I 5* .< i ^ . -^ V. 5 '^ ^ : -^ „ Xi ■'. ^ Hi; ;/: V, < c: > "^ *-■ l" -^ "^ C 7; ^ § - Si g < S ^ :: $^^" >=: -^ -^ S is ^ ^ s, s ^ THE TRUE STORY OF T ^f-y U. S. GRAN 1 THE AMERICAN SOLDIER TOLD FOR BOYS AND GIRLS BY ELBRIDGE S. BROOKS u Author of "The True Storv of Christopher Columbus." "The True Story of George Washington, " The True Story of Abraham Lincoln," " The Century Book for Young AmeYicans," "The Story of the United States," "Historic, Boys," "Historic Girls," "A Boy of the First Empire," and many others ILLUSTRATED KUi* i.^ BOSTON LOTHROP PUBLISHING COMPANY /V^'' .t. e:^ COPYKIGHT, 1897, BY LOTIIllOP PUBLI.SHING COMPANT. ■ €• * Berwick & Smith, Norwood, Mass., I'.S.A. PREl-ACH. Thk life-story of every j^real American ccnitains much that is startlinj^-, much that is marvellous, and much that is inspiring, as, looking- bark, we read it from its startinj^^ point. The true story of America's g^reatest soldier, Ulysses S. Grant, is not lack- ing in the elements that give to the stories of Washington, Lincoln and Franklin the Havor of moral and romance. The son of a western tanner became the leader of the world's mightiest armies; the Ohio school boy became the ruler of the greatest of modern repub- lics; the modest and retiring gentleman became the victorious general; the broken and discouraged farmer and clerk became the foremost man of his day in all the world As an example of persistence, of determination and of will, of a clear head in emergencies and a great heart in victory, of modesty, patience, simplicity, strength and zeal, the record of the struggles and successes of U. S. Grant is a lesson to young and old alike, and his story is one most fitting to be included in this series of "Children's Lives of Great Men." The words of the president of the republic, spoken above the brave general s last resting-place, in the grand mausoleum beside the Hudson, are eminently appropriate in this connection. They serve as the best possible preface to this life of the greatest American soldier. "With Washington and Lincoln," said President McKinley, "Grant had an exalted place in hi.story and the affections of the people. To-day his memory is held in equal esteem by those whom he led to victory and by those who accepted his generous terms of peace." To which may be added this portrait of our great general from the same poet-patriot who said grand words of Washington and Lincoln — I mean James Russell Lowell: " He came grim, silent; saw and did the deed That was to do ; in his master grip Our sword flashed joy; no skill of words could breed Such sure convictions as those close-clamped lips ; He slew one dragon, nor, so seemed it, knew He had done more than any simplest man might do." E. S. B. COXTTiXTS CHAPTER I. WHY A HOUSE WAS PUT INTO A HOX ....... I i CHAl'THR II. ULYSSKS FACES THE MUSIC ......... 31 CHAPTER III. H(,)W THE LIEUTENANT MARCHED OVER THE liORDER .... 54 CHAPTER IV. HOW HE FOUGHT THE PLAGUE AT PANAMA ...... 73 CHAPTER V. HOW THE CAPTAIN FOUND LIFE A "HARD SCRABBLE" .... 90 CHAPTER VI. Hi'W HI. HEARD THE CALL TO Dl'IV ....... 104 CnAPTi:R VII. HOW THE GENERAL UNLOOSED THE MISSISSIPPI . . . . I 20 CHAPTER VIII. HOW HE FOlf.HI 11 OCT ...... 1 36 CONTENTS. CHAPTER IX. HOW THE REPUBLIC GAVE ITS VERDICT . • • 156 CHAPTER X. HOW THE TAX.\ER's SON SERVED THE SECOND TIME . , , . 174 CHAPTER XI. HOW ULVSSES SAW THE WORLD 189 CHAPTER XII. THE OLD general's LAST EIGHT . 2o6 CHAPTER XIII. WHAT THE WORLD SAVS . . 220 LIST ()!• ILLUSTRATIONS At Appomattox. The house in which Grant was born . Grant's tirst election-day .... The r.irthplacc of U. .'^. Grant Where the United States will make a park The r.irthplace as it looks to-day The Memorial Uuilding in which the IJirthplace stand " Stumping " at the swimming hole John Quincy Adams IJlindfolding the balky colt .... " So he went along through a happy boyhood ' "That's jest the very lowest I can sell the critter for, Lyss, The " country schoolmarm " of Grant's boyhood days " Might just as well send this little fellow of yours, Squire Ulysses sees the sights .... In camp at West Point .... Cadet Grant's f.amous horseback leap Cadet life out-of-doors .... Kosciusko's monument at West Toint General Zachary Taylor Grant rides for ammunition at Monterey . Chepultepec — the " West Point " of Mexico Grant said, " we're coming in ! " and they did The battery in the steeple .... The Cathedral in the City of Mexico lUill fight in Mexico The dangerous trip " overland " in " the fifties." Target practice in U. S. A. barracks . Frontis. said the farm '3 i6 i8 20 20 20 2S -9 35 3S 4' 45 49 50 52 57 59 61 63 <;6 (& 71 75 76 -> -» -/ LIST OF ILLl'STRAriOyS. The march across the Isthmus j-S He cared for the sick and fought the plague Si Grant in the plague camp at Panama S3 Cold weather sentry duty, in barracks S6 A hard road to travel . S7 " Captain Grant found out what work really was." ......... 92 Grant as a wood-peddler .............. m With the Gray and the Bay ............. 95 " Hardscrabble," the cottage that Grant built for himself in Missouri 100 Grant's home in CJalcna, in 1S61 106 A " new recruit," in 1S61 .............. 109 The Court House at Galena ............. no " .Men 1 go to your quarters," said Colonel Grant n^ " I prefer to do my first marching in a friendly country," he said 117 Grant at IJelmont ............... Grant at Shiloh ................ Grant's charge at .Shiloh .............. 130 Major-General U. S. Grant .............. j-jj Spot where Grant met Pemberton to arrange for the surrender of Vicksburg . . . . i-:^ A Confederate sharpshooter at Lookout Mountain ......... 139 President Lincoln handing Grant his commission as Lieutenant-General ..... 142 Grant and his Generals .............. 143 " I shall fight it out on this line if it takes all summer." ........ 147 The ninth of April, 1865 149 They saluted like gentlemen and soldiers ........... 152 At the Grand Review in Washington 154 " Grant was the hero of the hour "............ 15- Grant and his family ............... 139 A boy's first view of General Grant ............ 161 Grant and Johnson ............... 164 At the inauguration ............... 169 The new Washington as Grant made it 171 The city of Geneva in Switzerland where the Court of Arbitration met ..... 173 Charles Sumner ................ 173 Horace Greeley 177 President Grant delivering his second inaugural address 179 William T. Sherman ............... 1S2 "Let no guilty man escape" ............. 1S5 Memorial Hall, Philadelphia iS6 Lord Ueaconsfield ............... 190 William 1 191 LIST OJ' J LLU SIR AT IONS. lixPresidcnt Grant The Norman Gatu ....... Grant and Hismarck Windsor Castle, the home of the Queen of England . Gi;u\t addressing the workingnien at Newcastle, Kng. General Grant landing at Nagasaki, in Japan The Gate at I.ucknnw, India The Golden Gate, San Francisco Harbor . Grant's home in East Sixtv-sixth Street. New York City The harbor of New Voik The old General's last fight The cottage on Mount McGregor, near Saratoga, in which The outlook at >[ount McGregor .... The temporarv tomb of General Grant, Riverside Drive, N The view across the river from Grant's tomb at Riverside Hancock and Grant At Spottsylvania The Grant monument at Chicago .... Where our hero sleeps at Riverside . . . • The second funeral of Grant ew Vnrk CJeneral Grant died Citv •93 194 •''5 '97 •9S Zf \ -04 205 :o8 -■10 2'3 217 21S 221 224 "5 22S -jj Till' TRUJ-: s^oR^' oi' ULYSSi:S S. GRANT CIIAITLR 1. WHY A HOUSI-: WAS TUT INTO A BOX. HIS is a story for the boys and girls of .America. It is a true story. It is the story of an Ameri- can. It is a storv of adventure, of fis/htinir and of '-lorv. It is the storv of the 'greatest soldier of the Republic — the story of Ulysses -^'' S. Grant. I do not wisii to tell you the story of this remarkable man simply because he foui^ht and won jgreat battles, nor because, for full\- twentv years, he was the foremost man and the chief citizen of the United States of .America, nor because I delight to write (^f war and bloodshed and victory. I do not. I abominate war. I hate bloodshed. I know that there are two sides to every victorv. But the storv of General Grant seems tome one that all the bovs and Ln'rls of 1 1 12 JF//V A HOUSE WAS PIT INTO A BOX. America can take to heart. It is one that shouhl help and strengthen and inspire them. For as they read in these pages, how, out of obscurity came honor, out of failure fame, out of hindrances perseverance, out of indift'erence patriotism, out of dullness genius, out of silence success, and, out of all these combined, a glorious renown, they may see. in this man's advance into greatness, a reason for their own doing their best — patiently, unhesitatingly, persistently. For it was thus that Grant rose to honor and renown ; it was thus that the tanner's son of Georgetown became the freneral of the armies of the Republic, that the horse-boy of the Ohio farm became the President of the United States. Let me tell you his story. In the vcar 1S21 there stood on the banks of the Ohio river, in Clermont County in southwestern Ohio, twenty-five miles to the east of Cincinnati, a small frame house, with one storv and an ell. It was the home of Jesse Root Grant and Hannah, his wife. Jesse Grant was a smart and indus- trious young tanner who had settled at this spot on the Ohio River. It was known as Point Pleasant. Here he had <'one into the business of tanning hitles into leather, being backed up with money by a man who wished to have his son learn the tanner's trade. Point Pleasant was a little settlement o{ some fifteen or twent\' families. It has n(U gr(n\-n niucli in all tlu^e years; for, to-dav it is a little village of Init one hundred and N, 5- ^" = 5 p > ^ 5 a: 3 " ^ z //'//}■ ./ HOUSE WAS PUT INTO A BOX. 15 t\\cnt\'-fi\'c people; but it is more famous than maiu- lari^'cr and more pushing' places just because it was the birthplace of a ijreat American. 1 he house ot Jesse ("irant, the tanner, stood back from the br(\ad ri\'er some three hundred feet. A >mall eurk flowed past the door anil tumbled into the ()hio I'ixer; back of the house rose a little hill ; close at hand was the tanxard where the bark o\ trees, brought from the woodland near b\', was ground into the reddish bark-dust called tan — the stuft that helps turn calf-skin and cowhide into leather. Int(^ this pleasant but sim|)le little home beside the beau- tiful Ohio, on the twenty-seventh day of April in the year 1822. a baby boy was born. He was a strong, promising- looking little fellow and weighed just ten and three (juarters pounds. The ycning tanner and his wife were very proud of their first bab}', of course, and elid not think he should be named without talking over such an important matter with their folks. So, when the baby was about a month old, Jesse Grant hitched up his horse and wagon and took his wife and baby o\er to grandpa's, ten miles away. There they held a family council over the baby's name. ii\er\one had a diflerent name to propose, and it was finally decided to \'ote for a name 1)\- ballot. So the father and mother, the irrandfather and s/rand- mother and the two aunts wrote, each on a slip oi paper, the name he or she liked best ; the slips were put int(^ a hat. i6 n'//y A HOUSE WAS PUT INTO A BOX. and then one of the aunts drew out a slip. The name on the first slip drawn out was to be the baby's name. And the name drawn out was Ulysses. Thus you see, almost the first thing- that happened to this little Ohio baby was a decision by ballot. Do you suppose it was, what we call, prophetic? It may not have been, but don't you see, just forty-six years afterwards, almost to a dav, the representatives of the American people met in con- vention and the first ballot they took declared that Ulysses S. Grant should be their candidate for President of the United States. So the baby was called Ulys- ses — and Ulysses, you know, was a great soldier ot the old, old da\-s. But tliis baby's grandfather so much liked the name he had written — it was Hiram — that the bain's father and mother said that should be a part of their boy's name, too. And lliram, \'uu know, was a \cry wise and l)rave ruler in l)ible times. There again, you seethe baby's name was just a bit prophetic, for they ga\"e him the names of a great soldier and a wise ruler; and as Hiram Ulysses Grant the bab\- was christened. grant's first election-day. ]r//y .1 no LSI-: was j'CJ' j.xto a nox. 17 When this bain*, however, grew to be a big boy and went away to sehool he lost the name of Hiram b\- a \cr\' funn\' mistake, of which I will tell xou later. 15}' this mis- take the boy's name became Ulysses Simpson Grant, and thus it came to pass that, as I'. S. Grant, this Ohi(j boy hnalK' became '"'reat and famous. The baby Ulysses did not live long in the little frame cottai^e beside the Ohio; for, when he was but ten months oKi. his father Jesse had a good chance to go int(j the tan- ning and leather business in a much larger place, and so the family moved away from the little village with its attrac- ti\e name oi Point PleaScUU. Ikit the birthplace of a great man is always a notable spot, no matter how short a time it was his home. So, of course, that little frame house at Point Pleasant became cjuite a show place when the little baby who had been born there in 1S22 became, forty years after, a very famous man. The cottage stood for a long time on the banks of th^ great ri\'er; but. at last, in the vear iSSS, a river boatman named Captain Powers bought the old house and loaded it on a llat-boat and floated it up the river to Cincinnati. Then it was taken off the flat-boat ami twenty-four hor.^e:5 were hitched to it and dragged it to the corner oi Elm and Canal streets in the city of Cincinnati. There it was exhibited to thousands of \'isitors. as one of the great sights of the Ohio Centennial H.xposition of iSSS. After a few months, the house was bought bv a rich i8 JF/fV 4 HOUSE WAS PUT IXTO A BOX. Ohio man named Chittenden, who carried it off to Columbus, the capital of Ohio; he set it up on the State Fair Grounds and there it staid until the year i.'^96. when Mr. Chittenden presented the famous house to the State of Ohio and moved it to another part of the Fair Grounds. And there a THE HIRTHt'LACE UK U. S. GRANT. memorial building was built around it, to protect and pre- serve the little cottage in which our greatest soldier first saw the light. So, to-day, if you go to the beautiful city of Columbus in tile State of Ohio, and ride (Hit t(^ the Fair Grounds you can see the birthplace of General Grant packed carefully lV//y .1 IIOLSK WAS J'LT JXTO A J! OX. 19 a\v:i\' for safe kccpin;^" in a i^rcat honsc-box of l)rick and elass ami iron. Tliis is called the drant Memorial lUiildin-'". When \'ou ha\e read his stoi'\- n'ou will understand \\h\- the birthplace of (icnei-al (ii-aiit is so interestinj^'' an object to all the world, and \\\\\ it has been put into a box for peo- ple to look at; thoui^h it does seem a pity that the little old h(^use c(^uld not ha\'e been kept on the \'ery spot where- it stood when, on the twenty-seventh of April, 1S22, Ulysses Simpson Grant was ushered into the great world that was, in after years, to S(^ respect and honor him. But the site of that great little house is still a notable spot even though the house itself has been carted away, and, even as I write, the Congress of the United States is considering a plan to buy all the lantl round about the spot where Grant was born and to la\- it out and beautif\- it info a National Park, thus preser\'ing for the people of the L'nited States the place where General Grant was born. As I have told you. the baby Ulysses, when he was ten months old, moved awaN'from Point Pleasant. His father set up a tanner)' at Georgetown in Prown Count\-. ten miles back from the Ohio Ri\er. twenty miles east of Point Pleas- ant, anil almost hft\- miles from Cincinnati. I think vou will be able to tind the town on anv eood map of Ohio, for it is cpiite a place now. It is a town of fif- teen hundred people, tjuite a cit\' you see in comparison ti) the little hamlet of Point Pleasant where the cfreat American soldier was born. 20 IF//}- A no USE WAS PUT INTO A BOX. Here, at Georgetown. I'lysscs lived as a boy until he was seventeen years old. His father made quite a suc- cess of his tannery and leather business and became very well- :no\\n in his own neighbor- )od. Jesse Grant, the father of I'lysses, was never what we call a rich man, but he was a prosper- 1 ous one. He was always, as General Grant himself tells us, in what is called " comfortable circumstances." I n d e c d , soon after he moved to GeorQ-etown he built a neat and convenient, small brick house and, in addition to his tannerx'. had a good-sized and prockietix'e larm. .-UHRRE THE UNriEI. STATES WILL MAKK '^'^l^^^ l''"'^"!^ hoUSC iS StiU Staud- A I'AKK. 2 — IIIK lilKTHl'l.ACK AS IT . ^ ,^ . , LOOKS To-oAv. 3— THE MKMORiAi. mg ou ou c oi U eo rgcto w u s s t rccts, liUII.DING I.N WHICH THK BIKlIirLACE STANDS. ^'^,-nl though it has been changed a little in appearance, any boy or girl who visits the busy little Ohio town can see the places that were familiar to //■//)■ ./ HOUSE WAS PUT IXTO A BOX. 21 ^•ouno- L'lvsscs in and about the house where his l)o\-hf)0'I was spent. They will still show you the family sitting-room with its h'v^ tire-place ami its old-fashioned mantel, the front hall and the odd-looking- staircase — just the same to-day as when Ulys- ses climbed sleepily up to bed — the little hall bedroom which was " I'lvsses' room." tlie old building;- in which he learned, much ao-ainst his will, his father's trade of a tanner, the tumble-down buildin;^- where he first went to school, and, just back of the tanyard, the "Town Run." a little brook along- which lay the favorite play-ground of the Grant boys. A mile out of town you could find that deep still spot in White Oak Creek familiar to generations of Georgetown boys as their "su-imming hole" — and where, no doubt, Ulysses often "stumped" his companions with many a difficult or fancy water-act, for the boy was an excellent swimmer. Youmr Ulysses Grant never took kindlv to the trade of a tanner, lie liked the farm best, especially the horses. IJefore he was six years okl he could ride horseback or hold the reins as well as many an older boy, in town or country. Before he was ten years old his father took him to a circus ami let him ride a pon\' around the ring, and as he grew through bovhood he became famous, in all the Georgetown region, as the best horseman and horse-trainer thereabouts. Indeed, he loved horses all his life, and he owned some very fast and beautiful ones when he became a man. It was because he liked horses and farm-life so much 22 U'l/Y' A HOUSE WAS Pi'T IXTO A BOX. that his father did not make him do much work about the tannery, but, instead, let him do about as he pleased on the farm out of school hours. For Jesse Grant believed in boys going- to school. He himself, had not had many such advantages, but he deter- mined that his boys should have just as good an education as he could get for them in the farming section in which they lived. From all I can hear I don't think the boy Ulysses really "stumping" at the swimming hole. enjoyed going to school, much better than any healthy active boy who is fond of out-door life. But all such boys are very glad in later years that their fathers or mothers insisted on their going to school regularly, and we are assured bv General Grant that from the time he was old enouijh to cro to school to the vcar that he left home he never missed a (|uarter from school. This was quite dift'er- ent from that other great American, Abraham Lincoln, was 11'//]' .1 //OL'SE WAS /'(■/• /xro A /WX. 27, it not ? For he. noli know, ncx-cr jjot xmnc than a year's sehoolin:^' in all his wc^nderful life. A l)o\' \\h(^ lioes go to school, however, isn't much of a boy if he cannot tind some time to play. So yon ma\- be sure that " Lvss Grant." as the Georcfetown bovs called him. made the most of his spare time. He tells us himself, in his sketch of his boyhood, that he had as many prixileges as any boy in the villa^^e and prob- ably more than most of them. Chief amoni^- these pri\ ileges was permission to go any- where or i\o an\thing allowable in a boy, after his "chores" were done. And this meant all sorts of boyish sports — fishing, hunting, swimming, skating, horseback riding, doing "stunts " at jumping and \\restlin'-- in the tanvard alone: the Tow n Run antl in the " Swimming Hole," and all the other jolly out-door and in-door good times that belong to the vil- lage boy even more than to the country or citv Ixn*. But it was by no means a case of all play and no work to this moderate, easv-going but fun-lovin*-- \-illa<7e bov. He tells us that when he was a boy everyone worked in his region — " excei)t the very poor;" and Jesse Grant, while allowing his boys all possible liberty, gave them also plenty of \\ ork to do. Ulysses, as we know, hated the tannerv work. P.ut he loved farmdife: so his father set him at work, after school hours or in \acation time, "doing clK)res " on the farm. While yet a little fellow the bov would drive the horses 24 /r//)' A HOUSE WAS FIT IXTO A BOX. hauling cord-wood or logs from the wood-lot to the farm. At eleven, he could hold a plough and turn a furrow almost as well as a man, and until he was seventeen he did all the " horse-work " on the farm — breaking up the land, furrow- ing, ploughing, bringing in the loads of hay and grain, haul- ing the wood and taking care of the live stock. He confesses to us, in the story of his life, that he did not like to work; but he says that, like it or not, he did do as much work when he was a boy, as any hired man will do to-day — and attended school besides. And yet, as I have told you. he managed to find time to play. The home rule was never severe. He was never punished, and rarely scolded by his parents; so he must have been a pretty good boy, mustn't he ? He tells us that they never objected to his enjoying himself when he could, for they let him go fishing, or swimming, or skating; they even allowed him to take the horses and go away on a visit with one of his boy friends. Once, he \A'ent off in this way to Cincinnati, fifty miles away ; another time, he took a carriage trip to Louisville, with his father — a big journey for a bo)' in those da\s. Once he went, with a two-horse carriage, a se\'entv-mile ride to Chillicothe, and again, with a ])ov of his invn age, on the same kind of a seventy-mile ride to Flat Rock in Kentucky, to \-isit a friend. W'liat a erood time those two fifteen-vear- old boys must ha\e hail on that trip! And you may be sure, Ulysses did the dri\-ing. l^ .