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 HOK EICHAED TATES 
 
 Of Illinois, 
 
 In the United States Senate, July 18, 1866. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY THE UNION REPUBLICAN CONGRESSIONAL COMMinEE, WASHINGTON, D. C. 
 
 Mr. WILSON. I aow move to take up House Bill No. 3. 
 
 The House Bill to revive the grade of General in the United States army was considered as in Committee 
 Of the Whole. 
 
 Mr. YATES addressed the Senate as follows : 
 
 Mr. President, the war through which the country has just passed developed many great 
 military men, whose namt« are associate, vith this or that particular campaign, or this or that 
 particular field of battle. But, viewing ti!=' '"ar from its commencement to its close, what man 
 is there whose name, like that of Grant, is Cv ected with'almost every really effective military 
 movement which marked its progress? What to i.^cord is his ! How marvellous are the ways 
 of Providence in the affairs of nations and of"'^^''-^ 'iduals ! What changes, surpassing the 
 enchantments of romance, may be seen in four s "^°'^vyears ! Is it not a matter of profound 
 wonder that a man of such stoic simplicity of charac?''. / -nd of such surpassing modesty ; that 
 the plain, unassuming, quiet citizen of Illinois, who five years ago sought the humblest. service 
 in the armies of the Union, should prove to be the only man whose rare genius and energ}^ rose 
 in proportion to the colossal demands of the war; who should rise from the humblest clerkship 
 and step \oy step ascend every grade of promotion to the exalted rank of Lieutenant General ? 
 Is it not strange that such should be the man who has conducted the most gigantic of all wars 
 to a successful conclusion, and whose name glory-crowned with shining victories shall fill 
 thousands of'history's brightest pages and live in freedom's anthems to the end of time? 
 
 It would be affectation in me not to acknowledge a personal as well as State pride in 
 aiding the bill before the Senate with my voice and my vote. As a Senator from the State 
 where General Grant resides, which claims not only an interest in common with other States, 
 but also a special and particular interest in the fame of her illustrious son, I feel it my duty to 
 advocate this measure. Some remarks from me also may not be inappropriate on account of 
 certain personal and official relations in whith I stood to him at the commencement of the war. 
 In April, 1861, I first saw General Grant. I knew nothing of him. I did not then know 
 that he had seen service in Mexico ; that he had fought at Palo Alto, Resaca de la Palma, and 
 at Monterey under General Taylor; or that he had served under General Scott in his memo- 
 rable campaign from Vera Cruz to the city of Mexico ; or that he had been made first lieutenant 
 on the field for gallantry at Molino del Rey, and brevetted a captain for ttie gallant and skilful 
 manner in which he had served a mountain howitzer upon the heights of Chapultepec, under 
 the observation of his regimental, brigade, and division commanders, as appears from the 
 official reports of the battle by General Worth and other oflHcers. 
 
 In presenting himself to me he made no reference to any merits, but simply said he had been 
 the recipient of a military education at West Point, and now that the country was assailed he 
 thought it his duty to offer his services, and that he would esteem it a privilege to be assigned 
 to any position where he could be useful. I cannot now claim to myself the credit of having 
 discerned in him the promise of great achievements or the qualities "which minister to the 
 
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 making of great names " more than ia many others who proposed to enter the military ? 
 
 His appearance at first sight is not striking. He had no grand airs, no imposing appe..-.«uce, 
 
 and I confess it could not be said he was a form 
 
 " Where every god did seem to set his seal 
 To give the world assurance of a man." 
 
 He was plain, very plain ; but still, sir, something, perhaps his plain, straightforward modesty 
 
 and earnestness, induced me to assign him a desk in the executive office. In a short time I 
 
 found hira to be an invaluable assistant in my ofSce, and in that of the adjutant general. He 
 
 was soon after assigned to the command of the six camps of organization and instruction which 
 
 I had established in the State. 
 
 Early in June, 1861, I telegraphed him at Covington, Kentuckj^, (where he had gone on a 
 brief visit to his father,) tendering him the colonelcy of the Twenty-first regiment of Illinois 
 infantry, which he promptly accepted, and on the 15th of June he assumed the command. The 
 regiment had become much demoralized from lack of discipline and contention in regard to 
 promotions. On this account. Colonel Grant, being under marching orders, declined railroad 
 transportation, and, for the sake of discipline, marched them on foot toward the scene of oper- 
 ations in Missouri, and in a short time he had his regiment under perfect control. 
 
