Although a soldier by profession, I have never felt any sort of fondness for war, and I have never advocated it, except as a means of peace.

The statement frames Grant’s self-understanding as a professional soldier who nonetheless rejects war as an intrinsic good. It distinguishes military vocation from militarism: he presents force as morally and politically defensible only when it serves a larger end—restoring or securing peace—rather than conquest, glory, or vengeance. The phrasing also works as retrospective justification of his Civil War leadership, implying that the Union’s resort to arms was instrumental and reluctant, not celebratory. More broadly, it anticipates a “just war” logic: war may be necessary, but its legitimacy depends on its purpose and its termination in a stable peace.