Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1868-03-31
General Grant.

lrOW llilnOlt, anu phIli1 W JcoiouoJ "
Mcclellan on the part Of the politicians
at Washington, and that he had sue
ceeded against Lee, not by military sa-
gacity, but by the mere sacrifice OF num-
bers and the exhaustion Of the Confed.
eracy; he replied that he knew Grant
we'll; that he had all the genius and ten
times the ambition Of julius Caesar that
it was neither political influence, nor
jealousy of Mcclellan, but his own, long
headed sagacity which had raised him TO
the first place in the army, from which
he had been forced to resign under
charges; that Grant of all men knew
| how and when to wait for, or to seize,
opportunities, and turn them to his own
advantage; that the radical leaders
thought they we're using Grant, but that
Grant was using them; that he was too
circumspect himself to disclose his ulti-
mate purposes, but that, knowing him as
be did, be understood what was meant by
Dent and Rawlings when they said that
Grant would not give up his position at
the head of the army, which tcds for lJe,
for the sake of being President only four
years; that Grant was quietly encour'
aging Congress in attacks upon the Ex-
ecutive and the Judiciary, because all
history proved that in the progress of
legislative usurpations the time dL'cdys
and soon came schen he soho could con-
troll the army could seat himself fn the
Executive chair for life, with any title
he might think proper to assume,
b To our question, whether he believed
Grant entertained any such ambitious
views, he replied that he was confident
that he did that from many conversa'
tions with him at West Point, and since,
he knew that Grant ha6 the ambition OF
ten Caesars; he had heard him talk years
ago of Cesar, and Cromwell, and Ma
poleon; that he would be despot, but
his ambition would be to build up, in
stead of destroying the country and
that it would be better for the country at
large, and especially the South, to pros.
per under his empire than to be ruined
by this radical Congress and their thiev-
ing emissaries.
At the time we attached but little i'm
portance to these ideas, which, we thought,
might have been born of the wish for a
marshal's baton under the prospective
empire; but subsequent events--the late
rapid and determined progress of the
destructives in Congress, since their
temporary check on the report of the
impeachment committee-and the fol-
lowing striking passages in our late
readings lead us to think that perhaps
there was more in it than was dreamed
of in our philosophy.
Calhoun, in his speech on the National
Bank, September 26, 1887, speaking Of
the States Rights party, said:
I'VE are the sworn enemies both OF
executive and legislative usurpations,
and of the two, more opposed ifpossible,
to the latter than the former; because,
in the nature of things, they must take
precedence in the order of time. With
out legislative there could be no execu-
tive usurpations. Congress must first
encroach on the powers of the States be-
fore the executive can become strong
enough to encroach on its powers; but
as soon as they do, the benefit inures not
to them, but 10 the President. Reason
and experience both prove this"
These views were not altogether origi-
nal with Mr.. Calhoun; for in his speech
on the Joint resolution in reference to
the Madison Papers, February 20, 1887,
he said that
"He had been much struck with the
sagacity and foresight of Mr.. Jefferson,
in remark ofthat great statesman, that
legislative usurpation would always pre-
cede executive, but that executive would
always succeed legislative usurPation,"
Governor Floyd, of Virginia, in 1919,
replying to Mr. Clay's attack upon Gen.
jackson, said:
1.-THE honorable speaker (Mr. Clay
tells US that Rome had her Cesar, Britain
her Cromwell, France her Napoleon, and
we may profit by their example. | am
about to hazard an opinion, new in a
degree, and very opposite to that of the
honorable speaker, which is, that no gov
ernment has ever been destroyed by
successful military chieftain. / appeal
to history to support me, if my construc-
ton be right. If / recollect the words
of the historian: Cesar, having less
reputation, like a wise champion, re-
tired to distance for exercise, while the
two great factions preyed upon the liber.
ties Of Rome Then, not till then, did
Cesar return to Rome, which, ever since
the wars of Marius and Sylla, had known
no liberty.
"Nor is the overthrow of the British
Government attributable to Cromwell.
The speeches of Parliament, and the
treachery Of members, produced the
revolution. When all was in commo-
ton, Cromwell, by canting and preach
in, secured the stronger party, and be-
came the Protector Nor can the French
revolution be attributed to anything but
the insincerity of the orators in the
States General, and to none in higher
degree than to that greatest of orators
and worst of msn, Mirabeau. IT, in
after times, as in all other revolutions,
Napoleon secured the stronger party
and swayed the Government he cannot
be said to have overturned II. No, Mr..
Chairman, our liberties are not to be
endangered by successful chieftain, re-
turning to us with his gaudy costume,
even after a hundred victories Of New
Orleans. It is here, in the Capitol, on
this floor, that our liberty is to be sacri-
feed, and that by the hollow, treacher-
Gus eloquence of some ambitious, proud,
aspiring demsgogue
Going further bsck-to September,
l7e6-We find, in WAshington's Farewell
Address, tnis language:
"The alternate domination of one
faction over another, sharpened by the
spirit Of revenge. natural tC party dis
sension, which 10 different ages and
countries has perpetraied the most hor-
rid enormities, is itself frightful des-
potism. But this leads at length TO q
more formal and permanent despotism.
The disorders and miseries which result,
gradually incline the minds OF men TO