 He was assigned to the protection of the Quincy and Palmyra, and the Hannibal and -St. 
 Joseph railroads, and his success in organizing the troops under his command, and his vigorous 
 and successful prosecution of the campaign in north Missouri, soon procured for him the rank 
 of brigadier general. He was transferred to Cairo, the most important strategic point in the 
 Mississippi valley, and, after organizing his army with marvelous celerity, and infusing soon 
 after into these suddenly raised troops the proper esprrde corps, he marched upon Paducah and 
 fought the desperate battle of Belmont. And here y' -amenced that series of sptendid victories, 
 from Belmont to Lookout Mountain, which turn^ ihe tide of our national fortunes, dispelled 
 the gloom and despondency which defeat, p/ strategy, irresolution, inaction, and blunders 
 had lirought upon the country, lifted the v ad revealed to the Republic at last the man so 
 much needed to lead her armies to comp' .nd final victory. 
 
 At Belmont, at Donelson, and at Shiioh, he broke the shell in which secession sought to 
 
 shelter itself, and dissipated the dreams of fancied southern invincibility. At Vicksburg he 
 
 probed its very vitals, and destroyed the monster in the Mississippi valley, never more to rise. 
 
 The importance of Vicksburg as an objective point, and as affecting the destinies of the war, 
 
 was fully seen by the leaders of both contending powers. Jeff. Davis, aforetime, fully realiz. 
 
 ing the importance of Vicksburg as a strategic point, in a speech to the Mississippi Legislature. 
 
 on the 6th of December, 1862, declared — 
 
 " That the fall of Vicksburg would cut off their commimications with the trans-Mississippi department, 
 whence they drew -vast supplies, and would permanently sever the eastern and western portiijns of the 
 confederacy." 
 
 The enihusiastic Sherman, with rare foresight, which has been verified by subsequent events, 
 declared, in a speech at St. Louis, "The possession of Vicksburg is the possession of America.'' 
 Grant, as evidenced by all his plans and movements, was of the same opinion. 
 
 New Orleans was already ours, and Port Hudson, as a consequence of our capture of Vicks- 
 burg, soon fell into our hands. From Cairo to New Orleans the great river had been held by 
 the eu^my, and the black banner of secession had flaunted defiantly from all its strongholds ; 
 but now, thanks to General Grant and his invincible armies, every foot on either shore was 
 wrested from him, and in some fifteen battles, with no serious reverse to our arms, the shattered 
 and dismayed legions of the enemy were driven from their supposed impregnable fortresses to 
 new and interior positions remote from the river, and millions of loyal hearts rejoiced that this 
 great artery of the continent, unvexed by tre;i30u's barriers, Avas once more, and as we hope 
 forever, free. Scarcely less important were the campaigns of General Grant terminating in the 
 brilliant victories of Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge, and securing to us the perma- 
 neot possession of Chattanooga, which was regarded by military men of both armies as the 
 next most important strategic point in the rebel States, and it was made the base of that mag- 
 nificent military movement, which is without a parallel in the annals of war, v/hen Sherman 
 and his veteran warriors swept like an avalanche from Atlanta to the sea through the very 
 heart and home of treason. 
 
.r 
 
 The successes of Grant in the West filled the nation's cup of joy, and President Lincoln 
 wisely read the nation's will in comraitsing to him the command of all our armies, and partic- 
 ularly of the unlucky, but heroic, Army of the Potomac, which, baffled but not beaten, had 
 stood for long years like a wall of fire against the assaults of treason. And here, again, victory 
 followed the invincible Grant, and in a series of battles more bloodj^ than Waterloo, more bril- 
 liant than Austerlitz, he displayed the sterling qualities of the great commander. Those forty 
 days of hand-to-hand fighting in the battles of the Wilderness, which carried the Army of the 
 P6tomac from the Rapidan to the James, amid the fearful shock of brigades and divisions, and 
 the onset of army against army along their whole lines, through scenes of fearful slaughter, 
 while the murky air resounded with the thunders of artillery and crash of musketry, and the 
 night was forced to disclose, by the lurid light of continued conflict, horrid sights beyond all 
 power to tell, bring to the memory the traditions of the fierce wars of the ancients, reminding 
 us of old Marathon : 
 
 " As on that morn to distant glory dear, 
 The camp, the host, the fight, the conqueror's career, 
 
 The flyiug Mede. liis shaftless, broken bow, 
 The fiery Greek, his red pursuing spear; 
 
 Mountains above, earth's, ocean's plains below; 
 Death in the front, destruction in the rear." 
 
