New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1868-02-07
THE PRESIDENTS LITTLE GAME.

| We hate tins constant QuarreDng ana seek
| for some special administrative virtue Ill his
character. He is President of the United States
the Chief Magistrate and first citizen OF the
| Republic 1t is ungraciOus to be always
! speaking of our ruler III terms OF ccnSure.
We have entered into every contest with
| him hoping it would be the last-that peace
and a good understanding would come
| that the President and Congress would get upon
| common ground, and labor for the welfare of
| the country. When Impeachment was defeated
| by a decisive vote of the Republican party, we
| felt sure that the President would accept this
vote as a token of reconciliation and peace;
that Reconstruction would go ahead uninter
ruptedly, and we could debate questions of
revenue and tariff. We were mistaken Every
| day seems to bring a new grief.
Take, for instance, this Grant-Stanton
trouble We have written its history many
times, and have no difficulty in coming to
conclusion. If there is one object for which
the President has labored without fail, it is the
Endorsement of Gen. Grant. lie has generally
received it. He played Grant directly against
Congress in the beginning of this contest when
he sent him South. He whired him around
the circle. By his aid he effected the suspension
of Stanton. We felt at the time that Grant
made mistake in submitting to the Presidents
wishes. 1t is due to him to say that he took this
step to prevent the appointment OF il creature
of Mr.. Johnson who would war upon Recon-
structon, and we honor him for it, although
we would rather have had the fight i'll the
Summer than now. The President knew very
well that Gen. Grant entered the War Office
with this motive, and if he had any doubt
| about it the Generals letter would have
removed the doubt. However, Stanton was
suspended The Tenure of Office law was
| half obeyed. But it was necessary to get
some one else in, and here came the prob
lem. We can almost imagine the Presi-
dents reasoning. 81 have had good use
of Grant. He is an amiable man, easily
| bulhed. He did well Ivy me when he
event South and reported against Carl Schurz
{" and better still when we went to bury Mr..
Douglas. Now I've got Stanton ont.
Before Congress meets the country will
"have forgotten all about him. Grant will go
back to the army I'll give some Of the Radi
zeal Senators a tax collector or two, and get
''Steedman or Black through the Senate, just as
81 got Rousseau through. SO I'll kill a whole
"covey of partridges with one shot. I'll have
stanton out of the way, and Granta dead duck,
"for the Radicals will call him my decoy-bird
" and not trust him. With that Tenure of Office
"bill thus blown to atoms, things will be lovely
call around"
| Unfortunately, there was law and accrung
penalties. A man will do good deal for his
superior officer, but he will scarcely 60 to Jail
and pay large fine. The President says he
| expected Grant to do this-that Grant gaze
! him every assurance of his willingness-and
that, by depending on these assurances, he was
| betrayed. Gen. Grant positively contrndicts
| this statement. Here is question of veracity.
We hate to call it such; but the President says
one thing while the General says another
Each means to tell the Truth, but one docs
not. There is no collateral evidence. Arguing
from the circumstances we think these cOnclu-
siOns are plain
/. When Grant entered the War Office, he
was in sympathy with Congress. Subsequent
developments show the extent of that sympa-
thy, and that the President knew of it.
III. Grant wanted Reconstruction carried out,
and took the War Office to aid i'll the work.
III. He knew there a law which made
it his duty to resign the War Office after
Stanton's restoration by the Senate.
". He could not remain in the War Office
without giving the lie to his whole career.
We do not see how Gen. Grant could have
taken any other course If he really made the
promise the President alleges, then he must be
a fool or knave, for his friends were making
his canvass upon the express understanding
that in this Tenure of Office law, as in all
other laws, he would obey Congress. We do
not think there is well informed bricklayer
toI-o al,
For the President to suppose that Grant could
follow any other path is to us incomprehensible.
Then comes another phase! 1t is very hard
| to say just what we feel without appearing to
be Incorporate in speech. The President is
| disappointed, piqued, chagrined. In the first
| place, he cannot play Grant as a silent chess
man. The General is not willing to trust the
Presidents assurances that if he is put in jail
he will be protected. OF course Mr.. Johnson
desired this. With Gen. Grant nOminally resist
| ing Congress, he would have had glorious quar-
/ rel, and shown an enormous quantity OF "yigOi."
But Stanton goes i'll and Grant goes out.
Plainly, there is but one course. Tie must either
| submit or resist If Stanton has been abSO-
/ lutely removed, as the President contends,
! then he should be turned out as uSuTper 10y
the police, or new Secretary appointed. and
aR order issued to obey him, and him only.
| This would have been no more disObcdience
of law than for Grant to have held the Office
after StantOn's restoration. The Supreme
| Court was open to Johnson as well as to Grant.
| There was one plain course. But it required
! pluck, for over all lowered the Senate aud the
House and the never-ceasing sOughing of inn
pcaclment. The President neither resists nor
yields, but scolds! He sends for the
correspondents - a lively scribe named
-. B. S." particularly, an for Coylc,
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