The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-03-15

should the people make me President, you
and the people may be assured that all men
will be permitted to speak their honest con-
viciiODs, wherever they may be, within the
boundaries Of the United States"
In truth, to secure protection Of individual
RIGHTS and freedom Of expression for political
opinion within the limits Of order and Law
are likely to be cardinal aims Of General
Grants administration. Wendell Phillips
need not be anxious about "Ku- Kluk out
throate;" the new administration Is more bent
on putting down villainous combinations to
substitute terrorism for tranquility than he
can ever be, and by means more effective, Il
lees noisy and bloodthirsty. It Is not only In
the instant promotion Of Sheridan and the re-
ipstatement of those army officers who were
removed in disgrace by Mr.. johnson that we
learn the new Presidents determination
regarding military reconstruction" aud
the protection of society at the South from
the reckless and lawless-we can prefgure
1t as clearly from his personal oharao-
ter. For 1t is familiar truth in human
nature that men Of General Grants
slow-stiIriDg and equable temperament
are as little liable to swerve and
swing away from deliberate opinion or
policy, when once reached, as they are tsrdy
to attain il. General Grants realization of the
Importance, as we'll as the grandeur, of seour-
ing individual riRhts-as, for example, free
dom OF opinion and an untrammeled career-to
every human being on whom American oiu-
zenship has been lawfully conferred was, pos
sibly, like his faith in the policy known as
military reconstruction, of somewhat slower
growth than that Of more restless thinkers,
who, in turn have their rowing fancies now
fixed on other ideals; but he is probably more
determined than any man in America, at this
moment, to establish order, provide security
for person and property, enforce the laws, and
punish armed and banded law breakers by
military force where the civil arm is still
paraly zed.
II General Grant arrived later, we repeat,
at some conclusions, it was because he did not
jump at them, and arrived to stay. He abides
by the views he put forth in his famous dis
pute with Mr.. Johnson at the time Of Sh ari-
dams removal and has gone forward on the
same line. He seems to know little and care
little for wraDgling parties at the South, one
saying to the other, 81 ana more loyal than
thou" he has little to say of "politicsl disa-
bilities," and that little not in faver of them;
his words regarding Lee, and his act regard
ing Longstreet, show that vindiotiveness
towards former enemies is as foreign as ever
to his nature; but when it comes to any mat
ter of national legislation aiming to give full
rights and privileges Of citizenship to every
eitizen-whether by Civil Rights bill, four
what not-his appreciation and Endorsement
are very prompt and hearty.
In the history of the Republic for nearly
eighty years, everything was done for State
rights and national rights-nothing OF conss-
quepce for domestic rights of citizenship.
But the Rebellion, which revolutionized Ame-
rican destiny in go many respects, did so in
none more notably than this. The rights of
American citizenship now take the precedence
of all others, as they always should have
done in Republic where the electoral people
are sovereign. We have lately undertaken
to protect those rights even against States-
that ia to say, against that odious local legis-
lation which once imperilled within the Re-
public freedom of travel, of opinion, and of
| speech. How vast political and national
| tendency this is, our nearness to it may pre-
vent us from realizing; but the historian of
| the future, who will view it in its just per-
| spective, will comment upon 1t as not less
momentous than the war itself.
Our generation, also, may not fully appre.
| ciate what lustre and historic grandeur will
gather about that administration which shall
| first establish as one of its main aims the
protection of American citizenship, making
that citizenship the badge of security for
equal rights to all, throwing about the citi-
zen as a citizen-not only in foreign countries
where his rights are now at length acknow-
lodged, bnt here, especially, in every part of
his own countryside egis Of his nationality,
and putting into each citizens hand, as it
were, for his protection against all the world,
the gathered thunderboits of the nation.
Under such an administration, the "CiviS
Romanus sum" of antiquity will only stand side
by side with the safeguard-'I am an Ameri-
can citizen"
That such is the lofty ambition OF General
Grant we may gather from his various utter
apces, which become more and more distinct.
Certainly we may take an augury from the
presence as law adviser in the Cabinet of the
son of Samuel Hoar. What change, not
more from the South Carolina OF 1874 to the
South Carolina of 1869, than from the nation
OF five-and-twenty years ago to the nation oi
to-day; from American citizensh ip of the past
tothat of the present and that Of the future
Who Backed Napoleon Out of Mexico .
Who Killed Cock Robin!
From tie N. y. Herald.
We have an extraordinary Minister a,
Brazil. He is officially recognized as General
James Watson Webb, Envoy Extraordinary
and Minister Plenipotentiary, etc, but is
familiarly known as the Chevaier Webb. He
has been attending to the affairs of the United
States at Rio Janeiro for eight long years, and
has managed to keep things very lively down
there pretty much all the time, without get
ting us into actual war. But it appears from
a late mysterious exposition, published since
the retirement of Andy JohI son and his Sc.
cretary OF State, that the Chevalier Webb
besides his important questions of diplomatic
etiquette and his active labors in the affairs Of
Brazil, Paraguay, and the Argentine Confede
ration, and his misunderstanding with Admit
raj Davis, etc., has had some other diplomatic
irons in the fre-that, in short, the country
is indebted to Webb, among other things
for the quiet backing out of Louis Nape