The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-11-17
PRR,IpRNr UPON HIS OWN TERMS.

PRECEDENT ufOn diS Wv" ~
The Radicals begin to look rueful under |
the effects of the sober second thought which
they are giving to the subject of Grants cleo
ton. Like those rash wights who, as old le-
gends tell, for the sake of transitory gratifca-
ton of wicked appetite, have signed away
their future to the mercy of the devil, they
are not certain but that their anticipated
fruition will itself prove delusion and snare,
and that all its substantial joys will vanish at
the moment when their hands are extended
to clutch them. They did not in express
words and visible forms, make compact with
Satan. But they did what is morally about
the same thing In order to crafty little
longer their lust of illicit power, and at no
matter what price, they struck hasty bar
gain with Grant which leaves them at the
mercy of chance and this chance resolves
itself into the enigmatical issue OF the I'M
fathomable thought and purpose of the Presi-
dent elect, that most puzzling compound OF
good luck and blank, uninterpretable taci-
turnity that ever reached in a time 80
brief an estate so high. The elation
with which they anticipated the results
of this bargain before the election has
declined to about zero since the cleo
ton. Their hopes seem now to be parodied
and Knocked by the smoke of Grants peren-
NAL cigar. Whether they look forwards or
backwards, the view is dreadfully unassuring;
but more especially so when they reflect on
the circumstances under which Grant was
nominated and elected. They took Grant
upon his own terms-for it was Hobson's
choice-and left him to name them at his
leisure. He consequently owes them nothing
He lent them his military prestige, he gave
them a popular figure head for use in the
presidential campaign, and by these means
solely was their party saved from defeat, or,
rather, was the Democratic party prevented
from electing the next President. Conse-
quently, whatever Indebtedness has accrued
in the transaction is all on their side. In
short, the nomination of Grant was signal
of Radical distress. 1t was on account of
the unpopularity of Radicalism that he was
brought out as the Republican nominee; and
only by sedulously putting Radical policy in
the background, and by assiduously keeping
him, candidate committed to no policy,
in the foreground was it possible to elect the
Republican ticket. Hence it is that the
Radicals are not out of their distress, though
Grant is President elect. And hence it is
that the "grim reticence of the soldier"
which they formerly affected to regard as
grand and suspicious, now appears to them
as neither grand nor suspicious, but only not
simply uncouth and churlish because it is per-
picking and portentous !Nori it to be sup
posed that Grant is not duly sensible of the
Independent and uncommitted relation in
which he stands to the Radical politicians. His
bearing towards them since his election is
anything but that of man laboring under a
sense of favors received, or under that still
livelier form of gratitude, sense of favors
to be expected Whatever he may turn out
to be as President, the Radicals now suspect
that this man, apparently SO dry and barren,
contains some quality, some "gift which
bounteous nature hath in him bound" that
will impel him to take path of his own, and
| enable him, somehow, to walk therein stead
lastly and to the end. This is an appalling
thought, for they want, least of all things per-
haps, live President, or live executive
authority by whatever name, who will have a
head and dare to assert it, instead of serving
as a mere executive fgurehead for Radical
caucus, liable to be pummeled right and left,
and kicked from pillar to post, by the valor-
Gus Sumner and the chivalrous Butler. His
tory is by no means lacking in examples of a
similar character, should Grant, when Presi-
dent, strike out course which would put at
fault the previous judgments of both friends
and enemies.
Mounting to high place like this has ere
now had the effect of magic spell on natures
as stolid and dull, to all appearance, as that
of Grant. Some men are stung by the touch
of supreme power and supreme responsibility
to greatness that is SO high as to look like in
spired benefcence some, to greatness that is
only exhibited in the works of baleful am
bition. Judging from history, it is not i'm
possible that Grant will feel this sting, but
towards what sort of greatness it will urge
him, who shall say? If the Radicals find that,
as far as they are concerned, he is to be Pre-
sident upon his own terms, it is equally diff
cult for the country at large to divine the pre-
else tenor and complexion of his presidential
career. But the country at large has this adj
vantage of the Radicals-he owes to it a
responsibility which he never can put off.
Grant might rise above Radical dictation, he
might defy Democratic opposition, but he
could never afford to despise public opinion.
|
"Let us have peace" was added to Grants