-■. imlll m^. JUlIN (JLINCY ADAMS. Prtsidfttt of tlu I'nittii Ulates -whiu Gr.uit was a f>ffv. U'JIY .1 //OL SF. WAS ri'T IX'I'O .1 /UhX. 27 lUit he h:ul a tussle (Irixini'- lionic. Let me tell you about it. He saw a horse he liked, and he "swapped oil " one ol his earriaije horses for it, <'cttin''- ten dollars to hoot. But the new horse had never been driven in harness, and the two boys hatl a tearful time i^^ettini; an unbroken, balk\-, kickin;;', nervous horse to i^o ii-i a span. In fact, the boy who was with I'lysses got frightened and after one very risky runaway adventure with the new horse, he deserted and went home in a freight wagon. But Ulysses was bound to get that new horse home and w^ould not give in to its pranks. At one time it really looked as if he would have to give up the jol) ; but, as a last resort, he got out of the car- riaue, blindfolded the l)alkv colt with his bi<'; red bandanna handkerchief, and so drove the funny-looking team to an uncle's, not far from his home. It was such things as this in the boy that worked out into equally pronounced qualities in the man. I'lysses S. Grant had, as bov and man, determination, grit, tenacity — what you boys call " stick-to-il-i\eness " or "sand." When he reallv set out to do a thin-'' he did it — whether it were to dri\'e home a skittish colt or fisj'ht a sjreat war to the finish. Would \(ni like to know what sort of lookin*-' bov •' Lyss Grant" was in his early teens? He was a short, sturdy little fellow, with a careless way of walking, and inclined to be round-shouldered. He was a freckle-faced, "sober-sided" lad. with strai-'ht sand\' hair and blue e\'es, who 28 WHY A HOUSE WAS PL'T IXTO A BOX. got out of things when he could, but did them uncomplainingiv if he felt it to be his duty. He was quiet, no bragger, just a bit shy, but when roused to action he was quick and deter- mined. He was generally the successful leader in the snow- ball fights, no one in the county could outride him. and though never quarrelsome he was no coward. Above all else, like Washington and Lincoln, he hated a lie, and his word could alwavs be depended upon. One other trait he had that helped make his success later in life. I have told vou that he was persistent and stuck to anvthins: he had made up his mind to do. He was also a planner. If he had a hard piece of work in hand, he did not just go at it thoughtlessly; he sat down and planned it out. They still tell the story in Georgetown of the " cute " way in which the twelve-year-old Ulysses beat the men oi the town on a peculiar jol) of stone-lifting. It seems that while a new building was going up in llu' town, the bo\' " Lyss," as everyone called him. dro\-e the ox-team that hauled the stone for the foundation from While (Jak Creek. One big stone was selected for the ch^orstep. Init after the BLINDFOLDING THE BALKY COLT. WHY A i/orsF. u'.ts rrr ixro ./ jwx. iiKii haJ tUijLi'cd awav al it fm- hours they concluded it was too biu; to lift an«l that the)- nui>t L;iv(j it up. " IIciv, let nu- ti\' it." said Ulysses; "if \-(»u'll help nie, I'll load it." 'rhe\- all lau!^hed at him. hut pron"iise-ood joke on Lvss (n-ant," as the boys called it. I-Uit that first attempt at a horse trade, as the saying is, "cut the bov's eve-teetli." That is, he learneil wisdom by experience, and after that he became one o{ the best judges ULYSSES FACES THE MUSIC. 33 of horses ami prices in the neighburhoud, so that his lather let him do about as he pleased in horse trades, for he knew he could reh" on the boy's judi^nient. In this business, and b)' doin^i;' " odtl jobs" of haulinj^^ and trucking;', Ulysses made quite a bit of money for a boy "that's jest THK very lowest 1 CAN SEI.1, THE CRITTER KOR, LYSS," SAID THE FARMER. of those days, and, in all this, hewon no little reputation as a business boy. I ilon't ima;^ine he had a \'er\' clear idea as to what he wished to do when he became a man. Not man\* bovs really do know what they desire or are fitted for, until thev learn 1)\' experience, in what direction their tastes lie. One thin'-', however. Ulvsses ilid t'eel certain about. He did not 34 ULYSSES FACES 7 HE MUSIC. mean to l^c a tanner, if he could help it. He was like many another l)ov, you see, who, though he does not exactly know what he wishes to do, is quite sure that he doesn't intend followin'j" his father's line of business. And that decision has led to manv a mistake and many a failure in the career of men — though not always. I have told you that Ulysses was kept pretty steadily at school from the day w hen he was old enough to learn his A B C's. That old Georgetown schoolhouse, as I have said, is standing to-day, though it is quite dilapidated. But there the boy went from his primer to the three R's — " 'readin'. 'ritin' and 'rithmetic," for so folks used to call them. Sometimes a man was his teacher, sometimes a woman, and while as he says they could none of them teach much nor very well, still that country "school marm " of his boyhood days, laid the foundation of an education that led finally to the production of one of the world's remarkable books. Twice, during his boyhood at Georgetown. Ulysses was sent away to school in the hope of getting a better education than the villaire school of Get^rgetawn afforded. Gnce he went to Mavsville in Kentucky, and. after that, to a private school at Ripley in Ohio. lUit he was never much (.^ a stu- dent ; indeed, as he assures us. he did not take kindly to any ol his books or studies, except his arithmetic. And I shouldn't l)e surprised if he helped wear cnit the bunches of switches that were gathered \'er\- often, from a l)eeeh-wood near the schoolhouse, for the teacher's use and the children's correc- THK "COUNTRY SCHOOLMARM " OK GRANT'S BOYHOOD DAYS. r/.)'ss/-s /'.tc/'.s riiE .\/rs/c. 37 lion. Those were the ikus of hard whippings at school, )()Li know— when (irant was a boy. It was while at h(Miie for his Christmas vacation, frojn his school at Riple\-, that Ulysses had a great surprise. " riysses," said his father, one day, as he finished read- ing a letter he had just receixed, " I belie\'e you're going to get that appointment." "What appointment?" the boy inquired in surprise. "W'hv. to West Point," replied his father." I applied to Senator Morris for one, and I reckon you'll get it." "To West Point," repeated Ulysses, still a bit dazed by the news, " why. I don't want to go there." " But I want you to," his father said. " I reckon voull go if I say so." "Well, if you say so, I suppose Pll have to go," said the boy slowly. " But I don't want to — I know that." The appointment did come in good time, through Mr. Hauler, the congressman from that section, and much to the surprise of the neighbors. For to their minds, voung Ulvs- ses (xrant seemed the last bo\- in the world to go to West Point. Four boys had already gone to the famcnis Militar\' Academy from that \illage of Georgetown, but then " the\- were smart," folks said, and only a smart bov could pass the examination for entrance. " Slow little chaj), Lvss is." said one of the townsfolk, " might just as well send this little fellow of yours, squire-, as that boy of Jesse Grant's." The Georgetown people all supposed that going to West Point 38 ULYSSES FACES 7 HE MUSIC. depended on influence or ability, and they never imagined that Jesse Grant had enough of the first, or Ulysses enough of the second. Vou know the old Bible saying, don't you : •' MIi.IlT JUST AS WK.l.I. SKNMi THIS I.IITI.K I-Kl.I.OW OF VOIKS, SQl'lKK. A prophet is not without honor save in his own country and anions his own kin. To tell the truth, Ul\sscs rather shared the opinion of the Georgetown gossips; but when the documents came, he knew he must " face the music," as he declared, and tr\' to pass those dreaded examinations — the bane and bugl)ear of every boy and girl wIk^ goes to sch(^ol. ULYSSES FACES THE MUSIC. 39 But Jesse ('.rant was (Ictcriiiincd that lii> hoy should %o to West Point, and w hm the appointnunt did conic he put Ulysses in charge ot a special tutor who "coached" the slow scholar so well that his teacher felt that the boy would pass the cxaniinalion, it' lie did not get " rattled," as the sa)- ing' is to-day. As the (lav v>{ departure approached, Ulysses found liini- sclf looking forward to this journe}- to the East, even though he knew that the dreaded examination came at the end of the trip. This western boy, of course, longed to see the world, as all boys do, and a trip to New York was some- thing: to talk about in those davs. I'lvsses thought he was quite a traxellcr. He had been east as far as Wheeling in X'lrginia ; he hatl been into northern Ohio; he had, as you know, visited Cincinnati and Louisville and esteemed himself, as he says "the best trav- elled boy in Georgetow n." But this trip to West Point was indeed a journev. It was almost as much to the Ohio boy of sixtv years ago as a trip to Europe or around the world is to the American boy of to-daw It meant to him, the chance of seeing and inspecting the two great eastern cities, Philadelphia and New York. That was enough. To have that chance he would williiigl\- risk the examinations that were sure t(^ come; but he tells us frankly in his " Memoirs " that he was in no luirrv to reach West Point and. boy-like, would not have minded a steamboat explosion or a rail- r(\'id collision or an\- other acciilent of travel, it it would 40 ULYSSES FACES 7 BE ML'SJC. only hurt him just enough to keep hiiu from going into W^est Point. Boys are all alike, aren't they ? I remember when I used to wish I could haye some pleasant little happening on examination days — a stroke of harmless paralysis, or a tem- porary loss of speech, just long enough to excuse me from that most dreaded school ordeal. But to Ulysses Grant, as to all other boys and girls in a similar situation, " nothing of the kind,"' he tells us, " occurred, and I had to face the music." At last the time came, and on the fifteenth of May. 1839, with a new outfit of clothes and oyer a hundred dollars in his pocket, the seyenteen-year-old Ulysses bade "his folks'' good-bye and started for Ripley, the riyer town ten miles away, where he was to take the steamer for Pitts- burg. Of course he enjoyed the journey. Eyery boy likes to see the sights, eyen if he must face the music at the end of the journey. But you may be sure he was in no hurry to get to the music. He took things leisurely. Railroads in that day were few and far between, and. to reach West Point, Ulysses " chan<:red off," on steamboat, canal boat and rail- road. He was fifteen days making the trip. To-da)- it can be made in almost as many hours. The canal boat on w hich he journeyed fnmi Pittsl)urg to Harrisbur«'- had to be hauled oy^r the Alleghan\- mountains; this wa? interesting, but the boy thought the railway- ride from Harrisburg to Philadelphia about the finest, smoothest. fastest ooin*'" he had e\er made. BIT ULYSSES SEES THE SIGHTS. CLiSS/l Hkc aiiylhiiiL;- about the place, at first — not e\tn the camping- out, which \\v thoui^ht very tire- some and stupid. Indeed, durini; that first winter at West Point, when Cong'ress met, Ulysses used to run for the newspaper and read the debates in Con<^rress, eagerly. The reason was this. There were in those days, many people who did not believe at all in a school for the training of soldiers, like West Point, even though George Washington had founded it. They wished to lIo awa\- w ith the Academv altoirether and that very year of i.'^39, a bill was really introduced into Congress proposing to " abolish the Military Academy at West Point." It was the talk, or debate, on this matter that so interested Ulysses Grant, for, so he tells us. he hoped to hear that the school had been abolished, so that he could tro home a^-ain. Hut, fortunately, the bill did not pass. West Point remained and Grant was trained into a soldier. So far as his lessons \\ere concerned, I am afraid this training did not occupy an\- more of his time than just enough to let him squeeze through the sch(^ol. This was not because he was a slow or stupid scholar. He was not. He hardly ever needed to read a lesson through the second time, but trusted t<^ luck to come off without a failure. His son tells us that his low standing at school was due to the West P(^int librarv. There was a good one there and this boy had come from a place where books were scarce. So 48 rzyss£S faces the ml sic. he used the library at the Academy for story books and not for works on tactics or his other studies. They were pretty g-ood story books however; for he read, while there. Scott and Irving" and Marryatt and Cooper and Lever — authors dear to the bovs of sixt\' vears acjo. He often told his son that that librarv at West Point was like a new world to him. But, you see, at West Point, mathematics were the great thing, and Ulysses Grant had a good head for figures. So, as he got along easily with that tough study, it did not make so much difterence about the others. He did not tell us in his MemcMrs just where he stood in his class, but he does say that if the class had been turned the other end foremost he should ha\e been near the head. So it is not so hard to tell just about where he stood, is it? His lowest marks seem to ha\'e been in French ; his highest were in ca\alr\- tactics. That is where his bovish traininij as a horseman came in. \ou see. His fame as a splen- did horseman even yet exists at West Point. Tliere was nothing he could not ride, and his famous high jump on the bie sorrel "York "over a bar six feet from the s^round. is still marked and sho\\n at West Point as "Grant's upon York." Would vou like to know \\liat sort o\ a looking bo\- was Cadet Grant :^ He was a i)himp, fair-faced, almost under- sized little fellow — in fact, he came just within the West Point c-ntran(-c- limii o{ five feet; he was cpiiet in manner, careless in dress, able t(^ lake care ^^ himself, gi^■ing and tak- LV.]-SS£S FACES TIIF. MCS/C. 49 mi^ jokes good-naturrdly ; (IctLTmiin-d. if he undertook anv- tliiiii;' that he reall\- wished to do; a l)it laz\-, [xrhaps ; nc\cr fond of stiid\-, hut never stupid ; shiw to take offense, hut ready to hi^ht haek when eornered or imposed Uj)on. " It is a Ion- time ago," writes one of his West Point associates, '* hut when I recall old scenes, I can still see ' Sam ' (irant, with his over- alls strap})ed down to his boots, standing' in front of his (.[uarters. It seems but yesterday since I saw the little fellow Q-oiuij' to the riding'diall, with his spurs claid^ing on the ground and his «'Teat ca\'alr\' sword dangling by his side." There was nothing- about his W^est Point life out of the common. He was just an ordinary, everv-day cadet, going thr(Uigh the training that taught him obedience, attention, order, health, good manners and simple ]i\ing. It is a hard life for some boys, with its routine work, its strict rules, its absolute obedience to orders, and all the worries and trials that make schooldife by rule hard to bear: but Ulysses g^ot CADET (-.rant's KAMoCS HORSEBACK LKAT. ULYSSES FACES THE MUSIC. over his first dislike to it, and, after awliile, was glad that Concrress had not "abolished" West Point. He thoiiLidit that by the time he <40t through there lie might teach mathe- matics in some school or college. The one thing he was certain about was that he would not be a sol- dier ! So his four years at W^est Point \\ent on — broken only by one vacation, when he had been two vears at the school. Except for his famous horse- back leap ot six teet, three inches — that was on his last examination dav, by the way, and in the presence of the high dignitaries called the "Board of Directors" — he left no reputation at the Aead- cmv, either for high scholarship or great pranks — ncUhing, ill fact, to make a boy remember him after he had left the school, or to put him at the head of his mates. CertainK' he was not at the head o{ his class. He graduated ow the thirteenth v>\ June, 1S43, num'her t\\ent\'- one in a class of thirl\ -nine — just about half \\a\-. \o\x see. ■*-"rle. *^=."jg?g £rrfj:9. '■jA CADKT I.IKE OUT-OK-nOORS. CV.}'SS/-S FACES Tin-: MLSIC. 51 IK' left West Point thinkinf^- pretty well of himself, as most cadets — in fact as most collei^e ])oys do. But there is no harm in that, vou know. I wouldn't ijive nun h for a boy who didn't haw a pretty fair opinion of himself. It helps a fellow on. in a way. So Ldysscs thou«^ht himself "the observed of all observers," as he went on his homeward journey. He considered that the two greatest men in America were General Scott, the head of the army, and Captain Smith, the commandant of cadets at West Point. And thoui^h he did not intend to be an army officer, still he did ha\e a dream (M' some day reviewing- the cadets just as Gen- eral Scott had done — to his mind, at that time, the highest honor in tlie world. But, as he tells us, he remembered that horse-trade of his when he was a boy, and so for fear the boys would make fun of him. he kept quiet about his ever being like General Scott. While Ul\sses was at West Point, his father had removed his tannery and leather business to a little place called Bethel, about twelve miles away, in Clarmont Countv. Here the (jrant famil\- lived ; here Ul\sses had spent the one vacation granted him when at West Point, and here he went after graduation — brevet second lieutenant Ulysses Simp- son (jranl. Pourth U. S. Infantry. " The " brevet " meant that he w asn't really a second lieutenant vet, but he would be so(^n — if he was a eood o boy and joined his regiment. 52 L^ZVSSES FACES THE MUSIC. When his new uniform came out to him he felt very big. This was natural enough. We all feel fine in new clothes, and there is always a fascination to bovs about " soldier clothes " — especially if they have been fairly earned, as his had been. But you know the old saying that " pride goeth before a a fall." Our young brevet second lieuten- ant soon had proof of this. When his tine "sol- dier clothes " came home he put them on and rode away on horseback to Cincin- nati, to " show oft'." He \\as riding along one o\ the city streets, thinking, he savs, that everyone was looking at him and. feeling himself to ])e cjuite as big a man as General Scott, when a ragged, dirty, bare- footed little street lM,y — what we call a "mucker" here- abouts — called out shrilly: "Yah, soldier ! Will you work '^ You bet he won't. He'd sell his shirt first." Then eyerylxxly laughed. Well! You can imagine what a terrible shock this wa^ t(^ the spruce and dignified brevet Ku.^i:u;.-.K>>'.i mo.