Excerpt from Speech of Senor Don Matias Romero, Mexican Minister at Washington: Read on the 65th Anniversary of the Birth of General Ulysses S. Grant, Celebrated at the Metropolitan Methodist Episcopal Church, of the City of Washington, on the 25th of April, 1887 I was very greatly surprised in my first conver sation with Gen. Grant to find him so well informed about the condition of Mexico, the social and poli cal status of its people and their needs, the causes which kept it backward, and the means to main tain peace and order and to turn a distracted into a prosperous and happy people. After Gen. Grant returned from Mexico in 1848, he went with his regiment to California, and after wards he resigned his commission in the army and entered into private pursuits then came the civil war in this country, and his patriotic heart could not allow him to remain indifferent. To the fate of his country. He offered his services to the governor of Illinois, and his career became a most eventful one from 1861 to 1864. He had, besides, when I saw him in October of that year, the greatest care and responsibility hanging upon him, and yet with all that, Mexico was the favored topic of his con versationswith me, and his reminiscences of Mex ico were as fresh and clear as if he had just returned from my country, and his views as thorough and correct as if he was a Mexican statesman. This fact. Shows conclusively, in my opinion, the great comprehensive power of his extraordinary mind, and that he really possessed the highest gifts of a statesman. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.