The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-11-25
THE WHAT rs TIP


Grant continues to keep his place as the
great "What is it ?" of the American museum
of political wonders and enigmas. There were
some politicians presumptuous enough to be-
lieye that as soon as the election was over,
they could penetrate the blank crust OF his
silence, and the still blanker crust of his
speech, and pluck out the heart of his mys-
terry, with as much ease as Barnum, had he
chosen, could have cut through the gutta per-
cha covering of the original "What is it p
and exhibited the bones and bowels, the whole
of the internal anatomy and physiology, of that
marvellous creature, in the shape of wood,
glue and sawdust. But thus far they have
utterly failed, with all their devices, to miti-
gate to the penetrable point the integumen-
tary toughness of the President elect. 1t is
useless to inquire whether the failure of every
attempt to get at his political bottom, is be-
cause he is bottomless in the sense of having
no depth, or in the sense of being deep be-
yond fathoming. He battles speculation.
Radical and Conservative, Democrat and Re-
publican, are equally lost in wilderness of
surmise when they attempt to explore his po-
itical probabilities and potentialities. For
once, the inquisitive audacity and the guess
ing ingenuity of Yankeedom stand aghast, dis
comftted and disconsolate. This human
problem, which they arrogantly fancied they
could resolve as quickly take to pieces a
wooden clock, stolidly mocks their question:
ings and conjecturings, and returns their
brazen stare with look as paralyzing to Gu
riosity as the calm, eternal gaze of the
Egyptian sphinx, and as defiant of interroga-
ton as mummy Pharaoh.
What has more especially puzzled the po-
litical quidnuncs of late about Grant is
the strange muddle which he has made in the
way of bestowing his presence at both public
and private entertainments. For example,
after breakfasting with q company of rank
Radicals at Delmonicos, he dined at the As
tor House with select gathering, comprising
conservative Republicans, war Democrats,
peace Democrats, Johnson men, but not
single representative of unadulterated,
straight out Radicalism. Nay, more. The
latter occasion was testimonial TO Attorney
General Evarts, who owed his position in the
cabinet and this banquet in his honor, to the
fact that he was chief counsel for the Presi-
dent in the impeachment trial, which, as
people supposed at the time, was precipitated
by the coalition of Grant with the Radical
impeachers. The great majority of the guests
belonged to the legal profession, the respect
able members of which, it is well known,
looked with peculiar adherence on the con-
spiracy to impeach the President, from purely
partisan motives, and without any constitu-
tional ground of accusation. Yet Grant min
gled convivially with an assemblage thus
constituted, and could say as he did say in
brief and characteristic reply to the regular
toast to the President elect, that from no
other body of men would he have received
such compliment with higher qualification.
1t is not to be supposed that the perplexity
of the creme de Ia creme of Radicalism as to
Grant will become less from this time until in
auguration. The Colfaxes, the Binghams,
The Boutwells, the Ashleys, the Buffers of
the North, and their carpet-bag and scalawag
admirers and followers in the South, can no
more tell the precise course, or the precise
political destination, of the new President,
than they can calculate the movements or the
results of the next earthquake. They have
got the next presidency, but they have not
the least idea as to what they have got. They
must await the issue with much the same
feelings as a man would await the Matching of
some curious egg found along the seashore,
not knowing whether crocodile or a turtle,
a fowl or a snake would come out of the shell.
But the matter has this favorable aspect at
least: the more these Radicals are mystifed
and anxious about Grant, the more room is
there for hope in regard to his future on the
part of right-tbinking, honest, and patriotic
citizens. We may not know what he will
come to, any more than we may know what
will be the next freak of the chignon, or the
next development of the Grecian bend. But
if the Radical crew who used to threaten us
with Grant as though perfectly sure of him as
an instrument of vengeance in their hands
against their political enemies, are now as
ignorant as We, and even more concerned, as
to the character and complexion of his admin
the fact is one on which we may
hang no inconsiderable felicitation.