\lmi;nt at wkst point. ^v )'.v.s7.;.v KicFs riir: Mr sic. 53 second lieutenant. But when, soon after, he was hr)mc again at In.lhcl, lu; h.ul just such anotiuT shock. .At the ohl stacfc tavern across the way, from Grant's home worked a diunken w a< '' of a stableman. When the triin-lookinj:;' soldier boy had been home a few days, what should this stableman do but come into the street ri'/'j'ed out in a pair of sky-blue nankeen pantaloons with a white stripe alonj;' the seams. This was just the color of Ulysses's fine militar\- trousers. Barefooted and bareheaded, but niakin;^- the most of the sky-blue pantaloons, the stableman paraded up and down the street before the Grant house, with an al)surdl\' di<''nitied military walk, imitatiufj; the breyet second lieutenant of infantry. Of course it set every one to lauidiinir. and of course it annoyed Ulysses dreadfully. Indeed, as he says, it quite " knocked the conceit " out of him, and it Qrave him a dislike for military bluster and military uniforms that he never eot o\er in all his life. Thus the schoolinp^ at West Point came to an end. It had done much for this homespun, awkward country boy from the Ohio valley. It had develoju-d his qualities of manliness, persistence and endurance ; it liad disciplined and trained him into hal)its of obedience and had securely laid the foundation of that militar\- knowledge and leadership which, thirty years later, was to do such mio-htv service to the republic which had educated and developed him. 54 //err THE LIEUTENANT MARCHED OVER THE BORDER. CHAPTER III. HOW THI-: LIKUTENANT MARCHKD OVER THE BORDER. A A /"E look at things c[uitc differently when we are boys or ' ' ""iris and when we are men or women. Sometimes, however, opinions do not chang'e. This seems to have been Grant's case as to the justice of the war with Mexico. Eorty years after that war, General Grant wrote in his "Memoirs" that he regarded it as one of the most unjust ever waged by a stronger against a weaker nation. He tells us, in the same sentence, that as a young soldier he was bitterly opposed to it ; but, you know, the first duty a soldier must learn is obedience; and, being a soldier in the United States army, owing to the republic his education and his training. Lieutenant Grant felt that obedience to orders was his supreme duty and, even against his \\ill. he marched to the southeast with the troops that were first known as the Arm\' (jf Occupation and, later, as the Army of Invasion. I do not propose to tell you hei-e the story of the Mexi- can War, which was fought in the years 1846 to 1S48. That story )'ou can reail in history, and 1 hope in time that you will reatl enough al)out it to decitle for yourself that it was an unjust and a t\ lannical war — just the same kind of a tight as w hen a big bully of a boy doesn't " take one of his J/Oir Till-: IJEL-IEXAXT MARCI/J:D Oll-.K 7/f/: HOkJu-.K. 55 size," l)ut " pitches into " a little fellow who couldn't possibly stand up a-'ainst him. From (^ne side, the war w ith Mexico is nothinL: to he proud o{\ but from another it is full of spirit and interest. I shall simply tell you here of Grant's connection with it, and how it helped to make him and other officers brave sol- diers, fitting- them for the great and terrible war that came thirteen \ears later, lap'elv because of this war airainst iMexico. When Ul\'sses Grant graduated from the Military Academy at West Point in 1.S43, the regular army of the L niteel States was a small aftair. It hati only 7500 men in all. and there were more than enou<'h officers to szo around. But the young lieutenant was given a place in the Fourth regiment of the United States Infantry and, after ninety days furlough or vacation, was ordered to report at an army post at the Mississippi river six or seven miles below St. Louis. This army post was calletl Jefferson Barracks and was then one of the largest in the country, being garrisoned by sixteen C(Mn})anies of infantry, or foot soldiers. Grant hael wished to belong to a cavalr\' regiment, as was natural in S(^ fine a horseman : but w hen his turn to choose came, there were no places left in either an artillery or a ca\alry regiment. So it was, for hini. what we call " Ilobson's choice. " and he became a lieutenant of infantry. Jefferson I'arracks is a \ery i)leasant place. It is still a 56 HOJV THE LIEUTENANT MARCHED OVER THE BORDER. military post, you know, hncly situated at the great river. Lieutenant Grant had a good deal of spare time there and he spent a part of this in visiting the home of one of his West Point classmates not far oft'. This farm was called Whitehaven, and was about five miles from Jefferson Bar- racks. There he fell in love with the girl who afterwards became his devoted wife. She was the sister of his class- mate and her name \vas Julia Dent. At that time young Lieutenant Grant had some idea of becomin''' a teacher of mathematics either at West Point or some other good school. He even wrote to his former pro- fessor at West Point to look out for some such chance for him. But, before the opening could be found, the L'nited States and Mexico got into trouble ; the little regular armv was ordered into Texas; the President declared war against the republic of Mexico; volunteers were called for, because there were not enough regular troops ; the Mexicans at ALatamoras were angry because the Americans were build- ing a fort opposite their town; the}' tired the first shot; that opened the war; and so it came to pass that, with his little American armv of three thousantl men, C^icneral Zachary Ta\l()r, whom people called "Old Rough and Read\-," invaded Mexico, and \'oun<'' Second Lieutenant Idwsses S. Grant marched over the border and en!^"a«'ed in actual war. The lirst taste of real war that he had. was in the little skirmish known as the Battle oi Palo Alto — that is. tlie battle of the hi''h trees — or woods. now THE I.IF.L'TEXAXT .^f ARCHED OVER THE B ORDER. 57 When, a little before the battle, the yoiin<^ lieutenant heard the first guns of confbet, he did not like the j)ros|)ect bef(^re hini. Wv wrote about this years afterwards, that he didn"t know how ( ieneral Taylor felt, but as for himself, a young second lieu- tenant who had never heard the boom of a hostile <'un. he telt sorrv he had enlisted. However he may have felt at first, he certainly did not let his feelings in- terfere with his ac- tions, for he did his duty when really in the fi-'ht. I lis com- pany protected the American artillerv which the Mexicans tried to capture; he helped to dri\e back the Mexican lancers, who came chars/- ing against them : anil the stars and strij)es went forward. Then thev marched ow, and the next dav fou'-ht another little battle at "the palm grove," or as the Mexicans call it, " Resaca de la Pal ma." GENERAL ZACIIAKY TAYLOR. A/Ur-wanh President of the United States. 58 HOW THE LIEUTEXAXT MARCHED OVER THE BORDER. Here Grant was again one of the fighters in a sharp, short battle; but he seems to have recalled it when he became a famous man, only for the fact that, his captain beinc- sent off somewhere on a special mission, the young lieutenant was for a time in actual command of his com- pany — and felt correspondingly elated, of course. He also mentions that he led his men in a fiery charge across a piece of ground that had already been charged over and cap- tured by the Americans, so that, he says, he had come to the conclusion that, so far as he was concerned, the Battle ot Resaca de la Palma would have been won just as it was, even if he had not been there. But this, I imagine, was what you boys call ''only fun- nin<'-" as it was just the modestv of the man — for General Grant was never a man to put himself forward or brag about what he had done. It is certain that, through those two years of war, he made quite a record for himselt as a brave and valiant young soldier; his name was mentioned in reports and despatches ; he was promoted several times and he did a great deal of hard work as the quartermaster and adjutant o{ his regiment. The c[uartermaster. y(Hi know, is the ofhcer whose duty it is to look after the food and comfort of the men of his regiment; the adjutant is the colonel's chief helper. So you see both these positions are busy and responsil)le parts. The ijuartcrmaster nceil not go into battle if he does not wish to. His chief duty is in and about the camp. But I/OW THE IJEi'TEXAXT MARCHED OVER EI/E j: ORDER. 59 Lieutenant Grant was never one to shirk. He felt that liis dut}' was in the field cjuite as nuich as in the camp and he was alwa\'s reach' to take his ijart in l)attle and on l)i\'ouac. So, as I have told you, he made a record for bravery and ^ i^i -^'^M. GRANT KIPES FOR AMMUNITION AT MONTF.RKY. darin'j" that would ha\-e been rememljered e\en if his future had not been so ('■reat and <'lorious. It was Lieutenant Grant who, when the fiL;ht was raging' hotlv in the streets of Monterev, volunteered to ride back to General Taylor's headquarters and order up fresh ammu- nition for the American soldiers who were holding the town. He did so. Flin-'inL-- himself, Lidian fashion, or rather in 6o HOJV THE LIEUTENANT MARCHED OVER THE BORDER. circus Style, upon his horse, with one heel in the cantle of his saddle and one hand graspini^- the horse's mane, the young lieutenant rushed his horse toward the gate ot the town, and swinging against the horse's side, rode the gaunt- let of fire and shot that blazed out from house-top and street corner, helping some wounded men on the way, leaping a four-foot wall so as to gain a short cut, and kept on until he trained the creneral's tent with his messa^:re. Yet all he finds io sa}- in his " Memoirs "of that daring gallop was, "my ride was an exposed one." It was Lieutenant Grant who, when his regiment was detached from General Taylor's command and joined to the little army of General Scott, marched and fought under that victorious leader from the sea-fortress of \YTa Cruz to the capital city of Mexico, never missing a battle and yet always faithful to his dutv as care-taker for his rei?'iment. He chased the flNim*' Mexicans out of the bewilderimj ditches of the farm of San Antonio; he was in the rush that stormed and carried the church-fortress of Cherubusco; he left his commissary-wagons to take part in the fierce fight at Chepultepec, the "West P(^int " of Mexico, so gallanth' de- fended by the Mexican cadets ; he was one of the leaders of the ijallant band that burst into the louij- low stone buildin*'- of Molino del Rey — "the king's mill" — and won his pro- motion to a first lieutenant's commission, first by brevet for braverv and. later, to full rank, by the death of his senior. Then came the final attack on the cai)ital and the cap- IlOir THE J.1I:L J I:\A.\T M.IRCJIKD Ol'KR THE BORDER. 6i lure of the city ot Mexico. In this struL;!^le Lieutenant Cjiant Ijuie aw acti\e part; tor it was lan^eh' due to his good juclL;iiKnl and coolness that a speedy entraiK e into the cit\' w a.s gained by the ^Vniericans. It seems that while he was niarchin- with one part of General Scott's army to attack the northern entrance to the ^i:wJt' \fc;.. '^V]v-Y-iii*-^-^^^V^ CHEPULTEPEC — THE " WE5T POINT OF MEXICO. city, called the San Cosme Gate, he thought he saw a way b\' which he could L;'et behind — or, as it is called, tlank, the Mexican soldiers who were drawn up to oppose the Americans. Lea\'in!^' the ranks — bv permission, of course — he jumped behind a stone wall, and going cautiously, got to a 62 HOW THE LIEUTENANT MARCHED OVER THE BORDER. point where he could see just how the land lay and just how the enemy was placed. Then he ran back again without being seen, called for volunteers, and leading a dozen plucky soldiers who were ready to risk the danger, he and his men trailed arms under cover of the wall and thus getting behind the Mexicans drove them away from their battery and the house-tops from which they were firing at the Americans. Soon after this success, Lieutenant Grant, while looking for another chance to get the best of the Mexicans came upon a little church standing by itself back from the road. This church, he noticed, stood not far from the city walls ; its belfry, he believed, was just in line with the space behind the citv gate. " If I could only get a cannon into that bel- fry," he said, " I could send some shot in among the Mexican soldiers behind the gate and scatter them." It was a ljri<'-ht idea. " I'll try it." he said to himself. No sooner said than done. Hurrying back to the American ranks, Lieutenant Grant got hold of a small light cannon, called a mountain howitzer, and some men who knew how to work it. They dodged the enemy, cut across a field and made a bee-line for the little church. There were several wide and deep ditches in this held; but the men took the howitzer apart, and each one carrying a piece of it thev waded the ditches until, at last, ihev reached the church without being seen ])y the enemy. The priest who was in charcre of the church was not going to let the Ameri- I t I/OW Till': J.IFA'TK.\.\Xr .^r.lRCJIED Ol'ER THK BOKDKR. 65 can soldiers come in, but youn-^' Grant told him, " I think yon w ill. We're comini; in." And they did. Piece by piece the cannon was carried u[) into the belfry, put together again, loaded and aimed directly at the Mexi- cans who were i-uardinij' the San Cosme jjate, less than a thousand feet away. P)an"'- ! went the howitzer I-)an«'' ! banj/ ! it went ai:ain. You ma\' well believe that those Mexicans were a surprised lot. wlun the cannon balls bei^^an dropping' down among them. At first, they could not imagine where the shots came from, and when they did they were so confused, that instead of sending soldiers to surround and capture this battery in a belfry, they simply made haste to get out of the way of those dropping cannon-balls as quickly as possible. Of course, the Americans noticed this " embattled church- steeple," too. "That's a bricfht idea," said deneral Worth, and he sent a young lieutenant named Pemberton — who had something special to do with General Grant later in life — to bring the man w ith the bright idea before him. So Lieutenant Grant reported what he had done to Gen- eral Worth and the general told him to keep at it and take another gun up into the steeple, too. lUit as there was onl\- room for one gun in that steeple, (irant could not use another, even if he wished to. I^)Ut, as he explained, years after, he coukln't tell General Worth that, because it wasn't 66 HOJV THE LIEUTEXAXT MARCHED OVER THE BORDER. proper for a youni^- lieutenant to contradict the commanding general when he said '' put two guns in the steeple." Well, it was a \'ery bright idea — that battery in a steeple, was it not? And, as it helped open the way for the capture of the Mexican capital, it also broui/ht to the \()une lieutenant fame and promo- tion. He really did not care very much about the first; for, as you know, Ulysses Grant was a quiet and mod- est young fellow who did not care a rap for show, and \Aas never one to push him- self forward. But his good work in that church steeple had been noticed by his superior oftlcers, and in three different reports of the cap- ture of Mexico, Lieutenant Grant's share received honorable mention. This, in due time, brought him promotion — something that everyone likes — boy or girl, scholar, clerk c^r sc^ldier. But things always went a bit sl(n\- with this slow-going young man, and while he had plenty o\ \\o\V to do as com- missary and adjutant of his regiment, the war did nc^t push THE HATTKRV IN IHK STEEPLE. J/Oir TllK J.IKiTJiy.l.XT MARCIIIiD OVER THE BORDER. C7 him rapidly on towards General Scott's position — about which, )()ii nnu-iiihcr, he had a [)rcscntinient or dream w hen he was a \\\st Point cadet. lie went into the battle of Palo Alto, which opened the war, a second lieutenant; six- teen months later when he marched into the city of Mexico as one ot the \-ictorious Americans, he was still a second lieutenant, althoui^h he had been in almost every battle and belonged to a rej^iment that lost many officers. Somehow, success was alwavs slow in comin'>-, or niissed altogether in Grant's early days. But this, you know, teaches a boy patience, especially if a young- fellow is determined, conscien- tious and persistent. U. S. Grant was all of these, even as a boy, you know; so delay schooled him and brought him experience, cautiousness, firmness and that other quality which some folks call stubbornness, but which we know was, in his case, persistence. Promotion did come however, soon after the American soldiers were in possession of the city of Mexico. His gal- antry in the church steeple and the way in which he always did his duty were not forgotten, and when a vacancv was made by the death of one of his superior officers, Grant went up a step and was made first lieutenant of his regiment — the Fourth U. S. Infantry. There was not much more fighting after that, but the American soldiers held possession of the citv of Mexico sev- eral months longer, remaining in the land until the treatv of peace between Mexico and the I'nited States was si-'ned. 68 HOW THE LIEUTENANT MARCHED OVER THE BORDER. on the second of February, 1848. This is known as the " Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo," from the name of the place where the treaty was drawn up. By it, the United States obtained complete possession of Texas, New Mexico and California. Lieutenant Grant had nothing to do with this treaty — rilh CAl Hl.lJRAl, IN I 111-. CITY OF MtXlCU. his dav for being the central hgure in great events and in a greater treaty had not yet come — but he found plenty to do as care-taker (^\ his regiment. lie was still (piartermaster and he had his hands full. It is no small thing to look after the food and clothes of se\eral hundred nien, as the young lieutenant had long since discovered. This question of clothes was a serious one. The soldiers IfOir THE LIEUTEXAXT MARCHED Ol'ER THE Ji ORDER. 69 were GfettincT racfijfocl after tlicir months of scr\'icc. Xo clothiiiij' was sent thcni hy the <'-overnment and sonu-thin'>- had to Ije clone. So cloth was purchased of the Mexican merchants, and Mexican tailors were employed to make it up into " Yankee uniforms." Lieutenant Grant had to see to eettine' these new suits for all the men of his reirinient. and as there were always more soldiers needing clothes than there were clothes ready for the soldiers, you can see that he was kept pretty busy "taiU^ring." Then the money gave out which was needed for the pay- ment of the military band. Now music is almost as neces- sary for keeping up the spirits and discipline ot the soldiers as food and clothing". The musicians in the United States armv at the time of the Mexican war, were paid but a little bv the government ; the rest of their pay came from a sort of soldiers' savings bank known as the regimental fund. This fund had got pretty low down; it needed to be in- creased if the soldiers were to have good music, so Grant set himself to thinkiuLf things over. As a result he went to work bread-making. You see a hundred pounds of tlour will make one hun- dred and fortv pounds of bread. Grant was allowed to draw- flour for his men and this left quite an amount on his hands — forty pounds out of every one hundred and forty. He rented a bakery, hired Mexican bakers, bought fuel and other bake-shop needs and ran a bread-bakery to supply the armv with bread. He did this so well that, out (^ the 70 HOW THE LIEUTENANT MARCHED OVER THE BORDER. profits of that extra forty pounds in every one hundred and forty, he paid the musicians of the Fourth Infantry and increased the slender regfimental fund — which meant com- forts and even luxuries for his soldiers. All this of course kept him pretty busy. But he found time to climb up the volcano of Popocatapetl, that is "the smoking mountain." You can lind this in your geography, on the map of Mexico. It is a great volcano, you know, nearly eighteen thousand feet high, and the party of climbers were almost lost in a dreadful storm of wind and snow that came down on them. One of that party of volcano-climbers was to bring fame to Grant later in life — Captain Buckner, who in the Civil War commanded Fort Donelson and brouo'ht from Grant the famous words " unconditional surrender." Later still. Buckner was one of the pall-bearers at the funeral of the great soldier whom he helped to fame and who was his companion in that fearful climb up the smoking mountain. So the time passed pleasantly enough in Mexico with this young lieutenant, because he was kept busy. To do nothing, you know, is the hardest kind ot work, and L . S. Grant was never a do-nothing. He looked after all his regimental duties, and enjoyed his spare lime in " poking alxnit " seeing sights. Tw ice on these sight-seeing trips he was made prisoner by the Mexi- cans, l)ut was allowed to cro free because there was then no fighting — 'Or what is calleil a truce between the tw o re|)ublics. //Oir THE I.Il-.UTEXAXT MARCH ED OVER 77/E JiORDhR. 71 Besides climbiiiL;' ro[)ocatapL'tl, he explored tombs and ruins ot the old Aztecs, the Mexicans w honi Cortez the Sjjan- iard conquered, you remember, in the davs after Columbus; he \-isited the wonderful "great caves " of Mexico, and went HULL FIGHT IN MKXILO. to sec a bull flight. This, you know, is the favorite national sport of Mexico, just as baseball and football are with us. But (iranl didn't like it. lie unl\- went to one — and one 72 HO IV THE LIEUTENANT MARCHED OVER THE BORDER. was enough. It made him sick, he said. For Grant, I must tell you, although the greatest of American soldiers, could not bear the siq-ht of blood, and hated anvthin<>" like brutality. Other ijTeat soldiers ha\-e been like him in this. So the bull-fighting disgusted him, and he said he could not see how human beings could enjoy the sufferings of beasts and often of men, as they seemed to do on these occasions. But more than in sight-seeing, fighting and care-taking, the Mexican war was for Ulysses S. Grant a splendid school and a most helpful experience. In it, he learned to be a soldier, to endure |)rivation, to have patience, to know men and, especially, to become acquainted with those who, a few years after, were to play a prominent part upon a stage on which he was to be chief actor. Grant never failed to acknowledge the o'reat advantaere that his experience in the Mexican war brought him. He learned to know bv name or in person almost all the officers who rose to positions of leadership, on one side or the other, in the great Civil War. lie was an observing man, he studied people and saw their good points and their weak ones and he knew just what sort of men were his old comrades of the Mexican war, when, in after \'ears, he was either associated w itli them as commander or opposed to them as conqueror. There is no better school, bovs and <'"irls, than the school ot experience; and in that school I lysses S. lirant was an aj)t, if a slow and often a worried pupil. HO IV Jlh: J- OUGHT THE TLAGUK AT J'AAAMA. 