The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1868-01-30
General Grant ana Reconstruction.
s,- e,or. .ha =, oat striking inlif

) General Grant ana Reconstruction
8 We suspect, from the most striking indi.
cations, that General Grant Is not wel
satisfied with the measurcsof Congress ~
reconstruct reconstruction" Iney VIZ.
throw mon him an Immense responsibility
and sc every thing did not work vel anu
end IN his complete triumph, as public
ma, nan ba would. be involved in inextricabie
rnip. Once let the tide Of public senti.
mept set we'll in opposition to those mea-
sures and the general policy Of Congress
and every man In any wise prominently con-
nected With them, or even under suspicion
of faint, will be swept mescilessly by, and
swallowed up In, tho great dead Sea Of dead
politicians from which there Is no resur-
rection.
The New York Times, the unqualified
and leading supporter of General GRANT.
opposes with great ability the Reconstruc.
ton and Supreme Court bills. The Times
especially opposes the reconstruction bin
because it will make General GRANT the
absolute and irresponsible head Of the ten
unreconstructedS States, and will take away
from the President his constitutional au-
thority. This does not look as If General
GRANT desired the passage Of the bill /;
for the Times is SO distinguished sheet,
and its editor man Of so much shrewd-
ness, that it would not likely take posi-
tion on such subject without knowing
where General GRANT stood.
But there is a stronger declaration than
any the Times has put forth in the New
York Sun, paper established by capital
lists and edited by Mr. DANA with the
especial object Of sustaining General
GRANT for the presidency. 1t says Gene
raj GRANT "dislikes" as much as the
people can the placing of so much power
in his hands. 1t is true the SIN makes
some sort of apology for Congress for pass
ing such a measure; but its confession
that General GRANT dislikes" the posi-
ton assigned to him makes the case the
stronger. It adds, further, that General
GRANT will "dislike" his Office all the
more if it @be of mixed character
"partly military, partly civil.''
We are especially struck with this idea
OF the Generals disliking the mixing up
of the military and the civil authority
Like true soldier, he wants to be con-
fined to military administration of public
affairs in the South. He would then know
what he was about, and keep things, in
deed, in order. Would that he were so
military commander of the South, and
that, establishing purely military govern
ment here, we should get rid Of the mon
strous conventions and the political agita-
tions, and be allowed to rest for time
from the injurious devices of Radicals,
which have destroyed industry and re-
duced the South to beggary.
But another hint is conveyed in the
Suns comments-whether intended or not,
we cannot say Does not this inclina-
tion for purely military government in
the South suggest that the very law that
is to confer so much authority on GRANT
may erect power in the State which will
set the Radical leaders OF defiance, and
put an end to their usurpations and their
tyranny
Those who take the sword must perish
by the sword; and Radicalism may be now
nourishing plant which will overshadow
it. All republics have died by usurpations
invited by the corrupt politicians and will
the Republic of the United States become
an exception in universal history? Ger
tainly it will not escape through any ex-
cess of virtue above those which have
gone before it, and terminated in despot-
ism