A young man of his acquaintance had, not long before, gone to West Point. Jesse Grant had much admired some of the army men that he had known something of as military men. He was a democrat of the real Jacksonian stripe. It occurred to him to ask Ulysses how he would like to go to West Point. "First rate," was his prompt reply. Jesse knew the congressman from his district, and he at once applied for an appointment for Ulysses. The member had no vacancy in his district, but a neighbor member had, and so it was soon arranged that Jesse Grant's son should have the appointment. It was a quick, new turn of affairs in the Grant family. This silent, calm, oldest boy, that looked so little like a soldier, or anything very promising, to other eyes than his family's, must now be got ready for his cadet appointment at West Point. There was a buzz in the neighborhood. Some wise ones shook their heads. Everybody wondered. Of all the youth in the county, this was the last one the Georgetown people would have thought of for an officer to lead our armies. "Nothing against him;" but, then, "nothing of him," they thought.

Here comes in the glory of our institutions. This is the country that believes in the plain common sense and common talent of the people. Ulysses S. Grant could not have been the great man he is in any other country. The republic makes common men great when greatness is needed.

GRANT A CADET.

The member of Congress who made the application for Ulysses, got the impression that his name was Ulysses Simpson Grant, because he knew one of the boy's names was Simpson, and so the name went upon the books at West Point in that form, and he never succeeded in getting it changed.

Before going, he took a short course of special study, by the aid of which he passed a fair examination. He went through his course at West Point respectably; averaging fair in his recitations; having a good record in deportment; awakening no suspicion of greatness to come. He was noted for calmness, fairness, for speaking without exaggeration, for being just what

he seemed. He could master any studies easily, yet studied no more than was necessary for fair standing. He was not an ambitious scholar; had no craving for knowledge; yet could easily do much more than he did. In the final result of his course, he stood twenty-first in a class of thirty-five. But in one thing he surpassed all the cadets of all the classes there during his stay. That was in horsemanship. He was a graceful and skillful rider, and a master of the horses he rode. One horse, by the name of York, a tall, coarsely-made, but powerful and spirited animal, which few could ride at all, was his favorite horse. At the final examination, before the board of examiners and the great company of visitors, he appeared on York and made the celebrated leap, which stands recorded, "Grant's leap on York," six feet and some two or three inches, over a pole, the highest leap that had ever been made at the academy. He graduated June 31, 1843.

LIEUTENANT GRANT.

Mr. Grant was breveted at once Second-lieutenant Grant in the fourth infantry, then located at Jefferson barracks, near St. Louis. After the ninety days furlough given the cadets after their graduation. during which he visited his friends in Ohio, he repaired to his regiment. With little to do, and without studious habits, he must find some way to employ his time. The near city afforded much opportunity; but the home of his classmate's father, Colonel Frederick Dent, at Gravois creek, ten miles southwest of the city, offered special attractions. Julia Dent, three years younger than himself, with a slave waiter just her own age, so that she had nothing to do but make herself agreeable, made it exceedingly pleasant at her home for the young lieutenant. It soon became an apparent necessity for him to spend much time with the Dents.

Early in May, 1844, Lieutenant Grant visited his home in Ohio. But he had hardly got away from his barracks when his regiment received orders to start for Red river, to render assistance in the war with Mexico, just coming on. An order for him to meet his regiment at its place of destination followed

him, and cut his visit short. The regiment remained there a year. In June, 1845, it moved to a point four miles below New Orleans, near the old Jackson battle ground. There it remained till August, when it went forward to Corpus Christi, Texas. In October Grant was made regular second-lieutenant. In March, 1846, the force at Corpus Christi was ordered to move forward to the Rio Grande. On the second of May it was in the battle of Palo Alto (high timber), near the Rio Grande, under General Taylor. The next day the battle of Resaca de la Palma (grove of palms) was fought. In both of these battles Grant's regiment was in active work. Nine days after, General Taylor with his force crossed the Rio Grande and took possession of Matamoras.

Grant's regiment moved on with the army and fought in the battle of Monterey. It was here where Grant did the fierce riding through shot and shell for ammunition. He had been made quartermaster; and losing several officers, he was made adjutant. Grant's regiment was in the battles of Buena Vista and Puebla. It led in the skirmishes of Contreras and San Antonio and in the battle of Cherubusco. At Chepultepec he was so conspicuous that he was breveted, then promoted to a first-lieutenancy. The army moved upon the city of Mexico and the next morning it surrendered and the war was over. It cost us twenty-five thousand men. It was some months before the army returned, but as soon as possible our lieutenant visited Miss Dent and his parents in Ohio.

