The Portland daily press., 1868-04-02
DAILY PRESS.
PORTLAND.
Thursday Morning, April 2, 1868.


! 'sThe Man ON Korsebaclo ,,u.s,
The New York correspondent of the
Charleston Courier has made most astound-
ing discovery, calculated to drive slumber
from the eyehds of timorous old age, banch
the cheek of woman and excite the heart of
manhood to umwonted palpitatiops. For
many years there have been persons con-
stantly scanning the horizon for the appear
anee of an American Caesar, whose specific
designation has been fixed by distinguished
citizen OF Massachusetts, as "the Man on
HORSEBACK" Why he should come on horse
| back il is hard to imagine. Why not ride
over from the Orient, on an elephant or am
BILE into The dictatorship seated, like Hudibras,
ON an ass? But he is already in sight, and
our informant, the correspondent, says he is
on horseback. There is one remarkable diff
ference, however, between the man seen in
the Massachusetts apocalypse and the man
described by the correspondent. The former
approaches with drawn sword in his
hand;" the latter with cigar in his mouth.
The coming man is General Grant!
The Courier's correspondent does not know
irom his own personal observation that Grant
intends to make himself dictator. But an
Old politician who has for many years been a
confidential agent of the government. and
who knows all the leading public men of the
country as If they were his own brothers, told
him about it, The correspondent asked this
venerable Talleyrand of the American public
service who he thought would be President.
General Grant, beyond peradventure,"
quoth he,-"nothing can be done by the
Democratic party to prevent it," And here
no one will doubt the sagacity of the old poll
tician, though many will dissent from his
opinion that it would make no difference
whether Grant received sufficient number
OF votes or not. Our Nestor said that move
mems were already on foot to make dicta-
tor of the conqueror of Lee Gen. Francis
Blair-what would story like this be worth
without Blair in it?-had told him the 9th
er day that, when once in the White House,
Grant meant to stay there, regarding himself
as the equal of Cromwell
Another authority of the old politician was
Mrs. Gen. Banks. This Banks episode affords
strong confirmation of the correspondents
estimate of his interlocutor, and shows that
ne IS no common person and is on terms of
easy familiarity with at least one public man.
"A short time ago." says he, "while on the
Baltimore and Washington cars, Gen. Banks
gave me his wife to take care of, while he
was looking after some baggage" o much
to be commiserated Gen. Banks! what store
MI iaHc Of hox
innumerable "brown paper parcels" y what va
llses, hat boxes, carpet bags, and infinite va
riety of every species of the impedimenta of
travel you must have had in charge. What
quarrels with truculent custodians of your
possessions you must have carried through!
For while you were thus engaged, your spouse
was telling State secrets to her willy escort
and had time to explain to him the whole
course OF coming events. "Now you know"
said the old politician, ''that women will talk
and Mrs. Banks is no exception to the rule
The acute habits of observation and the
knowledge of human nature of this man are
here disclosed in the most striking manner,
it being popularly supposed that women are |
universally as distinguished for reticence as |
Grant himself, and that Mrs. Banks in par
ticular is in the habit of keeping silence for
days at time. But no, on this occasion she
astonished her listener by complaining that
Grant has no relations with the leaders of
the Republican party; that he does not con-
suit "our statesmen" but talks only with his
staff. She said that when Grant came into
power, the reign of the "lawyer statesmen"
would be over, the Wilson's, Summers, Trum-
bulls and Colfaxes giving place to the Sher-
mans, Canbys, Sheridans and Meades. All,
butthis is not half; his method of reconciIing
the South will be to restore the States 10 all |
their rights and privileges, and to elevate the
Lees, Johnsons and Beauregards as the true
representatives of the South!
Here we must imagine poor General Banks
coming back, out of breath and in proftlse
perspiration from his tour of observation,
and relieving the diplomatic gentleman, for
we hear no more of Mrs. Banks. From this |
point he gives his own views of the foreign
policy OF the new administration. That pol
icy is sheroic-Napoleonic. To quiet disaffec-
tion at home, like other usurpers, Grant will
ehSooO III ioiOiSn Wdio, Will d NlcW W ludh-
ing the United States the greatest and most
influential power on earth. The very least
of these aggressive movements will be the
annexation of Canada, the seizure of the
Isthmus of Panama and the absorption of
Mexico. Great fleets will be sent to the Chi
nese and Japanese waters.
What gives great value and weight TO
these speculations is the overwhelming proof
adduced in support of them. The cores
pondent, it seems, when he got to the great
fleets, began, like great simpleton, to shake
his head in token of incredulity. But the
rotary motion ceased when he was angrily
asked "Why, then, has Grants Man Friday
proposed to abolish the Washington Police
Department and let soldiers attend to duties
now performed by the police?" The news
paper man, absurd sceptic as he was, had
sense enough to perceive that considerations
of economy could have nothing to do with
Mr.. Washburnes proposition. He accepted
it, as every intelligent man must, as the in
itial movement for the building nm ot an |