The Richmond palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1855-1875, 1867-12-12

ell, Inlnk ne snOWeu pretty gOOo
capacity for business when he was deal
ing with Gen. Lee. Laughter.l think
you may search in vain from one end Of
this land to the other to find man who
habitually worked more hours in the day,
or who gave closer attention to what he
was at when he was "fighting it out on
that line if it took all summer"
[Cheers. but we are not left to his
military history to ascertain his capacity
for his business. or his ability to handle
the problems with which statesmen have
to deal Whom did he succeed in the
War Department 2 The most illustri-
Gus War Minister Of modern times.
Loud cheers. And with such pre-
decessor he has made reputation in
the War Office. He has introduced re-
forms which escaped even the scrutiny
of Stanton. Although the army had
been reduced with rapidity and sue
cess that am azed Europe, and it seemed
almost impossible and impracticable to
our own people, yet Gen. Grant faithful
in that obedience to the will of the peo-
pie and the instincts of the people, which
indicate him so truly as q great popular
leader, responded at once to the popular
demand for reduction in expenditure,
for economy, in order that we might
hasten to that happy epoch when we can
resume specie payments, and pay every
public creditor dollar for dollar in honest
gold and silver. [Cheers.] General
Grant, fellow citizens, it may be, does
not owe his fame or his opportunity to
perform the great services he has rem
dered the country to many of those
qualities, or to any, perhaps, which
make up successful professor of State
craft Nobody pretends that Grant is
Bismarck, or a Louis Napoleon, or a
Count Cavour, or even q Seward.
Laughter There is no probability at
all that if he was Secretary of State his
dispatches would fill ali ordinary school
district library, and there is no danger
at all, think 1 may safely assure you,
that he would deluge Congress with long
discussions on the Constitution of the
United States, equal in length and vol
ume to the productions of Geo. Ticknor
Curtis. Great laughter. He possesses
that intaitive common sense that the
American people desire to see manifest
cd and exercised in public affairs. We
have not-although we have important
questions devolving upon us--those
complicated relations with foreign
powers, the necessity of maintaining
vast standing armies, intricate dynastic
questions and others, the knowledge Of
which goes to make up Europeon def
milton ofa statesman, or diplomatist, or
a prime minister. We have our diff
culties, to be sure, and we do require
first-rate capacity in high public Office.
Let me not for moment depreciate the
standard of capacity and character re-
quired to lead this Republic safely and
honorably to its high destiny. Not for
an instant. But say that what our
great officers above all should be noted
for, is straightforward dealing with the
people, conciliatory demeanor and tone
toward the coordinate branches of the
Government, and respectful recognition
of what is due to the people through
their representatives in Congress-, and
willingness on the part Of men in high
executive stations to yield their peculiar
views of policy, and ofpersonal preroga-
tive, to the demands of the people as ex-
pressed through their representatives.
Applause. And this claim, that
General Grant, in all his views upon
public affairs, in every attitude he has
armies, this, 1 affirm, he has faithfully
done.
But it is impossible to review the po-
htical situation with which you and 1
have to deal as citizens without some
reference to men and events. What
does the Democratic party propose to
do5 Nothing, that I can see, except to
fill the offices. Laughter and cheers.
I have not seen their plan of recon-
unless they adopt the Execu-
tive plan, which l have ~already, as /
believe, truly described to be simply
and solely the restoration of the rebels
to power just where they wero when they
began the war. That is impossible, if I
know the American people, cheers. The
Democrats are committed absolutely, so
far as can see by reading most atten-
lively the addresses of their distinguish
ed men, to reaction-to use q lawyers
phrase, to the stats quo ante bellum.-
They would ignore the war; They
would say with the Executive in his re-