An Eloquent Address. Henry Ward Beecher's Tribute to Grant.

Te Aroha News, Volume III, Issue 130, 28 November 1885, Page 3

An Eloquent Address. Henry Ward Beecher's Tribute to Grant.

Boston, October 22. — An immense crowd assembled in Tremont Temple to night to hear Henry Ward Beecher's eulogy on General Grant. The speaker began with a brief synopsis of the life of Grant, alluding to his lack of success in early business pursuits and his connection with the war with Mexico. He referred to the need of the North, at the opening of the war of the Rebellion, fpr a man of iron mould who had but two words in. his vocabulary, " victory " or " annihilation," and added : " Three great names were rising to eight - Sherman, Thomas, Shoridan— and larger than either was Grant. With his advent the armies, with some repulses, went steadily forward from conquering to conquer. Aside from all his military qualities, he had one absorbing spirit, the Union must be saved ; the rebelion must be beaten ; the Confederate armies must be threshed to chaff, as on a summer threshing floor. He had no political ambition ; no imaginary reputation to preserve or gain. A great genius for grand strategy ; a comprehension of complex and vast armies ; caution, prudence, and silence while preparing ; an endless patience, an indomitable will, and a real downright fighting quality Thus, at length, Grant was really born. He had lain in the nest long as an unfertile egg. The broodiDg of war hatched the egg, and an eagle came forth." The speaker then referred in detail to the condition, of the armies, the motives ruling the commanders and soldiers of both sides, the many fierce battles in which thousands were killed and many more thousands wounded, and added : u Into this sulphurous storm of war Grant entered almost unknown. It was with difficulty that he could obtain a command. Once set forward, Donelson, Shiloh, Vicksburg, Chickamauga, the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, Petersburg, Appomattox, these were his footsteps. In four years he had risen, without political favour, from the bottom to the very highest command, not second to any living commander in the world." Reviewing his military career as a whole, Mr Beecher said : "Fe never lost his courage or equanimity. With a million men for whose movements he was responsible, he yet carried a tranquil mind, neither distressed by disasters nor elated by success. Gentle of heart, familiar with all, never boasting, always modest, his work was done and the defeat of the Confederate armies was final. This dreadful man of blood was as tender towards his late adversaries as a woman towards her eon. He imposed no humiliating conditions, ppared the feelings of hn antagonist?, sent home the disbanded Southein men with food and with horses for working their crops. And when a revengeful spirit in the Executive chair showed itself and threatened the chief Southern (-.enerals, Grant, with holy indignation, interposed himself and compelled his puperior to relinquish his rash purpose." The speaker dwelt at some further length upon Grant's military career, refuting in passing the changes which attributed his eucce c s to luck, and criticisms upon what sotno called the waste of life of his own soldiers and the butchery of his enemies, and in concluding his remarks upon Grant's military life, paid : " All summer, all the autumn, all the winter, all the spring, and in early summer again, he hammered Lee with blow on blow until at Appomattox the great, but not the greatest, Southern General, went to the ground. Having brought 'the loner and disastrous war to a close,," in his own heart Grant would have chosB3»±o-liave rested upon his laurels and lived "a' retired military life. It was not to be permitted. He was called to the, Presidency, by universal acclaim, and it fell upon him to conduct the campaign of reconstruction, even more burdensome than war." After dwelling upon the various acts of General Grant's national adminstration and his reconstruction policy, the speaker summed up his administrative career as follows : "On the whole, if one considers the intrinsic difficulty of the questious belonging to his administration, the stormy conition of politics and parties during his' eight years, it must be admitted that the country owes to his unselfish disposition, to his general wisdom, to his ensullied integrity, if not the meed of the wisest, yet the reputation of one who, preeminent in war, was eminent in adminstration, more perhaps by the wisdom of a noble nature than by the intelligence which is bred only by experience. Yet imperious counsellors and corrupt parasites dimmed the light of his political administration." Mr Beecher then dwelt upon the retired life of General Grant, referring to his business reverse^ and the equanimity which characterised him subsequently, and after speaking briefly of his fatal sickness,, concluded as follows: "A man he was without vices, with absolute hatred of lies and an ineradicable love of tiuth ;, of perfect loyalty to friendship, ; neither envious of others nor selfish himself. With zeal for, .tHe, public good unfeigned,' 'he has left to .memory only auoh ( weaknesses as connect him to humanity and suoh virtues as will rank him among* heroes. The tidings of his' death, long expeoted, gave a shoclr' to th

whole %orld^ Governments rulers, eminent statesmen rand .scholars from al civilised nations gave sincere tokens of sympathy. For the hour sympathy rolled as^W&Wover.ali'JourJatid./ ► It the last furrow of war, it extinguished the'las^t prejudice, effaced it, the last s -»vestig« 6i hatred, 'and cursed be the'Kancl that brings, them back. Johnston and Buckner On one side of his bier, Sherman and Sheridan on the other, he has come to his tomb a • silent symbol that liberty had conquered slavery, patriotism rebellion, and peace war. Be rests in -peace * No drum or cannon' shall disturb his rest; Sleep, hero, until another trumpet shall shake the heavens and earth ! Then come forth to glory in mv. mortality !" - I