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03 - Ulysses S. Grant by Owen Wister · Ulysses S. Grant

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  Speaker 1: Section three of Ulysses s. Grant by Owen Wister. This
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapter four. He
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  Speaker 1: was twenty one and five feet seven inches high, but
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  Speaker 1: bulky no longer. A threatening cough had reduced him to
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  Speaker 1: one hundred and seventeen pounds his weight four years earlier,
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  Speaker 1: though he had grown six inches. For a time, his
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  Speaker 1: hours were fairly free, and he made the acquaintance of
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  Speaker 1: a classmate's sister, Miss Julia Dent, living in the neighborhood.
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  Speaker 1: When Texas and Mexican affairs called his regiment to Louisiana
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  Speaker 1: in the following May, he found that he regarded Miss
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  Speaker 1: Dent as more than an acquaintance, and they became engaged.
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  Speaker 1: Before the end of the month. He was in camp
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  Speaker 1: near the Red River on high ground, so healthy that
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  Speaker 1: they named it Camp Salubrity, And presently he was cured
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  Speaker 1: of his cough and developed a reddish beard that is
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  Speaker 1: described as being much too long for such a youth.
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  Speaker 1: General Richard Taylor of the Confederacy remembers him at this
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  Speaker 1: time as a modest, amiable, but by no means promising
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  Speaker 1: lieutenant in a marching regiment. But Taylor could scarcely have
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  Speaker 1: held this estimate after Molino del Rey and Chapultepec. In
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  Speaker 1: the months of peace proceeding, whether in Louisiana or Corpus Christi,
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  Speaker 1: Grant's thoughts still saw the goal of a professorship. Nor
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  Speaker 1: was his heart in the Mexican War. When it came,
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  Speaker 1: he pronounces it unholy, and he writes the Southern Rebellion
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  Speaker 1: was largely the outgrowth of the Mexican War. Nations, like individuals,
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  Speaker 1: are punished for their transgressions. This forty years retrospect is
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  Speaker 1: consistent with his letter after Sarah Gordo, you say you
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  Speaker 1: would like to hear more about the war, Tell them
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  Speaker 1: I am heartily tired of the wars. On the intellectual side,
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  Speaker 1: his letters read stark and bald as time tables Mexico, Cortez,
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  Speaker 1: Montezuma are nothing to him. But his constant love of
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  Speaker 1: nature leads him to remark and count the strange birds
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  Speaker 1: of the country, and he speaks of the beauty of
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  Speaker 1: the mountain sides covered with palms which toss to and
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  Speaker 1: fro in the wind like plumes in a helmet. This
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  Speaker 1: poetical note rings so strangely in the midst of his
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  Speaker 1: even matter of fact words that one wonders, did he
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  Speaker 1: not hear some one else say it and adopt it
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  Speaker 1: because he thought it good? It was his habit to
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  Speaker 1: do this. It is thus that many years later the
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  Speaker 1: famous bottling up of Butler came to be so described.
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  Speaker 1: Yet though his heart was not in this war, he
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  Speaker 1: shone in its battles. He was in all fights that
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  Speaker 1: he could be in, and in several that he need
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  Speaker 1: not have been in. For after the capture of Vera Cruz,
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  Speaker 1: he was appointed regimental quartermaster, and this position puts an
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  Speaker 1: officer in charge of the trains and furnishes him with
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  Speaker 1: a valid reason for staying behind with them. Grant never did, however,
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  Speaker 1: but was always in the thick of the action. He
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  Speaker 1: was commended in reports breveted first lieutenant for distinguished service
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  Speaker 1: at Molino del Rey, but deaths in that battle brought
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  Speaker 1: him full first lieutenancy, and for acquitting himself most nobly
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  Speaker 1: at Chapultepec, he received the brevet of captain. Yet these
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  Speaker 1: honors do not show him so much out of the
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  Speaker 1: common as what quietly happened between him and general works.
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  Speaker 1: At San Cosmy. He had found a belfry which commanded
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  Speaker 1: an important position of the enemy, and to the top
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  Speaker 1: of this he, with a few men, had managed to
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  Speaker 1: get a mountain howitzer. Presently. General Worth observed and sent
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  Speaker 1: a staff officer for him, Pemberton of Vicksburg. Worth expressed
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  Speaker 1: his gratification at the services the howitzer in the church
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  Speaker 1: steeple was doing, and ordered a captain of Voltiges to
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  Speaker 1: report to me with another howitzer. I could not tell
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  Speaker 1: the General that there was not room enough in the
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  Speaker 1: steeple for another gun, because he probably would have looked
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  Speaker 1: upon such a statement as a contradiction from a second lieutenant.
