The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1869-03-05
GEN GRANTS FIRST WORD as PRESIDENT.

inaugural IL dDOuI Us DdTIcu 40 ~ 10 oAASA'
Informal and quasi-oficial revelations had
already Indicated his position with reference
to most of the topics on which he touches In
this paper, and in a large measure prepared
the public mind for all that it foreshadows as
to the complexion of his administration, the
nature of his policy and the relations which
NAV arise between him and the Republican
majority in Congress. Hence its chief inter-
est NAV be resolved into the fact that it goes
to confirm in authentic shape ideas which
were previously formed on unauthentic data
The inaugural we suspect to have been
penned in its first draft at least by General
Grant himself 1t bears no traces of a liter
airy expert. 1t has not the ring either of fur
bished brass or of polished steel. RS SEN
fences remind us of fragments Of cast.iron
thrown together in cc,,ets NJ mild distraction,
"na' vaInese fantasia is to an Italian can
tats, this document appears in comparison
with the hastiest and briefest communications
from Gen. Grants more scholastic predeces-
sors, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, the younger
Adams, Ven Buren,, Polk, Pierce, Buchanan
not to mention johnson. There is in it, too,
as notableA lack of logical caution as of literary
pretension. We could point out more than
one inconsequence and more than one appa-
rent contradiction. We could easily reduce
some of his propositions to bald absurdity
| But we forbear, satisfied of the present IN
proftableness of such q task. There are
some men who never can justify their con-
illusions, however sound, by articulate ratio
cination. If they hit upon the right doctrine
or the right policy, it is by intuition. This
would seem to be the case with Gen. Grant.
If in the end he shall evince the possession
of true greatness, hewill doubtless do so after
the manner of those historic horoes whom
Thomas Carlyle describes as the worlds
inarticulate great men,"
But we would not be understood as assert
ing that this inaugural is destitute of rational
meaning. We mean simply that it looks like
the composition of a man who has not
acquired the trick perhaps is incapable of
displaying the faculty, of either the logician
or the rhetorician. In evidences OF both
thought and purpose it is by no means def
| cient. Some of its remarks, indeed, appear
| to be the results of profound reflection. For
| example, when Gen. Grant says: al know
no method to secure the repeal of bad and
obnoxious laws so effective as their stringent
execution" the proposition, though appa-
rently a dry, hard, narrow specimen OF para
dox has wide sweep which goes to the
psychological roots of both legislation and
public opinion. Gen. Grant thinks that
1 al
ton of bad laws as will make them look as
hideous as possible, it will hasten to vail the
image; or, if not, that the people will
fnG means of suppressine the original
Perhaps, after all, the negative aspects of
this paper are the most noteworthy We
detect in it no party cant or slang; no indica-
ton that General Grant esteems himself the
representative of a party, that he considers
himself under supreme obligation to consult
the interests of party, and that he construes
loyalty ON his part in any sense to mean
LOYALTY to party. The office" he says, ''has
come to me unsought; commence its duties
untrammeled." If these are not vain words,
they must signify that he intends as clear a
separation from the partisan following which
has been at his heels since the Chicago con-
vention, as Prince Henry made of his asso'
ciates at the Bears Head tavern when called
to the throne. But that the Radical crew will
bear the remuneration with as much good
humor, or with as little ability to resent It,
as Jack Falstaff and the rest did, is not to be
expected. Unless Grant, in his acts, shall
devour his words, their wrath will be certain
at length to explode; and the longer they
keep it bottled the more violent will be thu
ultimate explosion.
Wherever the new President touches thu
subject of reform his language implies repro
baton of the spirit and effect of the charac
teristic legislation of the Republican majorit,
in Congress. Especially is it so when b
speaks of retrenchment in expenditure II
every department of the government, OF tn
restoration of the national credit so that t
contract an obligation to pay dollar would
presume value received to the full worth of
dollar, and of the rebuilding of prostrat
commerce and the encouragement of all IL
| dustries. And, in a general way, words coul
scarcely throw more odium upon the spirit l
which Congress has legislated than the TO
lowing: "In meeting these Questions for sci
Element in the next four years. it is desirabl
: that they should be approached calmly an
without prejudice, hate or sectional pride, re
Numbering that the greatest good for tn
greatest number is the object to be attained.
In view of all which we must conclude tina
unless Gen. Grant shall, in his future course
t eat his words and their logical implication
: with unparalleled voracity, or unless tn
t spirit of the old Congress translated into tn
!. present Congress shall undergo miraculou
e mutation, q collision between him and ii
S Radicals of that body is simply question
o time and occasion.
u A short time ago whilst a company {
e Spanish volunteers were marching throug
one of the streets of Havana the cry of "Vi'
. Cespedes! Vird Ia Cuba ibre, was heard
D issue from a neiphborinp house, The valial