lf always
inspired.

One peculiarity of General Grant's military career was his constant
readiness to fight. He wished for no long periods of preparation,
lost no opportunity which promptness could turn to advantage. He
always accepted, without cavil or question, the position to which
he might be assigned. He never troubled the War Department with
requests or complaints, and when injustice was inflicted upon him,
he submitted silently, and did a soldier's duty. Few men in any
service would have acquiesced so quietly as did General Grant, when
at the close of the remarkable campaign beginning at Fort Henry
and ending at Shiloh, he found himself superseded by General Halleck,
and assigned to a subordinate command in an army whose glory was
inseparably associated with his own name. Self-control is the
first requisite for him who aims to control others. In that
indispensable form of mental discipline General Grant exhibited
perfection.

When he was appointed Lieutenant-General, and placed in command of
all the armies of the Union, he exercised military control over a
greater number of men than has any general since the invention of
fire-arms. In the campaigns of 1864 and 1865, the armies of the
Union contained in the aggregate not less than a million of men.
The movements of all the vast forces were kept in harmony by his
comprehensive mind, and in the grand consummation which insured
Union and Liberty, his name became inseparably associated with the
true glory of his country.

Six days after the surrender of Lee, the Nation was thrown into
the deepest grief by the assassination of the President. The gloom
which enshrouded the country was as thick darkness. The people
had come, through many alterations of fear and hope, to repose the
most absolute trust in Mr. Lincoln. They realized that he had seen
clearly where they were blind, that he had known fully where they
were ignorant. He had been patient, faithful, and far-seeing.
Religious people regarded him as one divinely appointed, like the
prophets of old, to a great work, and they found comfort in the
parallel which they saw in his death with that of the leader of
Israel. He too had reached the mountain's top, and had seen the
land redeemed unto the utmost sea, and had then died.

CHARACTER OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN.

Mr. Lincoln had been some time in the Presidency before the public
estimate of him was correct o