GRANT'S MARRIAGE.

On the twenty-second of August, 1848, at the Dent residence on Fourth street, St. Louis, Lieutenant Ulysses S. Grant and Miss Julia B. Dent, were married. After the visitings and pleasurings of such occasions were over, they went to the head quarters of his regiment, at Detroit. He was soon ordered to Sackett's Harbor, New York, where he and his wife spent the winter, returning to Detroit in the spring, and setting up housekeeping in such a moderate way as he was able.

In 1850, they broke up housekeeping and Mrs. Grant went to

her father. The next season the regiment was ordered to Sackett's Harbor, and the next to California. Here he was promoted to a captaincy, giving up the quarter-master's duties, which he had performed for some years. At Fort Humboldt, two hundred and forty miles north of San Francisco, where he was stationed, he found little to occupy his mind. His family was in St. Louis. He was lonely, and little interested in anything about him, and in this low state of mind he took to drink to drown his melancholy moods. At Sackett's Harbor he was a member of the Sons of Temperance and the Odd Fellows. No fraternities of this kind were here; no help from wife and children, for he now had two children, cheered him; no society guarded him. This lonely, far-off fort, offered the only enemy he did not resist with force and success. On this battlefield he was beaten. It was the misfortune of his life. It was an evil habit sooner taken on than put off. It followed him wherever he went and for some years produced failure in whatever he attempted, and put him among a class of associates and into places that did not belong to him.

Rumor came to his ears that he was likely to be displaced, or reprimanded if he did not reform; and so he at once sent in his resignation, remarking to a friend: "Whoever hears of me in ten years will hear of a well-to-do old Missouri farmer." He started at once for New York, and reaching Governors Island, forlorn and penniless; some brother officers gave him money and sympathy, both of which were equally needed now in his illfortune. He went to Sackett's Harbor to find the former sutler of his regiment, to whom, in the days of better fortune, he had lent sixteen hundred dollars, whom he found, but without the disposition, or the money to pay him. He returned to New York again, penniless and crest-fallen. Evil days had come upon him. He was out of the army, without employment, in disgrace and destitution. Like other prodigals, he thought of his father, and wrote to him. In answer, his brother Simpson came to his relief with the old home love, and money to take him to his wife and children, at her father's in St. Louis. After a visit there he went with his family to his father's, now at Covington,

Kentucky, where he remained for several months.

He was

now thirty-two years old and in this sad plight-a dependent on his and his wife's parents in consequence of his drunken habits.

CAPTAIN GRANT A FARMER.

There seemed nothing else to be done but to go to Whitehaven, at Gravois (gravel) creek, ten miles out the Gravois road at St. Louis, and take up farming on sixty acres of the old Dent farm, which her father had given to Mrs. Grant. So, to her old birthplace they went, and put up a log cabin, and set up for farmers. He named the place "Hardscrabble." The writer of this sketch lived five years three miles out on the Gravios road, and often heard of "Hardscrabble" farther out, but little thought of its owner as the future president of the republic. Mrs. Grant had three or four slaves, but her husband knew little how to work them to advantage. Hauling wood to St. Louis, was an important item in the business of the new farmer. This seemed like his boyhood's employment returned under new circumstances. He drove a good team; but his evil habit, if the reports of the neighbors are reliable, drove him sometimes on his return from the city. Though it seems that he fought against this evil habit, refusing to drink with army friends, as some of them report. It was the old story, a hard fight and often worsted.

GRANT A REAL ESTATE AGENT.

January 1, 1859, Captain Grant entered into partnership with Harry Boggs, who had married a niece of the Dent family. He rented Hardscrabble the next spring and hired a house in the city. He then sold his farm and bought in the city, but he found the scrabble quite as hard in the city as on the farm. In less than a year the firm dissolved. He then obtained a temporary position in the custom house, but in a month the collector died, and he was out again. Nothing opening, and having four children to care for, he went again to his father. His father had set up Ulysses' two brothers, Simpson and Orvill, in the tanning business, in Galena, Illinois. He referred the case of