The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-06-05
GRANT AND HIS MILITARY PRESTIGE.

The utterly unenthusiastic manner in which
the nomination of General Grant has been
everywhere received by all classes and varie-
ties of his own party, is fact in some sense
ominous and sinister The shadow of ma
tional gloom must be wide, black and chill
ing, indeed, when it extinguishes among the
masses of the dominant party all glow and
ardor for the man who is chosen as their
cbieftain in the impending political conflict
which is to resolve the most fearful political
crisis that the country has yet experienced
Enthusiasm for almost anything-for an ape
or a crocodile, for a chiseled stone or carved
block of woods better than the moral
torpor which has been diffused through the
"party of moral ideas by the shameless de-
pravity and the uDprincipled course of its
leaders. The excitement of surprise, which
sometimes Stimulates enthusiastic feeling, was
entirely wanting in this case, since Grants
nomination was clearly and VIGOROUSLY the
stipulated price of his participation along
with Stanton in the impeachment conspiracy
1t could, therefore, astonish nobody, as a
political event; and there was nothing in it,
of the radical politicians in the interest of
their party, to move anybody to warmth of
response. For popular instinct throughout
the country recoils from the whole affair as
heartless and unworthy transaction, and even
the doubtful benefciaries of it cannot sim
cerely exult in the fulfllment of corrupt
stipulation. Men will sometimes, in the ex-
cess of fear and malignity, of cupidity or am
bition, consent to the employment of the
vilest of agencies; but it is impossible that
they can feel honored when called to pay the
wages of infamy. And this is precisely the
nature of the draft which, in the ordination
of Grant, is drawn upon the masses of the
Republican party. There are certain so-called
modern Republicans who support him on the
persuasion, real or apparent that he is better
than his radical keepers or counsellors, and
will, upon occasion, break faith with
them as unhesitatingly as he betrayed the
conservatives by breaking his word with
the President But, on the other
hand, the radical politicians have put him in
nomination, and the Republican masses
coldly accept him as their chieftain, simply
because his military prestige, and his sword
ready to sheathe itself in the heart of consti-
tutional liberty, are deemed necessary at any
price for securing future control of the govern
ment to party whose representatives have
already brought the affairs of the country to
the brink of ruin. 1t begins to be suspected,
however, amongst the radicals themselves
that fatal miscalculation has been made in
respect to the sheer force of Grants prestige
as prominent military actor in the late war.
As the hot passions engendered by that con-
test gradually cool, the people at large be-
come open to the touches of sentiment that
passed into established doctrine among the
ancient Romans. They held that fratricidal
wars were essentially impious and that no
true glory was to be achieved in waging them;
and they refused, accordingly, to vote ova-
tons and triumphs to chiefs whose victories
were bought with the slaughter of their fell
low-citizens. The only true test of states
manship indeed &c canacity for organizing
peace In consistency with liberty within, and
for extending national power and glory by
just and bene6cent methods without. In
proportion as the American people rise to the
comprehension of this truth all such heroes
as Grant viii gravitate towards zero in their
estimation. For what particle of statesman
ship, according to the test above indicated,
has he exhibited? His military prestige, ut
terly barren Of laurels won in victories over
foreign enemies, is such as the old Romans
would have looked upon as sacrilegious and
horrible; for it is crimson with fratricidal car
mage, and has no foundation save in the bones
of millions of his countrymen; its baptism
was in the tears of the widows and the Or
phans of the country, and its most lasting
commemoration will be in their sorrow and
execration. And is it proposed by General
Grants partisan supporters that he shall turn
his back upon domestic strifes and acrimonies
and enter path where true glory may be
won either in peace or war? No. They have
no use for his military name or his military
power except to turn both against his own
countrymen in such way that his success
and theirs would be the death of liberty.