A FRENCHMAN'S INTERVIEW WITH GENERAL GRANT.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 376, 28 July 1869, Page 3

A FRENCHMAN'S INTERVIEW WITH GENERAL GRANT.

M. Simonin, a French journalist, had an interview with General Grant a few days before he assumed office as President, and in the course of an account of the same in the Liber te, says : — He held out his hand to me according to the American fashion, and I sat down by his side. I should have probably remained sitting there up to the present time, had I waited on the General to speak first. So I opened the conversation, and told him I had recently visited the Pacific Railroad, the country of the Mormons, the silver mines of Nevada, and the gold diggings in California. Igavehimto understand how much interest I had taken in all the great and curious things which I had seen, and freely expressed the admiration which I entertained for America in certain respects. The General, drawing all the while a few clouds from his cigar, and sipping the coffee which had been served to him, interrupted me repeatedly for the purpose of informing me that he had also visited the same places. But during the whole of our conversation not a fibre of his face vibrated, his mask remained impenetrable; his countenance, with the rough, angular features, was rigid and as if petrified. "He is a man who never laughed since his birth," said a Washington lady of him, I gazed in profound emotion at the head I had before me. Is that the face of a vulgar man, desti-

tute of worth and talent, and could people have been mistaken in regard to him as some persons hare asserted ? No"; this man of the rustic appearance, with the lustreless eyes, with the dense, close-cropped beard, with bronzed, slightly red face, is by no means an ordinary man ; he is, perhaps, & man of , genius, who will astonish the world. His head is large and square ; it indicates meditation, calmness, and even a little obstinacy. This President of the United States possesses the first merit of statesmen — that of reticence, that quality so rarely met with, so indispensable to those who govern nations, and which Motley the historian, one of the most illustrious authors of the United States, prizes so highly in the character of the great Stadtholder, William the Silent. When I had taken leave of the General, I had the honour of being presented to Mrs Grant. "I am a poor Western woman," she said to me ; " fortune has overtaken us ; we did not run after it." I admired this simple woman, with her burgherlike manners, but full of common sense and tact, and whom her sudden elevation had not caused to lose her balance. I was told her husband consulted her when the Presidency was offered to him. Grant, who. is not yet 46 years old, hesitated, inasmuch as he preferred a life of quietude to the political agitations which he foresaw. "If the people come to you, you can hardly refuse," said his wife to him. " The fulfilment of duty should precede all other things." And Grant accepted the proposed camdidacy. A touching harmony in this democratic family, where the good sense of the wife comes to the assistance of the husband. " I am enjoying my last hours of repose," said Mrs Grant to me. " Next month the official receptions, and my duties as the President's wife will begin ; then I shall have no more leisure, but shall he constantly occupied. I want to do my whole duty." Such is the' consort of the illustrious citizen whom the popular will has placed at the head of the greatest republic on earth. She is worthy of her husband, and worthy of the country which elected him. General Grant, I believe, will fulfil the expectations which are entertained in regard to him.