pro- 
 found because our hearts are still sore from the 
 loss which we sustained when Lincoln fell. 
 
 Lincoln and Grant, worthy compeers, unlike 
 and yet so like. The one sagacious, with a heart 
 overflowing with sympathy and charity for 
 oppressed humanity; the other confiding, trusting, 
 but with a fixed and determined purpose that 
 allowed nothing to turn him to the right or to 
 the left. Both plain, simple, without show, with- 
 out ostentation, controlled by convictions of duty 
 at every step, and both relying upon the heart 
 and judgment of the body of the people as the 
 source of their power. The one with a soul full 
 of sentiment; the other controlled by facts, and 
 in all his utterances with pen or voice plain, 
 simple, strong and unequivocal. In their simpli- 
 city of character as well as their humble origin 
 these men were remarkable. Of each it may be 
 said as it can be said of few— 
 
 "His lilc was gentle; and the elements 
 
 So mixed in him. that Nature might stand up, 
 
 And say to all the world, this was a man!" 
 
9 
 
 Called upon to point out the mof^t conspicuous 
 qualities in Gen. Grant's character, I believe that 
 the most discriminating observers would name 
 his remarkable and unobtrusive modesty, his sim- 
 plicity, hi^ indomitable persistency, and a certain 
 equipoise which made him at all times master of 
 himself and of the situation. These qualities 
 were consistent with each other, and formed the 
 very basis of his character, and out of them 
 grew that unswerving integrity, constancy to his 
 friends, and devotion to the right which charac- 
 terized his public career from the beginning to 
 the end. The farthest removed from self-suffi- 
 ciency that was possible, he was yet one of the 
 most self-reliant and self-contained of men. In 
 this he resembled the pyramid which, resting on 
 the solid earth, stood only the firmer, the stronger 
 the force brought to bear against it. This was 
 illustrated in the remarkable series of campaigns 
 which he conducted. His presence of mind, his 
 equipoise, never deserted him. In this he resem- 
 bled the solidity of the pyramid, to which he has 
 already been compared. Neither the leaden as- 
 saults of his open enemies nor the scandals with 
 which his secret foes sought to involve his name, 
 could swerve him from a purpose once formed. 
 
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 This determination is well illustrated by some of 
 his most famous utterances: " I have no terms 
 but unconditional surrender." " I propose to 
 move immediately uppn your works." "I shall 
 fight it out on this line if takes all summer." 
 
 Grant could be relied on to do just what he 
 said. It is related that on the occasion of the 
 treason of Arnold, Washington turned to a friend 
 and exclaimed: ''Whom can we trust now?" The 
 time never was when a duty devolved upon 
 Grant that he could not be trusted. He could 
 be trusted as a citizen, he could be trusted as a 
 soldier, he. could be trusted as a statesman. While 
 it is to the military career of Gen. Grant that 
 the world mainly directs its attention as the 
 basis of his renown, yet he was no less a states- 
 man. It is true that he was not so constituted 
 as to be secure against imposition by corrapt and 
 artful politicians, and was therefore unfortunate 
 in some matters while President of the United 
 States, but the great questions with which he 
 was called upon to contend were mastered by 
 him with wisdom and consummate statesmanship. 
 He was called to the Presidency at a time of great 
 political excitement, and much bitterness between 
 the sections consequent upon the policy of recon- 
 
11 
 
 structioii adopted by the party in power. Disoi- 
 der and confusion reigned throughout the South, 
 and in no small degree throughout the country. 
 He believed in a rigid enforcement of the hiws 
 and protection to all, whether white or black. 
 His administration of affairs w^as faithful and 
 true, with one purpose constantly before him— the 
 protection of the lives and liberties of the people, 
 and the re-establishment of the Union upon an 
 enduring basis. 
 
 Two great acts outside the question of the re- 
 storation of the Union were the work of his ad- 
 ministration. These alone will stand out as monu- 
 ments of wisdom worthy of mention now, and 
 which will live in history. I refer to the veto of 
 the inflation bill, and the creation of the Treaty 
 of Washington, whereby the differences between 
 England and America were settled by arbitration. 
 The one saved the credit and honor of the nation 
 in its financial relations to the world ; the other 
 set an example of settling disputes between 
 nations by peaceable means, instead of resorting 
 to the sword. The one brought prosperity to the 
 
 people at home and saved our credit abroad. The 
 other was an example of statesmanship in the 
 interest of a higher and Christian civilization. 
 
12 
 
 Gen. Grant was a man of peace. He did not 
 like war. In response to the address of the Lord 
 Chamberlain of London, during his ^famous trip 
 around the world, he uttered these words: "Al- 
 though a soldier by education and profession, I 
 have never felt any sort of fondness for war. I 
 have never advocated it except as a means of 
 peace." Again he said to the working classes of 
 Northumberland and Durham: "I was always a 
 man of peace. I have always advocated peace, 
 though educated a soldier." Again he said: "I 
 would gladly see the millions of men who are 
 now supported by the industry of the Natious 
 return to industrial pursuits, and thus become 
 self sustaining, and take off the tax upon labor 
 which is now levied for their support." He was 
 not only a lover of peace as distinguished from 
 war, but he was also a lover of peace and har" 
 mony politically among the people in the differ- 
 ent sections of the country. Said he: "There is 
 nothing I have longed for so much as a period 
 of repose in our politics that would make it a 
 matter of indifference to patriotic men which 
 party is in power. I long for that." He was a 
 a man of peace when he had gone through our 
 great civil war, and saved the nation, and had 
 
been chosen as tlie candidate for President by the 
 Republican party. Amid the shouts of victory 
 going up all over the land, in that quiet and un- 
 pretentious manner which characterized him every 
 where and always through life, he said to his 
 countrymen: 'Let us have peace." 
 
