Grant Quote
 
From: pcharles_lunsford@yahoo.com
 
Chuck:
 
With regard to the Grant quote, several years back a friend sent me this email:
 
For sometime now I have been searching for two quotes, one from Lincoln ref. "where will I get my taxes" and the other from Grant ref " if I thought the war was about slavery I would resign my commission…". I still have not found the Lincoln quote but have located the Grant quote.  It is found in ‘The Democratic Speaker’s Handbook’ compiled by Matthew Carey Jr. and published by Miami Print and Pub. Co., Cincinnati, Ohio, 1868. Page 33 reads in part;
 
In the summer of 1861 General Grant, then Colonel of the Twenty-first Illinois regiment of Infantry, was stationed at Mexico on the "North Missouri Railroad", and had command of the post ….In a public conversation in Kingo’s banking-house, a sterling Union man put this question to him: "What do you honestly think was the real object of this war on the part of the Federal Government?"
 
"Sir,’ said Grant, "I have no doubt in the world that the sole object is the restoration of the Union. I will say further, though, that I am a Democrat – every man in my regiment is a Democrat – and when-ever I shall be convinced that this war has for its object anything else than what I have mentioned, or that the Government designs to use its soldiers to execute the purposes of the Abolitionists, I pledge you my honor as a man and a soldier that I wilt not only resign my commission, but will carry my sword to the other side, and cast my lot with that people."
 
P. Charles Lunsford