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[166] which have proved his devotion to the country. He is, in words as well as deeds, a firm, unhesitating supporter of Congress in its reconstruction policy, and a strenuous opponent of executive usurpation and disregard of law.

Though retiring and undemonstrative in manner, he is by no means repulsive or inaccessible. On the contrary, he is easily approached, and is courteous and pleasant. But the citadel of his thoughts and purposes he does not yield either to the bold assaults of brazen inquisitors, or to the wary approaches of cunning diplomatists.

Of all the distinguished officers in the army, Grant has always been the most unostentatious and unpretending in appearance and manner. He is careless, but not slovenly in his dress, and is so devoid of any air of importance, that but for the four stars upon his shoulder-straps, no one would suppose he was more than a hard-worked quartermaster's subordinate. In the winter of 1865, shortly before his final and triumphant campaign, while in Washington, he visited the Capitol, and was received with becoming respect by the members of Congress. But so quiet and modest was his deportment, that when he retired from the Senate chamber, a Democratic senator declared that “a gross mistake had been made in appointing Grant lieutenant general, for, in his opinion, there was not a second lieutenant of the home guard of his state who did not ‘cut a bigger swell’ than this man who had just left their presence!” Such is his modesty and simplicity of demeanor on all occasions, except when at the very front he gives orders on the field of battle; and then

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