Grant 179 



tion, who would not abandon the policy to which 

 the nation was definitely committed, who regarded 

 disaster as merely a spur to fresh effort, who saw in 

 each blunder merely something to be retrieved, and 

 not a reason for abandoning the long-determined 

 course. Above all, the great mass of the people pos 

 sessed a tough and stubborn fibre of character. 



There was then, as always, ample room for criti 

 cism, and there was every reason why the mistakes 

 should be corrected. But in the long run our grati 

 tude was due primarily, not to the critics, not to the 

 fault-finders, but to the men who actually did the 

 work ; not to the men of negative policy, but to those 

 who struggled toward the given goal. Merciful ob 

 livion has swallowed up the names of those who 

 railed at the men who were saving the Union, while 

 it has given us the memory of these same men as a 

 heritage of honor forever ; and brightest among their 

 names flame those of Lincoln and Grant, the stead 

 fast, the unswerving, the enduring, the finally tri 

 umphant. 



Grant's supreme virtue as a soldier was his dog- 

 gedness, the quality which found expression in his 

 famous phrases of "unconditional surrender" and 

 "fighting it out on this line if it takes all summer." 

 He was a master of strategy and tactics, but he was 

 also a master of hard hitting, of that "continuous 

 hammering" which finally broke through even Lee's 



