178 Grant 



skirmishing out there, or who think that our rule is 

 a failure whenever they discover some sporadic up 

 growth of evil, would do well to remember the two 

 long years of disaster this nation suffered before the 

 July morning when the news was flashed to the wait 

 ing millions that Vicksburg had fallen in the West 

 and that in the East the splendid soldiery of Lee had 

 recoiled at last from the low hills of Gettysburg. 

 Even after this nearly two years more were to pass 

 before the end came at Appomattox. Throughout 

 this time the cry of prophets of disaster never ceased. 

 The peace-at-any-price men never wearied of de 

 claiming against the war, of describing the evils of 

 conquest and subjugation as worse than any possible 

 benefits that could result therefrom. The hysterical 

 minority passed alternately from unreasoning confi 

 dence to unreasoning despair ; and at times they even 

 infected for the moment many of their sober, steady 

 countrymen. Eighteen months after the war began 

 the State and Congressional elections went heavily 

 against the war party, and two years later the oppo 

 sition party actually waged the Presidential cam 

 paign on the issue that the war was a failure. Mean 

 while there was plenty of blundering at the front, 

 plenty of mistakes at Washington. The country was 

 saved by the fact that our people, as a whole, were 

 steadfast and unshaken. Both at Washington and at 

 the front the leaders were men of undaunted resolu- 



