The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-01-29

be no rational dissent from the proposition
that he is at this present writing "high per-
1 sonage" in the land. He is the actual Com.
| mander. in Chief OF the Federal foro.s and the
prospective Chief Magistrate of the Republic.
| The reduction of the army may have impaired
| his importance in the Office which he Is about
! to resign, and the distrust Of his radical sup
porters may ourtail his influence in the Office
which he is about to assume. Bat q General
of the Armies must always be a funotionary of
some consequences, and President must
Theoretically represent the Collectivs dignity,
even il an usurping Congress forbd5 him
politically to exert the collective foros, of ths
Republic.
And therefore it is that the Tribune, by sun
dry recent publications concerning this con-
spicuOus citizen, hes made itself guilty of the
ancient and abominabls ofsnse Of Scaad1 Inn
aadgnotum. This offense consists, according to
the statutes by which 1t was first defined ia
the reigns of Edward | and Richard II, Gin
any wrong, by words or in writing, done to
high personages of the land such as peers
judges, ministers of the crown, officers in the
state, and other great public functionaries, by
the circulation OF soandalous statements, false
news, or horrible messages, by which any de-
bate between them and the Parliament or any
scandal to their persons might arise" Such
wrong is Sc1ndalam magndtum. II differs
from mere promiscuOus and malignant lying
about private persons in that it is reduced to
no certain rules and definitions, but it may
be whatever shall be judged TO be deroga-
tory to the high character of the person of
whom it was spoken. An old Nisi Prius
report tells US that, while it was held to be
harmless to say of a common person she is
no more to be valued than a dog" it was
held to be Scdnddtum magnatlm 10 say the
same thing of peer.
In like manner, while it would be harmless
for the Tribune to say of common person
! F1-o IL -E II 81 1.
the rank of Envoy to Eng land-tha he "lies'
or that he is "villiap," it would be scan.
mag. TO say the same thing of IL. G. after he
had been presented as the American Minister
to her Majesty Queen Victoria. Or for the
Tribune to have ssid Of Ulysses s. Grant,
tanner in Galena, that he ''dtdn't know his
own mind or that he went back on his
own words" would have been harmless. But
for the Tribune to say, as it said the other day
of General Grant, "by authority" that he
denied ever having uttered ''to any human
being" any opinions whatever on public ques-
tions and public men, was an open Scand4ium
mogn0tum.
Again: For the Tribune to have said of any
private person-as, tor example, OF George
Francis Train-thaJ he objected to the treaty
just negotiated between England and America,
| because the "true measure OF our American
claims against England was the sweeping of
our whole commerce from the seas and the
| prolongation of the civil war for year by
English sympathy with the Contederates,"
| would have been harmless. But for the 1ri.
June TO say this as it said this Wednesday, 'by
authority" OF General Grant, was also an
open ScandGLum mdgn0tum. For though such
| words of themselves really may mean no
more when put into the mouth of General
Grant than they would if put into the mouth
of George Francis Train, still such is
the responsible position OF General Grant
| hat n n uCn a
tives, either of which is "horrble' thing to
think of. If they are to be supposed to pre-
figure the foreign policy of General Grant the
utterance of them must be Interpreted either
as a most unworthy and artful attempt to
prevent the outgoing administration from
effecting the settlement of an important
question (and this, by exertiug an uno0nsti
tutional and debasing influence upon the
Senate through the personal hopes and fears
OF its members in the matter OF patronage yet
to be-, or as designed to make the English
Government recede from the treaty, by put
ting that government, as it were, under a
direct menace from the incoming American
administration.
If, on the other hand, they are to be sup
posed to represent nothing at all but an ebul-
lition of personal feeling and temper on the
part of General Grant, then the utterance OF
them would put him into the odiOus light OF
seeking to persuade the popular mind that, if
tlo country WOulu Ouly nave WdlLou uuLll
after his inauguration for the settlement of the
alabama clams,' the country would have
seen Great Britain compelled tG atone for her
misdeeds by the payment to US of the ditfe-
renee between the value of our foreign COM
merce in 1860 and its value in 1865, plus the
whole of the last years expenses of the war
a sum which, in the aggregate, We need not
say, would go a long way towards clearing of
the national debt. or course, General Grant
never uttered the language imputed to him
gobblers in the land, readers of the Tribune,
who will believe that he did utter it, just as
the same persons ON the same authority be-
lieved that he really did deny the authenticity
of the much more rational and respectable
observations recited as falling from him on a
variety of topics by trcsty and intelligent
correspondent of the Woid.
And therefore, we repeat, alike by Its
depials and by its atfrmations, the Tribune
has committed the crime of scan. mag. against
''high parsonage" 1t has done its worst to
discredit and make him appear ridiculous. If
the perpetrator of these misdeeds will give
himself up, we should recommend his being
let off with few years in the Dry Tortugas.
If he obstinately hides under Windust's table
or in the crown of II. G.'s hat, then let the
whole Tribune staff ba arbitrarily arrested by
Superintendent Kennedy, aud subjected to the
peine forte ct dlre of reading Badeau's "Mili-
taIy History of General Grant" or Greeley'a
american Conflict" until the guilty person
shall consent to plead.
Congress Nothing but Caucus.
FfOna "Brick" Ponleroy's ". y Democrat
Under the despotic rule of the radical ma