 Now is not the time, nor this the place, but it is for the historian in ample pages to follow 
 the shining record of Grant, written in the triumphs of Henry, Donelson, Shiloh, Corinth, Vicks- 
 burg, Chattanooga, the Wilderness, and the seige of Richmond ; written in the blood and 
 sacrifices of our living and slaughtered braves, and upon the hearts and memories of the loyal 
 millions who, amid alternate hope and fear, have watched our leader as with resolute front, 
 step by step, he has led the nation through the night of gloom and despondence to the day of 
 final and glorious deliverance. 
 
 General Grant possesses personal courage to a high degree. Amidst the most horrid carnage 
 and the wildest tumult of battle he was imperturbably quiet, his mind clear, scr.nning critically 
 all movements on the field, and never giving a thought to danger or to death. At the same 
 time i^ he saw a weak point in his line of battle or a column wavering, where his personal 
 presence might inspire courage, he would fly to that point or dash like a McDonald to the head 
 of that column, plunge into the thickest of the fight and hold up the standard upon the last 
 outpost of danger and death. No general can command the entire confidence of an army and 
 bring out the full fighting strength who himself has not personal courage, and whose head- 
 quarters are not in the field. Men will fight and brave the highest feats of lofty daring, scale 
 the heights, or face the most frowning batteries, when they see their beloved commanders 
 sharing th^ir fortunes in the dread hour of conflict. Understanding this. Grant dashed along 
 the lines at Belmont, and had his horse shot under him while rallying his men, who were con- 
 founded by the double fury of their foes, suddenly re-enforced by fresh battalions, and a 
 terrible storm of projectiles from their artillery at Belmont and Columbus. 
 
 On the first day at Pittsburg Landing — a black and terrible day — all day he rode along his 
 decimated lines and inspired the weary troops to stay the stormy tide of disaster which was 
 beating them back through Shiloh's dark and bloody woods to the water's edge. I sat on mj^ 
 horse near him at Port Gibson, upon an eminence where our artillery was posted, and >vhero 
 he was exposed to a most terrible fire of the enemy's musketry and artillery. While he was 
 surveying the field and patiently waiting for the assault of Osterhaus's division as it moved 
 upon the main force of the enemy, who had massed themselves in their full strength upon the 
 Grand Gulf and Port Gibson road, suddenly the batteries and musketry of the enemy opened 
 and poured showers of shot and shell aud hissing .Minie-balls on the point at which we were 
 posted. I noticed that while a regiment of ours held in reserve at that point, and which was 
 much exposed, was ordered to seek shelter in a ravine close by. Grant, seemingly insensible to 
 danger, quietly smoked his pipe and coolly watched the movements of the contending forces. 
 Only once he said to me, jocosely, " Governor, it's too late to dodge after the ball has passed.'' 
 I watched him narrowlj', and the thought of personal danger did not seem once to h^ve entered 
 his mind. As for myself, I felt much relieved when after a short interview with General Raw- 
 lins, his chief of staff, he said, " Governor, we will go and order Logan up." 
 
 Was not his a courageous spirit who, with fame already secure by the bright record of a 
 
bund''ed victories, dared to accept the crushing responsibility of commanding the Army of the 
 Potomac, where so many generals had been sacrificed, and where so many bloody reverses had 
 almost dispirited the army and shrouded the land in mourning? Here he was to confront the 
 flower of the rebel army, led by their greatest commander, who, in their estimation, wore the 
 charm of invincibility. Here he must contend with a foe which, up to this time, had courage- 
 ously maintained his position, elated by ihe success of several victories and dashing raids, and 
 who now to the pride of victory had added the fierce courage which despair inspires in men 
 fighting for the last rampart left them by adverse fate. But with the same unselfish spirit 
 which had animated his whole life he did not pause to count the consequences to himself, but 
 came at the call of his country. He accepted the heretofore fatal command, and his watchword 
 was "On to Richmond !" as before it had been " On to Vicksburg !" Self-reliant, he formed 
 his own plans, and started out on a route which had already been condemned by our military 
 men. His first battle in the Wilderness appalled the world at the sight of its sanguinary 
 slaughter. I think it almost safe to say that no General living save Grant himself would, after 
 such dreadful slaughter and in the face of so many frowning obstacles, have persevered in the 
 plan which he had marked out for himself. But Grant did persevere. From the beginning 
 his method had been to move on the enem3''s works wherever he could find thera, and if he 
 could not utterly overwhelm and destroy him in every instance, yet he considered himself 
 successful if he maintained his ground and as much loss was inflicted upon the enemy as he 
 himself received. 
 
