The Project Gutenberg eBook, Letters of Ulysses S. Grant to His Father and
His Youngest Sister, 1857-78, by Ulysses S. Grant, Edited by Jesse Grant
Cramer

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Title: Letters of Ulysses S. Grant to His Father and His Youngest Sister,
1857-78

Author: Ulysses S. Grant

Release Date: September 15, 2004 [eBook #13471]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

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LETTERS OF ULYSSES S. GRANT TO HIS FATHER AND HIS YOUNGEST SISTER,
1857-78

Edited by his Nephew

JESSE GRANT CRAMER

With Portraits

1912

PREFACE

There has of late years been a tendency, as a result of the teachings
of certain historical authorities, to minimize the influence of the
leadership of the so-called Great Men, and to question the importance
of their work as a factor in shaping the history of the time. Great
events are referred to as brought about by such general influences as
"the spirit of the time" (Goethe's _Zeitgeist_), the "movement of
humanity," or "forces of society." If we accepted the theories of the
writers of this school, we should be forced to the conclusion that
generations of men move across the world's stage impelled by forces
entirely outside of themselves; and that as far as the opportunity of
individual action is concerned, that is for action initiated and
completed under his own will-power, man might almost as well be a
squirrel working in a revolving cage. The squirrel imagines that he
moves the cylinder, but the outsider knows that the movement is
predetermined, and that there is no change of position and no net
result from the exertion.

A large number of people hold, notwithstanding, to the old-time
feeling expressed, and doubtless exa