The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1868-06-05
General Grant as an Executive Off,
GER


Ger.
What the country needs at this i'm
portant period Of its history is not a
great legislator; we have had legisla-
ton enough for all practical purposes.
What the country needs now is not a
great jurist, who has devoted his life
to the study of the law, and is able to
point out ninety nine modes of de-
feating law without violating it. 1t
needs.a man who as President will
know that his duty is to execute, and
not to make, laws; who will accept
the law as made by the Legislature as
his guide, and not as a means to
" make case .or the courts. The
country wants a President who will
take care that the laws, be faithfully
executed, aud will not assume power
to set them aside, amend, alter or ig-
more them. The country wants a
President who will be an executive,
with the firmness to execute the ma
tional will regardless Of any clamor
or threats-a man who will take the
law as he finds it, and hold every per-
son in Office under him, from the
highest to the lowest, to the same un-
questioning obedience to the law.
The country can dispense with
diplomatic, legislative, judicial, and
scientific eminence in the President
"a man might have all these and be
cypher as an Executive); but the man
whose life has been one of rigid ac-.
countability to his own superiors;
whose duty from first to last has been
obedience to law-and requirement
OF the same implicit obedience from
all under him-whose experience as
an executive has included the actual
management and control of immense
armies in hostile States, embarrassed
by countless adyersities incident to a
long and previously pro4itless war,
and who never failed because of any
oversight or inatteution on his part In
having all the executive duties of all
these armies promptly and faithfully
performed-sueh man is the one de-
manded by the present exigencies of
the country, and sach a man is to be
found at this time in General u. s.
Grant. c
The country not only needs Pres
ident who will bring to the Office
practical executive ability but it
wants Chief Magistrate who, accus-
toned to strict integrity aud prompt
accountability In all his own official
relations, will enforce the same. upon
all his subordinates. We want n0
President and Secretary of the Treas
ury to declare that the reason they do
not collect the public revenue is the
utter corruption and dishonesty of
their subordinates. The country
wants an Executive who will brook
no delinquency, who will palliate no
omission to perform official duty, and
who will regulate the execution of
public duties with the precision and
fidelity required by military discip-
line. ad3
The brief administration of General
Grant as Acting Secretary of War
afforded an indication of his mode of
performing executive duties. Within
ninety days he had dismissed useless
officers, abolished sinecures, discon-
tinued expenditures, and stopped use
less contracts, to an amount equaling
fifteen millions of dollars per annum.
Placed In the office of Chief Ex-
ecutive. with all the departments
under his control, and the vast ma
chinery of the Government at his
command, the saving of millions in
the War Office will be doubled and
quadrupled. A vast amount of public
money supposed to be expended is
literally wasted under the loose sys-
tenn of accountability in public offices;
but with an experienced Executive
like Grant, this waste will be arrested.
As in the dark hour of 1864, Grant
was raised up as if by a. special Prov
idence to terminate the war by sup
preston of the rebellion, so the pres
emit occasion, when the country is i'm
perilled by faithless officers, he seems
to have been endowed with all those
peculiar qualities which make him so
pre-eminently the man for the Presi-
dency.
With Grant for President who is
there that can doubt that Re 3Onstruc-
ton will be completed; the freedom
Of the Southern people maintained;
the peace and union of the country
preserved; and the financial honor
and credit of the nation protected
from all assaults ? To accomplish
these vital ends, the country needs an
honest Executive, and such an othcer
Is to be found in the soldier and pa
triot, q. s. Grant.
As, In 1864, he succeeded to com
mand where incompetency, lnexperl-
ence, reachery and egregious vanity
had 50 long wrought disaster, defeat