 Grant's intuition taught him that it was a question of endurance, a contest between the 
 patient, stubborn courage of the North and the enthusiastic dash of the South, and that victory 
 would necessarily reward that party which with greatest loss could yet continue the contest. 
 To him it was the two-handed sword of Coeur dc Lion against the flashing cimeter of the 
 Paladin ; it was the axe of the Norseman thundering on the light shield of the Saxon or the 
 Celt. I cannot better illustrate his idea than by qiibting from his official report, in which, 
 with great clearness, he indicates part of his plan : 
 
 " To hammer contiuually against the armed forces of the enemj' and his resources, until by mere attrition, 
 if in no other way, there should be nothing left to him but an equal submission with the loyal portion of our 
 common country to the Constitution and laws." 
 
 And so, though the first battle of the Wilderness may have been a drawn battle, and though 
 in the second our loss was counted by thousands upon thousands of our slaughtered heroes, 
 though nature seemed in league with treason against us, and frowning batteries, inpregnable 
 fortifications, impenetrable swamps, and tangled thickets confronted him at every step of his 
 chosen path, while from the cover of every shrub, tree, and rock, an unseen foe assailed him 
 with storms of bullets, and hundreds of cannon poured their murderous fire upon his army, 
 still relying upon himself and his plans with a confidence that was sublime, he pressed forward, 
 and coolly telegraphed to the Secretary of War, " I propose to fight it out on this line if it 
 takes all summer." 
 
 Sir, he did fight it out on that line, for though Lee, in his blasphemous order of May 14, 
 said, " The heroic valor of this army, with the blessing of Almighty God, has thus far checked 
 the principal army of the enemy, and inflicted upon it terrible losses," yet, sir, day by day 
 Lee was driven back toward Richmond, an unwilling witness to the skill, strategy, and tenacity 
 of his unconquerable antagonist. 
 
 His tenacity of will is wonderful. He is never whipped. If his losses fire greater than the 
 enemy, or if he has drawn back, still he is not whipped. He will not admit that there is any 
 obstacle. While the great Lincoln with long strides nervously paced his executive chamber at 
 midnight and mourned as unpropitious to the plans of Grant the storm which beat in mad fury 
 upon the roof and along the corridors and upon the window-panes of the White House, yet 
 Grant accepts the situation, and uses the storms of heaven as his appliances, as he did most 
 effectually on the third day of the battle of the Wilderness. It never could be said of him, as 
 of the great Napoleon at Waterloo, that a shower of rain had lost him a battle. 
 
 Mr. Pfesident, while Gen. Grant is possessed of extraordinary courage and tenacity of purpose, 
 it must not for a moment be supposed that these constitute his chief claim to greatness. I am 
 here to claim for him military strategy of the highest order ; what facts and results have 
 established and what history will proudly vindicate — that wonderful power which > few men 
 
have exhibited in the great contests of nations-the genius which with comprehensive glance 
 sweeps over vast fields of conflict, perceives the grand objective points, arranges and combines 
 the proper forces, provides against the contingencies which makeup so much of war, carries 
 out every detail of the most complicated plan, and with certain prescience commands all needful 
 agencies to move in synchronous march upon the enemy. 
 
