The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1864-02-03

Pochcs iec Oh thousand or TWO Tor using Ms
personal influence successfully in favor Of re-
leasing from prison an alleged rebel, and it is
ell right; but if he pockets anything from
government contract it is all wrong This is
withdrawing; or if not we can only exclaim-
IT'S strange there should such difference be
'rwxt tweedledum and tweededee
The Question at Issus in the Next Presi-
Dental Election.
Never, in any of our Presidential elections
have the people been called upon to determine
upon an issue so clear and distinct as that
which they must determine this year Events
have decided or put ont of the way all merely
political points. Even the niger is done with,
ana would have been az certainly done with
without the Presidents proclamation Our po-
litical questions were questions of opinion. and
war always settles such questions quickly
Great struggles brush away the minor divisions
that are between people, and put in their
places grand and often unmanageable facts
So positively are political questions dead that
there are even no parties; for the democratic
party was anAiAilated in the last election, and
Sne republican party in the one before, But in
place Of these little party questions we have
now only great national question. and that is
upon the war and the necessity that we should
end 1t.
Though great deal has been said about
divided North, nations have seldom shown
greater unanimitY than the Northern
people have shown in this war Men
have offered themselves with a devotion
paralleled only in the annals of the
French Revolution. and money has been given
with q readiness and to an extent never before
seen; and all that the people have required in
return has been that the administration would
put down the rebellion-put an honorable end
to the war, and give the country peace. But
the administration cannot do it. Surrounded
on all hands by contractors, with the very
reins Of government in the hands of men eager
only for personal 'aggrandisement. the admin
istraton Of Honest Abe is miracle Of cor
ruption. Through the Treasury, the Navy, the
War and the Revenue departments, the wealth
Of the country is poured into the pockets Of
sharpers, And the army Of fellows who. are
thus fed by the war have determined that it
shall not end if they can help it. In this way
whatever good intention there may be on the
part of the Executive is embarrassed by corrup-
ton; and when corruption has not been the diff
Guilty imbecility has. Through one or the other
Of these influences the plans by which the war
would have been ended ere this have been
set aside, and the administration has given
US. 10 their place, its advances to Rich
mond by way Of Bull run. Fredericksburg
and Charlottesville. Half OF the money
so far spent in the war has been squan-
dered in this way; one hundred thousand citi-
zens Of the United States have been murdered
in this way; and in this way the war has been
dragged into its third year, and will be kept
up until the war debt will equal half the value
of all the property in the country.
Attempts enough have been made to show
beyond all question that Mr.. Lincoln cannot
end the war; and what the country wants is
man who can. Such is the issue of the next
Presidency. And upon this simple and distinct
Issue there is to be this year one Of the grand
est revolutions that the world ever saw. Ap-
parently the people are now somewhat indif-
ferent upon these points; but it will be found
that this apparent apathy is only the usual
ominous quiet that precedes great upheavai.
1t is always 80. Only the week before the ire
mendous excitement in which the country
rushed to arms when Sumter was fired upon
the correspondents Of the London papers wrote
that the Northern people had no interest
In the questions at stake. SO it will
be in the present case; aud the apparent
indifference with which the people now con-
template the political manGnvres Of the party
in power will Tighten into revolution that
will sweep away the last vestige Of that party.
There il, therefore, but one question for the
people to decide in this matter; and that is.
who is the man that will end the war Gene
raj Grant and General Mcclellan are the only
men of any promise in that way. Unfortu-
nately, the radicals have caballed aud intrigued
40 successfully against General Mcclellan that
they have arrayed against him the minds of
great many good men in the country; and his
comparative want Of success-though also the
result of the Vaccinations Of the radicals-wiIl
weaken him in the popular view And thus
the field is left to General Grant. who is pre-
eminently the man for the occasion. Never
before had people an opportunity to place,
by their own will, so grand conoueror at the
national helm. Certainly il would be the last
evidence that we were besotted and blinded
people if, with man like General Grant with
in our reach we should coldly pass him by to
re-elect the imbecile joker who has dragged the
country into the slough Of slaughter and cor
rupton that it has been in for the past two
years.
The PAY or THE FRENCH AgxY n MEXICO
We see 1t stated that the French government
has assured the members OF the Corps Legis-