ULYSSES S. GRANT.

IGHTEENTH President of the United States, the "Hero of a hundred battles," was born at Pleasant Point, Ohio, 23d of April, 1822. It is not satisfactorily proven that his ancestors came across the briny deep in the May Flower, but they most likely did in some other staunch ship, since they were among the first settlers in Massachusetts Bay, in the early part of the seventeenth century. The youth of Ulysses was spent at his native place, and he received a good English education at Georgetown, in Brown county. In 1839, being then seventeen years of age, he was admitted to the Military Academy at West Point, as a cadet, and graduated on the 30th of June, 1843, standing No. 21 in a class of 39. He is not spoken of as a young man of bright talents or brilliant promise, but that he acquired all he learned through hard work and close study. In July, 1843, he entered the army as brevet second lieutenant of infantry, and was attached to the fourth regiment. He served in the Mexican War, first under Taylor, then under Scott, and was a faithful soldier. He was promoted to first lieutenant, then to brevet captain, and in 1857 a full commission of captain, dating back to 1853. In July, 1854, Mr. Grant resigned his commission, engaged for a while in commercial pursuits, and afterwards removed to Galena, Illinois. When the Rebellion broke out his pulses stirred, and his eye lit up with martial fire as his ear caught the sound of bugle and drum, and the call of his country appealed to him as does the cry of a suffering child to its mother. He was at once appointed on the Governor's staff as mustering officer of volunteers; but this was two tame a position for him then, for he had tasted the excite ment of battle, and longed for it as impatiently as a war horse prances beneath the restraints of his master.

His first command was Colonel of the 21st Regiment, Illinois Volunteers, and his commission dated June 15, 1861. The fol

lowing August he was appointed Brigadier General of United States Volunteers, with rank and commission dating back to May, 1861. During the campaign in Tennessee he distinguished himself by his valiant conduct, and after the surrender of Fort Donnelson, he was raised to the rank of Major General of Volunteers. Upon the capture of Vicksburg, he was made a Brigadier, and soon after Major General in the regular army.

His fine executive talents, his many and rapid victories, and the general success which attended his plans, naturally suggested him as the proper person for Commander-in-Chief of the Federal army. In accordance with the expressed wish of the Executive, he repaired to Washington, and received his commission from President Lincoln's own hand; assumed the command of the armies on the 10th of March, and was away to the tented field, where, at the head of his legions he received the sword which Lee surrendered, and with it the main body of the Southern army. He was nominated for the Presidency at the Chicago Convention in May, 1868, and triumphantly elected-receiving a magnificent majority. He conducted the affairs of government so acceptably to the country that at the close of his first term he was nominated for a second, and re-elected Nov. 5th, 1872.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF DISTIN

GUISHED MEN.

LOUIS NAPOLEON BONAPARTE.

(HE French people have loved and reverenced the name of Napoleon; because it was inseparably connected with the palmy days of the empire, and they yielded to the name the homage which they never would have given to Napoleon III. At the best he was an usurper and a robber; at the worst, he was not only an usurper and robber, but a degraded man, whose depraved nature was a hot bed in whose nursing care every vice, both native and exotic, had flourished and grown rank and strong. If he had one redeeming trait of character, the world is not clear-sighted enough, or sufficiently charitable, to look for it, and it is not prominent enough to be like a light that is set on a hill and can not be hid. If the career of the Napoleonic dynasty is without parallel it certainly owes but little of its glory to Napoleon III.

Charles Louis Napoleon Bonaparte is the son of Louis Napoleon, King of Holland, and Hortense, daughter of the Empress Josephine, by her first marriage, with the Viscount de Beauharnois. He resided with his mother in Paris, until 1814. When the first great disaster of Napoleon occurred after the Russian expedition, when defeat and disgrace had overwhelmed him, Hortense, with a faith as strong as was his own in the star of his destiny, watched and waited for his return, and when the glad day came, exulted in the brilliant success that rewarded the hero

of a hundred battles. Again the clouds darkened over France -again her blue lilies were drenched with the life-blood of her bravest sons-again the wild storm burst over that devoted land, and on the ensanguined plain of Waterloo, the star of Napoleon I. set to rise no more.

Under the rule of the Bourbons France drooped and languished, praying, in stealthy ways, for deliverance from the accursed yoke of a race it hated. The revolution of 1830 in France rekindled the fierce flames of discontent in Italy, and for the first time in his life we find Louis Napoleon, whom the jealous watchfulness of Louis Philippe prevented from taking an active part in the politics of his country, turning his attention to that distracted province, and as he became an object of attention to the progressive party, he became, in an even greater measure, an object of dread and suspicion to the Papal government, and was ordered to withdraw from Rome. The request, pointed and significant, was not complied with. A guard was then sent to remove him, but he eluded them and fled to Florence; and the insurrection of the Romagna so long suppressed, burst forth, and the tri-colored flags waved defiance from the battlement of every stronghold in Italy; but the fingers of the Austrian despot were upon her throat, and the fierce and beautiful, but weak and helpless, queen of the Old World lay disarmed and powerless at his feet.

It was not until 1832 that the eyes of Europe were centered upon Louis Napoleon as the probable head of the Napoleonic dynasty, and Louis Philippe, under the restless motion of the people whom he lacked the power to control, trembled as he read the hand-writing upon his palace walls, and knew that his kingdom was passing into other hands. The far-seeing wisdom and shrewd foresight of the "coming man," convinced him that the French must have not only a change of power, but a change of government, and though every nerve leaped and thrilled at the lightest thought of the old glory of France, he foresaw that a throne was a thing of the past, and that too much of the wild, free air of America had fluttered over the briny deep, and that the passionate hearts of the people whom he aspired to lead, must at least be humored in the idea that they might establish a republic as fair and strong as our own. He circulated pamphlets amongst the laboring classes, in which he talked of the "rights of