 The fact is Gen. Grant, with all his iron will, 
 was one of the most humane and tender-hearted 
 of men. He did not love war for its own sake, 
 or the fame it brought him. This was proved in 
 the terms he extended to Lee, and the delight 
 with which he saw peace returning to the coun- 
 try after the surrender at Appomattox. In this 
 he differed from Alexander and Napoleon and 
 all the great warriors of antiquity and modern 
 times, Benea,th the cold exterior of the unim- 
 pressible military leader, there lurked a heart as 
 warm and tender as that of woman. This was 
 evinced in his love of home and his affection for 
 his family. It was illustrated in the pleasure 
 with which he met and received the caresses of 
 children. I have recently read of an incident 
 which so forcibly illustrates the character of this 
 man whom the world is now mourning that I 
 cannot resist the impulse to relate it. It is told 
 by one who bore arms against his country, and 
 
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 who met Geu. Grant for the first time shortly af- 
 ter the sm-reiider at Appomattox, and near that 
 place. Gen. Grant, who was then unknown to 
 his entertainer, and had only attracted attention 
 by his qniet, silent manner, asked his host where 
 the pump was, as he wished to get a drink of 
 water. The latter offered to go and get it, but 
 Grant objected, saying that he was the youuger, 
 and would help himself. The story as told by 
 the entertainer is as follows: 
 
 '■ When about the middle of the hall, my little 
 grand -daughter came running towards me, but 
 the silent man, spreading out both arms, caught 
 her up and fairly smotliered her with kisses, say- 
 ing: 'This reminds me of my little girl at home, 
 and makes me home-sick.' To the a^iestion: 
 ) 'Where is your honied he replied: 'Galena, Illi- 
 nois, but I have my family at City Point, and 
 am anxious to get back to them.' I said: 'Will 
 you permit me to ask your name, sir?' 'Cer- 
 tainly, my name is Giant.' ' Grant,' exclaimed I. 
 ' Gen. Grant ? ' and 1 stood there awe-stricken and 
 paralyzed with astonishment, while my heart 
 went out after this man. I thought to myself, 
 here is a man whose name is now in the mouth 
 of man, woman and child throughout the civil- 
 
15 
 
 ized worlcL and yet with all lie exhibits no emo- 
 tion, and seems unconcerned and unmoved until 
 the little child reminds him of his loved ones at 
 home, and I fairly broke down, as Gen. Grant 
 had been pictured to us as a bloody butcher, and 
 I had looked for a man looking as savage as a 
 Comanche Indian." 
 
 Who that reads or hears this incident can fail 
 to be touched by it, as that Virginia Confederate 
 was, or fail to gain a new conception of the lofty 
 grandeur (4 character of that silent man, who 
 goes to his tomb to-day on the banks of the 
 Hudson, accompanied by the tears of a sorrowing 
 nation. 
 
 Such, fellow-citizens, was tliH character of the 
 man whom the nation mourns to-day. He was a 
 great citizen, a great soldier, and a great states- 
 man. In mature years he has passed away, bid- 
 ding farewell to a devoted people. How beauti- 
 ful, my friends, has been the close of his life- 
 with the hand of death upon him, permitted by 
 Divine Providence to close up his affairs, realiz- 
 ing that his days were few, ■ given the oppor- 
 tunity to read the expressions by all classes of 
 his countrymen of their affection and tender 
 solicitude, and their prayers that he might be 
 
16 
 
 spared to the nation yet a little longer, but say- 
 ing to his friends tliat lie was ready to go, that 
 the battle of life was over, and doubtless hear- 
 ing the voice of the great King in Heaven: "Well 
 done, thou good and faithful servant, enter thou 
 into the joys of thy Lord." 
 
 " To tread the walks of death he stood prepared, 
 Atid what he g-reatly thought he nobly dared." 
 
 ' The whole nation has kept vigil for months at 
 his bed-side, and now Christendom gathers with us 
 around his bier. On both sides of the Atlantic 
 we have witnessed the spectacle of men of all 
 conditions uniting to do honor to the memory of 
 our departed hero and statesman. As his coun- 
 trymen gather around his bier at Mount McGre- 
 gor, so beneath the dome of Westminster Abbey, 
 and in the presence of the dust of England's 
 most illustrious dead, there gathers a distinguished 
 throng to pay tribute to our dead, and mingle 
 their tears with ours. Two continents mourn him 
 whom we consign to the tomb today— aye, Cliristen- 
 dom pauses to shed a tear at the grave of Grant. 
 His place in history is fixed. His work is fin- 
 ished. At the portals of his tomb we bid fare- 
 well to the soldier statesman, and civilization the 
 wTjrld over mourns the loss of a friend. Let us 
 
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 dwell in memory upon his resplendent virtues in 
 faith that this national affliction may "work out 
 for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight 
 of glory" 
 
 " Men (lie, but sorrow never dies; 
 The crowding' years divide in vain, 
 And the wide world is knit with ties 
 01 common brotherhood in pain." 
 
LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 
 
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