The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1866-09-01
General Grants Position.


General Grants Position.
We take it for granted that the Presi-
dents declarations relative to the position
occupied by General GRANT in the great
issue now pending before the people Of
the United States are sufficient to satisfy
all that this distinguished officer takes the
right side-that he is in favor Of perfecting
the object of the war on the part Of the
Government, and restoring the Union tho
roughly and completely, according to the
Constitution, and at once. Contempt
raneously with the declaration of the
President in the presence of General
Grant himself, comes the denunciation by
that fibberty -gibbet general and politi-
clan BANKS, Of Massachusetts,, who calls
General GRANT "time-server." 1t is
not at all probable that Radicalism would
venture to apply that contemptuous cpl
tibet to so distinguished and influential a
gentleman as long as there was the remo-
test hope that he could be induced by
any and every kind of appliance to take
sides with it.
Mr.. CowAN, of Pennsylvania, in speech
he made the other day in P;ttsburg, de-
clared that General GRANT was on the
side of conservatism, approving the policy
of the President and the circumstances
noted above prove it. 1t is a source of
very decided satisfaction to the patriotic
public in the North and the South that
General GRANT occupies this ground. 1t
is entirely consistent with his character
for calmuess, deliberation, good Judgment,
and sincerity. 1t il very probable that he
has wisely considered the position be-
slowed upon him by the Government, the
very pinnacle of soldiers. ambition, and,
enjoyed for the remainder of his life, as
vastly preferable to the ephemeral honors
and power of the Chief Magistrate of the
Union with all the vexations, disquietude,
and disappointments which must be en-
dured by the man who holds it. We should
imagine that the man who gave up Gene
raj GRANTS Office to assume President
JoHNsoN's was deluded by very unprof-
table ambition to do most unwise thing.
Especially man like General GRANT, who
having been a soldier all his life, and very
much inclined to the quiet enjoyments of
life, would be not at all suited to the arts
and practices and habits of politicians and
statesmen Of these days. The result would
probably be shortened life and the loss
of several years handsome income from
the most honorable of military positions,
in which he could have been happy and
easy to good old age. We are not trying
to persuade General GRANT never to be
President. Such advice were useless from
any quarter if his evil genius has imbued
his mind with the ambition to hold that
Office. We only conjecture that these are
his views and dispositions.
There are considerations which give
especial interest to General GRANT
course, and cause a feeling of very grea
satisfaction at the position he is now un
derstood to occupy. livery much smoothe
the way to the restoration of the Union
and relieves the nation Of some anxietie
which otherwise would have been enter
tanned. Had General GRANT, in an evi
hour for himself and the country, favored
the principles and policy of the Radicals
they would have grown more intolerant
overbearing, and inscriptions than ever
With such man holding such position
to back them they would have been mucl
more powerful, much more to be feared
But with the assurance that he is not will
them, indeed that not single military of
hcer Of any note is on their side, and thai
in case Of need they have no better soldier
than General BUTLER, they will pale be.
fore the exigency in which they find them.
selves, and win ultimately, like MACBETH
execrste the tends that have paltered with
them in double sense, and fall ignomini.
ously, struggling to maintain power &C.
quired by outrage and continued in crime,