Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1869-05-02
NEW SERIES, NO. 2lO

a smoke, and he has sholly stoppe
!. receiving visitors nights. These b
0 spends with his household in tn
. private family rooms of the Execu
tive Mansion. The few admitted
! there speak of him as giving tn,
appearance of being thoroughly
tagged out by each days round o.
work. He smokes necessarily, and
sits for hours with his little girls
hand in his own, not saying word,
and never rallying except his wife
makes it point that he shall5 Mrs.
Grant is universally regarded as a
sweet, plain, dutiful woman, whose
head hasn't bit been turned. She
is widely respected, and can GER
tsinly do more with her husband
than any one else.
AHEAD.
| And now for four years the Pres
ident is faced by the distrusts, the
jealousies, and the hates which his
mingled policy of nepotism and
neglect in regard. to appointments
has sown. Will he stand it2 That is
question which every one asks
here and nobody answers. There
is no question, however, that no
one hearing the abuse and seeing
the work which are heaped upon
him can fail to pity and not envy
his lot. He is credited with a gigan-
tic policy of annexation and ag-
gression, and, at least, a couple Of
foreign wars are laid to bis inten.
lions. l have reason to believe that
there are people officially "near"
to him who entertain these designs,
and that he is fond of them too,
and would at once consider them,
if his entire lack of civil courage
and his daily crushing cross of civil
labor allowed him time. But it is
certain that he finds the toll and
trouble Of affairs, as they now stand
and as they hourly complicate, too
much for him. Congress gone and
nominations over, he may be less
exposed to the literal war of res
monstrance and solicitation which |
has been waged upon him. But
this is mere conjecture and is not
borne out by the last President.
Andrew Johnson found that re-
cess of Congress gave him just as
much to do and to bear as its ses-
sion, banded against him as it was.
And, too, General Grant is eyi-
IDENTIFY not a man of affairs. He
buckles down to single work with |
a will, and he directed the army and
ran the War Department with en-
phasis and vim. For the more
ramified duties, the varied, diffuse,
and often conflicting considerations
of the Presidency, he betrays mel
Their aptitude nor capacity Indeed,
he is known to be bored by every
application or request which re-
lates specifically to any one of the
departments He refers such APP
plicants CURLY and instantly "to
Mr.. Fish," "Mr. Creswell," or
any other Mr.. Secretary, fire.
quenty naively adding: q
know nothing of these things; you
must go to the department., Far
from finding the President man
of purpose the cabinet know him
to be one of the most plastic of men.
He seems to have exercised his own
unaided judgment exclusively in
the selection Of his cabinet at first.
That wentto pieces so fast that he |
has always ever since leaned on
others. His cabinet run him" is
the common saying here, and they |
might hatch a conspiracy under |
his very nose and he would be |
none the wiser till he read it in the
newspapers. For everything of a
startling kind which will occur
during the coming years, the men
around him, not the President him.
self, will be most likely chargeable |
for the origin and the prosecution.
He has already been absolutely |
cowed down into ajelly of aequies-
ence. Ifhe arouses and shakes off |
the trammels, he will do it only for
a short time, and he will soon fall
back again. A civil administration
no more calls out those qualities of
stolidity and self-independenee, |
whichwere said to have characteriz-
ed him in uniform, than did the tan
merry business If we have a war,
however, he is not unlikely to well
come in the eongenial duties of the
camps a relief from those burdens
which require mind, not mere en-
durance--burdens which he now
finds himself neither able to dis
charge nor understand. NICK