The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1864-01-23
GEN. GRANT FOR THE PREsI.
DENCY. ~


the Presidency. He is abindantly quail
fled, and all that, say they, and would
doubtless make a good President, but
and there they stop, the but meaning sim
ply that it would interfere sadly with al
the pleasant contracts, big jobs, and fine
offices they are now enjoying under Uncle
Abraham.
The Chicago journal agonizes over the
matter in this style:
We are of these who regard General
Grant a. 1.-The coming maR as the grea'
military leader whom Providence has
called forth to command our armies fol
the final overthrow of the ungodly rebels
and traitors who are warning to destroy
the Republic. And we think it would be
the very worst use the country could
make OF him to nominate him for Presi-
don't now, before his mission as the heroic
warrior Of tho Republic shall have been
fully accomplished. Tho country has
been longing for = great military leader
born to command who would bring
success to our arms. Grant has proved
himself that leader, and why should any
man, who deems him in the right place
now, desire to transfer him to another
even to the Presidential chair?
If Gen. Grant is really tho Coming
man,"-the great leader whom Previ-
dence has called forth to command our
armies" We submit that the right place
for him is at the head Of our armies, and
not of a department As President he
would be the commander-in chief, and
that, then, would BE exactly the fright
place"
There is ne use OF Disgusting it, nearly
every great disaster that has yet befallen
our arms, is attributable directly to blum
dering At Washington. The FIRST Buzz Run
Richmond, the disastrous ccmpaign Of
Pope, and the daughters of Fredericksburg
and Charlottesville are directly attribute
BILE to the eeneral.hip of Old Abe and
| Stanton. Had there been a man in the
Presidential Chair with any sort Of militia
~ education, such blunders and disasters
| would have been impossible. In war times
like these the country wants President
who understands war Had Lincoln and
Stanton even sense enough to know that
they know nothing about war, the case
would be less fraught with danger But
while they have nominally hired General
Hslleck to devise plans and direct military
movements for them, at the critical mo
ment they overrule him, snd disaster in.
variably follows. Thus Halleck disap>
proved the movement of Burnside against
Fredericksburg, but the Presiden: told
him to go ahead Halleck had made full
arrangements for the safety Of Harper's
Ferry in the fau of 1862, before the battle
Of Antistan, but Stanton overrule6 his
order. and again last summer Halleck
had ordered M:lroy to evacuate Winches>
ter, bu. the President modified" the
order, and the result WAS a loss of 5000
MEN and twelve million dollars worth of
property.
The right place for the best general
We have, then, is at the head OF all our
Place Grant there, and then we shall have
exactly the right man in the RICH place
That" the tender mercIes of the wicked
are cruel" is being illustrated in hous-
and ways. by the treatment of the negroes
by abolishionizm. The worse than Nea-
politan cazar- houses to which the negro
has been consigned at Washington, at
leland No of Ec
DC, are but every day examples. OF all
the negroes that have fallen into our pos
session since the war began. it is estima
ted that at laast one-fourth have already
persisted from sheer brutality and neglect
on the part Of their kind "liberators" But
not only are the negroes being thus killed
by desease, cold, overfeediag, starvation,
and neglect, but, according to Mr.. Yeat'
gantic scheme has been cencocted By
Grandmother Thomas and tho eottoa
spectators down the Mississippi to swim
die the few remaining negroes in that re.
gion that are willing to live by honest toll.
This Is what Mr.. Yeatman says of Thomas
cotton scheme:
"A good negro man would hire for from,
5000 to $240 per annurn, and q woman for
from $50 to $3.50 per annum and be fed
and clothed besides, and that too when
cotton was only werth 10 cents per pound
Now 1t IS worth 20 cents Why should
not the freedman now get at least as much
for his labor as the slave owner did for it
when he was slave. The planter who
formerly hired a negro slave obtained from
$3.50 to $500 as the result Of his labor;
new he will obtain at least $500, while
the laborer, if he should obtain his entire
years wages. will only receive $50; 81 ,er
head being deducted to pay his medical
attendance, which is never given. But
the poor freedman fares even worse than
this. lie does net get his s. per month,
or SS4 per annum, less 81 for med.
cal attendance. lie only gets paid at that
rate for the actual number Of days which
he may work, that is &c. per iav so that
if the planter furnishes but ten days labor
in the month, the laberer receives but
$40 for his months labor"
Grandmother Thomas affixed the tariff
of wages, and supplied the form of COM
tracts with the lessees. who have taken
advantage of her inbecility and the ne
groes Is there not here an explanation.
in part, of the ''Presidents plan" The
pious Puritans have diligently used "pres
sure to produce such an opening "f,r the
elevation Of the oppressed"
There has a most interesting little tight
commenced, which promises to become
beautiful, between the respective fcllow>
ers Of Lincoln and Fremont. tho bone Of
conteation, of course, being the next Presi-
dencv The Missouri radicals, and their