Adam Badeau, Grant in peace: from Appomattox to Mount McGregor, a personal memoir

[354] of that day toward himself and his political friends. But just as he turned, in the moment of defeat at Chicago, to the consideration of the resources of the country at the West, so, while suffering what he considered slights and rebuffs at the hands of his successor, he was devising a great international scheme to exchange benefits and productions with the neighboring republic; and later, at the very moment when another Administration refused his applications, he nevertheless accepted an appointment under it, for the sake of advancing the same enterprise.

To my mind there is a greater magnanimity in his course because it was so difficult. He deserves infinitely greater plaudits because he felt keenly and stifled his feelings than if he had been a block, and insensible or indifferent to emotions or circumstances. Grant was full of emotion when his own interests, or passions, or pride was concerned. His appetites were fierce, his temptations strong. If he rose superior to them, he merits and will receive a higher meed of praise. His nature was not stolid although it was restrained, nor unimpassioned because undemonstrative. He was no marble statue, that could feel neither heat nor cold, but a live man, human to the core. If you tickled him, he would laugh; if you pricked him he would bleed. For such a man to subdue his emotions, to conquer his appetites, to master his passions, and perform the work that he achieved for his country and his time was as much grander than the dull performances of those who are not tempted as humanity is greater than mechanism, or flesh and blood than wood or stone.