The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-11-05
SPIRIT OF THE PRESS.
EDITORIAL OPINIONS OF THE LEADING JOURNALS
UPON CURRENT ToPICs-CoMPILED EVERY
DAY FOR THE EVENING TELEGRAPH.
What May be Expected from Grants Ad-
minstratiOn,

One of the unfortunate but inevitable ac-
ompaniment Of a canvass, or in fact of all
government by popular agitation, is that a
measure cannot be carried without exciting
extravagant expectations as to its result. IL
is impossible, for instance, in the present or
any probable condition Of the human faculties,
to elect q President by party vote without
leading the majority to look for a much greater
Improvement in the condition of the country
rs the reward of their exertions than Is in the
nature of things possible. Consequently, few
Presidents ever pass through one term with
out greatly disappointing their supporters.
or course there would be some disappoint-
ment, even If an arohapgel were put in the
chair, for it would not be in the power of an
archsngel to reward everybody who took an
active part in the canvass, according to the
applicants own estimate of his deserts. But
there is also sure to be good deal of disap.
pointment for which the hack politician is not
responsible. No man can have ten or fifteen
eulogistio "lives' written of him, or have
several hundred orators and newspapers de-
vote themselves for half q year to extolling
him, and making light of his defects, without
suffering from the cold criticisms of later aud
oalmer days. Moreover, there is no man out
of office, and who has never held office, who
can ever have his fitness for office weighed
accurately, even by the acutest observer. The
number of those in every State of whom it
may be said, with slight modification, what
Tacitus said of Galba, that they enjoy a repu-
tation for craftsmanship the continuance of
which depends on their never being called en-
to govern, is necessarily very great. More
over, we have had good many Presidents
whose elevation was not even due to an un-
tested reputation for administrative capacity,
but simply to accident or intrigue.
The very best and ablest man must, there
fore, owing to causes which have their root in
human nature itself, expect to see the lustre
of his name considerably dmmed by the time
his first term of Office has closed. We have
little doubt this will prove true of Grant as of
others, though none Of his predecessors since
Washington has gone through, under the eyes
OF the nation, before assuming office, such
severe trial of all his qualities, mental as we'll
moral, as he has. His enemies have tried in
vain to represent him as a mere soldier, and
to warn people against him, for reasons that
would apply to st. Arnaud or Pelssier and
Windischgratz; and the reason they have
failed is, that the man who succeeds at the
never be mere soldier. A mere
soldier could not and cannot COM
mand such an organization, because it
is not and cannot be made the
perfect military machine which is all set in
motion by touching single spring, as the
Austrian or French army is. Even when in
its best state for military purposes, it retains
managed and man@uvred with very large
amount of that civil prudence, that power Of
persuasion, respect for prejudces and pecu-
liarities, and skill in judging of individual
character, which go to make staiesman's
success. An American general who maintains
good relations with the Federal Government,
good relations with the Governors of the
States retains the confidence and respect of
the troops and the good opinion of the public
during arduous and difficult campaigns, such
as Grants have been, has passed through an
ordeal such as no foreign general is ever called
upon to encounter, and must possess many of
the highest qualities of a civil ruler.
Within a few days Grant will, we believe,
be elected. He has been, since the Nation
man wrote this.-ED. EVE. TEL. While
therefore, perfectly aware that the triumph of
the Republican party and the installation Of
Grant in the White House will not bring or
even materially hasten the millennium we
believe there are certain things of the highest
value which man who is neither sanguine nor
excited may, after due allowance has been
made for the froth OF the campaign, count on
as all but certain to result from it. 1t will, in
the first place, we will not say put an end to
crimes and outrages at the South, but it will
greatly diminish their number-so far diminish
it as to produce what will be--for the South
a condition of peace and security; and this not
wholly, or even in great part by the application
of force for Grant will not have at his dis
posal the means of policing the South. But
he will have the means of ending the tiagrant
disorders, partly by the supply of aid to the
civil authorities in bad cases, aud partly
through the effect on the Southern imagina-
tiOn of the fact that the malcOntents have
neither sympathy nor support to look for at
Washington. II must be remembered that
order is not preserved in any community-not
even in conquered Communities-byt the direct
use of force. A reasonable apprehension OF
punishment, and a toerably clear 'apprehen-
sion Of the uselessness of resistance, is all
that the most turbulent community needs
to reduce it to something like tran
quillity. Even in the worst districts
of the South, the great bulk of the
people desire quiet life, and it only needs
the belief that the state of things now esta-
blshed is not to be changed by assassination
or arson, and that attempts to change it in
this way will be repressed with the strong
hand, to produce as close a semblance ol
order even in Texas as is possible in the ex-
listing moral condition OF the population. The
election OF Grant will, in fact, be the approval
by the country, after four years deliberation,
of the plan of reconstruction adopted by Con-
gress. The most sanguine or fiighty Southern
politician will hardly continue to hope for the
reversal of such judgment as this.
In the next place. although we do not hatteI
ourselves that Grants election will com
pletely remove all danger to the public credit
it will give all the weight and influence of the
Government, and of a formal expression o
public opinion, to that portion of the Repub
hcan party which advocates the honest pay
ment of the public debt. 1t will not silence
the Butterflies; it may not prevent split o
the Republican party on this very question
and the return of its chief knaves and larg
body of its more recent recruits to their oil