73 ciiArri: K \\. HOW Hi: I-OUGHl IHl' I'LAGUE AT PANAMA. THE first thin!4 that Lieutenant Grant did when he went marehing home from the war w ith Mexico was to get a four nKMiths' lea\-e of aljsence, or \aeation, hurry to St. Louis and be married. This important date in his life — his wedcHng dav — w:is the twenty-second of August, 1848. lie married Julia Dent, the St. Louis girl of whom I ha\e alreatlv spoken, and a splendid wife she made him. The wedding took place at the farmhouse, in which lived the parents of Julia Dent. It was ten miles below St. Louis and was a big. roomy, hospitable old Southern mansion with great rooms, ample fireplaces, broad verandas and pleasant grtnmds. and as it stood then it stands to-day, only slightly alteretl. The young couple did not go to housekeeping in St. Louis, nor could the}' make their home in the big and breezy Dent mansion. Julia Dent was a "soldier's bride," and a soldier is ne\er his own master. II is home is " in barracks" or " cjuarters " at \vhate\'er point or place he is ordered to e'(>. So his wife. too. had to li\-e with him in barracks — that is. you know, in the soldier's quarters at some fort or garrison, or military post. 74 IfOlV HE F0UGH2 THE PLAGUE AT PANAMA. So, after the honeymoon had been spent in \isiting- the Grant familv or the Grant relatives in Ohio, the vouno- lieutenant and his wife, when his vacation days were over, went back to duty. He joined his regiment, and his wife went with him. At the close of the Mexican war, Grant's regiment — the Fourth U. S. Infantry, you know — went into camp at Pas- cagoula in Mississippi. There the lieutenant left it when he went off to St. Louis to be married ; but, before his four months' vacation was over, the Fourth U. S. Infantry was ordered to the military post of Sackett's Harbor on the shores of Lake Ontario. Ouite a change from the Gulf of Mexico, was it not? There, in the Madison Barracks at Sackett's Harbor, Lieutenant Grant and his wife began their married life. In their rooms in the officers' quarters they spent their first Christmas. In the spring of the next year, however, 1849, orders came to move. The regiment was transferred to Detroit in Michicran. In this beautiful northern citv — not as attractive then as it is to-da\', I imagine — they lived for nearlv two years, when again came the order to move. This time, in the spring of 1S51. they went back once more to their first home, the Madison Barracks at Sackett's Harbor, followin*'" their resjiment. You see, by this, that a soldier and his wife can never hope to make their home long in one place. A small army, now ///•: rOLGIlT the PLAdLK AT J'.tXA.U.t. 75 like that of tlic I'nitcd States, is sluiflk-il and shitted about almost as much as nou shuflle the cards w hen pla\ing )(jur jjame of "Authors." Uncle Sam's blue-coats of the rei^^ular arm\' ne\er know how lou!^ the\' ai\- L;oin^' to "stay fixed." So it came about that, before the I^'ourth I'nited States Infantry had been in the Madison liarracks at Sackett's Har- bor a \ ear, orders ai^ain came to the soldier to move. This time it fairly tuok their breath away; the rei^nment was ordered to Cal- ifornia. That would not sound S(^ \ery remarkable in these davs when we can rush across the con- tinent from the At- lantic to the Pacific ,j rw''^'- ---■ J THE DANr.F.ROUS TRIP "OVERLAND IN "THE FIFTIES. in six days. But in 1.S51 \cry few people went by lantl across the continent. There were no railroads ; people had to ride in slow, lumberinj^- wagons, or on horseback — or walk ! and the journe\' of three thousand miles took weeks and months, that were sl(W\-. tircs(^me anil danp^erous. There were mountains to climb, deserts to cross, rivers to wade, Indians to face and wild beasts to fii.,dit. Hunger and thirst, heat and cold, rain and snow and all the discomforts of life were a part of the tlail\' experience of the traveller and the emigrant. It was a terrible journey to go overland to the Pacific in the davs before the railroads. 76 HOJV HE FOUGHT THE PLAGUE AT TAX AM A. So, people preferred going by water. This was not always agreeable, either; Ijut, you see, it was a case of the longest way round Ijeing the shortest way home. Travellers to Cali- fornia went by steamboat from New York to Aspinwall on the Isthnuis of Panama; then they crossed the Isthmus by boat and mule, went on board another steamer at Panama and sailed up the Pacific to San Francisco. It was a long, .^-, TARGET PRACTICE IN U. S. A. EAKKACKS. hard, tedious and often dangerous journe\-; but it was not nearly so difficult nor dangerous as the wa\' owrland. But when the orders to sfo to California came to the sol- diers at Sackett's Harbor. Lieutenant Grant decided that he would not take his young wife on such a long, hni'd and uncertain journey. He did not intend to live in Calif(^rnia, and \\h(^ could tell how long the regiment would be cpiar- tered there? Orders mi'-ht come sendiiv' 1dm somewhere I/OJr ///-; 1-0 1 GUT TJIK J'/.AGL'E AT /'.t.WlAf.l. 77 else, c\tn before lie and his wife had really " ^ot settled,'* and the lon^' j(nirnev woidd \n- all toi' nothing,''. So he aiianj^ed to \\[\w his wife \isit his people in Ohio antl her people in St. Louis, proniisini;' that when he had been in Califoiiiia Ion-' enoii'-h to see how he liked it, he woidd arrange either to send for her or get leave of absence and come east for her. So it was arranged; the good-b\es were said; and on the fifth of Jidy. 1.S31, the Fourth Infantry, with such of the soldiers' wixes and children as could not or would not stay behind, >ailed out (>! the harbor ^i New York and steamed southward for their first port on the Isthmus o\ Panama. In eight days they sailed into the harbor of Aspinwall on the Atlantic side of the Isthmus and prepared to go ashore. Jid\" on the Isthmus of Panama is wet, hot and sicklv. The passengers from the north felt the changes from drench- ing rain to Ijurning sun and suffered from them greatly. '1 hev were vcrv anxious to be on their wav north a^^ain to a healthier climate. But the Isthmus had to be crossed. It looks small and narrow enough on tlu- map. does it n(^t ? In one ]iart it is only thirty miles from ocean to ocean. But it is altoi/ether too wide if one feels sick and has no way to get across except to ride horseback or walk. To-day, a railroad, fort\-eight miles lon-j", runs across the Isthmus from Aspinwall on the Atlantic to Panama on the Pacitic. P)Ut. when Lieutenant (xrant and his infantrymen 78 HOW HE FOUGHT THE PLAGUE AT PANAMA. ^^.: crossed the Isthmus in \>>^\, this railroad had but just been commenced and onl\' ran a tew miles, to the banks of the Chagres river. This is the stream, vou know, which cneri- necrs for more than three hundred years have been tryins^;" to turn into a ship canal that should join the Atlantic and the Pacific — the famous ditch known as the Panama canal. When Lieutenant Grant and his seven hundred compan- ions of the Fourth Infantry started to cross the Isthmus they had a fearful time. Grant was cjuarter- master or "care-taker " of his refjiment, vou know, and had to look out for the comfort and transportation of the men. This Isth- mus journey put his ability to the test. First, he saw them all on board the cars for the thirty mile ride by railway. When the road ended, at the Cha^res river, thev " chan^red for Gon-ona " and went on board ccr- tain iiat-bottomed boats that would earr\- between thirl)- and fortv passeni^'crs apiece. These boats were poled aloni;' the river, ai^ainst the current — six polemen to a boat — at the rapid rate of a mile an houi"! In this wa\', thev pti>hed on to a place called Gor- eona where the\- had to <'et out a^-ain for a ride ow mule- /^ THE MARCH ACROSS THE ISTHMUS. J/Oir HE I-OL'GHT THE r/.AGC'E AT r.LWtM.t. 79 back to TaiKiiiKi mh the Pacific, sonic twenty- fixe miles distant. Did \(ni c\"er hcai' of :i harder ht't\-inile tiip ? 'I'o-ehi)", in the conitoriahle cars of the I'anania railioad, nou can make the tiip across the Isthmus in three hours. It took Lieutenant (irant and his companx' marly two weeks to do that hft\' miles. I will tell you w h)-. The United States !j()Vernment had arrans/cd with the steamship company for the connecteil and comtortable trans- portation oi the F(^urth Infantry and its l)ag"gage from New \'ork to San Francisco, including the trip across the Isthmus. The officers and soldiers, with the families of a t'ew of the latter, made up a comi)an\' oi se\en hundred people. lUit. in iS-i, crowds of aclxenturers were going" to California to di<'- for ''old. So the seven hundred, instead of havin-'' Comfortable cpiarters, were crowded upon a steamer alread\' fullv occupied. And when Aspinwall was reached everyone was in a hurrv to ''ct across the Isthmus to Panama and the Pacific. The passengers on the steamer had first chance and the soldiers simply had to wait for " second turn." A part of the regiment did, after a few days* delay, get across to Panama ; but (irant, as regimental (juartermaster, was left at a place called Cruces on the l)anks oi the sickly Chagres river with all the baggage and cam[) ec|uipage, one company oi soKliers and those men o\ the regiment who had brou'-ht their wives and children with them. 8o HOW HE FOUGHT THE PLAGi'E AT PAX A MA. There at Graces they waited. The transportation prom- ised In' the steamship company (Hd not come ; a man with whom a new contract had been made by the agents of the steamship compan\- kept promising mules and horses, but after a day or two Grant discovered that this man had been supplying them to passengers who could pay higher than the contract price, and the young quartermaster found out that if he were ever to get his people and baggage to Panama, he would have to find the means himself. Then came the climax. The dreadful cholera — that plague of hot countries — broke out in the camp. Lieutenant Grant had sickness and death to struggle with, in addition to his other worries. For cholera in July, in the Isthmus of Panama, with sultrv, rain\' weather and insufficient shelter for the sick, means death. Did you ever read Dickens's story of " Martin Ghuzzle- w it ? "" Do you remember Mark Tapley who always " came out stron a > HOW ///•; i-orcirr iiii: ri .ir.ri: at j'.wama. 85 ing" ahms^'- the l^acific and recently ac([uire(l from Mexico. 1)111 it was fast filliii;^ up. The won! had (^'■one abroad that gijKl was to be had just tor the dii^gin^- oi' the wa>hinL;' in the land and streams of California. People fnmi all parts of the world, in a hurry to got rich, rushed to California to beconic gold-miners. There were all sorts and conditions of men among them, and while most of them ilid not get rich, they did make thinsjs li\'el\- for a while on that far Pacific coast. For men who failet aware (^f e\'cr haxini^' used a profane expletive in all \\\\ life." He told his boys so, too, and his eldest son declares that his father did not even use the sim- plest kind of boyish "swear words." When his father was a youni;- man, so this eldest son tells us, he did hear him say once o\\ a time " thunder and li''htnin<'- ! " But he savs that is about the onlv strong cxprcssic^n his father e\'er did use, and the fact that the soldier's son remembered it shows how unusual a thing it was. His record for honesty and truthfulness is known to all men and is dwelt upon by all persons who had anything to do with him in l)usiness or pleasure. " O, Sam Grant said it, did he?" they woidd sa\- at West Point. " Well, that settles it. If he said so, it's so." And meanness, which is very close to ungentlemanliness, is als(^ prett\- near to coarseness in talk or act. Not one of these found place in the character of V . S. ("".rant. He never said anvthing that approached coarseness, his son tells us. He ne\-er used vulgar words nor would he tell or listen to bad stories. He would get up and leax'e the room rather than hear them. And to do that, let me tell y«ni, takes real ccnirage. Do you wonder that, through all his life, men trusted him and respected him. even when things went hardest with him?' Do you wonder that, when the son from whom I ha\e (.[uoted grew to l)c a man, he said his father was his 98 HOW THE CAPTAIX FOUXD LIFE A ''HARD SCRABBLE." ideal of all that is true and Ci'ood ? Do vou wonder that he savs to his own bov that the best he can wish for him is to be as good a man as his grandfather? " Mv father's character," he savs, " was what I believe a eood Christian teacher would consider the ideal one. He was pure in thought and deed. He was careful of the feel- ings of others — so much so, in fact, that when he had to do anvthing to hurt them. I believe he felt more pained than the people \\hom he hurt." This is an excellent reputation to have, is it not? And in the case of Ulysses Grant it is one that all men acknowl- edge as trulv merited. It be^an with him even as a bov in the Ohio tanyard ; under the hard experience of life at Hard- scrabble and the years that followed it was testeti bv adver- sity and became at last the calm, self-controlled, fearless, yet at the same time tender and sympathetic nature that won, by unl^ending will and bv equalh' determined clemencw in the terrible warfare that closed at Appomattox. There is no " fire of adversitv." as we call it, that is so trvin*'' and tormenlin-'- as not beim*- able to " «?'et alomr." Failure is a terrible blow to a man's good opinion of him- self — indeed, it is so to a boy's, too. Captain Grant had a se\ere schooling in failure after he left the army. S(^mehow. as \\'c sa\-, things did not seem tc^ go his way. He could not make farming pay; few men can, when aloncf comes sickness to take all the strength and aml>iti(Mi IlOir THE C.lJT.l/X /'XH'\/> I./ll: .1 -HARD SCRAJUil.Er 99 out of thcni — as diil the fever and ix'gWd with Captain Grant. llaiiliiiL^ fire-\vooi.l ten miles to town and peddlin;^- it from door to door at four dollars a rord will not put uuk h money in a man's pocket, especiall}' w hen he has a i^^rowinj^' family to support. So, after three \'ear's trial at farmin;^, when he saw that he was runniuij' behind each \ear, when he tound himself weakened by continuous fever and aijue, two thousand dol- lars in debt to his father, and. thouijh steadil\- industrious, Still as steadil)- unsuccessful, he came to the conclusion that he was not cut out for a farmer and must try his hand at somethiuL;- else. Although he called " Ilardscrabblc " his home he had not lived there all the time. Once he left the cabin to take charge of the house of his brother-indaw un the Graxois road. It was a neat Gothic cottage and was called " W'ish- ton-wish" — I wonder if that name was gi\en it because of a certain tale b\' a <>Teat American stor\'-teller ? Do vou know w hieh one ? In 1S56 the Grants moved into Wdiitehax'en — the man- sion belonging to Mrs. Grants father. Captain Grant was to look after the place; but he still called " Ilardscrabblc " his home, and \\ hen at last the fe\er and ague would ncjt let him continue as a farmer and he determined to make a change, he was obliged to sell "Ilardscrabblc" and its belonginsjs so as to raise a little monev. Life had been a struggle there, certainly. But even up- lOO HO IV THE CAPTAIX FOUXD LIFE A '' HARD SCRABBLEr hill work may have its pleasures. Years after, walking over the old place one day, General Grant pointed out some stumps sticking up in the farmland and said, " I moistened the ground around those stumps with many a drop of sweat. But they were happy days, after all," he added. When the persistent fever and ague had so weakened - -^ . ^ - UARDSCKABBLt," THt COTTAGE THAT GRANT RUILl' FOR HIMSELF IN MISSOURI. him that he felt obliged to change his way of life, his wife's family, the Dents, found an opening for him in the real estate business in St. Louis. He formed a partnership with a real estate dealer, a man who buys and sells houses and lands, you know, (m- lends money to land-owners. This new firm was called Boggs t^ /row THF. C.-irTAIX JOCWI) LIFE A - HARD SCRABBLF.r loi Grant, and all the otVicc they hail was a desk in an old house on Tine Street in St. Louis. Captain (^irant did the writing;- and fig;uring, but he was not a real good hantl at " druniming up" business. A suc- cess! ul real estate agent nuist be what some folks in these busy days call a "hustler," and U. S. C.raiu was not cut out for work that called for a fast and ready talker. Vou know they called him, later on, "the silent man." So he did not succeed as a real estate agent. The firm of Boggs c^' Grant lasted only about a year. Then hard times came on, money was not easy to get, there was not business enough for two in the Pine Street office and Captain Grant gave it up. Although he had failed as a real estate agent he came out o{ the business with a spotless reputation. He might not be a business success, but he was a success as a man. "He was always a gentleman and everybody loved him, he was so gentle and considerate to everv one." the wife of his partner said of him. "But really we did not see what he could do in the world." That is the wa\- too many people look at v.hat thev call failure, isn't it? lUit failure is not alwavs not beinir able to do a thing in our way, you know. This lady li\-ed to learn w hat Grant could do when his great opportunit\- came. " Grant did not seem to be just calculated for business," savs one man who knew him in those hanl daws. " But a more honest, generous man never lived. I don't believe he 102 HO IV THE CAPTAIN FOUND LIFE A ''HARD SCRABBLEr knew what dishonor was." That is even a finer record to have than to be set down as a "booming real estate specu- lator," is it not ? After Captain Grant gave up the real estate business, he tried hard to get the appointment as County lingineer. This is the man who looks after laying out roads and highways, and sees that boundaries and buildings are right. He should be a man who knows a good deal about mathematics and surveying. Captain Grant was just the man for such a position. But, too often, one who is trying to get such a place must have lots of friends to back him up, and he must have what is know n as political influence. This is not right, of course. The best man should always get the place, and a man's best recommendation for a position should Ije that he knows how to do the work. It is getting to be more this way in public life now-a-days, but when Captain Grant was trying to get the place as Countv Engineer, political intUience was the principal thing an applicant must have. So he did not get the appointment. He did get a small place in the Custom House at St. Louis; but tht^ next month the head man, or "Collector." died antl the new Col- lector put one of his own friends in (iranl's place. Did not the poor captain ha\"e a hard time o\ it? It did seem as if there realK' was nothin father's direction, he would, in time, become a i)art- ner. This he hoped would come around in a year or so. I)Ut when that "year or so " was over, he, as he tells us in his "Memoirs," "was engaged in an empUnnient which required all my attention elscwdiere." And, indeed, it did. Captain Grant lived for eleven months in Galena — from May, iSoo to April. iSOi. He was a quiet, square-shoul- dered, spare-built man of thirty-eight, stooping slightlv. because of farm-work antl fever and ague. He walked to and from the leather store, or drove the horses about in the business waq^on. He was salesman, bill-clerk and collector for the leather st(M"e. He was a great "home-body." He visited but a few neighbors, and was, even after ten months' residence, as he says, almost a comj)arative stranger in Galena. No one paid very much attention to him or expected that he would ever amount to much, except as the success of his father and brothers in business might push him into a fairh' comfortable li\ing. Suddenl)', to the quiet, unobtrusive, ordinarv-appearing man cam^- the call to dut\' that prox'ed his call indeed. io8 HO IV HE HEARD THE CALL TO DUTY. Political troubles ended in actual conflict. Americans were in arms a^^ainst Americans. Fort Sumter was fired upon. The president of the United States called for volunteers to defend the Union. There was war in the land. Ulysses S. Grant was no politician. He had neither the wish nor the will to be one. But he had thought a great deal about the questions that were putting the Union in peril. Ik'ing a soldier by education and experience, he knew well what war meant, and he hoped very much that so terri- ble a thing would not be forced upon his native land. He talked this way; he voted this way; he helped, as far as his voice and vote could help, to put off the day that would divide the people of the United States and set the North against the South. Many other good and true men did so, too; but the dreadful day could not be put off. It had to come. It was what was called the " Inevitable Con- flict" — that is, the trouble that can not be put off. When it did come, in the firing upon Tort Sumter by the Southern batteries encircling that little fortress-covered island in Charleston harbor, it aroused to action the very men who had tried hardest to keep it off. " The Union," they said, " must be preserved. The