we were both residents of Galena, a little city of Illinois, a mining town, built in a gulch so that the cross streets are made of wooden stairs. Then I occupied an office immediately over his father's leather store, where he served behind the counter faithfully for about one and one-half dollars per day. In that city, just before the war, I had the honor of addressing him and others in a Fourth of July address, in which I confidently predicted and earnestly prayed for a continuance of the Union, without rebellion and without bloodshed. I next saw him at the height of his official career in Washington, just after his election for the second time to the Presidency by an almost unanimous vote of the states. And for the third and last time I saw him in Columbus, when our people thronged to honor him who was just returning from his journey around the world, wherein he had been the guest of kings and emperors, himself the first representative of the richest and most powerful people on the globe when united and of one purpose, bar none. In each case I found Grant the same stout, imperturbable, sphynxlike man—a man of about five feet seven in stature, of about 160 pounds in weight, of compact figure, with heavy shoulders, a brown spade beard and moustaches of the same effect, an impenetrable gray eye, a strong, determined jaw, and of careless yet reassuring manners. After this you know how well he died; how he looked calmly and fearlessly at the inevitable doom; how he occupied himself in his last hours with sending to his countrymen messages of peace and personal good will; and how now, in wonderful contrast with this humble and decaying birth cottage, then standing solitary by the placid Ohio, hearing only the puff of the 'scape pipe, the cry of the raftsmen, the scream of the owl or piping of the quail, there is rising in the heart of the busy metropolis on the banks of the majestic Hudson a mausoleum of unequaled magnificence, permanent in appearance as the very rock from which it rises a mausoleum almost at this very hour being visited as the first of duties and sacred pleasures by the first of Chinese, the representative of an empire that was great before Columbus entered upon his momentous voyage; an empire governing 400,000,000 of bodies, a people the inventors of gunpowder, of which Grant consumed more than any man that ever lived; an empire which sneers at all others as outside barbarians, harboring a people which defends its frontier by walls of masonry; where the mental training of woman is not considered; where foreigners are thought to use the bodies of babies in the foundations of their temples; which uses silver for its currency, and flies in large numbers before squads of Japanese when guns are pointed at their battalions in a careless way. The important characteristics of Grant were, first, his firmness of will. Mrs. Grant, in speaking of some campaign of his, said that he was an obstinate man; and obstinacy, or persistency in good purpose, was what finally won for him the success which made his name imperishable and this occasion possible. Another characteristic of Grant was his simplicity. He issued no high-sounding phrase, such as is fitted to arouse French enthusiasm, like that of Napoleon when he said; "Soldiers, from yonder pyramids forty centuries look down upon you." No; he said: "I propose to fight it out on this line if it takes all summer." There was never any pomp and circumstance about him. "When I started from the river to invest Vicksburg," says he, "I took my horse and a tooth-brush." He was brave-for he was an American. He was patriotic-he was patient. Honor the man of long-enduring blood And so with reverence we salute and leave the birth-hall of that great spirit. And we turn our eyes to the empyrean trustful that in the Valhalla of heroes that great spirit is still watching with love and hope and care over the fortunes of the great bark which once he saved from disruption upon the rude rocks of secession. Great spirit be with us still. Hover above and guide us, and may to-morrow's sun see every sail distended with the trade winds of confidence and employment, upon the bridge an executive who commands from truck to keel, in the pilot house a supreme authority not changed from day to day, and in the cabin, where all may see, a chart of depths and shoals and quick sands to control the destinies of the great Republic, whose life for mankind's good should last while lasts the world ripening as it rolls. After music by the band, Governor Bushnell was introduced and spoke briefly on the appropriateness of the movement on the part of the citizens to establish a monument to the memory of one of the most honored sons of the great state. The governor commended Mr. Chittenden for his unstinted generosity in placing the cottage on the grounds and the board of agriculture in later providing a shelter for it in order that it might not be soon removed by the ravages of the weather. A glowing compliment was paid by the governor to the members of the national guard for the part taken by them in the exercises. The military career made by General Grant was the most glorious in the history of the nation and it was his achievement as a soldier that brought before the people his true character. When Governor Bushnell had finished his address, the band struck up "The Star Spangled Banner," and as the last notes of that grand old national air died away, the national guard was brought to the " present," the national salute was fired by the detachment of battery H and the stars and stripes were run up on the pole over the building. When the salute, which consisted of several rounds, was finished, the band played "Hail Columbia," after which the formal exercises were concluded with the benediction by Rev. W. R. Parsons. The doors of the building were then thrown open and visitors were allowed to pass through the cottage. |