The New York herald., 1869-04-07
viii General Grants Administration BE
success or a Failures

success OF q EouureS
Everything in the machinery of the new ad-
ministration seems to be running smoothly.
The guillotine, at the rate of about one hun
dred per day, is taking off the heads of the
Johnson office-holders, and the active repubi-
can politicians are coming in for fair share
of the spoils General Grant has shown his
disposition in many things to cultivate har-
mony with the Senate, and especially in his
approval of the equivocal modification between
the two houses of the Tenure of Office law. In
his inaugural and in his appointments, includ-
ing soldiers and civilians, patriotic female
Union spies in the war, repentant rebels, and
citizens of African descent, vulgarly called
niggers, he has done something in behalf Of all
the cliaues and factions of the dominant party,
and has particularly tickled the fancy Of
Wendell Phillips on his latest ultimatum OF the
equal rights of the black man touching the
offices. In corresponding degree the de-
mocracy, rank and file, red hot and lukewarm,
have become disgusted with the doings at
Washington; so that General Grant now marks
the dividing lines between the two parties even
more distinctly than he did as the republican
candidate on the Chicago platform.
From the results of the recent Connecticut
election it would likewise appear that in advo-
eating the proposed fifteenth amendment to
the constitution giving equal suffrage to male
citizens throughout the United States of all
races and colors-white, yellow, red and
black-General Grant has given new popular
impulse to this movement; for heretofore in
Connecticut the republican party, whenever it
has distinctly broached the question Of negro
suffrage, has been signally defeated. We
might, then, plausibly conclude from all these
facts and from the general Generalization OF
the forlorn democracy, that the prospect for
General Grants administration is all that
could be desired and that, after dispensing
his rewards to the faithful till the Offices are
all filled, he has only to sit down and smoke
the pipe of peace with Vice President Colfax
as President Of the Senate, in order to settle
the question of the succession.
But all such estimates as these are shallow
and fallacious. Every one of our Presidents
so far who has had nothing better upon which
to build than the spoils has been a failure.
Tyler, Fillmore and Andy johnson are the
most notable examples. Poor Pierce and
Buchanan failed-the one because he laid
violent hands upon those great compromise
measures on slavery which had given peace to
the moral courage to grapple with secession
after the manner Of Jack son. Since the time
of Monroe we have had but two Presidents
elected for a second term-Jackson and Lin
coin. The reelection of Jackson resulted
from his war against the old United
States Bank as financial monster and
monopoly, absorbing the liberties of the
people. The reelection of Lincoln resulted
from his war with a great rebellion. The
States and people adhering to the Union cause
were satisfied with his efforts during his first
four years in the prosecution of this war, and
SO they reelected him as the surest and
shortest way to finish it. With these two
exceptions we have not had for forty five
years a President who has raised an issue
sufficient to supplant his rivals and to give him
a second term, and to all of them, after John
Quincy Adams, the spoils have been a STUN
bling block, delusion and snare.
It is evident, then, that we can form nc
Judgment of the issue of General Grants
administration from present appearances. AL
the advantages Of the situation are his; bu
there are dangers ahead of fearful magnitude
For example, during his present term he mus
check the swelling tide of political corruption
and demoralizations resulting from the mora
pestilence of the war, and we must have
financial system established from which tn,
people shall experience great relief iron
their present burdens Of taxation, and forese
the removal, too, within the present generation
of the incubus Of the national debt, or th
national election of 1872 may give us q toucl
Of the decisive financial settlements of tn
great French revolution. It is folly TO shu
our eyes to the Drift of public sentiment o.
this question. The masses Of the people
looking at our present financial system O
debt, taxes, national banks and bondholders
feel only the pressure of financial oligarchy
'making the rich richer and the poor poorer,
compared with which the old United State
Bank was farce, humbug and bagatclle
But can we hope for the removal of thes
mountains Of debt and taxation and spoliatiOn.
and corruptions under General Grant With
the four years to 1922 No. He may GU
them down 10 great extent but il he canno
utterly remove them he must do something
else for popular diversion in his favor. Her
are Cuba, st. Domingo, Mexico and the Cen
trail American States down TO Daren. The,
are the locks and keys of the Gull and of tn,
American Isthmus passages from ocean :,
ocean. A decisive American policy on Tn,
part of General Grant will absorb all thes
outlying islands aad States and add 80 largel,