flag shall be defended." How well I remember, as a bov, the coming of the tid- inirs of that terrible twelfth of April, 18O1. How excited was every one. How people talked and talked, when Presi- dent Uincoln said, " I must have seventy-fi\e thousand men to help nie put down this rebellion."' And how they did I/Oir ///•; JIEARD TJIIi CALL 1 J)UTy. 109 thiiiL^s! I'or the soldiers sprang- to amis at oncc and the \\ hoK- Ijioad hind became one mighty camp. There were mass meetings held all over the northern coLinliA' ; business almost stopped; schools coidd hardly "keep;" men who had thought and \-oted differently now clasped hands for the Union and from the enthusiastic ^1 ^y' .1 r ') mass meetings went men pledged to march " on to Washington " to obey the call of the president, to de- fend the National Capital and uphold the nation's honor. Just such a meeting as this was held in the court house in Galena, wdiere (irant lived. It roused the citizens to enthusiasm and when, two days later, an- other meeting was held to encourage enlistments, the country court house was crowded. Someone must preside. This was to be a militarv meet- ing, not a talking one, and some one suggested Captain U. S. Grant for chairman. Not a hundred peoj)le in Galena knew who this Captain Grant was, and when a medium-sized, stoop-necked, serious "^.i. i^' A ".MU KtCKUn.' IN 1S61. no HO IV BE HEARD THE CALL 70 DUTY. T»T1-! I ! ! ! "! looking man in a blue army overcoat rose in his place, the crowded court room looked at him curiosly. He did not know just what to do. It was a new- position for him. "Get up on the platform! go up; go up, Cap'n ! " men shouted. But the captain did not like such prominence. He simply smiled, shook his head and leaning both hands on a desk looked over the throng. "With much embarrassment and some prompting," he savs in his " Me- moirs," " I made out to announce the ob- ject of the meeting." " Fellow Citizens," he said, " This meeting is called to onjanize a companv of volunteers to serve the State of IIH- nois " (in defence of the Union, he meant, of course). " Be- fore calling upon y(^u to become volunteers I wish to state just what will be re([uired of you. First of all, uncpiestion- ing obedience to your superior officers. The arm\- is not a picnicing partv, nor is it an excursion. A'ou will ha\-e hard fare. \'ou ma\- be obliged to sleep iA\ the ground alter long- marches in the rain and snow. Main- <>\ the orders ot \-our THE COURT HOUSE AT GALENA. Wlterc Grant made /its first speech. JIOW HE HEARD THE CALL TO DUTY. i,, sii|H'ri(H's will sccni to x'ou unjust, and wt they must be borne. It an injustice is reall\' done you, however, there are courts-martial where vour wrongs can be investiLTated and offenders punished. If \ou put \-our name down here it shall be in full understanding' what the act means. In con- clusion, let me sa\', that, so far as I can, I will aid the com- pan\', and I intend to re-enlist in the serx'ice myself." That was Grant's first speech. It was like him — plain, honest, convincing and right to the point. It did not mean fun for those who enlisted. It meant business. To men who were as determined and as interested as himself it told more than sounding words and bursts of eloquence. As a result, the Galena compan\' of \'olunteers was speedil\' made up. More than enough enlisted. Indeed, over an hundred had to be rejected because the ranks were full. At once. Grant was offered the captainc)' of the com- panv. But he had other plans. lie knew that, in the nation's stress, men of experience would be needed to serve as officers. " I can't afford to re-enter service as a captain of volunteers," he said. " I have served nine years in the recrular armv and I am fitted to command a reiriment." So he declined to take the post of captain of the com- pany he had helped to raise, although he promised to do everxthing in his power to help them get into ser\'ice. This mav seem to vou, at first, as not just the modest wa\' that Currant usuall\- acted; but it was really wise and just. Do you remember, in the story of George Washing- 112 HOW HE HEARD THE CALL TO DUTY ton's life, the trouble that he had because he would not take a place offered him as captain in the American militia when he knew he ought to be colonel ? His reasons for this action were honorable and right, and Captain Cirant's were the same. He knew that the United States had educated him and that, to his country, his best service was due ; this ser- vice called him really to higher duties than that of a cap- tain of a company. Regiments would be formed that needed reliable heads; and even patriotism doesn't always know how to lead armies to victory. So he waited; but. while he waited, he gave all his time to working for the Union, drillino- the new recruits, telling the leaders wdiat to do ; he even helped the ladies get up the proper kind of uniforms for the volunteers. After that meeting at which he spoke he never, so he tells us, went into the leather store again to put up a package or do an\- other business. Determined to serve, but equally determined to accept service onlv as he felt it to be his duty — in a position suited to his experience and rank — he followed the Galena company to Springfield, the capital of Illinois and the home of Abraham Lincoln. Here, in the midst of all the war fever and excitement. Captain Grant sought, for days, to get his just deserts. But he was too modest to insist upon what he knew to be his rights and at last became discour- aged and declared that he should try somewhere else. The politicians and fancv soldiers were too much for him and his chance for serx'ice was but small. I/Oir ///•; JIEARD THE CALL JO DC TV. ,,3 " I canic chnvn here," he saitl to a friend. " l)ecause I fell it mv duty. The ijovcmmcnt educated me ami I felt I oii«'ht to offer my services a^ain. I have applied, to no result. I can't afford to stav here lonq^er and I'm <'-oin!j; home." He did accept a post in the adjutant-general's office — that is the place in which most of the army business is trans- acted; but he felt it to be little more than "a clerk's job." " Anv bov could do this," he said. " I'm i::oini/ home." Do you remember how nearly Spain lost the glorv and honor oi placing Columbus on his feet, when he wished to make that w(^nderful vovage to the West? Vou have read of it in the story oi Columbus, of course. In the same wav, the State of Illinois came verv near to losini: the honor and ^lorv of Grant's services. As Columbus thought of offerinir his services to France because Spain rejected him, so Grant was on the point of offering his services to Ohio because Illinois refuseel them. In t'act. a commission as colonel of the Twelfth Ohio rec'iment was already on its way to him — though he did not know it — w hen there came a tele'-rani from the i^ov- ernor of Illinois asking if he would accept the command of the Twenty-first Illinois re MV I IK>.I MAKiHINt; IN A KRI' . . ,' u;. command was orderecl to a threatened point near the town of Palmvra in Missouri. It did not pro\-e a field of battle, howex'cr. for the cnemv retired before Grant reached Palnnra. The colonel's sensa- tions however are worth recording-, as he has put them d(M\-n. For. he tells us in his " Memoirs," that as he ii8 HOW HE HEARD THE CALL TO DUTY. approached Palmyra he was anxious, rather than fearless or frightened. It was because of his responsibility as the leader of men ; not because of any lack of courage. He had never before been in a position of command and, he says: " If some one else had been colonel and I had been lieu- tenant-colonel I do not think I would have felt any trepidation." You see how slowly he developed into a real leader. The best soldier is not always the boasting, reckless leader ; he mineles caution with couraq-e, and his anxietv is often ereater than his ambition. But Colonel Grant's men never knew his feelings. They knew him to be a leader they could trust and follow, and he handled them well. They marched en to a village called Florida ; but the confederates had fled before them, and finally Colonel Grant was ordered to join General Pope who was stationed in the town of Mexico, in Missouri. When he reached there he was given command of the district, with three recriments and a section of artillerv. He found the men of his new command lacking in discipline and the people complaining of their actions. Colonel Grant changed all this at once. His own regiment was what is called an "object-lesson" in soldiering. lie niade soldiers out of the men ; he protected the people ; he kept the dis- trict o\-er which he h;ul been placed in command, orderly, ([uiet and peaceful. One dav the news came t(^ him lliat he had been made a I/Oir HE HEARD THE CALL JO DUTY. 119 brigadier-gcncral. This was a great surprise for him. But it shows that cjuiet, careful and deteniiined work pays. You see, the president had asked the Illinois Conj^'^ress- men to recommend a few ^^ood Illinois officers for promotion to the post of brii^adier-general. Colonel Grant scarcely knew the Com^ressmen from his state, ])ut thev had heard good reports of his abilit\- and discipline and what he had done with the men over whom he was placed in command. So, on the list of seven names proposed by them to the president as brigadiers, the name of Ulysses S. Grant led all the rest, and at once he was ordered to take command of an important district in Missouri, with headquarters at the town of I ronton. The day of return f(^r patient waiting had dawned for him ; and his readiness to respond to the call of dut\" and to do his best in whatever position he was placed, l)ut to sav what that position should l.)e, hatl already found its result in his call to go up higher, even before he had been tried in the heat and fire of battle. 120 HOW THE GENERAL UNLOOSED THE M/SSISSLFFL A CHAPTER VII. HOW THE GENERAL UNLOOSED THE MLSSLSSIPPL S brig'adier-g"eneral, Grant was sent to take charg"e of a larij-e district coverini-' all the countrv south of St. Louis and all of southern Illinois. This was on the border-land between the North and the South. It was full of rebels and half-rebels — and those who were half-rebels were much harder to deal with than the out-and-out rebels. It is always so, you know; an open eneniv is better than a secret foe. General Grant made his headquarters at Cairo, at the extreme southern tip end of Illinois. One of the first thing^s he determined to do was to give the " half-rebels '" a lesson, by seizing the city of Paducah on the Kentucky side of the Ohio ri\er, f()rty miles or so east o{ Cairo. Kentucky had nut yet joined the Confederacw but was trvinu' to remain neutral, as it is called — that is. favorimj neither the one side nor the other. This is not an easy thing to do when opposing armies are marching from either side. As the Confederate troops already occupied two t(n\ns in the state. General Grant believed that the Union forces should have a ^rood footin^j thiTc, also. iioir Tin-: (;exerai. i'moosed the .\nssrssirri. i.m So he sailctl down the rix'cr to Padiicah with his soldiers and occiipi(Ml the t(n\n, and though the " neutrals " were very indis/nant. the I'nion forces had secured a footini- in Kentucky. B\' this time he had a well drilled arnn' in eani]) at Cairo. These soldiers had enlisted to fight and the\- were tired of bein^' idle. So was Grant; and, at last, takinj^ three thousand men with him. he started to break up a camp of Confederates at a place called Belmont, on the Mississippi river, twenty or thirty miles south of Cairo. Directh' opposite Belmont in the town of Columbus a large Confederate force was stationed, and when drant had surprised the camp at Belmont these troops began coming across the ri\'er to help their comrades. A fierce fi^ht followed. The Confederates were driven into their camp. Grant had his horse shot under him, l)ut he kept his men moving, and at last the Confederates turned and hastily fled from their camp to the ri\er. It was a Union \ictorv. It was Grant's first battle in the Ci\-il War and the first that his soldiers had fought. When the bovs in ])lue found they hatl really won a battle they were so overjoyed that, as the saying is, they com- pletely lost their head>. The)' rushed about the captured camps firing guns, making speeches and "carrying on" until Grant, to bring them to their senses, set the camp on fire. While this was going on, the Cc^nfederates on the river bank had been reinforced by uK^re troops from across the 122 HO IV THE GENERAL UNLOOSED THE MLSSLSSIJ'PL river. They turned, spread out their lines and s\\-oopino- down on the Union troops fairly surrounded them. At this, Grant's officers and soldiers were greatly alarmed. They supposed, of course, that they were captured. GUANr AT BELMONT. •• IVi cut our 'way in ; xuc've i;ot to cut cur way out."' "What shall we do?^" they said to him. "We are surrounded." "Well," said Grant coolly, "We cut our way in. we've got to cut our wa\- out." And they did. Under tluir general's lead they pushed down to the river conwying :ill their wounded men with them and, under a heav\- fire got o\\ board the steamers and were S(M)n on their wa\' hack to Cairo, \-ietors in their first /row Jiff- i;exf.ral lnloosed y///-; M/ss/ssirri. .23 battle, th(Tiii;li 1)\' a ww n:uT(n\- chance. But that chance, \()u sec, was l)ecause' they had a cool-headed leader. Idle battle of lalinont destro\-ed the rebel plans, broke up their camp, saved the Union posts from attack and, above all. so inspired the men engaged in the fight that, as ( irn- eral drant himself declares. " they aecpiired a confidence in themselves that ditl not desert them throu'-h the war."' The battle of Belmont was fought on November 7th, 1 861. It was the hrst step toward breaking into the Con- federate lines. At once, (icneral (jrant decided to make a still greater step and clear the Confederates awav from the two forts thev had built on the Tennessee and Cumberland I\i\'ers. in Stewart County, northern lY'nnessee, just where the jog comes that you can find on your map of Tennessee. If he could capture those two forts he could keep the Confederates from the control of a fertile section of country from w hich they drew their supplies. It was some time be- fore he could get permission from his superior officers to make the attack. Thev thouijht it too riskv. But when, at last. the\' told him he miijht tr\- to take Fort Henry, he did not waste a moment. With se\enteen thousand men. and seven gunl)oats to help him. he mo\'ed at once on B^ort Henry <^n the Tennessee. On the fifth of Feb- ruarv he was before it. But the officer in chanre felt that he could not resist an attack ami. lea\'inir but a small (jarrison. he sent his other men, almost without a fight, across country to Fort Donelson, eleven miles away. Then he surrendered 124 !^0W THE GENERAL UNLOOSED 'HIE MI SSI SSI PPL Fort Henry, and Grant, taking command, sent word to his superior officer that he had captured Fort Menry and would take Fort Donelson in a very few days. This ahnost took his commanding officer's breath away. The authorities were not used to such quick work. Fort Donelson was a large and strongly-built circle of earth- works, perched a hundred feet above the Cumberland river and protecting all that region. Its capture was considered impossible. So General Halleck, who was Grant's superior, sent word to him to " hold Fort Henry at all hazards," and sent him also pickaxes and shovels so that he could strengthen the fortifications. But Grant had other plans, and as he was not ordered not to take Fort Donelson, he set out to do it. He knew both the Confederate generals in command at Fort Donelson. He had served with one of them in the Mexican war; he knew all about the other, too, and he felt certain that he knew what thcv would do — or would not do. So, at once, with fifteen thousand men, he marched ajjainst Fort Donelson and confronted an armv of twentv-one thousand men, protected by strong fortifications. With the gunboats on the river helping him, he set about his work. At first, the i/unboats made an attack from the ri\cr; but the ix- 126 HO IV THE GENERAL UNLOOSED THE MISSISSIPPL teenth day of February, 1862, Fort Donelson with seventeen thousand men surrendered to General Grant. " General," said Buckner to Grant, after the surrender, " if I had been in command, you would not have got up to Donelson as easily as you did." " General," said Grant to Buckner, " if you had been in command, I should not have tried the way I did." Which shows, does it not, what an advantage it was for Grant to have served in the Mexican war? He knew the characters of the men he was marching against. The whole North was delighted at the fall of Fort Don- elson. " Who is this man Grant ? " they began to ask, and catching sight of his initials — U. S. — they called him, from his famous letter to Buckner, " Unconditional Sur- render Grant.' As for him, he at once advocated another advance. He had broken into the rebel lines at Belmont. He had cleared the rivers bv the capture of Forts Henry and Donelson. Now he wished to go a step further and attack the Confed- erate base of railroad communication at Corinth in north- ern Mississippi. If he succeeded in this, he would break throuuh their second line of defense. His armv was to be reinforced, and were to gather at Pittsburi:' Landini'- on the Tennessee River, twentv-two miles from Corinth. Here he was encamped when Albert Sidney Johnston, the Confederate general and a gallant leader, deter- mined, like Grant, not to wait to be attacked, but to attack. V now THE (iEXEKAI. rXI.OOSED THE Af/SS/SS //'/'/. i-j So, on the sixth of April, with an army of forty thousand men he fell upon (irant's force of twenty-five thousand, strik- ing' it at Shiloh church three miles from Pittsburg;- Land- ing. There a terrible battle was fought. It was as Grant savs •' acase of southern dash against northern endurance.** The battle lasted through two days and its story proves the truth oi Grant's words. The first day"s fight was favor- able to the Confederates. Again and again they threw themselves upon the Union lines, which being made up in manv cases of new men — "raw recruits" — staggered, broke and gave away. But they reformed again speedily, for their leaders were such fine soldiers as Generals Sherman, McClernand. Wallace and McCook. Through the entire dav, from eight o'clock until sunset the Union troops of 25.000 men held at bay the Confederate army of 40.000, well 5/cneraled and determined to win. Before nis^ht came General Buell with nearlv 20.000 more men. To him the situation looked desperate and he said to Grant. " General, what preparation have you made for retreating .■" And Grant replied confidently, " Why, I haven't given up the hope of whipping them, yet." It was almost like the answer of the famous John Paul Jones, the plucky sea captain in the American Revolution, who. when called upon to surrender, shouted back, " I haven't yet begun to fight." As Grant looked over the field at night, rain-soaked, 13° HOW THE GENERAL UNLOOSED THE M/SS/SS/TTL blood-sprinkled, disadvantageous, with an enemy sleeping in his captured tents, confident of \'ictory, when all but he expected defeat on the morrow, he studied over the situation and said, " We shall win to-morrow. Begin the fight as soon as you can see, and we shall report a victory." grant's charge at shii.oh. /•>■(>/// (i/i oLi 'u'iir-thnc print. It was as he said. The second day's fight was favorable from the start. All day the Confederates were driven back, back, back, fighting for every inch of ground. At three in the afternoon Grant himself led two regiments in a charge; the Confederates broke and ran and the battle of Shiloh ended in a victory for the Union. It was a victorv only because of General Grant's tenacity J/Oir TJ/J-: GEXKRAL LXLOOSKJ) 'J J//: A//SS/SS //'/'/. i ^, i — that is, his (UtcrniinaticMi to stick to a thini^^ until he had succeeded — never to acknowlcds/e defeat until he was actu- all)- whipped otY the held. The victory, as Grant verv properly says, "was not to either party until the battle was over." And when it was over the Union soldiers were the victors. The leader ot" the Confederates, (icneral Albert Sidnev lohnston, was killed; the rebels, though daring- and enthusiastic lighters, were worn out ; " it is possible," says Cieneral Grant in his account of the battle, " that the south- ern man started in with a little more dash than his northern brother; but he was correspondingly less enduring." Shiloh was the \'ictory of endurance and the Union soldiers learned a lesson in this line from their determined and silent freneral. So the second line of the Confederate defence was broken and Grant pushed onward for a third move. This was nothing' less than to divide the Confederacv east and west bv starting' at its main centre of communication, the citv of \'icksburg on the Mississippi. If that were captured the Mississippi would be freed and the Confederacv cut off from it> western base. It was not set about at once. It was over a )-ear before Grant accomplished his purpose. In spite of his successes thus far in the war, jcahnis)', calumn\' and lack of appreci- ation barred his way. (^rant was of slow development, as his story shows, but he had wonderful patience, wonderful persistence and wonderful push — three p's that helj) to make a i^reat commander. 