Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1869-05-06
&gANT VIEWED THROUGH RE.
PUBLICAN sPECTACLEs.

sun doom the C0cFiSueu uuW6T5 OF
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GgANT VIEWED THROUGH RE
PUBLICAN sPECTACLEs.
We republished the other day
somewhat audacious leader from tn
Chicago Tribune, the ablest AM
most widely circulated Republican
journal in the West, in which tn,
blunders of President Grant ar,
severely criticised. Its franknes
and sincerity are creditable to tn,
paper in which it appeared, and :
gratifying token of the growing
independence of the newspaper
press, which dares to speak out or
subjects that concern the public in.
terest, in cases where a timid sense
of party fealty would restrain q
manly declaration of the truth
Seeing that Gen. Grant is a West
ern man, that he was nominated
for the Presidency by the urgency
of Western sentiment and Western
pride in his military reputation
seeing that he is a citizen of Illinois,
and that the paper in which this
plain-speaking criticism appeared
is the foremost Republican organ
in that State, there is no quarter
in which the Hairror could be
held up to his mistakes with so
great a likelihood If compelling
his attention, rs in this infu-
entail journal which has been so
devoted to his interests. The ar
ticle is not the assault of an enemy,
but the counsel of disappointed
friend. "Why," says tho Chicago
Tribune, edo we say these things !?
The answer is two-fold. In the
frstplaee, they are already known
every body is talking about them,
In the streets, on horse cars, in the
railroad trains, in the club rooms,
around euchre tables, every where
except in the Executive Mansion.
In tho second place, it is necessary,
as We conceive, that there should
be a change" To disguise the
truth that the new administration
is q Notifying failure is not posi-
BILE, if it were desirable; Republi-
cans are as universally talking of
it in tone of depreciation and re-
greet, rs Democrats are in spirit
of scorn. Gen. Grants blunders
receive no additional publicity by
the animadversions of a Republi-
can newspaper; and as the Chicago
Tribune thinks it is not yet too late
for him TO mend, 1t deems itself
justified in telling the new President
what every body thinks of him,
and every body out of the
White House says of him. 1t tells
him that in two short months the
moral power of the administration
has been frittered away by abb
surdities;' that there was never an
administration "with less aptitude
for carrying good intentions into
effect" that "since the evil which
exists is not able to cure itself,
remedy must be sought and found
elsewhere - that "Gen. Grant is
too great and too good a man to be
allowed to fall into popular derision
for the want Of friends courageous
enough TO acquaint him with
his errors" The readers of the
Chicago Tri6Une's article will see
that it includes in the catalogue of
Gen. Grants blunders all that have
been most prominently charged
upon him by the Democratic press.
1t thinks he ought not to be per-
mitted to proceed in the road to
ruin "for the want of little plain,
unvarnished truth"
While it il impossible to dispute
the Justice or tho timeliness of our
Chicago contemporaries structures,
it is by no means SO evident, says
the New York World, that it offers
practicable advice. 1t tolls Gen.
Grant that he ought to dismiss his
present Cabinet and fill their places
with statesmen-a pioce Of advice
which any body is competent to
give, but which it requires a Presi-
dent of a very different order from
Gen. Grant to follow. On.what
ground can he ask the members of
his Cabinet for their designations ?
They have, as yet, committed no
egregious blunders; it is not what
they have done, it is what he has
done, that shocks and revolts the
public sentiment Of the country.
The Cabinet, bad as it is, is less in
capable than the President and if
any body is to resign on the score
Of incapacity, it ought to be the
blunderer- in chief. The ineompe-
tence of the Cabinet is no more
conspicuous now than it was
when they were appointed and
they might turn upon the President
and ask why they were trifled with
and selected, if they are to be sum
marily dismissed when they have
done nothing to disappoint his reas
enable expectations Some Of them
have given up other valuable posi-
tions-judgeships, seats in Con
gress, commissions in the army-tC
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