The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-12-05


system.
Gen. Grants Report as Secretary or War.
From the ". Y World.
The man, of all our countrymen, in whose
opinions the public takes the liveliest interest.
steadily battles curiosity. His report as Secre-
tary of War will be scanned in vain for clue
to the enigma. If he is 0ithom opinions this
strange reticence is explicable, as it might be
also, perhaps, on principles of military pro-
priety, if General Grant was not understood
to give his implied consent to the free use
made of his name as a candidate for President.
1t is not very fitting that soldier, as such,
should be dogmatist or a brawler in politics.
The strict subordination of the military to the
civil ority, which is one of the cardinal
maxims of free government, renders 1t inde-
corous for an officer who must be equally
ready to enforce by his sword the policy of
whatever party is in power, to be very active
and demOnstrative partisan. But when mill
tary officers consent to be candidates for the
highest political trusts, the country is enti-
tied to know their opinions on important ques-
tions. And yet we think the close reserve of
General Grant deserves more commendation
than censure. Though politicians make free
with his name, no responsible party has
nominated him; nor is it certain that any
will. To fiaunt his opinions Gf he has any)
would look like bid for support, and if he
should fail of a nomination, it would be
gratuitous humiliation. He probably thinks
that the proper occasion for setting forth his
views win be in letter accepting the nomi-
nation of one of the great parties.
1t might seem wonderful If the specimen
before us did not show it to be so easy, that
Secretary whose report touches upon several
of the most exciting and debatable topics of
the time, can pick his steps among them SO
dexterously as to avoid any cOmmittals. He
is Secretary of War against the spirit of the
Tenure of Office bill; he occupies position in
which the Senate may attempt to reinstate
his predecessor; it falls in his way to reoite
the proceedings under the Reconstruction
laws of the FIVE military districts; he reviews
the operations of the Freedmen's Bureau; aud
he coOlly travels among such ticklish topics
as safe from detection as a cunning spy in the
camp of an enemy. The process by which
this feat is performed is not wonderful at all;
il is as simple as silence. The greater part of
his report has been got up by the mechanical
process of condensation; 1t consists of mere
dieests of the reports of his subordinate Off
GERS. and is as dry and colorless as the news
summaries in journals that lack skill to make
suggestive headlines. 1t is right to add that
on matters purely military the report has the
decisive precision of conscious master.
The single respect in which General Grants
report has any obvious political bearing is in
its opening paragraphs, where he gives an ex-
culpatory explanation of his being found at
the head of the War Department. He brings
to the front, and psrades in full the CORES
pondence that took place on Mr.. Stanton's
suspension, although there is no man in the
United States, certainly no member OF Con-
gress, who was not familiar with it. We sup
pose these letters are again brought forward
for the sake of reproducing the ompliments
which Grant paid TO Stanton in bowling hlm
ont of office. '"Thou oanst not say did IT,
is the spirit of this part of the report. He
furnishes, however, pretty conclusive proof
that il was a ft thing TO be done, in the ao-
count he gives of the large and necessary re-
trenchments he Immediately undertook, and
stanton had neglected. But ii is too evident,
both in the matter and manner of the report,
that General Grant is solcitous to excuse HIM
relf and stand we'll with Congress. He is care
ful to insinuate the idea that he accepted the
Seeretaryship from sense OF military subor-
dination, and he signs his report as General OF
the Army as we'll as Secretary of War.
',oi,ntarv participation in an administration
whose chief deserves impeachment for high
crimes. would be rather awkward for Repub
Ican candidate for President, and yet nothing
;s clearer than that General Grant was free to
40 as he liked. His fnessing on. this point is
more Objectionable than his political silence.
The Presidents Message.