The distinction which Cleveland has achieved comes of valiant service in
another field of conflict, wherein the issue involves the perpetuity and
dominance of the great principles which constitute the framework and
fibre of republican government itself. Under ordinary circumstances,
probably, neither Grant nor Cleveland would have risen above the plane
of every-day life. The same, too, might perhaps justly be said even of
Washington. In the history of human progress it will be seen that every
great crisis involving the triumph of the principles and tendencies
which make for the moral, social, or political advancement of mankind
has developed a leader endowed with the special qualities demanded by
the occasion.

The brilliant and self-assertive men who press forward to leadership in
ordinary times, whether impelled by mere love of notoriety, personal
ambition, or an honest desire to promote the welfare of their
fellow-men, seldom become masters of the situation when a supreme
emergency arises. They may set in motion great contending forces; they
may precipitate conflicts whose ultimate outcome brings inestimable
benefit to mankind; but other hands and other minds are required to
direct the issue and shape the result. The master spirit of the occasion
is born thereof. Ulysses S. Grant had absolutely no part in bringing
about that great conflict of ideas and systems which culminated in the
war of the rebellion; nor had he even figured prominently in the field
of military achievement until long after hostilities were commenced, and
the struggle had assumed proportions entirely unforeseen by, and
actually appalling to, not only the people themselves, but those In
control of active operations in the field. But the emergency developed
the man required to meet it, and Grant came to the front.

So, too, in this later and greater conflict, which is to test the virtue