Grant: "The glory he reflected upon his ancestors was greater than he could inherit." General Grant is of Scotch descent, and in those qualities which distinguish him shows that the Scotch blood still flows strongly through his veins. As far as research has been able to recover the characteristics of the Grant family, they appear to have been a hard-working, earnest, upright, conscientious and lawabiding race. Noah Grant, the grandfather of Ulysses, served with distinction during the entire Revolutionary War and after its conclusion, removed to Westmoreland County, Penn., where, on January 23, 1794, General Grant's father, Jesse Root Grant, was born. The name of General Grant's mother before marriage was Hanna Simpson, daughter of John Simpson, of Montgomery County, Penn. In her nineteenth year she emigrated with her father to Clermont County, Ohio. was married to Jesse Root Grant, June 24, 1821. She Grant's cadet warrant was made out for "ULYSSES SIDNEY," but he changed this to ULYSSES SIMPSON, in honor of his mother. When Gov. Yates proposed sending the name of Grant to Washington for the appointment of Brigadier-General -early in the war-Grant refused his consent, curtly replying: "He did not want promotion; he wanted to earn it." It is said of young Grant that he never had any personal quarrels with any one. He was quiet and inoffensive, but was not to be out-witted at a bargain. Grant's education, previous to entering West Point, was quite limited. It was only in the mid-winter months that his father could spare him for school. This was enough, however, to implant a desire for a more thorough education, which young Ulysses obtained at the West Point Military Academy. Unlike Napoleon, we hear nothing of young Grant "attacking snow forts," but he developed very early the faculty of "overcoming difficulties which would have checked other boys." If Napoleon could rebuke the genealogist who was creating for him a pedigree, with the words: "Friend, my patent dates from Monte Notte," Grant may claim his American nobility from Fort Donelson. When the fall of Fort Sumter startlea the nation, Grant, who was in Galena, said: "Uncle Sam educated me for the army, and although I have served faithfully through one war, I feel that I am still a little in debt for my education, and I am ready to discharge it and put down this rebellion." In his "Life of General U. S. Grant" Henry C. Deming aptly remarks: "I am rejoiced to find that Grant was undoubtedly one of that number of illustrious men whose character received its first and most essential impress from maternal influence. In the early and susceptible years of childhood, from a mother's lips, he imbibes those simple yet fundamental maxims and principles which are the enduring foundation of all wise conduct in life, all good institutions in human society. The love of truth, the sentiment of honor, fidelity, obedience, constancy, are practical lessons alike for the lisping child, the aspiring youth, the busy man-at home, in the school, on the farm, at the head of the army, in the councils of the nation. As in the realm of Nature the components of the material world are reduced by analysis to a few simple elements, upholding, illuminating, fructifying the whole universe by the simple and omnipresent influences of gravity, heat, and light, so all the institutions of society, and all the relations of kindred, friend, and country, are inspired and regulated by a few homely truths of universal application. Young Grant's mental development is an argument favoring mathematics as a mental discipline. He is said to have excelled only in this branch of study. out. There are some men in this world possessing immense mental power, who yet, from inertness, pass through life with poor success. Lighter natures outstrip them in the race for wealth or position, and the strength they really possess is never known, because it has never been called It never is called out by ordinary events. They were made for great emergencies, and if these do not arise, they seem almost made in vain; at least these extraordinary powers to be given them in vain. Grant is one of these. He is like a great wheel on which mere rills of water may drop forever without moving it, or if they succeed in disturbing its equilibrium, only make it accomplish a partial revolution. It needs an immense body of water to make it roll, and then it revolves with a power and majesty that awes the beholder. No slight obstruction can arrest its sweep. Acquiring momentum with each revolution, it crushes to atoms everything thrust before it to check its motion. AT WEST POINT. Young Grant a Cadet at West Point-An Interesting Account His Life at that Institution. Young Grant entered the Military Academy at West Point in June, 1838. His first experience in martial life was in the licensed squad-drill to which the "pleb" is subjected by the remorseless company officers of the cadet battalion, and in the unlicensed "hazing" with which the new recruit is ruthlessly disciplined during his first season in camp. At early dawn he is marched to and fro with the awkward squad over that famous plateau, to monotonous "One, two-one, two," which so frequently breaks in upon the morning nap of the guest at "Roe's;" and he may esteem himself fortunate if he is not rushed up the rugged road to Fort Putnam, at double-quick, on an empty stomach. When drill is dismissed, he betakes himself, with assumed composure, but with real anxiety, to the ambushes, surprises, flank movements, attacks in front and rear, which the senior cadets are preparing for him in the camp. Life at West Point, though attractive in its mere external aspects, is still more so in its internal relations to the mind and character of the national ward. He learns there self-control and obedience, which are no despicable attainments, either for the man or the soldier. With a course of study so difficult that it tasks all the strength, and so varied that it addresses every faculty of the mind, the student has only to be faithful to himself and his opportunities, and he may acquire that extreme degree of mental control |