The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1868-02-18

| his denunclatlonS OF the haulcal poucy VI
negro suffrage.
yeracity as to Grant being white mans gov.
ernment man. 1t is pretty we'll authenticated
| now.
GRANTS POLITICS.
| The above naturally suggested an inquiry as
to whether the President did not understand
Grant to he on his side all along, until quite re-
| Gently, and whether there was any tangible rca-
son for the Generals change OF front. "Ol
course, understood him to be with me all
along, because had his word for it," said the
| President. "He went down South, and came
| back more for me than was for myself. BE
| wrote O report that encouraged me more than
| anything else had done, to persevere in the
| effort to get the Southern States back into the
| Union as I had started out. He called IN me
| frequently for long time after the controver-
BY between me and Congress had commenced,
and il he meant anything by what he said, he
was my friend and supporter. Ho never talked
politics very much, because General Grant al
ways pretended he didn't know anything about
it; but he didn't seem to regard reconstruction
as political question. He suddenly turned
up as Radical candidate for the Presidency;
and that was the first I knew of his opposition
to me-"
FINANCE.
The subject Of finances was next brought
up. The President seemed to have given q
great deal Of attention to the subject, and to
have very strong convictions on it. He thought
the common sense view Of the matter was bot
ter than any OF the fine spun theories to which
the country is 30 often Treated, and which only
confused, without enlghtening anybody. '"The
fact is," said he, "that before the war there
wore threo thousand million dollars worth OF
property in slaves 1t the South. distributed so
as to create all Gristocracy, which controlled
the South, and, through tho South, the coun-
try. Thc war destroyed both the property and
the aristocracy. But now VIC ind that the
property only disappeared from the South to
appear in the North in another shape, and to
create an aristocracy and political power III
the shape Of bOndholdors, more destructive or
The government than the s!aye-holding aris-
tocracy was, bccau;c continued burden upon
it-drawing upon the resources Of the country
to support it, and adding not one cent to the
productive interests. The three thousand
millions OF slave property while it was an evil,
was at the same time good, for it Increased
the productive resources OF tho nation. But
now we find the four millions of negroes q
charge upon the country, instead OF o benefit
to it, and the three thousand millions OF dol
lars which they used to represent has taken
tho shape of heavy burden upon the tax
payers, drawing from them all they can rake
and scrape to pay larger rate ofinterest than
can be got out of any other investment.
asked the President whas remedy he would
propose for what he considered so great an evil.
Would the Western Democratic theory OF an
lllimitable issue of greenDacks do mo-" he
replied, ''that would only increase the evil, In
stead OF dimi nisbing it or remedying it, To is-
sue more money might make easy times for
while. but they wouldn't last long. There
could be no true prosperity derived from such
q course"
''Then what do you think would bring about
the desired rcsult?"
.'Why, the first thing is to release the South
from her present condition, az let the people
of those ten States have chance to recover
from the effects of tho var, to engage in busl-
ness, and to offer opportunities for absorbing
some OF tho surplus capital which is now in
vested IN Government bonds. Let thsm have
a chance, and they'll go to work with o will,
and do their full share. Then ..oduce the ex-
pensas OF tho goycrnmenL-reduce the army
and the navy q peace basis, collect the reve-
nue., and take up these bonds as fnst as possl-
Bile. Suppose we Issue hundred millions, or
O thousand millions of greenbacks, how much
botter Arc wo off than we were before Inc
debt is still before lla, and must bo paid. No
advantage is gained, but great evil is done to
the laborius interests OF the country in tie IN.
ilation of prices, which arboring mon will feel
only Us it operates against them in making
their wages represent less than they did be-
FORE"
From the above the reader can judge that
any attempt made by Congress- this winter to
initiate the currency, OF, as General Schenck
says, "to make times easy" for the next cam
paign, will bo promptly vetoed BY the Presi-
dent
PRESIDENTIAL PROSPECTS.
The subject OF the next Presidency came up
IN tho course Of tho conversation. MIR. john
son was non-committal, but inquisitiye as to
candidates. Flo asked me how Pendleton stood
in tho West, and what strength he had as o
candidate. 1 replied that thought Mr. Pen
dletons principal strength was in his personal
among the Ohio Democrats, and
that it did not extend much beyond where he
was personally known to the people; but that
Wash. Mclean was running him very strong"
and that Wash was i power in tho Democracy
of tho West, us was manifested by his saugl-
icr OF YnliandIshaln. "WclI," said the Presi-
dent, If tho itea is to run PcndlctUn oxclu-
siyely on the financial theory, il will provo
mistake. Reconstruction is tho paramount
issue, and cannot be absorbed or swallowed up
by any otLcr. The radical policy OF Congress
is all attempt TO Change tho form OF our gov
ernment, II not to overturn 1t altogether. Ii
that succeeds, it makes very little difference
what becomes of The finances, for they will go
with the rest, and there will be nothing left
anywhere" He did not think tho result IN the
Eighth District looked well for Pendletou.
He spoke oil Mcclellan, and asked me how l
thought he'd run. I replied that Mcclellan
seemed to have somo strength n the East, but
I didn't think it would prove very strong in
the National Convention. The last campaign
took all the music out OF McClellan's name.
In conclusion, ON this topic I fold the Pres
ident thero were great many Democrats, and
great many who usod to act with the Repub-
licans, who considered him The strongest and
most available candidate to oppose the Radi-
Gals with lie didn't know about thdt-but he
believed il to be quite possible to find man
who would carry TIE North against the Radi-
Gals. MACK.