132 HOW THE GENERAL UXLOOSED THE MISSISSIPPL Because of his victory at Fort Donelson he was made major g-eneral of volunteers — and then he was set aside tor another officer, only to be speedily reinstated in his command ; after Shiloh he was found fault with and almost arrested, onlv to be given full command again, entrusted with a larger territory and made general in command of the department of the Tennessee. Step by step he worked toward his objec- tive point. Battles were fought, advances made, territory occupied, and, finally, with twenty-five thousand men under his command and a clear field before him he moved against Vicksburg, called from its importance and its strength " the Gibraltar of the ^Mississippi." The Confederacy awoke to its danger and tried to stop him. l>ut it was of no use. Grant could not be stopped. His risk was great. On one side, behind its entrench- ments, garrisoning the town, was Pemberton's army, fully as lare'e a force as his own ; on the other side, marching toward him with the hope to reinforce or relieve X'icksburg, was Joseph \l. Johnston's army, many thousands strong. But Grant ne\er faltered. With Sherman and McPherson as his trusted assistants, he swung round upon the advancing enemy and, at the same time, kept a bold front toward the entrenched foe. Me swept around with a resistless rush. Pemberton was driven back into the \'icksburg trenches; Johnston was defeated in three desperate battles. Within twenty days Grant, in five separate battles, beat two armies (who united, might have destroyed him.) seized Jackson, the capi- MAJoR-GKNERAI. IT. S. GRANT. Frffni an old-time VMir-print f()nuihin-. if dc-fcatcd in one atlcnint trvinLf it a'j'ain next (lay; inakin- the enemy defend himself and not defend- in!^- himself from the enemy; fearless, thoip^h a hater of blood; confident of victory even in the darkest hour; picking " I SHALL Fir.HT IT OUT ON THIS LINK IF ir TAKKS ALL SUMMER." (From an old ivar-time picture.) the best men as his helpers and sticking to them until they achieved success — this was (^^rant in \^irfnnia. " Direct as a thunderbolt, tenacious as a Ijull-dog." as someone said of him. he fought straight on, ne\-er halting in iiis opinion nor waverin;/ in his actions. " I -shall fight it out on this line if it takes all summer," 148 now BE BOUGHT IT OUT. he wrote in a letter to the government from the terrible bat- tlefield of Spottsylvania. That announcement thrilled the North ; it gave soldiers and people confidence ; and the weary president at Washington with a great sigh of relief knew that at last he had a general at the head of his armies upon whom he could rely to the end. In just thirteen months after the president had handed to General Grant at the A\'hite House his commission as head of the army the end came. Sherman had made a path for his army through Georgia and marching to the sea had cut the Confederacv in two; Sheridan, at the head of a won- derful body of cavalry had ridden around Lees entire army and kept it from running away and from getting any more supplies of food or ammunition ; Thomas, at Xash\ilU:, held back the western armies of the Confederacy and defeated them so that they could not go to the aid of Lee ; Meade, the hero of Gettvsl^ur^'', marchinc: as Grant's ri-'ht hand man at the head of the army of the Potomac, executed all the orders of his chief with determination, precision and despatch ; and, at the centre of all stood Grant — firm, un\ielding, aggressive, imperative; saying a thing and doing it, too; striking, striking, striking — until, at last, in the apple orchard at Appomattox the last stand was made, the last siwx\ fired, the white flaf>' fluttered out and Lee, serene even in defeat, in tlie little McLean f.irmhouse met the triumphant general of the I'nion and .surrendered himself and his entire armv ])ris()ners of w ar. y.'l- f^rt'- ! r.iHk l.ffilf' s i '>.■■>.■■■ /'.••.'^. TIIK NINTH OF APRII.. 1S65. 7'Af meetiii;^ of Lee ami Grant. //ow HF. rare/// ir oi i. 151 (icncral C.ranl trils us that he had a dreadful sick head- ache when Lee's note was handed him a>i<:ing tor an inter- \ie\\ to discuss teiins ot surrender. "The instant I saw the contents of that note I was cured." he said; and no wonder, was it .■' Dressed sinipK', in a soldier's blouse, without a sword, his general's shoulder straps the only mark of his rank, General (irant met Crenc-ral Lee in McLean's farmhouse and arranged the terms of surrender. Do you know what those terms were? Before Grant's day a surrender meant a disgrace, a punishment or a terror. Leaders in rebellion were imprisoned, hung or shot; sol- diers were penned up like criminals, homes devastated, lands laid waste. Surrender meant savagery. Now it meant release, relief, friendship. Read what Grant wrote to General Lee at Appomattox Court- House, Virginia, on the ninth of April, 1S63. " In accordance with the substance of w\\ letter to you of the 8th instant. I propose to receive the surrender of the Army of Northern X'irginia. on the following terms, to wit : " Rolls of all the ohicers and men to be made in duplicate, one copy to be given to an otticer designated by me, the other to be detained by such officers as you may designate. "The officers to gi\e their individual paroles not to take arms against the United States until properly exchanged, and each comi^inv or regimental commander to sign a like parole for the men of tht ii- cummancis. 1^2 HOW HE FOLGHT rr OUT. "The arms, artillery^ and public property to be parked and stacked, and Uirned over to the officers appointed by me to receive them. This will not embrace the side-arms of the officers, nor their private horses or baggage. "This done, each officer and man will be allowed to return to their homes, not to be disturbed by United States authoritv so \ox\remacv of the Union and the Constitution, o\'erllirown all armed opposition to the enforcement of the laws, and of the proclamations forever abolishing slaver\' (the cause and pretext (^f the re- bellion), and opened the wa\- to the rightful authorities to JJOW IlK J-OL(;j/J' /J' UC'J. ,-- restore order, and inaii!^ urate peace on a permanent and cn- durini^' basis on t\'(i\- toot ol American soil. "\'our maiH Ins. .sici^es, and hattles, in distance, dnralion. resolution and hrillianc)- of results, dim the lustre of the worhl's past militar\- achievements, and will Ik- the patriot's precctlenl in defence ()\ libert\- and rii^ht in all time to come. " In obedience to \'our countrx's call. \'ou left xour homc-s and tamilies, and \'olimtecred in its defence. \^ictorv has crowned \our\'alor and secured the purpose of your patriotic hearts ; and with the gratitude of your countrymen, and the hi<'hest honors a Qfreat and free nation can accord, vou will soon be permitted to return to your homes and families, con- scious of having discharged the highest dutv of American citizens. " To achieve the glorious triumphs, and secure to vour- selves, voiir fellow-countr\-mcn and posterit\* the blessings of free institutions, tens of thousands of vour L-allant com- radcs have fallen and sealed the priceless legac}- with their lives. The graves n\ these a grateful nation bedews with tears, honors their memories, and will e\'er cherish ami sup- port their stricken families." And thus endetl the long and terrible war that had made the tanner's son the greatest soldier of the century. 156 now J HE KEPUJiLIC GAl'E ITS lERDICT. CHAP IK R IX. HOW nil-: RKi ui;i.iL caxi: its verdict. TIIM war was over, and U. S. (/rant was the hero of the hour. How^ well I remember the popidar enthusiasm that greeted the hero of Donelson and \'icksljurg' and Appo- mattox when he came North. I was a how then and a hero- worshipper — all boys and girls are, if they have an\' heart and life and love in them. I raced all the way up I)roadway beside his carriage, to the old building of the I'nion League Club wdiere the general was to have a reception, and only my lack of assurance and a sufficient numl)er of years kept me out of the club-house, itself. And w-hen the short, stoop- ing, brown-bearded, quiet-faced man came out on the balcony and bowed to the crowd, oh! how we did cheer. Those were great days for boys in New \'ork. The victorious ireneral bore his honors modestlw \'ou do not need to be told that, lie was ne\'er a man to seek publicity or notoriety. "I don't like this show business," he used to say. when dra!j''"ed forward to be " exhil)ite(l." After the surrender of Lee, Crant's first thought was to hasten i1k' disbandnient of the sjreat armies of the Union; his second was to lielp the repLd)lic ol Mexico. //i)ir in I: jleon lib. had, by force of arms and "CRANT WAS THE lltRU OF THE HOUR." contrary to the will of the people, established an empire in Mexico. The United States, years before, had pledged itself not to let Europe interfere in the affairs of America. This is called 158 HOW THE REPUBLIC GAVE ITS VERDICT. the " Monroe Doctrine," because it was given to the world by President James Monroe — the man who was president of the United States when Grant was born. This interference in the affairs of Mexico by the Em- peror of the French was done in an unfriendly spirit to the United States and at a time when, in the midst of a great civil war, it was especially mean and cowardly. But that was just like Napoleon III., Emperor of the French. As soon as our war was over and his hands were free, General Grant induced the United States government to show the French Emperor that a sister republic was not to be thus overawed or enslaved without a protest. So, at his suggestion, General Phil Sheridan, the greatest cavalry gen- eral of the United States, was sent to the southwest and, with sixty thousand troops was placed upon the Texan border as a strong hint to Napoleon that the French soldiers were apt to get themselves into trouble if they staid much longer in Mexico. Napoleon had made one of his tools, the Austrian prince, Maximilian, Emperor of Mexico. But when the Emperor of the French saw how the- United States felt in the matter and knew that his soldiers might have to face in fight such a ""cneral as Grant and such troops as Sheridan's sixt\' thou- sand veterans, he, as the old saying has it. " deemed dis- cretion the better part of valor." So he called home to France all his soldiers, and left poor Maximilian \o fight his j/oir rnr. RF.rrnric a.ii/- jjs ij-ajulj. '59 own battles — which he was, of course, not able to do, because the people ol Mexico were oppcjsed tt) him. So Maximilian's i^rand " Iimpire of Mexico" fell; the poor prince was shot and Mexico, once ai^ain. was a tree re- public — and larL;ely because of Grant's determined actions. GRANr ANI> HIS FAMILY. From an old photografh, issueu at the close of the war. The sad death of Abraham Lincoln made Andrew John- son, president of the United States. lie was in everv respect the exact opposite of the great and orood Lincoln. The result was that T^- r c as .1 i^^ g\ kV 4 ^ J/Oir JJ/K KKJ'LJil.JC (;aVE its IKRDJCT. "^3 General Grant, Seeretary of War ad iJitcyiw — that is, until a new seeretary should he rc-ularly nominated by the jjresi- tleni and a[)|)ro\ed I))' ConL;Tess. General Grant therefore served as Seeretary of War. and durini^- the months in whieh he oeeupied that high and important ofliee he performed its duties accejjtably and well. lUit when ('ongress met again, in January. 1868, the Sen- ate refused to agree to the president's turning Stanton out ot oftiee and he beeame Secretary of War once more. Grant had filled the office of Secretary of War, not because he wished to but because the president had ordered him to ; and he recognized the president, as I have told you, as his superior officer. But when President Johnson told General Grant not to obey Stanton, after the great secretary's return t(j the war office, Grant told the president that he could only obey his orders when put in writing. "You said you would," said the president. "You prom- ised to do what I asked vou." "I did not," Grant replied. " I simply said I would obey vour orders as mv commandinsj" officer." The president began to say spiteful things about Grant, but the great soldier would not be drawn into a cpiarrel. " Mr. President." he said " I w ill do only m\- duty. I recrard this whole matter, from be<'innin/c7: ^(>s hi> position as General of the Army. 'Vn tlii^ po^itioFi, cre- ated especiall}' lor him ami held In' no other man since CieorLie Washington's da\-, he had Ix-rn adxanced bv Con- ^ress on July 25, i86(). It was a life position and i^^ave him a salar\' of twenty-two thousand dollars a )ear. W'a.-^ not that a !7r(\it chan-'C from the (la\'s — not seven \-ears before — when lu' had walked the streets of St. l.ouis, poor, unrec- ognized, almost unknown, hunting for work? He knew" \\hat the presidenc\- meant — criticism, worries, troubles, hard work, misunderstandings, enemies, for four years; and then, perhaps, nothing to do. But (irant was a soldier; he was accustomed to obev orders; in a republic the people rule; they are the masters; to their will obedience is due, and it was because he felt in this \\ a\'. because he was true and lo\al and <'rand and '-reat that V . S. (irant put aside his own desires, sunk his own preferences and said, " If the people select me as president I must ser\'e." As one writer has said ot this decision, " It w as the final sacrifice of a patriot. ' So. when thev came to tell him that he was nominated for the presidenev he did nc^t say he could not accept the nomination, that he was not a tit man for it, that he was afraid t(^ assume the responsibilities of the position. He met the order like a soldier; and. like a soldier, accepted it. "Gentlemen." he said, in the short speech replying to the announcement of his noniination, " being entirely unac- customed to public speaking, and without the desire to cul- i66 HO IV THE REPUBLIC GAVE ITS VERDICT. ti\-ate the power, it is impossible tor me to find appropriate laniruaire to thank vou for this demonstration. All that I can say is, that to whatever position I may be called by your will, I shall endeavor to dischari^^e its duties with fidelity and honestv of purpose. ( )f mv rectitude in the perform- ance of public duties you will ha\'e to judge for yourselves by the record before you." Then he sat down and wrote to the committee of the convention who notified him of his nomination a letter of acceptance which is now one of the famous letters of the world, for in it occurred these words. " If elected to the office of President of the United States," he wrote, " it will be my endeavor to administer all the laws in good faith, with economy, and with the \iew ot giving peace, quiet and protection everywhere. In times like the present, it is impossible, or at least eminently improper, to lay down a policy to be adhered to, right or wron;^, throuirh an administration of four vears. New^ political issues, not foreseen, are constantly arising; the views of the public on old ones are constantly changing, and a j)urely administrative ofticer should be left tree to execute the will of the people. I always have respected that will, and alwa\s shall. Peace, and unixersal prosperity — its sequence — with economy of administration, will lighten the burden of taxation, while it constantly reduces the national debt. Let us ha\e peace." "Let us ha\'e j)cace" — those were great words. They j/oir Tin-: Rmiujc a.iiE ris i'f.ki'jli. 167 fitted tlu- nrcds and spiiii of the lime lu-ttcr than a volume (.)! explanations oi' a (loud ul eloquence. And the people applauded tluin and adopted them as their sentiment and desire. .Vs Geneicd Grant had made no exertion to secure his nomination, so, to(\ he made no mo\"c toward helpinc^'' for- ward his election to the presidency. This was not a war campaiij;'n. In that he always led; that mo\-ed according" to his directions. In the presidential campaign the people were to lead. He was in their hands. If the nation wished him for its chief ruler, the nation must elect him. lie would give no help, All of which shows, as I told you in an earlier chapter, that Grant was no politician. He was a soldier, calmh' awaitinij' the call to dutv. It came. The National election, in November, 1.S68, resulted in the republic's verdict to its greatest soldier: Go up higher! And by an electoral vote of two hundred and fourteen (nit of three hundred and se\'enteen — twent\'-six states out of thirty-four, Ulysses S. Grant was elected Presi- dent of the United States. Standing upon a platform built for the occasion against the splendid east front of the great white capitol at Wash- ington, on Thursday, the fourth of March, 1.869, with a great cheerimj' thronsj' before him. with senators and sjenerals and high officials about him and, beside him, those who were dearest to him — his wife and children — General Grant took the oath oi oftice to faithfulK' administer the duties ol his i68 NO IV mi': KEPI B Lie GAVE IIS VERDICT. office duriiiL^' his term as president. Then the i^uns boomed a salute ; the steam whistles shrilled out their applause; the the bands played ; the people cheered; and that all meant the old-time hail: " Lom^ live Ulvsses S. Grant, President of the United States!" Then, when things became quiet, President Grant read his inaugural address. It was short — only about a thou- sand words. P)Ut it expressed a firm determination to do his duty and serve the nation, as president, as loyally as he had served it as general. " I have,"' he said, " in conformity with the Constitution of our country, taken the oath of office prescribed therein. I have taken this oath without mental reservation, and with a determination to do, to the best of my ability, all that it requires of me. "The responsibilities of the position 1 feel, but accept them without fear. The office has come to me unsou^'ht; I commence its duties untrammelled. 1 brin^' to it a con- scious desire and determination to fill it, to the best of my ability, to the satisfaction of the people. On all leading questions agitating the pu.l)lie mind I will always express my views to Congress, and urge them according to m\' judg- ment, and when 1 think it ad\'isal)le. will exercise the C(Misti- tutional privilege of interpc^sing a veto to defeat measures which I oppose. lUit all laws will be faithfully executed, whether the\' meet mv approval or not. "I shall, on all subjects, have a policy to recommend; now THE A'/-:/'f/;//r en/- jjs if.kdict. 169 none to ciiforrt: a;^ainsL tin- will (»t the people. Laws arc to govern all alike — those opposed to as well as those in ta\'or (^^{ thein. 1 know no method to secure the repeal of bad or obnoxious laws so effectual as their strict execution." As he read, his little daughter Nellie, then just in her "teens," stood beside her fatlnM". holding his hand, until someone jjlaced a chair for her, so that she mi<'ht sit near " her papa the president." And after it was o\'er, suri'ounded b\' a threat and cheering' crowd, the new presi- dent drove to his new ■ home in the nation's capital — the splendid W'hite House. His work there as })resi(lcnt was (juite dif- ferent troui what he had ever been used t(^ as a soldier; and yet. very naturally, he brou''ht into it, the same traits that had made him a ureat and success! ul soldier. As he chose his own lieutenants and heljiers in the arm\-, so he wished to select them as president. He asked no '^"i^T AT TIIK INAUlIURATlO.N. Ntllie Grant and her father. I70 HOW THE REP LB Lie GAVE JTS VERDICT. one's advice, took no one into his confidence, but went his way as would a leader of an arnu' planning a campaign of which he alone was the director and head. People began to talk — that is, the politicians did. They had always been accustomed to havin^r their advice asked, or to ha\'ing the opportunity to suggest some one t]ie\' knew for office or appointment. But Grant went on his solitary wav. He made up his first cabinet — his circle of ach'isers and helpers, \-ou know — to suit himself and not to please the politicians. Then they — the politicians — began to grumble. They called Grant hard names — the dictator, the man on horseback and other thini^s. But the soldier-president paid no attention to their criticism. He thought he knew what was wanted. He selected his cabinet almost without consultation ; every one was surprised at his selections; even those selected had to be argued with to accept, and when one or two were fountl "not eligible" — that is, not permitted by the laws of the land, to fill the position offered them — no one was more sur- prised or disappointed than President Grant. Then he understood that a president and a general were quite tliffer- ent. But, all the same, it was a good (-a])inet. and his administration was a success, notw ithstanding all he had to learn and unlearn. It was during his first adminisli-alioii (hat llie eil\- ot Washington was re-made. From a mud-hole it became a j/oir nil: Kin rj.jc (;.i\r rrs i /rp/ct. 171 metropolis ; frcMii a sha1)l)\ coiuitrv villaj^c it became a city of !^r()\ rs ami bowers, of boulevards and palaces, of beauty and impoilaiue, so that it is, to-da\', the most attra(ti\'e of (•ai)itals, the finest winter city in the world, the shr)w town of ^r^^is'L- -L^li-, THE NEW WASHINGTON AS GRANT MADE IT. America. And this was lar^-elv due to the foresight and plannini.