Suddenly, from the army he was transferred to another and an untried field, and became the head of the civil government of the country. The critics derided, the cavilers sneered, the weeping Jeremiahs of politics bewailed. This was monstrous, they said. This “sashed Sphinx” knew nothing of civil affairs; this “man on horseback” was dangerous to the liberties of the country; this “ambitious Cæsar” meditated an empire. But the people trusted Grant in civil life, as his army had trusted him in war. Their faith in his integrity, in his patriotism, in the strong, clean fiber of his sturdy manhood and his sterling honesty, never for one moment hesitated or wavered. And it was never disappointed. He justified their faith by his works. The triumphs he won in the field of political economy were as conspicuous and complete as those he won in war. Upon the civil history of the country he left a record as brilliant and as lasting as was the record of his services as a soldier. I know that there are some who still insist that he was not a statesman. But statesmanship, I take it, is nothing more or less than the genius of common sense applied in civil government. It is illustrated by what the Americans call “level-headedness” in emergencies; by the judicial quality of seeing both sides, or all sides, of any question, and doing the right and the just thing in dealing with it; by clear comprehension of the ultimate effects of any policy; by courage in withstanding popular clamor, and even in braving public distrust and denunciation, when such clamor, distrust or denunciation is inspired by ill-regulated zeal for a good cause, or unreasoning devotion to a bad one, or by the arts of selfish and ambitious demagogues. And surely Grant was endowed, in full measure, with these qualities of statesmanship. He was called to the Presidency during one of the stormiest and most perplexing epochs in the history of our government. The honest payment of the public debt; that strange but contagious delusion, the inflation of our paper currency; the settlement of the claims of this country on Great Britain, for damages inflicted by privateers sent out from English ports during the war; the enfranchisement of the Freedmen, and their protection in the enjoyment of the rights conferred upon them by the Constitution; the reorganization of the States lately in the Rebellion; the policy of Indian control and management; the resumption of specie payments—all these great questions, vitally affecting not only the peace and prosperity of the Nation, but the happiness and welfare of all classes of its citizens, Grant was called upon, as the Executive head of the civil government, to discuss and to decide.