Ulysses S Grant on the possibility of another Civil War

[raging moderate]

16. The autobiography of Ulysses S. Grant is stunningly brilliant.

And he wrote it while he was dying of painful cancer, feelingly increasingly worse and worse. He forced himself to keep working so his wife and children would have enough money after his death. He died only a few weeks after it was finished. And he was so perceptive! He noticed that the rank and file Confederate soldiers obviously knew how to do the work they were assigned, even more than the self-important aristocratic officers riding horses and blowing trumpets among them, and that the TOOLS given to these workers were obviously too inferior to allow these workers to do their best work. Grant knew this because he came from a family that did its own work, bought its own tools, and took care of its own physical needs. And he noticed what good workers the Black people were who came over to the Union side to fight for freedom. And he tried to be fair and humane whenever possible. And he had managed to overcome an early drinking problem through arduous self-discipline and love of his wife and family. He was a wonderful man!