Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1869-03-02
THE NEW ADMINISTRATION.

49, D.
Before this time next week, the country
will be breathing its existence under the ad-
rninistration of General Grant, of whose gen.
erai policy We have only the fcintest fore
shadowirgs. Iii true, that in his brief speech
responding to the official notification of his
elevation, he gave out some expressions in re-
gard to an economical administration, honesty
In the collection of the revenues, &C., but
upon the question which most deeply interests
the whole country-the restoration Of the
States Of the South, to their legitimate places
in the government, which alone can insure
general prosperity and happiness-his out
givings have been too vague to form probable
estimate of what his real policy is likely to be.
Upon this point then, we have only to wait
and hope, let the developments of the future
be what they may.
But whilst this is the case, one feature has
manifested itself in the character of Gen.
Grant, which has created for him a better
opinion in the minds of those who opposed
his elevation to the Presidential chair. He
has Kept his own counsels, and kept them we'll.
and in this has demonstrated his own seif-re-
lance, which has kindled a lively hope that
he does not mean to be mere instrument IN
the hands Of the radicals, to be moulded as
clay in the hands of the potter If 1t be true
that he said to Mr.. Mcclure of Penn, last
week, 81 aln not the representative OF poilt-
ical party myself, although party voted for
me, "unquestionably cntertains high estimate
of the position to which he has been called by
the voice of the people, and may rise superior
TO the circumstances which surround him, and
do much to calm the troubles and avert tie
dangers into which Rad;calism. in its insatiato
lust for power, has plunged the country.
We do not expect, nor have we any grounds
for hoping, that the administration of the gov
eminent under Gen. Grant, will be marked
By that strict regard for the constitutional
rights of the States, in their sovereign capaci-
~, that distinguished the rule of our earlier
Presidents. So far have we drifted from the
ancient landmarks, aud go natural and easy
have become our departures from the consti-
tutional track, that more than one administra>
tion will be required to bring back the gov
eminent to its former moorings. But between
our condition under the almost perfect form of
government bequeathed US, and the present
chaotic state of the country, under radical
control, there is SO wide margin that there
Is great room for decided improvement, with
out attaining the perfection Of the former or
persisting in the madness of the latter. We
do look for that improvement. May we not be
disappointed.
Since writing the above, we have read the
following in the Petersburg Inder, which SO
we'll expresses our own views, that we embody
it as part of this article
There are heart-burnings, political fueds,
mental anxieties and disquietudes which need
to be alayed. These not war but they
breed war. They corode, they exasperate,
they inf1ict q mental torture from which to
escape into open war is positive relief. 1t
is to those that General Grant must address
the healing measures of a magnanimous policy,
if he would give US peace. Should he fail to
do so, there may brood over the country
stiffness which is not repose; one Of those
portentous Gains like that in which. nature
silently Celebrates the forces Of storm and
tempest, which arc the more destructive the
longer she delays to unleash her thunderbolts
and send the tornado carcering in its wrathful
might over the tropic seas.