The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-12-30
GRANT AND THE RINGS.

ers of this famous oracle with the cast iron
head and the unresonant wooden tongue But
inexpensive he is not, unless he is totally
without personal identity, and more OF
myth than Hercules or Bucentaur; unless, in
a word. the daily kilograms emanating from
Washington about his opinions and sugges-
tons, his intentions and propensions, repre-
sent things which are no more tangible than
moonshine, and no more real than the crea-
lures of German fable, or the liberty and
philanthropy evolved from the triumph of the
party of freedom and of "mpral ideas.
Well, we prefer as yet to believe that he
has a visible and individual existence, and
that if not exactly human in the view OF the
transcendental funkeyism which icks his
military boots and kisses the skirts OF
his military coat, he is at least incarnate and
anthropomorphic. Considering him In this
light, we must say that, to all appearance he
is about the most communicative being who
ever appeared in such a shape. Whether he
communicates in articulate signs, vocal or
written, il matters not 1t is enough to know
that lie indicates, somehow, what he thinks
and intends, or what he wishes the world to
believe that he thinks and intends And here
is one of his latest indications Dispatches
hence from Washington say that Grant is de-
termined to root out the whisky, railroad and
other rings, even if he has to fill every civil
Office from the army or navy" This state
ment, when well weighed, is positively amaz-
ing. The eye shrinks in terror from the
picture of prospective labor and strug-
gle which it reveals. Grant has before
him in this reformatory campaign
contest compared to which that of Her.
cules with the hydra, or that of Apollo
with the Python, was as simple, easy, and
innocuous as the mock fight of a modern
tournament or a real set-to in logomachy
between two Radical congressman, after the
chivalric and exquisite style of Donnelly and
Washburne. It is almost incredible that he
can have measured the strength of the enemy
which he proposes TO attack; an enemy whose
shapes and weapons are infinite, whose name
is Proteus. His great Odyssean namesake, it
is true, conquered in a similar combat; but
this was accomplished through the aid of a
goddess. What god or goddess does our
modern Ulysses, surnamed Hiram Simpson,
expect to back him in his meditated encounter
with the awful THING, vulgarly known as the
Ring? Not the goddess of Liberty, surely;
for if there is any divinity particularly foreign
to the epoch symbolized by Grant on the
one hand, and by the Ring on
the other hand, it is she. Indeed, there % but
one divinity whose presence can be confidently
expected in the arena of the coming combat
&c almighty dollar namely; and that, peyond
question, will be on the side of the THING.
We are well aware of the unsatisfactory and
tantalizing Indebtedness of this name for the
terrible monster. But the fact is, its Eaagni-
tude and multiplicity are such rs TO defy
definition. We can do no more. eft The utmost,
than to family and distantly APPROXIMATE to a
description of it in words. The THING,
the whole horizon of political affairs
and secular activities; and it is as deep
as perdition. The great difficulty is to know
what it does not include and yet without
solving this difficulty to begin with, there is
not the least hope of successfully assailing it.
countless convolutions of the monster, or you
will be as impotent for offense, and as help
less for defense, as a young antelope in the
embrace of boa-constrictor. But where is
the palpable and fixed fact, external to the
Ring, which can afford you such stand
point? If Grant knows where it is, then he
has failed thus far, with all his indicativeness,
to indicate it. Hence the Ring apparently,
comprises all things that come under contem-
porary observation in endless subdivisions
which are themselves rings, and hence the
fitness of the generic, though indefinite,
appellation of THING which we have
been constrained by the nature of the
case to give it. All thoughts, all pas
sions, all delights, whatever stirs amid
the walks of men, minister to its pride, its
insolence and its power. In these days, what
is done, what can be done, outside of ring?
What is not done, what can not be done, in
side of ring /? Echo answers what 1t is
clear, therefore, that, supposing present con-
ditions to continue, Grants threatened war
fare against whisky, railroad, and other
rings" if we ere to understand the phrase
''other rings" to be exhaustive of the category,
is foregone failure. Ii may be, indeed,
that he has some suspicion of this, and that,
despairing of his ability to conduct an ex-
haustive combat against rings in general, he
will confine his ambition to making war upon
few rings in particular. This idea derives
strength from the intimation that he is
ready, if need be, to FILL every civil
office from the army and navy" in order to
''rout out the whisky, railroad and other
rings" 1t is obvious that, in this case,
the contest would be one of rings against
rings-the rings which should have their
centers in the army and navy, against all
those rings which are now supposed to have
strongholds in the civil service. The final
result of victory in a campaign, organized
upon such basis, may be easily OWNED A
military empire would swallow up or supplant
all the rings, big and little. 1t would be- in
fact, the THING not less omnipotent, not
less fearful perhaps, than now; but much more
sinorla iptalIioihla api datarminafa Cor ~