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Foreword
- Southern Illinois University Press
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Foreword EARLY IN 1885 Americans learned that General Ulysses S. Grant was writing his memoirs in a desperate race for time against an incurable cancer. For six months newspaper readers followed the dramatic contest, and the hearts of Americans were touched by the general's last battle. Not all had sympathized with his plight one year earlier, when the swindles of Ferdinand Ward had left the Grant family destitute, for there was room for criticism of the ex-president's involvement with Wall Street, and of his great naIvete which furthered Ward's simple theft. Yet all could sympathize with the great bond of family affection which drove Grant on, despite exeruciating pain, to leave some support for his family. Grant first gave the American people reason for identification with him during the Civil War when he led his armies with a refreshing lack of military show. Rarely in full uniform, never brandishing his sword to lead a charge, and always conscious of the painful costs of war, Grant impressed his fellow Amerieans as a satisfyingly unmilitary general. Resilience, resistance to outside pressure, and receptivity to innovation-eommon traits carried to their heights-were the marks of his generalship. Accepting both victory and defeat with the same equanimity, he pursued a dogged course toward peace. At Appomattox and afterward he showed a deep desire for genuine reconciliation of North and South. The unmilitary general was also an unpolitical president. He pursued an independent course, thought through his decisions xiii xiv Foreword carefully, and paid little attention to his critics. Though less successful in the White House than on the battlefield, most Americans could credit him with trying, and his last message to Congress contained something of an apology for mistakes. Stubbornness and errors in judgment of men, his most notable flaws, were again common traits. Years after leaving the White House he made his first political speech. The victorious general of the Civil War, the youngest man elected president until the twentieth century- then triumphantly ree1ected--never lost touch with the simple realities of American life. Devoted to his family, loyal to his friends, and ordinary in manner and appearance, his character combined elements extremely simple and extraordinarily complex. "What an illustration ," marveled Walt Whitman, "of the capacities of that American individuality common to us all." President Lincoln had died with shattering suddenness in an assassination dramatically timed and under circumstances encouraging the development of legend and myth. Grant, however, faded away in a manner sadly familiar to many American families . He accepted the inevitable with quiet courage, and the battle to finish his memoirs once more roused the Grant of Shiloh and Vicksburg. Though grateful for research and secretarial assistance, he was determined to compose the book himself ; for Grant, there was no other way. Under the circumstances, it was victory enough that the Memoirs were completed; their remarkable quality made them a triumph. Grant onee again displayed the modesty, equanimity, and fairness which were his characteristics, and added a surprising sense of humor and literary ability. Matthew Arnold, the English critic, who had once met Grant and found him uninteresting , through the Memoirs now met a man of admirable character. Though the language lacked "high breeding," he found it "straightforward, nervous, firm, possessing in general the high mcrit of saying clearly in the fewest possible words what had to be said, and saying it, frequently, with shrewd and unexpected turns of expression." Mark Twain took angry exception to Arnold's remarks eoncerning Grant's grammar, and [44.198.57.9] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 10:52 GMT) Foreword xv went on to praise the Memoirs as "something which will still bring to American ears, as long as America shall last, the roll of his vanished drums and the tread of his marching hosts." Grant's last year, then, was one of both personal and literary triumph in the midst of tragedy. It has long deserved careful scholarly attention both for what it reveals about a great American hero afld about the people who considered him heroic. Though told without maudlin touches, the story will still leave few emotionally uninvolved, for it is an account of pain and suffering as well as mighty deeds, and truly deserves to be considered the general's final victory. Carbondale, Illinois January 1973 John Y. Simon Executive Director Ulysses S. Grant Association ...