 The success of his Mississippi campaign is not to bo attributed to courage alone, but to that 
 grand strate-y displayed in a thorough understanding of the plans, positions, and movements 
 of the enemv! and in making such a disposition of his own forces as to employ and thwart the 
 enemv at e^ery point, and yet to keep pressing inevitably and irresistibly forward upon Im 
 own 'line toward Vicksburg, the objective point of all his operations. It was not simply to 
 drive the enemy from Belmont, Island No. 10, Fort Henry, Memphis,^ and to fight hi.s way 
 straicrht down the Mississippi by storming him in, every stronghold-this he could do with hi» 
 invincible lodons of the Northwest, and this he did do in a series of shining victories which 
 blnze on the ;nnals of the war-but he had also to take in his plans a vast territory of hostile 
 States- the Cumberland, the Tennesseee, and the Arkansas, from their mouths to their head- 
 land= •' and to cut off the enemy in all lateral directions upon his interior Imes, keep up his 
 own base lines, and leave no enemy in his rear to overrun Illinois Missoun, and southern 
 Kentucky- and he displayed the greatest military genius by such a disposition of h s force, 
 andluch timely movements as not only to carry victory along the banks of the Mississippi but 
 to carry it in a broad belt on either side, until finally he could and did concentrate all the 
 divisions of his army to the overthrow of the rebel Gibraltar-Vicksburg. 
 
 Pis decisions were rapid and quick ; he laid the whole field before him clear as a map, and 
 turned the severest reverses and most formidable obstacles to advantage by ins ant and rapid 
 combinations. It was my good fortune to witness his operations before the capture of \ icks- 
 bur... Having succeeded with great labor and difficulty in transporting his troops through 
 Lrlcate bavo;s and swampy roads to a point below Vicksburg, he conceived he bold strategy 
 of supplying them with stores and heavy ordnance, and with transportation ^of the trooi^ by 
 runnnc. his" gunboats and transports by the batteries at night. The precipitous cliffs for mdes 
 above and below the city were lined with tiers of heavy artillery, and rifle pits swarming with 
 Sfantry down the watefs edge. Every preparation had been made for the perilous enterprise. 
 N^ht closed in with rayless darkness. I stood with Grant upon the deck o^; -;^ f 7;- 
 th; middle of the Mississppi, from which he kept an eye to the movements of his fle . It wa 
 then 1 saw sights men rarely see. Eight gunboats and three transports dropped quietly into the 
 chlnnel and floated down the current. Suddenly the batteries and rifle pit. opened the.r 
 sLTtleous fire, while the gunboats returned from heavy guns broadside after broadside upon 
 h"d voted city The whole bluffs were a blaze of fire. Indeed, sir, it ooked as if a might, 
 wall of lightning from earth to sky stood still and motionless, while deep thunders rolled, 
 
 reminding one of the scene— 
 
 "When Jove from Ida's top his horror spreads; 
 Thick lightnings fla?h ; the muttering thunders roll 
 Wide o'er the field, high blazing to the sky; 
 And o'er the forest rolls the flood of fire ; 
 And ' dreadful gleamed the face of iron war '.' " 
 
 Our boats contrary to my expectations, safely passed below, and so far Grant's strategy 
 had not f iled. But slill greater'obstacles confronted him, and he must resort to new s rategy^ 
 Betre be could attack Vicksburg from below, Grand Gulf must be taken^ Grand Gu was a 
 strClv fortified position at the mouth of the Big Black river, and here Grant gave a strik ng 
 d^^n'rvofhisstraLic skill which attracted the attention of military men everywhere and 
 whrh prl!ed to be a pivot on which turned the mightiest events, results, and destinies of the 
 war 
 
 On the morning of April 29 the six gunboats moved down the river to the assault, while 
 [be th, ats of his heavy guns on the heights above. From a tug-boat in the middL 
 
6 
 
 stream we witnessed the scene. All around, distinctly visible to the naked eye, we could see 
 the cannon balls flying through the air, skipping in wild leaps along the surface of the river, 
 while — 
 
 " Howling and screeclaiug and whizzing 
 The bomb-shells arched on high ; 
 And then, like fiery meteors, 
 Dropped swiftly from the sky." 
 
 But the batteries could not be silenced, and Grand Gulf could not be stormed. After four 
 hours bombardment we boarded the flag-ship Benton, and Grant, after a short interview with 
 Admiral Porter, seemingly on the instant decided upon a coup de main, which proved his power 
 as a strategist, and from the jaws of defeat he snatched the standard of victory. 
 
 lie ordered his troops to debark, and marched them to a point below Grand Gulf, ran the 
 batteries with his boats, embarked his troops again, crossed the river and fought the battle of 
 Port Gibson, gaining the first of that splendid series of victories which terminated in the fall 
 of Vicksburg. Here, again, Grant adapted himself to the circumstances of the case, and made 
 a plan of his own contrary to that which had been laid down for him at Washington. I y>re- 
 sume General Grant never received a higher compliment, or one that he so much prized, as that 
 contained in a letter of Mr. Lincoln of July 3, 1863. Mr. Lincoln said : 
 
 "When you got below and took Port Gibson and Grand Gulf, I thought yon should go down the river 
 and join General Banks; and when you turned northward, east of Big Black, I feared it \uas a failure. I now 
 wish to make a personal acknowledgment to you, that you were right and I was wrong." 
 