^^ of U. S. Grant. But greater than material crrowth — than the picturesque deveh^pment of j^ranite and tar and sewer and drain pipes and brick and morter. wa>; the ^reat stride toward peace made bv the Republic's greatest soldier. 172 HOW TIIK REFUBJJC GAVE ITS lERDICT. There w as serious trouble with Great Britain. England had n(jt used us well during the great civil war. From her ports had sailed rebel war-ships to destroy our merchant vessels and drive our commerce from the sea. Of course our government objected and said England had hurt us. And, after the war was over, the United States government demanded satisfaction from Great Britain. This was refused. There was grumbling and quarrelling on both sides of the sea ; there was even talk of war. President Johnson had sadly bungled ; President Grant took things in hand. He clearly saw the right and wrong of the whole matter; he refused to acknowledge the justice of England's position ; he formed his plan for settlement as wisely and as directly as he did his plans for battle. He made the United States responsible for all demands upon Great Britain so that private claims might be counted out and the trouble brought down simph' between the two governments, dhcn he demanded from Great Britain jus- tice — that w as all. Our mother-country and old-time enemy objected ; she twisted and turned ; Ijut she did not wish war. Finally Great I'ritain vielded a point in the dispute. Then Grant ])ushed on another — just as he had " inched on '" towards Vickslnii"'' and Richmoml. At last, a commission (^\ fu'e Americans and five En- glishmen was appointed to talk o\'er llu' matter. That was (Grant's first gieal \ictory. It decided that the United no IV TJIK Rl.rCliLlC GAVE ITS VERDICT. '73 States was rii;hl in inakiiiL;" its complaints, and a treaty was si^^ncil the eii;luh ol May 1^71, called the liealy of W'a.^h- in"ton w hich ''a\e satisfaction to the United States. Then the main cjuestion of whether Great P^ritain was responsible for the damai^e done by rebel warships fitted out in I''n*dish i)orts was submitted for decision — we call it ^^. •■^•/. ,^»-r-.. ^.- */ -...'!^ -isi:'" THE CI IV OF GENKVA IN SWITZERLAND WHERE THE COl'KT OK ARBITRATION MET. arbitration, now — to a court made up of five picked men from the United States, Great Britain. Italy, Switzerland and Ih'azil. This court of arbitration met at Geneva in Switzerland and in September 1872. after lon;^^ discussions, decided that Great Britain was in the wron- and must pay to the United 174 HOW THE TAXNER'S SOX SERVED 7 HE SECOXD TIME. States over fifteen millions of dollars to make good the damaije she had done. This was Grant's second great victory. It was peace instead of war ; honorable settlement instead of blood and blows as in the old days. " I shall never fire another gun in anger," said U. S. Grant, and to his unchanging desire and invincible will came this great and notable victory of peace with honor — to both sides. CHAPTER X. HOW THE tanner's SON SERVED THE SECOND TIME. A "\ TAS there ever a girl or boy who did not say to his or * * her playmate " I am mad at you " or " I won't play with you ?" Very few, I suspect. It is not a good state of mind to be in, or a nice thin*'' to sa\' — but it's the wa\' of the world, and. as some old poet has said, " the child is father to the man." That means, of course, that what children do, grown folks sometimes do, as \\ell. The\' get " mad " and call names just as they did wlun tlu\' were boys. And some- times it is old friends w h(^ do this. Idiough the people liked and lionorcd Grant, the politi- now Tin-. TAXXER'S SOX SEKl'IiD THE SECOXD 77.\rE. 17; cians did not. Kvcii sonic statesmen, who ou;^ht to have been l)roader-niinded and clearer-siglited than politicians, did not like •' (i rant's way." They said he was runninj^- the office to suit himself; that he wanted to have all the say and become a t\rant or a dictator; that he was not re-un- itin*'- the North and South in the ri'-ht way: that he was only looking- (^ut for his own friends in the government; that he was trvin<'- to make the party in power like a ijreat machine in which he hehl the lever. They said — well, in fact they said about ever\'thin;^ that was disagreeable, either because they were " mad." like foolish boys and girls, or because they thou''ht they knew better themselves how to do things, or because thev were on the other side in politics and felt bound to find fault with the side in power, or becau>e they CHARLKS SUMNER. A statesman w>io did not ltk( " Grant's 'vay* 176 HOW THE TANNER'S SON SERVED THE SECOND TIME. honestly felt that the way things were being done w^ere not for the good of the country. It takes all kinds to make up the world, you know. But Grant went on in his own direct way. He felt that he was doing the best for the country, and. when he believed that, nothing could move him. He had certain simple views about " running the gov- ernment." He wished to put into office men who were friendly to him and who would carry out his itleas ; he wished to make the republic strong at home and abroad ; he wished it to be honest in money matters and to keep all the promises it had made when it had to borrow great sums of money to pay for carrying on the war. As a result, he had done many excellent things as president. He had made mistakes, perhaps ; every one makes some mistakes, vou know; but see what he had accomplished as president of the United States durini^ the four vears he had held the office. He had paid a great slice of the public debt — that was the money borrowed by the republic to carry on the war; he had lowered the taxes — the money that each man has to pay towards carrying on the government; lie had tried to put only honest and good men into office and to cut down the running expenses — that is what we call "honesty and econonn- in the public service;" he had been so strong and sure a captain, w ith his hand on the rudder o{ the ship o{ state, that business had improved and the people, at home and abroad, had confidence that llie great American l\ej)ublic HOW THE TA.WI-.R'S SO.V SEKVI-.D TlfE SECOM) JJME. x-j-r 1 1 would keep all its promises, pay all its debts, recover from all the harm done 1)\' those terrible )ears of war and become greater, stroni^er, richer and more powerful than ever. So, you sec, the people believed in Orant ; and when his first four )'ears as president were nearly over, even though the other party wished a change — just because it was the other party, you know, and though the discontented ones in his own party growled and grumbled and wished a change, also, the people of the republic in great num- bers said, " Let us ha\'e Grant again for president. He is a safe man and the best man.' So, at the National Republican Convention which met at Philadelphia on the fifth of June 1S72. U. S. Grant was unanimously nomi- nated as the candidate of the party for president oi the I'nited States for a second term. HmKaCE GRKKI.F.Y. Grant's c/ti^f critic in his second c,]tnfai:^'^n and his oppantnt for the fresiiieiicy. 1 78 HO IV THE TANNER'S SON SERVED THE SECOND TIME. Of course he was re-elected. Although the " mad," the discontented, the dissatisfied, the jealous, the angrily-critical and the honestly-critical men in his own party joined with the hostile men in the other party, their efforts failed and Grant was re-elected president by a vote of two hundred and eighty-six out of three hundred and forty-nine electoral votes and by a popular majority of nearly eight hundred thousand. It was a cold, bleak, raw and wintrv dav when he stood up to deliver his second inaugural. But he stood before the people stalwart, determined, but modest and unassuming, as if to show the people that he knew his duty to be the repub- lic's need, and to do it however the wind of opposition might blow or the cold of criticism cut and sting. He knew that he was right; and, standing there, he said, sorrowfully but feelingly : " From my candidacy for my present office in i86S, to the close of the last presidential campaign, I have been the subject of abuse and slander, scarcely ever equalled in political history. This, to-dav, I feel I can afford to disregard, in view of your verdict, which I gratefully accept as my vindication." So he took the oath of office the second time ; acfain the drums beat, the guns boomed and the people cheered; and again Ulysses S. Grant, the tanner's son. entered the White House, president of the United States for the second time. Once more he entered upon that high office not because he liked it or wished for it. but l:)ccausc he felt it to be his duty; once more, so he believed, the people had selected J I'RtSilDh.M OKA.M Lt ; l\ 1 1...N.. uis SfcCONU INAUGLKAL ADDRESS. J/Oir 'JIfF. TAXXF.R'S SOX SEA'l'IU) TlfF. SECOXJ) IJMJ-.. i8i him to act for thcni -awA to look aftrr their affairs and he intcnck'tl to scrw thmi honcstl}' and well ; once more he found thini^s that must be done and he set about doin;^ them. Two of these were, what was called, the reconstruction of the South and the money (juestion. To both of these he gave much thought and care, and the time will come when the work of President Grant on both these difficult matters will be set down as the work of a statesman and a LTeat ruler. Very few boys think alike; very few men think alike. It is because people difter that the world goes on. So, when men in office or in power or in politics or in business have a question to settle, they are apt to difter about it antl discuss it, until some decision is reached. There never was a harder question to settle than how to make the southern States wdiich had been in rebellion erood Union States again. Probably if Lincoln had lived there would not have been so much trouble ; but, for some good reason, God thought it best to have us work out the problem without that kindl\-, kingly soul. So President Johnson muddled it up. and so stirred up things that the southern people, who had been ready to grasp the hand of peace that Cirant stretched out at Appo- mattox, were changed bv Johnson's mistakes and demanded where they should have asked. This made it hard to settle things, for though none who 1 82 HOW THE TANNER'S SON SERVED THE SECOND TIME. had been rebels ac;ainst the national authority had been punished, all had seen that justice must be done. For nearly eight years Grant had to face the question what to do in the South. When the people of the South tried to make things o-q the way they wished them and ^v e r e unjust, harsh and cruel to the black men whom the nation had set free, and the white men who differed from them, Grant, who tried to see the matter from their side as well as from his own, said that he did not wish to do anvthinfj that should distress or hurt them. but. he added, in much the same way that he had said " uncondition.'d surrender" at Donel- son " I will not hesitate to exhaust the powers vested in the executive, wlu-never and wherever it shall become necessary tn do so, for the purpose of securinj^" to the citizens of the WILLIAM T. SHEKMAN. Hero of the "March to the Sta " ; suaessor to Grant as General of the- nimv of the Utiitfd States. J/0 II- JJIE TA ACER'S SOX SERl'f-.J) 7//E SECOND TIME. 183 L'nitcd States the peaceful enjoyments of the rig-hts guaran- teed to them by the Constitution and the hiws." That was stern talk. It was the word of a soldier, and it was kept like a soldier. There were terrible time.^ in the South. It was wars before matters were smoothed out. and the hatred and an^-er and w ickedness that were a part of the story of Southern progress died down. For, you must know this. b(jys and i^irls — no c^ood thimj is ever done for the world, no L'-rcat result ever reached, nothim/ reallv worth havin*-' is ever obtained without worry, trouble, suffering and loss, liut the end came in time. And the new America, the real union of states, the true and mighty republic, will, when you are men and women, be found to have come to crrandeur at last laro^ely because of the determined, unvieldine and noble stand of the soldier-president Ulysses S. Grant who, with his firm hand, taught the people the value of obedience to law and the greatness of a patriotism that knew neither North nor South — nothing but the Republic. In the same way he settled the money troubles. The public debt was great ; the needs of the countrv were great ; the year iS^j^ was a dark and trying one. Some of the leaders thought they saw a way out by making more money, even if it cheapened our dollar and broke the nation's solemn promise to pay its debts in honest monev. This was what was called the "inflation of the currency" — that is, swel- lin-'- it in amount but not in real wilue. i84 BO IV THE TANNER'S SON SERVED THE SECOND TIME. Grant saw how this would, in a way, help the country out of its difficulties, but the more he studied it the more he felt certain that it would not be just or right. And when, in 1874, the Congress passed a bill of this sort, which should make paper money or " currency" as good as gold, he vetoed it — that is, he refused to sign it, and sent it back to Congress with these words : " I am not a believer in any artificial method of making paper money ecpial to coin when the coin is not owned or held ready to redeem the promise to pay ; for paper money is nothing more than promises to pay." That sounds like Ulysses S. Grant does it not? He was the soul of honor and of truth. - Arbitration — the settlement of disputes by peaceful dis- • cussion instead of l)y the terrible clash of war, was the vic- \tory of Grant's first administration. The veto of the inflation bill — honesty in muney mat- ters — was the victory of Grant's second administration. And when men whom he had trusted, men w hom he had placed in high position and honored with his confidence and his faith, proved themselves weak and unable to resist temptation; when they joined with others to do the nation harm by using their high position for selfish and base ends — in other words, to put money in their pockets bv using their position as the means, without care or thought as to their duty to the republic — then the president, like the soldier he was, put justice before frientlship. and dut\- al)()ve regard //(;//' THE TAXXKR'S SOX SERIKP l U E SECOXJ) 'J /ME. 185 and, thoinj'h he knew those he h.ul held as friends nii'-ht be brouf^ht U^ jusliee, said sini{)l\': " Let no t^uilty man escape." In his seeond administration eame the close o{ the first one hundred years of the life of the re|)ul)lic — the Centen- nial anniversary of the founding" of the United States of America. The nation celebrated the event grandly, and villasje in the land the Fourth of Julv, I'^yO, was observed with especial honor. In the city of Philadelphia, in which, one hun- dred years before, the Declaration of Independence had been signed, and America proclaimed free, a six-month's exhibition of the world's progress and the world's work was displayed. And this great Exposition was opened and set q;oin<^ ])v the man whose head and hand had done so much toward preserving independence and keeping whole the union of the states — its defender and ruler. Tresident Grant. The second administration of Grant ilrew toward its close. And when people began to talk about who should be president after that, there were those all through the nation who said : " X(^ one can succeed him. Let us have C^rant for a third term." LKT NO GUrLlY MAN ESCATK." 1 86 HOW THE TAXNER'S SOX SERVED THE SECOXD TIME. They had said the same thing about Washington, you know. But Washington, you remember, wouhl not serve a third time. He told the people that they were able to make a wise choice and that they must get a new president. It was not wise or right to keep putting the same man in the presi- MEMORIAI, HAI.I., PHII.ADKLPHIA. Krected as a 7netnorial of the Centennial Expositio)! and anniversary year of I'i'jCi. dent's chair. It was not good for him or for the nation. And then, you know, he issued his grand Farewell Address. President Grant did not issue a farewell address. He was a much voun^^er man than was Washington when his second term closed, and he did not feel that the occasion called for any such action. But he did see that it was not a wise thing to listen to the voice of those who cried "once more." lie did teel that IlOir THE TAXNEK'S SON SERVED THE SECOND TIME. 1S7 if he should allow his name to be used ai;ain as a candidate, it would, in a way, force the party to nominate him, and this he believed to be a very bad thinir for the countrw I -or, if one man is able to say to the people " xou must keep me as a president," in time the republic would be no better than a tyrann\' and freedom would be in danger. So, thouL^h it meant loss and sacrifice to himself, he put aside all personal wishes or desires and said very tirmly : '• I will not serve as president for the third time. Choose someone else, and let me be a plain citizen of the United States once more." It turned out when he would not let his name be used, that it was not so easy to choose a new man. There was great difference of opinion ; and when the time came for a change there were many who wished to see the other party succeed. Two good and wise men were selected as candidates — one by the Republican and one by the Democratic party. But, so close was the election, that w hen election day was over, the votes were so nearly even and there were so many disputes about the voting that it was impossible to say which candidate was elected. The matter had to go to Congress for settlement. They appointed fifteen men to go over the whole matter ami decide. This was called the Electoral Commission and they went carefvUv over all the facts and figures trying to decide, did so; but even thev differed about the matter — seven of 1 88 HOW THE TAN.VER'S SON SERVED THE SECOND TEME. them saying that the Democratic candidate was elected and eight of them that the Republican candidate was elected. The majority decided it. The Republican candidate was declared elected. But even then those on the other side were not satisfied. They said that the Democratic candi- date had really won and that the decision of the eight men should not be accepted. For a few days things looked threatening. Men talked wildly. But, in the president's chair at Washington, sat a man who could not be moved by talk and bluster. What- ever was the law that would Grant enforce. If the fifteen men had said that Mr. Tilden, the Demo- cratic candidate, had been elected. President Grant would have seen to it that Tilden was inaugurated president. A major- ity of the fifteen men had said that Mr. Mayes, the Repub- lican candidate, was the rightful president. It was the duty of President Grant to enforce the will of the majority, and he took every step necessary to secure the inauguration of Hayes. " Let us have peace " his action meant again. " But we will have justice." To the everlasting honor of Mr. Tilden let it be said that he sided with President Grant in working to still the loud talkers and act for peace. He wcjuld do nothing to help on the disturbing element, and, with Ulysses S. Grant in the White House, the disturbers dare not disturb. His firmness and determination to carr\- out the will of //OH' ULYSSES SAir Ti//'. \yo/. w a photograph taken at Galena, III., after his return from his trip arouiui the -oorlJ. 194 HOir C'LYSSES SAJF THE WORLD. high place he holds in the grateful affections of his countrymen. "Sharing in the largest measure this general public senti- ment, and at the same time expressing the wishes of the President, I desire to invite the aid of the diplomatic and consular officers of the Government to make his journey a pleasant one should he visit their posts. I feel already assured that }ou will find patriotic pleasure in anticipating the wishes of jthe department by showing him that attention and consideration which are due from every officer of the ^ Government to a citizen of the Republic so signally distin- guished both in official service and personal renown." This note put every one on the lookout for the Lireat Ameri- can general. It is \(ix\ likely that, if General Grant had been asked, he would havc^ pre- ferred to go about without any one knowing it, just "on his own hook," you know. But, certainly, this preparing the way for his coming must have made his visit and his journe\-i ng all the more enjoyable. He travelled everx'where that he cared to; he saw everv- "thing there was to see; and the best of it was he did not have any one to find fault with him because he lini-ered here or loitered there, as when he first saw the world as a THE NORMAN GATE. At IViiidsor Castle. NOW LLYSSES S.IW TJIK WORLD. '9S boy, on his way to school at W'r^i Point, 'lluai. son icniLin- bcr, he stopped so lon;^^ in PhiLadclphia and New York " secin;^- the sii^hts " that liis folks at home scolded him for loitcrini^^ Now, there was no one to scold him; he was the head of his class. lie found all the doors open and every one ready to wel- come him. He x'isited the Oiicen of Kn-land at splended A\'indsor castle ; he called on the Em- peror of C/crmany at Berlin, he met the soldier {^resident of France. General ■»u^ Li-. L r -v. -•«»-. " MacMahon, at \»Jf ' ^>? ' ' .- ->#^ 4i4Ui ■' 1 ''^ris, he was the imi. . >. o^!?