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  Speaker 1: I took the captain with me, but did not use
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  Speaker 1: the gun. Here, in his prompt and perfect sagacity stands
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  Speaker 1: the future grant quite plain. Thus ends this chapter of
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  Speaker 1: his life, and in he may be said to have
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  Speaker 1: hit the mark. His careless dress and modesty had not
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  Speaker 1: entirely hidden the man beneath them, and now follows a
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  Speaker 1: darkening time in which he misses the mark. Altogether. War
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  Speaker 1: had forced him to exert himself. When war stopped, he stopped.
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  Speaker 1: Also his ease loving nature furnished no inward ambition to
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  Speaker 1: keep him going, and so in the dead calm of
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  Speaker 1: a frontier post, he degenerated. This drifting and stagnation filled
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  Speaker 1: thirteen years, but is not long to tell. In July
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  Speaker 1: eighteen forty eight, he left Mexico for Mississippi with his regiment.
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  Speaker 1: He was a brevet captain and twenty six years old.
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  Speaker 1: In August he was married. As quartermaster, the regiment's new
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  Speaker 1: headquarters at Detroit should have been his post that winter,
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  Speaker 1: but other officer ordered to Sackett's Harbor preferred the gaiety
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  Speaker 1: of Detroit and managed one sees the thing to day
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  Speaker 1: often enough to have Grant sent to Sackett's Harbor and
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  Speaker 1: himself made acting quartermaster at Detroit. This meanness was righted
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  Speaker 1: by General Scott in the spring, and in later days Grant,
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  Speaker 1: having the chance to even things with the brother officer,
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  Speaker 1: did not take it, but stood his friend. In June
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  Speaker 1: eighteen fifty one, Sackett's Harbor became regimental headquarters, and Grant
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  Speaker 1: was there for twelve months when he was ordered to
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  Speaker 1: the Pacific by way of the Isthmus. On account of
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  Speaker 1: her health, Missus Grant did not go with him. He
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  Speaker 1: passed the next year on the Columbia River at what
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  Speaker 1: is now Fort Vancouver, where he was both post and
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  Speaker 1: regimental quartermaster. One last year he spent as captain of
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  Speaker 1: FIE Company, fourth Infantry at Humboldt Bay. Then he left
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  Speaker 1: the army, resigning July thirty one, h eighteen fifty four.
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  Speaker 1: Such were his moves and removes of his doings, the
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  Speaker 1: tale is equally brief. He was known for his exploits
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  Speaker 1: with horses. Otherwise he was unknown save to the very
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  Speaker 1: few brought by chance or duty into familiarity with him.
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  Speaker 1: To provincial blood and environment, he added an extraordinary personal
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  Speaker 1: powerlessness to express himself or go through his manners. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: he had no manners, which is far better than having
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  Speaker 1: bad ones, to be sure, and a certain something in
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  Speaker 1: him seems to have held even the most familiar at
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  Speaker 1: a distance. But even Georgetown and Galena found him wanting,
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  Speaker 1: and this social dumbness did not wholly wear off until
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  Speaker 1: he had been twice Vice President and had traveled round
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  Speaker 1: the world. Either great strain or great on we may
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  Speaker 1: drive a strong, resourceless man to drink, and both at
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  Speaker 1: different times visited Grant and overcame him. It has been
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  Speaker 1: plainly written, but is seldom remembered, that his head in
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  Speaker 1: these days was singularly light, a strange thing in such
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  Speaker 1: a temperament, but well authenticated. Very little was too much
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  Speaker 1: for him. Never to touch liquor was his only safety.
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  Speaker 1: How he left the army is conflictingly told. He could
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  Speaker 1: scarcely be expected to explain it himself. It is only
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  Speaker 1: the Franklins and the Rousseaus who can be as impersonally
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  Speaker 1: candid as that. Richardson's version closely tallies with what is
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  Speaker 1: still reported on the coast. Grant's commandant asked for his resignation,
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  Speaker 1: which was not to be forwarded to Washington, but held
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  Speaker 1: in escrow, so to speak, that he might pull himself together.