 Grant had great confidence in the pluck and metal of his army, and he considered the victory 
 was half won whenever he made up his mind to let the brave Illinoians and other troops of 
 the Northwest go into the battle. His policy was to "let 'em fight." and to fight the enemy 
 wherever he could find him. Still it cannot lie laid to his charge that he was reckless of the 
 lives of his officers and men, for he never asked them to go where he was not willing to lead. 
 In the battles of the Wilderness he did not, as has been charged, run heedlessly upon the 
 intrenchments of the enemy. He resorted to flanking movements, concentrating his strength 
 first upon one wing and then upon another ; or, having divided the forces of the enemy, he 
 threw his whole force like an avalanche upon the centre, and drove him back to new positions, 
 until, dispirited and besieged, the confederate capital fell like ripened fruit into his hands. 
 
 When he assumed supreme command as Lieutenant General he changed radically the wholo 
 plan of our militar}' operations. He discontinued the plan of independent spasmodic move- 
 ments by our different armies — a plan which had enabled the enemy to move as upon a pivot, 
 and to confront our divided forces now at one point and then at another, and to baSie us by a 
 superior concentration of his forces. But, sir, I read from his own report to show what this 
 policy was, which all now see was necessary to turn the tide of fortune in our favor. He says : 
 
 "I therefore determined first to use the greatest number of troops practicable against the armed forces 
 of the enemy, preventing him from using the same force at different seasons against first one and then 
 another of our armies, and the possibility of repose for refitting and producing necessary supplies for carry- 
 ing on resistance." 
 
 The anaconda, of which so much had been said early in the war, was no longer a myth. If 
 he was not the author of the comprehensive idea conveyed by that word to the public mind, he 
 was the first to vitalize and make it real. He did not simply move forward the Army of the 
 Potomac, but for the purpose of employing the enemy at every point, and preventing the con- 
 centration of his forces upon any given jioint, General Grant set in motion all the armies of the 
 Union — Sherman against Johnson; Butler moved up the James; Sigel up the Shenandoah 
 valley ; Banks against Shrevesport ; Sheridan against Early ; and other generals in their ap- 
 propriate places, in the mighty drama which ended in the death of the rebellion. 
 
 Mr. President, \then the history of this war is carefully read, with the map of the cam- 
 paigns before you ; when all the details of departmental organization are understood ; and 
 when all the orders, correspondence, and dispatches are properly weighed ; when all the co- 
 operative movements of the various divisions of his armies are carefully studied ; the vast ter- 
 ritory he had to overlook, to conquer, and to defend ; vast communicatioas by land and water ; 
 immense supplies and transportation to be provided ; a confronting enemy, ever vigilant, brave, 
 confident, commanded by skilful leaders ; and all the splendid results of his great plans are 
 considered, we may truthfully pronounce him the model commander of the age in whi^Ji he 
 lives. I know well the secret of his power, for when I saw him at headquarters, upon the 
 march, and on the battle-field, in his plain, threadbare uniform, modest in his dei)ortment, 
 careful of the wants of the humblest soldier, personally inspecting all the dispositions and 
 divisions of his army, calm and courageous amid the most destructive fire of the enemy, it 
 was evident that he had the confidence of every man, from the highest officer down to the 
 humblest drummer-boy, in his command. 
 
 He also judged men with the most unerring accuracy, so that when the choice lay with him 
 he always selected the right man in the right place. General John A. Rawlins, Chief of Staff, 
 has on all occasions displayed genius of the highest order, is one of the best and noblest of 
 men, and in every respect worthy of his Great Chief. The other members of his staff were 
 men of merit, and fully equal to the great emergencies they had to encounter. Need I mention 
 
. t 
 
 yiierman, McPherson, Meade, Hooker, riancock, Thomas, Howard, L«^an, and many others 
 who were relied upon \>y him, each for some particular excellence or fitness assigned a specific 
 duty? With what sajracitj, too, dul he select those two gallant chieftains, Grierson in the 
 West and Sheridan in the East, as avant-courkrs to herald his own mighty coming. 
 