^Mv' ^-u^.st of the boy- king of Spain at \^itoria, and the kincr of Portujj'al at Lisbon. He talked with the Pope at Rome and with the king of Italy, too. The king of Denmark at Copenhagen, the king of Sweden at Stockholm, the Iimperor of Austria at \'ienna, all said, " how do you do," in their most royal style, and the Czar of Russia at St. Petersburg welcomed him as a " great and good friend," as the letters between kings and presidents always say. In all o{ these interviews Grant bore himself modestly ■VVftH,---m'Vii,,^i'/.V- GRANT AND lilSMARCK. 196 nOJF ULYSSES SAW THE WORLD. I but manfully. His hosts respected and honored him, and felt that it was quite as great a privilege to see and talk: with the foremost American soldier as it was for him to see and talk with them. For, of course, it was a pri\'ilege, and as such General Grant reg^arded it. To dine with the Oueen of Encrland. to discuss military matters and affairs of state with Bismarck, to exchange greetings and opinions with the Pope — these opportunities were most welcome to so keen a student of men as General Grant ; but I am certain that, quite as much as royal interviews and princely festivities, did this sturdy American citizen appreciate and enjoy his chances to see and talk with the common people. For the people, whatever is their condition and whoever are their rulers, make up the nation, and their life and talk show what the spirit of that nation really is. So when Grant was in England, no occasion so gratified him as the crreetini: he received from hundreds of thousands of British workingmen. For it was the workingmen of Enirland, vou must know, who in the darkest davs of our Civil War held firmly to the side of liberty and union, even though their living depended on the trade in American cotton and though the Confederacy made all sorts of brilliant prom- ises if Encrk'ind would only recoL-nize and befriend it. It was the workingmen of England who kept off this recognition until the cause of free labor triumphed over slave labor, and the spirit of union over that of disunion. i/oir {/.}'ss/':s s.nr iJUi uokj.d. »97 You can therefore easily understand \\li\' Grant was so delic'hted with his (:reetin<'' 1)\' the workers of Hn'dand. lie was a worker himself. He knew what it was to toil and sweat over his (la\'s "job" and he spoke from his heart WINDSOR CASTLt, HIE HOME OF THE QUEEN OK ENGLAND. when he replied to the address of welcome from the work- inermcn of Emjland. "There is no reception I am prouder of," he said, "than this one to-dav. I recoi/nize the fact that whatever there is of tj^reatness in the United States, or indeed in anv other iqS nOJV LLYSSES SAJV THE WORLD. country, is due to the labor performed. The laborer is the author of all greatness and wealth. Without labor there would be no government, no leading class, nothing to pre- serve. With us, labor is regarded as highly respectable. Wlien it is not so regarded, it is that man dishonors labor. " We recognize that labor dishonors no man ; and no mat- ter what a man's occupation, he is elig- ible to fill any post in the gift of the peo- ple. His occupation is not considered in the selection of him, whether as a law- maker, or an executor of the law. Now, gentlemen, in con- I'-y (•er)nission . liies //oiiii' Journal.'^ "^ CRANT ADDRliiiil.NC TlIK WORKINCMEN AT NKWCASTLK, KNG. clUSlOU all I CaU dO is to renew my thanks to you for the address, and to repeat what I ha\-e said before, tliat I have received nothing from an\' class since my arrival on this soil which has given me more pleasure." So when he came to Newcastle, in the great coal and j/oir C7,yss£s saw the world. '99 iron district of r.n-'land, tiic city had a holiday, nrnjlish workers ^^rcctcd an American worker; to his \'ictorious arm they felt that nuieh t)f their own prosperity nii^^dit be due. They hailed hini \\ith banners and with cheers as '* the Hero of Freedom ; " and Grant, standing- on a platform in the midst of these shoutini^- thousands spoke the message of peace from America to Hn;^iand — the great and happv hope that was ever in his mind. For our greatest soldier was also our greatest peace-lover. From May, 1S77, to November, 1S78, General (^rant was in Europe. Besides his trip to the Continent he spent much of the time visitinor his dear dau<^htcr Nellie at her English home. Then he began to think of America. But the president of the United States saw how much -'ood this visit of Gen- eral Grant was doing for America, in what he did, what he said, and in his being seen and heard as the foremost Ameri- can of his day; so the president expressed a wish that Gen- eral Grant would keep on his travels and would visit those far eastern lands where an American was scarcely known or understood by the millions of people so different fn^m Americans in speech, customs, religion and life. This changed General Grant's plans. Me decided to come home by the way of Asia and make his journey a trip around the world. With United States government vessels placed at his service whenever he desired, with kings and consuls wait- 200 HO IV C'LYSSES SAW 7 HE WORLD. ing to receive him, and with eyes open to all that was curious, all that was notable and all that was interesting in those old lands that were new to him. General Grant, with his wife and eldest son, sailed from Marseilles in Southern France on the twenty-fourth of January, 1879, ^^^ what is known to us as the Far East — though really if you live in California or on the Pacific coast it is the Nearest West! It was a most extraordinary trip. It did not exactly reach up to Greenland's Icy Mountains (although the gen- eral, you know, had been to the Land of the Midnight Sun) but it did touch India's Coral Strand, and others of those far away regions which the old hymn writer had in mind when he said of them : "Where all the prospect pleases And only man is vile." The men who met and welcomed General Grant on his Oriental tour however were not at all vile ; they were courte- ous, interested and full of big-worded compliments. In India, in Siam, in China and in Japan, Grant met a quick and friendly welcome, even though the princes and people he saw were as opposite to him as possible in nature and in looks, and though, with the inability of people who live under a tyranny to understand the people who live under a republic, they persisted in lo(M•//>. 203 Welcomed like a kiiT', housed like .1 kiivj;, treated like a I r C3 kincr. drant went from one stran<'"e land to another, studvin men and manners, eustoms and laws, more interested in the viceroy of China than in the ruins of Rome, more impressed b\- the people of Siam than 1)\- all tlie famous paintin^^s in the galleries of Europe. I'\)r General drant \\a> al\va\"s a student of men rather than of books, and a lover of the people of the world rather than the beauties of nature. Bismarck was more interesting' to him than Niagara, the Mikado of Japan than Mount Blanc. From Marseilles to Bombav, from Bombav to Calcutta, from Rangoon to Hong Kong, from Hong Kong to Canton, from Canton to Shanghai, from Shanghai to Peking, from Peking to Tokyo and from Tokyo home. This, with stops at man}' important and intermediate places, was the jour- ney of Grant in the East. He saw the Parsee sun worship- pers of the Towers of Silence; he rode on elephant-back to the sacred Ganges ; he saw the places made famous bv the terrible Sepoy rebellion in India; he saw the gate at Luck- now through which Jessie Brown heard the slogan that brought the pipers and relief to that beleagured citv ; he toasted, in the r')ritish colony of Hong Kong "the friendship of the two great English-speaking nations of the world — Ensj'land and America;" he swun*^ through the curious streets of Canton in a latticed bamboo chair; he saw his name coupled with those of Washington and Lincoln on the street-mottoes of Shanghai ; he talked long and pleasantlv 204 HOJV riA'SSES SAJr THE WORLD. with the great Viceroy of China, Li Hung Chung, and, leav- ine the United States war-shii) in the beautiful harbor of Nagasaki, he rode over the green hills of Japan and visited in his own palace of Enriokwan, the young Mikado of Japan — that hidden mystery of Eastern royalty, who, for the THE GATE AT LUCKNOW, INDIA. IViroHgh which relii/ came in the great Sepoy Rebellion. As General Grant saza it. first time in the history of the world now talked with a ** foreigner." Then, at last, he turnc^l his face homeward. He bade good-bye to hospitable Japan and to that great Asiatic con- tinent that had been to him, from boyhood, alike mysterious and fascinatin-'' ; he said !j'ood-b\-e to the forei<'n lands he J/OW L/.VSSJ'IS S.lll' I HE WORLD. had visited and the stran<^^c sights he iiad seen, and, steam- ing aeross the wide Pacihe, set foot again upon his native land, entering it thiough that splenihd Uolden date uhieh, as a voiin*' oftieer in ( alitoiiiia. he had seen vears before, THE (;(M.1)EN UATF; SAN FRANCISCO HARBKK. Through which General Grant came home to America on his return from his trip around the world. but never dreamed that he should enter in this fashion, as the crreat Ameriean. homeward bound from his nnind of visits to the kings and queens and prinees and people of the world. 2o6 THE OLD GENERAVS LAST ELGLLT. ^ But he returned as he departed, untouched l)y lionizincr, unspoiled by fame, the simple, modest, clear-headed, practi- cal American citizen and gentleman — just U. S.Grant, the same as ever. CHAPTER XII. THF, OLD general's LAST FIGHT. ALTHOUGH vacations are welcome and rest or change is delio-htful, there are. but few men who like to have nothing to do. General Grant was not one of these. He liked to be occupied. His trip around the world was over, he was no longer in office or in the army, he was worth just about a hundred thousand dollars. If he could use this money wisely, he thought, he could make a good deal out of it and perhaps be worth a fortune — ^ which would be a good thing for his familv. As you know, the general's tastes were simple. He did love fine horses, he did enjoy a good cigar; but these were his only luxuries. He was very, very fond of his children. He wished to help them on in the world, and, after his return to America, he was anxious to do something that would occupy his mind and benefit his famih'. THE oil) GEXr.RA/.S J.A.si J- J GUI. 207 He had been i^ivcn many presents by his fellow-country- men. They insisted on slKnvini^- him lujw iiuich they thou-ht ot what he had done for them and the rtpublic. He was given a fine Ikhisc in (Galena, one in Philadelphia, one in Washin<,non. and one in New York. The men who had money made him a ^ift of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, the interest of which — that is, the money it earns each year -^ was to come to him. while the whole amount was to be kept untouched for his wife and children if he should die. He had one hundred thousand dollars of his own besides this, and the brownstone house in Hast Sixty-sixth street, near the Central Park, in New York, was full of pres- ents and trophies and mementoes that had been criven him by the princes and people he had visited in his journey around the world. In 1880 the National Republican Convention met at Chicago to nominate a new president of the United States. Many ot the men in that convention wished to nominate General Grant. But there was a stron<; opposition, not to Grant, but to allowing any man to be president of the United States more than twice. No president had ever had a third term. \\'ashingt(^n had stood out against it when he was asked to serve and his example has always been followed. Prol)ablv Grant would not have accepted the nomination, although he never did sa\ anything until it was time to speak. 2 08 THE OLD GENERAL S LAST FIGHT. ^\\ teM A. r^ So the fear that the people wuiild not like it carried the day, and another man was nominated for president. But three hundred and six of the delegates to the convention held firmlv to^'ether, votincr every time for General Grant. If he had been nominated, and if he had accepted, there is no douljt that he would have been elected, for he was the great- est living American and the people were true to the man who had made almost their very existence possible. He did not wish the office aijain; he would not have accepted it or served had he not felt that it was the will of the people. To that he always bowed obedience. It is probable, had he been elected, that he would have made a better presi- dent than ever, for his trip around the world had given him a new knowledge of men and of nations, sTRKKT, NKw YORK CITY. ^^^(1 that cxperieucc would have {Here he bcisan to write his ^^ Memoirs.") ■ J ^ 1 K • ,, x.1 * 1 i. • i.1 aided him greatly m conducting the affairs of the republic and keeping it up to the mark along- side the rest of the world. But, instead cf a political campaign, he had another fight before him — the fiercest, most unrelenting and most desper- ate of anv that it had ever fallen to the lot of the ereat soldier to face and \\a lic:ilih\ . wealthy and wise. The woiKI was '^oiii.^' \w\\ with him. lli> fame was at its hiijhest. His name was honored throii'-hoiit all the world. It seemed as thouj^h n(Uhin^- could disturb or mo- lest him, and \et, at one blow, the old i^eneral was struck down- wounded in the tenderest of all places — his honor — his re})utati(^n — his word. It was this way. In i SSo he had gone int(j Inisiness, investing" the hundred thousand dollars, of which I have told vou, in the banking business in w hich one of his sons was a partner. The bankintj' business. \ou know, is one that deals with money, lending, using or in\'esting it so as to get large returns and good profits. It is a very fine antl high-toned business when honorably conducted. But it gives oppor- tunitv to a dishonest or bad man to harm and hurt other people, by what is called speculation. General (irant was not an active ])artner in the busi- ness. He ])ut in all his monev and was to ha\c- part of the profits. He had perfect confidence in his son and his son's partner. At first the firm made lots of money. General Grant's name, of course, gave people confidence and one of the part- ners was such a sharp and .shrewd business man that people called him the "Napoleon of finance" — which means that he was such a i^'ood hand to manaije monev matters that he C(^uld conquer evervthing opposetl to him in business, just 210 THE OLD GENERAL'S LAST FIGHT. as Napoleon did in war. lUit Napoleon, ^•ou know, was defeated and utterly overthrown at Waterloo ! It was the night before Christmas in the year 1883, when (leneral Grant, as I have told you, was feeling that everything was going fine!)' with him, that he was well and strong and, that he was very nearly a millionaire on the profits of his banking business, that he slipped on the iee in THE HARBOR OF NKW YORK. front of his house and hurt one of his muscles so badlv that he had to go to bed and was kept indoors for weeks. \'ou would not think a little fall like that would be so bad, but when a man gets to be o\'er sixty he does not get o\'er the shock of such an accident as easily as he did when he was sixteen. From that Christmas day of 1SS3 General Grant was never again a well man. Still he felt C()mforta])lc in liis mind, for his affairs were prosperous, and for the first time in his life he was able to buy THE or.n Gr.xj.RAi.s /.-is/' in; in: 211 what he pleased and to spend as he liked, with a i^ood bi;^' sum in the hank. On the niornini^'' of Tuesda\-, the sixth of May, i8. affection which showed how all the world loves and hon-T-; and reveres a real hero. Froni his sick room went out this message to the world, whispered with stammerini; tones. " I am \'er\' much touched ant how to do it, when other leaders hesitated and ex|)erimente(l. He won by energy and tenacity; he saved the nation by patience, push and enduranci-; he attained tame 1)\' absolute- persistence, 228 WBA7' THE WORLD SAYS. audacity, determination, unconquerable will — these were the proofs of his genius. As a conquered" he was one of the greatest and most \^ magnanimous that the world has known. What his sword had achieved, his generosity consummated. He conquered the enemies of the Union in \\ar; he conquered them again in his generous terms at surrender; he conquered them yet again when he stood as their champion against persecution. In no pride of pomp or vain glory did he receive Buck- ner's surrender at Donelson, Pemberton's at Vicksburg or Lee's at Appomattox. The instant these old comrades of other days were overpowered they were no longer his enemies; they were his fellow-countrvmen — his friends, lie thought more of his muddy boots than of his triumph as he went toward the ^IcLean farmhouse at Appomattox to receive the surrender of Lee. He did not even wear his sword, nor did he demand that of his captive, as laid down in the laws of war. No troops paraded, no banners streamed, ^ no triumph music sounded as the brave men in gray yielded to the men in blue. Grant had not concpiered his foes; he had convinced his fellow citizens. As a man he was the kind that the world loves to ^ remember and talk about — loval to his friends, forQ'ivinsj' to his foes, calm in the face of danger, firm in the hour of decision, modest and unassuming in his tlaily life, loving' and tender in his home, a leader when he led, a hero when called upon to face either danger, disaster or death. wjj.ir TJiE iroA'j.D s.ns. 2-9 llcl()\(-(l children. For his own t hihlrcn he \\ as rcaily to la\' down his liu. For ihcni and for his dearly lox'ed wife he slruj;gleil with death, writin- a hook that was to heeonie famous and to make them eomfortahle for the future. One of the most charmin;^ pietures of (irant the man and THE GRANT MONUMENT AT CHICAGO. /tt /.nifp/ti P.irk, fiot fur frtin>.'». the father, is that i^nven by his son, who says that when the ehildren were vounc^, his father was seldom away fn)m home; he found his greatest pleasure there, and delighted in reading aloud for the 1)enefit of his ehildren. " I remem- ber," savs his son, " that, in this wav. he read to us all of Dick- 230 WHAT THE WORLD SAYS. ens' works, many of Scott's novels and other standard works of fiction. I recall the evenings when we all sat around in the family circle and enjoyed listening" to these stories which pleased my father quite as much as they did the children. This reading- always took place in the early part of the even- ing because we were sent to bed at a reasonable hour." This is interesting, is it not ; but more touching is it to know that through all the years of his duty and fame as general and president and as our greatest citizen, he wore about his neck an intertwined braid made of the hair of his wife and child, sent to him after that plucky fight with the plague in the early days at Panama, of which I have told you, and when far away from his dear ones on the Pacific coast. And when, at Mount McGregor, he gave up the long, bitter fight with pain and death, al)()ut his neck was found the same braid of twisted hair, worn there as a precious keepsake for over thirty years. No man is perfect; all of us make mistakes and have our imperfections. No man has been more maligned or criticised or talked against than General Grant. As we look back over the )'ears we see, now , that most of this harsh language was wrong and uncalled for. This simple, silent, honest, straightforward man was trying to do his dutv, as he saw it, and in his own simple anel manly fashion. If he did not (\o it in the wa\' that suited every one, mav not that have be-en the fault of his critics (piite as much as of himself? There are two sitks to e\ery shield, you kiu)w-. •B' 1^ 2. § % PI 3 " s: m ft. Ul •i S9 ft, w ft R WHAT JJIK WOKLD SAYS. ^11 The years pass on ; twenty-two in all had i^onc since that solemn niidsiininier tiimral procession; then, in the sprin;^ ol 1^97, on the Apiil ila\' that wonld ha\e been his l)irlhda\' on larlh had lie lived so loni;, the cherished re- mains, which had been taken from the little t e m [)o ra r\' toml) in which they had lain for nearly twelve years and deposited in a L^rand and j^lorious mauso- leum, were honored with a splendid me- morial ovation. On the heights of l\i\"erside, over lookin-'- the heauti- ful Hudson and the great and pros- perous cit\- which so reveres and honors him, the splendid UKMUiment stands a landmark tor miles around. The modest, unassuming soldier who disliketl show and parade, and, hated especially, to have "a fuss" made over him, received on the 22(1 of w I' ,Miir_ _ TUF SKCONn KUNKKAL OF GRANT. The transfer Jot m the temperary tomb to the great mausoleum. \n 234 WHAT THE WORLD SAYS. April, 1897, one of the grandest ovations ever given to man. Soldiers marched, orators spoke, the people in great and marvelous throngs assembled to pay to the dead leader new and impressive honors. But, in doing so they honored them- selves. For it was because of what he did and of what he was that the world thus publicly honored him ; and, as time goes on, longer than that great gray monument shall stand above his silent dust, while the words honor, duty, courage, faith, simplicity, worth, will and loyalty mean anvthing, so long will the world reverence and uplift the name and fame of U. S. Grant, the P ^x ..^ '^d^ .-^ ^^. ,^ ^C 0^ .v\^ .\\ . ■■ ' » r, N^^-- ,0 0^ •s^^ iJiJiliiiilliiiligpiiiSii !iii TrTnC«4#i«l«i<\#^f m.r-w«ir-. . ii iii