saddle-horse, and very gentle in harness, but requires whip and spur. Hoping the Fair will realize the full expectations of loyal people, and do credit to the great and growing North-west, where it is being held, I remain, very truly your obedient servant, U. S. GRANT,

Lieutenant-General.

Every great military leader has had his favorite charger, his faithful war-horse. Cæsar, Cyrus, Alexander, Napoleon, the Iron Duke, Washington, and others, have all, in turn, been served by this tried and true companion, who have borne their distinguished leaders through every peril. Whether up the rocky Alps, over pilgrim plains, through swamps and trackless wilds, up death-laden fortifications, or in the civic triumphal procession, this faithful steed has proudly borne the hero of the day. The history of these noble animals would be a history of the wars of mankind, but I do not propose to give it; still, it is quite proper to aid the artist in a description of the famous charger, who served our country so well by serving others. Jack was a milk-white steed, and, as I remember him, in holiday prance at grand reviews and dress-parade, his alert step, trim form and graceful motion, as he skimmed over the plains, revived visions of the Holy War and its Crusaders. He was a great favorite in camp, and all eyes turned to gaze as Jack passed by-some averred it was out of regard for the beloved commander, whose superiority even Jack seemed instinctively to feel. Be this as it may, the name of the favorite war-horse is justly transmitted to history as being dear to the American people.

The sacrifice it must have cost the General to part with the animal who had borne him safely through so many perils, yet the cheerfulness with which he did it, is one of the most beautiful incidents recorded in the archives of the fair. He and Jack together have fought the great battle of liberty; and now that they could no longer serve the country side by side, as an earnest of continued regard, Jack was given to the soldiers. In presenting him, through Mrs. General Sherman, the above letter accompanied the gift. It was not, by the writer, intended for history, yet to that it now belongs; and the loyal people of the West regard it as the most interesting document connected with the great North-western Sanitary Fair.

To the Arms and Trophy Department we now hasten. The first object that meets the eye is the Lincoln Catafalque, studded with stars, in the fundamental dome which covered it. It was close to "My Temple," as they called it, and day or night I could not shut it from my eyes. We all loved and revered Mr. Lincoln, and believed it his special mission to conduct our Government through its great war in liberating the slaves; and a better or more noble man, in the highest significance of the word, never filled the Presidential chair. Under the mourning drapery of that Catafalque he had been conducted in his coffin from Washington to our city, to receive the last homage of his loving people. people. Among the thousands of the perpetual stream who poured in, night and day, to look at his face, not a dry eye,

owned by a loyal man, was seen; and the presence of this perpetual reminder of the dear dead had a fascination, and inspired profound feelings of awe. All around it lay relics from Southern plantations: a mammoth chain and ball, by which they bound their slaves; a sample of the whips by which they gently admonished them; and scores of other instruments of torture-those symbols of the cruelty of the chivalry," which they used in their "humane and merciful dealings with their slaves, who loved them so, who did not want to be free, who hated the Abolitionists of the North as much as the 'chivalry' did themselves." There was also the Jeff Davis Plantation Bell, a natural curiosity; on the opposite side of the Hall, the figure of Davis, dressed in the coquettish style of his escape in skirts, brought a fund, from twenty-five cents per head, of $2,500. The dress is now in the possession of a Chicago ladyfell to her by lottery. The Log-House of Mr. Lincoln's early years was to me of unspeakable interest. I visited it many times, and had many a good talk with John Hanks, who had brought it to the fair. How strange it seemed, how like the phantom of a dream, to see that old, ruined cottage, brought here to a mighty fair in Chicago, as a curiosity, because a certain Abraham Lincoln, who, in his teens, had been a rail-splitter, chanced to live in it, and that rail-splitter had become the President of the United States!

But he was more like a patriarch than a President. The people were literally his children, and he did his

best to be just to them all. Party passion and strife were not for him, as President of the United States. He saw no party but one, and that was the nation; nor had he any feeling of enmity toward the Southern people. It was the inflamed traitors, who had led them into rebellion, that he would deal with; for the people, he had an infinite pity and compassion. Most earnestly did he strive to bring the revolted States once more within the folds of the Union, almost lowering the dignity of his great office by his overtures to them; he would meet them half way; was willing to concede any thing that would not compromise the interests of the Republic, or bring dishonor upon the American name. But they were deaf to his noble pleadings-misinterpreting them— attributing to fear what sprang from the highest impulses of generosity and goodness; they could not understand his greatness. Abroad, this original "rail-splitter," this despised "country lawyer," won the respect of all the European statesmen; and kings, when they pronounced his name, forgot the diplomatic smile, and assumed an earnestness of tone which they use only on great occasions of state, or on themes sacred to the best affections of the soul. It was the case with the present Emperor of Russia, with the late King of Belgium, with her Majesty, the Queen of Great Britain-to such height of honor and esteem had the "rail-splitter" risen, with kings for his compeers. He had caused the name of America also, as Cromwell that of England, to be spoken of with an equal respect and rev