 It is needless to recount here the details of Grierson's grand raid, in which, with three 
 regiments only, he suddenly abandoned all communications with his base and supply trains, 
 almost v.'ithout artillery, and beset on all sides by hostile forces, and, subsisting entirely upon 
 the enemy's country, he swept through the Confederacy, cutting telegraph lines, destroying 
 railroad communications, burning depots of military supplies, and spreading dismay among 
 the people, and, after destroying millions' worth of the enemy's stores, marched into New 
 Orleans with streaming colors and glad music, amidst the wild acclamations of the Army of 
 the Gu f. ^ 
 
 I need not refer to Sheridan. His heroic deeds outshine the romantic stories of the past, 
 when mailed knights fiercely strove with gods around the walls of Troy. Such was Grant's 
 confidence in Sheridan that it is said he hardly ever gave him an order in detail. When he 
 
 be heard the sound of Ney's guns thundering on the left, when he sat quietly down and wrote 
 iJarie Louise the victory was gained. Such confidence as Napoleon had in Marshal Ney, Grant 
 had in gallant, glorious Phil. Sheridan. 
 
 The American people have not lavished upon their heroes costly presents of princely estates, 
 nor stately pile, nor royal titles, such as England bestowed upon her Marlboroughs, her Nel- 
 sons, and her Wellingtons; but for their great services this nation has conferred upon Wash- 
 ington, Jackson, and Taylor, a position of more value than heaps of shining gold, and prouder 
 than that of emperor ; and monarchs may well envy them the title of Citizen President of the 
 United States of America. 
 
 Who among the long roll of honored names has achieved a grander success or given to his 
 people a nobler boon than Grant? Black visaged war desolated the land ; horrible dread froze 
 up the fountains of ho]ie; from every house went up to heaven wails for the loved and lost, 
 louder than Israel for the loss of her firstborn : and |rom foreign despotisms came the shouts of 
 exultation over the fading fortunes of our great experiment for universal liberty. And when 
 there was no eye to pily, or arm ^o save, suddenly a light gleamed athwart the sky, hope ban- 
 ishtd sickly fear, order was where confusion reigned ; and victory snatched our chastened 
 nation from the jaws of ruin, and clothed her anew with the garlands of immortal youth; 
 and the people saw high above the common plane their two deliverers, Lincoln and Grant. 
 
 Alas ! how soon the dread javelin seeks the shining mark, and leaves but one ! Long may 
 he wear the charmed life; Ithuriel-like, within our Eden, be "armed with a spear of celestial 
 temper I " 
 
 And now, sir, why should we not eagerly seize the opportunity to confer upon General 
 Grant the grade of General of the armies of the United^ States? It was conferred on Washing- 
 ton, and who will_ say that it was not justly and worthily bestowed? Then why shall we do 
 less to him who dared all and conquered all in a darker and grander crisis of our fate ? 
 
 If if is objected that we should not lavish honors and emoluments upon one where all, offi- 
 cers and privates, have done so well, I reply, if re^^ly is necessary, that in honoring him we 
 honor all his comrades in arms, and I am sure that not one, from 'the highest oflicer, from the 
 great Sherman down, down through all the ranks, to the humblest private soldier, will say no 
 to this tribute to the exalted worth of their gre;it commander. f 
 
 I repudiate the imputation of prodigality of the people's money in advocating the small 
 api)ropriauon proposed to be added to the salary of General Grant by this bill. While I 
 believe this grateful and magnanimous nation will not object to this alrnost nominal increase 
 of his salary, 1 believe they are also willing to be taxed to the extent of making all our soldiers 
 equal in bounty and pay for their services in rescuing the country from total ruin ; and for 
 that reason 1 desire to vote for any measure that will accomplish that measure at the earliest 
 possible moment. If this Congress should issue one-hundred-year bonds, with interest, to be 
 appropriated to the support of our wounded and penniless soldiers, and of the widows of such 
 as died by disease or wounds in the service, and for the liberal education of the orphans of our 
 poor dead soldiers, do you suppose our nation would be any poorer for such a boon to its brave 
 defenders who saved its very life? No, sir, but far richer; for then, indeed, would this nation 
 1)e strong in a race of heroes ; every cabin would be a fortress, and every woman a sol der • 
 and while our posterity, who had the principal of the debt to pay, would celebrate the whieivel 
 ments of the men who had borne aloft the flag, they would also indorse the acts of the states 
 men who had done some little to reward the heroes who had offered themselves a willing sacri- 
 fice upon the altars of patriotism and liberty. 
 
