It is to be commended in Gen. Grant that he declares he shall have "no policy to enforce against the will of the people." Mr. Lincoln was reproached that he had “no policy;" but it is one of his enduring titles to our gratitude.

The mission of the reformer, and the duty of the chief magistrate of a republic, are not the same. The reformer, who goes far in advance of the people, may shape the opinions of the generation which is to follow him, not those of the generation in which he lives; but this is not the work of the wise and successful magistrate, who must move with the people, or not move at all. The office of President of the United States is not a hobby-horse: it was not created to afford any man an opportunity to experiment with his peculiar crotchets in morals or politics. An enthusiast might have issued the Emancipation Proclamation the morning after the attack on Sumter, and, by so doing, destroyed all his influence for good during the first year of the war, and secured a Congress eager to oppose his wishes and defeat his plans. Time is an ally who will not be despised without taking fearful revenge. In a free government, the statute-book represents the will of the people; and the Executive is under oath to "execute the laws," not nullify or evade them. What Sir Joshua Reynolds says of the domain of art is in a measure true in affairs of State, "The present and future are rivals: he who solicits. the one will be discountenanced by the other." Bulwer, in one of his essays, happily says, "Statesmen are valued while living, less according to the degree of their intellect than to its felicitous application to the

public exigencies or the prevalent opinions. Time, like law, admits no excuse for the man who misunderstands it." When a man has committed himself to great principles, it is useless for him to declare the particular measures by which he will accomplish the result. Mr. Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation; but the convention which nominated him averred that the party would not interfere with slavery in the States. A nation like ours cannot be adjusted to a fabled bed of Procrustes, and stretched or shortened against its will to fit any man's policy. The true American doctrine was never better expressed than by Gen. Grant when he said, "This is a republic, where the will of the people is the law of the land."

While opposing the Rebellion with his utmost vigor, Gen. Grant has exhibited towards its authors the greatest magnanimity in the hour of their defeat. In no single instance has he ever sought to humiliate or degrade the men of the South. His opposition to the Rebellion has been touched with no trace of personal malice, or revenge toward individuals. He has admitted, as did all the world, the marvellous devotion of the South to the theories it had espoused. It is doubtful if any nation in history has ever shown more enthusiasm, more heroism, more self-sacrifice, than the men, women, and children of the South to the worst cause for which a people ever fought and died. Without an army or navy or treasury, they successfully defied and resisted the Government for years. Gen, Grant recognized the political heresies in which Southern men had been educated; and, while defeating their insane purpose to destroy the Union, looked forward to the

time, when, freed from the curse of slavery, and yielding obedience to the laws, they should share the duties and partake the blessings of a regenerated republic. These sentiments are admirably expressed by Gen. Grant in the closing words of his report, in July, 1865. Speaking of the armies of the East and West, he says, "The splendid achievements of each have nationalized our victories, removed all sectional jealousies (of which we have unfortunately experienced too much), and the cause of crimination and recrimination that might have followed had either section failed in its duty. All have a proud record; and all sections can well congratulate themselves and each other for having done their full share in restoring the supremacy of law over every foot of territory belonging to the United States. Let them hope for perpetual peace and harmony with that enemy whose manhood, however mistaken the cause, drew forth such herculean deeds of valor." This is the utterance of a patriotism broad and wide as the nation itself. It will be fortunate for our country if it shall be guided by its wisdom and animated by its spirit.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

OF

HON. HENRY WILSON.

H

He was

ENRY WILSON was born in Farmington, Strafford County, New Hampshire, February 16, 1812. It was one of those dreary, sterile regions from which New England has sent forth so many poor boys to usefulness and bright renown. of Scotch-Irish descent, and his parents were among the poorest of those, in what was comparatively a wilderness, who struggled for a scanty subsistence with a rigorous climate and a barren and thankless soil. The family had contended with poverty for two generations, when Henry, the oldest of eight boys, went to serve an apprenticeship to a Mr. Knight, a farmer in the neighborhood, and his lot was fixed until he was twenty-one.

Schools were few and poor. It was part of Mr. Knight's hard, close bargain that Henry should go to school one month out of twelve; but afterwards,

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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF HENRY WILSON. 351

being "a strict constructionist," he decided to give the boy his one month in odd days, weeks apart, when there was no work to be done. One day, when going on an errand, a lady noticed him, inquired his name, asked him if he could read, and struck by the lad's intelligent face, promised to lend him a book if he would come to her house to obtain it. He went; she loaned him the New Testament, and offered him the use of her husband's library. Her husband was a lawyer in the vicinity, and the lady proved to be a Mrs. Eastman, a sister of Levi Woodbury, the governor of New Hampshire. How little she dreamed of the effects of her promise! "Some seeds fell on good ground, and brought forth fruit an hundred fold." Lamps and candles were luxuries, but before the boy was twenty-one he had read by moonlight, and the light of the fire in long evenings, nearly a thousand volumes, with numberless newspapers, and he read with a memory that relinquished nothing. His kind friends ministered to his hunger for reading, and often predicted for him a brilliant future. It recalls the beautiful story which Curran, in his later years, used to relate to his guests at his table of his early benefactor and friend. "When I was a poor boy," said he, “I was one day playing marbles in the village of Ballalley, when a stranger of remarkable appearance spoke to me, inquired my name, subsequently taught me to read, sent me to school, sent me to the university, gave me my education; then I lost sight of him for thirty-five years. I had attained some eminence at the bar, and had a seat in Parliament, when one day, returning home, I found an old gentle