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  Speaker 1: He could not, and the plain truth is that he
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  Speaker 1: drank himself out of the army. He departed into an
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  Speaker 1: era that was to be one of deepening gloom, remarking,
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  Speaker 1: whoever hears of me in ten years will hear of
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  Speaker 1: a well to do old Missouri farmer. Expecting money at
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  Speaker 1: San Francisco, he did not get it. Sixteen hundred dollars
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  Speaker 1: were also owed him by the post trader at Vancouver.
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  Speaker 1: He saw the man again, but the dollars never The
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  Speaker 1: chief Quartermaster of the coast found him penniless and forlorn,
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  Speaker 1: and helped him to go east in New York. He
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  Speaker 1: was generously helped by Buckner, who had ascended Popapotta Kettle
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  Speaker 1: with him. In the autumn, he is seen working as
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  Speaker 1: a laborer on his father in law's farm near Saint
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  Speaker 1: Lewis with his own hands. He builds a cabin on
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  Speaker 1: some of this land and names it hard Scrabble. It
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  Speaker 1: is recorded that every animal about his farm was a pet.
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  Speaker 1: In eighteen fifty eight he sold his farm at auction.
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  Speaker 1: He went into real estate and next into the custom house,
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  Speaker 1: and was even an auctioneer. It is said sometimes army
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  Speaker 1: friends came to visit him, for he retained their regard,
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  Speaker 1: and with overalls tucked in his boots, he would dine
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  Speaker 1: with them at the planter's house. Personally lonely, he was
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  Speaker 1: also out of sympathy with Saint Louis politics, and although
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  Speaker 1: the events of the world had at length begun to
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  Speaker 1: stir his strong brains, and he had opinions not only
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  Speaker 1: about slavery but also about the Italian War, and studied
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  Speaker 1: maps and newspapers minutely. His comments were received with indulgence
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  Speaker 1: for his audience, looking at the man could scarcely look
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  Speaker 1: for wisdom from him. There came a time when he
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  Speaker 1: walked the streets seeking employment. So painful was it all
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  Speaker 1: that those who knew him preferred to cross the street
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  Speaker 1: rather than meet him. Can any one gage the despair
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  Speaker 1: of a man who, little as he studied himself, must
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  Speaker 1: have known how far below himself he was living. In
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  Speaker 1: March eighteen sixty Grant went to weigh leather and buy
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  Speaker 1: hides for his father's branch store in Galena. He was
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  Speaker 1: paid six hundred dollars at first, and later eight hundred,
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  Speaker 1: but this did not support his wife and four children.
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  Speaker 1: He went to the war in debt, which he paid
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  Speaker 1: from his first military savings. In eighteen sixty six, he
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  Speaker 1: refused his inheritance, saying that he had helped to make
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  Speaker 1: none of his father's wealth. This must be remembered in
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  Speaker 1: considering Grant's acceptance of presence in acknowledgment of his military services.
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  Speaker 1: The year at Gallena was more than ever isolated. His
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  Speaker 1: quiet judgment, however, seems to have been wide awake. He
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  Speaker 1: went to hear Douglas during the campaign of this year, and,
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  Speaker 1: being asked how he liked him, answered he is a
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  Speaker 1: very able at least a very smart man, and from
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  Speaker 1: having been a Democrat so far as he was definitely
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  Speaker 1: anything political. His change of view dates from this occasion.
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  Speaker 1: The words of Douglas caused him to rejoice over Lincoln's election,
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  Speaker 1: except his vote for Buchanan. His single political manifestation previous
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  Speaker 1: to this had been to join the know nothings at
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  Speaker 1: Saint Louis and attend one meeting. But now he had
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  Speaker 1: listened to Douglas and preferredly Lincoln, and South Carolina had seceded,
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  Speaker 1: the state of the country became his one thought. It
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  Speaker 1: is interesting to reflect that South Carolina, the first state
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  Speaker 1: to leave the Union, sent one man in thirty eight
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  Speaker 1: to the Revolution, while Grant's ancestral state, Connecticut, furnished one
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  Speaker 1: man in seven or five times as many. Virginia furnished
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  Speaker 1: one in twenty eight. End of Chapter four