 It has come down from age to age, as the shame of the ancient republics, that they were— 
 ungrateful to public benefactors ; that those who had borne their eagles farthest over conquered 
 kingdoms, or rendered most service to their country, either in the field or council chamber, 
 •were the most liable to censure, ostracism, and even death, to gratify the popular caprice. The- 
 
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 poet thus characterises this popular caprice in the sudden transfer of the popular favor from the 
 defeated Pompey to th&"victorious Ctesar, by words put into the mouth of a tribune of the 
 people : 
 
 " Wherefore rejoice? What conquests brings he home? 
 
 What tributaries lollow liim to Home 
 
 To grace in captive bonds liis chariot-wheels? 
 
 You blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things 
 
 O, you hard hearts, you cruel men of Rome, 
 
 Know ye not Pompey ? Many a time and oft 
 
 Have you climbed up to walls and battlements, 
 
 To towers and windows, yea, to chimney-tops, 
 
 Your infants in your arms, and there have sat 
 
 The live-long day, wilh patient expectation, 
 
 Taseegreat Pompev pass the streets of Rome; , tdd/\o\/ <-.r- ^ 
 
 And when you saw his chariot but appear, LIBKHKY OF CONGRESS 
 
 Have you not made au universal shout. 
 
 That Tiber trembled underneath her banks 
 
 To hear the replication of your sounds 
 
 Made in her concave shores? 
 
 And do you now put on your best attire? 
 
 And do you now cull out a holiday ? 
 
 And do you now strew flowers in his way 
 
 That conies in triumph over Pompey s blood? 
 
 Begone ! 
 
 Run to your house, fall upon your knees. 
 
 Pray to the gods to intermit the plague 
 
 That needs must light on this ingratitude." 
 
 Mr. President, never let it be said that this Republic shall incur the shame of ingratitude to 
 public benefactors which spreads a cloud over the bright glories of the great republics of the 
 past. 
 
 But, Mr, President, I should not finish the picture were I to stop here. Grant is free from 
 inordinate ambition, and from many of the faults and vices which have sullied the character ot 
 many others who have been chronicled as great men in history. He is an honest man ; he is 
 gentle and kind, magnanimous to the vanc^uished ; of rugged virtue ; stern simplicity ; plain, 
 republican manners; true to freedom, without regard to caste; spotless purity of life, and 
 elevated devotion to country ; standing out before the world as Washington and Lincoln stood, 
 an ever-present and sublime illustration of the fact that exalted greatness and exalted goodness 
 are one and inseparable. 
 
 I do not wish to deal in panegyric. I know that Grant cares as little for it as any man. 
 He never sought glory. There is nothing ftbout him of the pomp or vaingloriousness or glare 
 which men call glory. All that he desires is truth. He is the last man who would have as- 
 cribed to him achievements which he never wrought, or praise for words he never uttered. As 
 we look upon that calm, reticent, statue-like figure, it is hard to realize that he is the man who 
 stood self-poised and unmoved by the discordant elements of the great revolution through 
 which we have passed, and with the certainty of fate directed the destiny of a continent. But 
 time, which at last sets all things even, will reveal him to the world and blazon him greater in 
 history than Alexander, whose ambition the conquest of a world did not satisfy ; greater than 
 Caesar, who sacrificed the glory of republican Rome for the pageantry of universal empire; and 
 greater than Napoleon, who bartered the victories won by the sword for the vain magnificence 
 of the imperial purple. 
 
 Grant welcomed the end of conquest as a national blessing. His name will go shining 
 down the ages lustrous with the halo of great achievements and of great beneficence, without 
 strain of selfishness ; and will be enshrined in the hearts of the coming millions as the man to 
 whom we are most indebted for the success of our arms, the triumph of truth and liberty, and 
 the preservation of our national Union. 
 
 Gibson Beothebs, Pbintebs, Washington, D. C. 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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