Courage is as contagious as fear, and General Grant possessed in the highest degree that faculty which is essential to all great commanders,-- the faculty of imparting throughout the rank and file of his army the same determination to win with which he was himself always inspired.
Blaine emphasizes the contagious nature of courage in leadership, particularly in General Grant's ability to inspire his troops.
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He had placed himself in a position from which he could not with grace retreat, and to go forward in which was still further to blight his hopes of promotion in his party.
Observing men in the loyal States regarded such a policy not only as weak and maudlin, but as utterly insufficient and assuredly dangerous to the future safety of the Government.
In turn, the course of the National Administration would certainly be influenced, and its fate in large degree determined, by the conduct of the Southern men, in whom the President was placing unbounded trust.
The need of action and of energy so pressed upon him that he found no time to utter lamentation, none to indulge even in the most sacred personal grief.
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