The Athens post. [volume] (Athens, Tenn.) 1848-1917, 1869-03-26
CHANCES AT GREATNESS.

ral Ulysses UranC very long aitef he
should be seated in the Presidential
Chair to convince the country of his
thorough unfitness for the position. He
has already astonished some of his
warmest friends by his marked and
magnificent blunders, and it will not be
long until the people can take his mea-
sure with unerring precision and esti-
mate the man at his real value. While
in an office purely military the plume
above the warriors brow concealed
many defects that are now becoming
manifest, and which indicate that MIR.
Grant will prove to be the smallest
man who has ever occupied the White
House.
We annex, as in point, some extracts
from the Washington correspondence
of the Cincinnati Enquirer:
"Grant may be very great General,
but he is very small man." lie is ca
pable of more petty malice and personal
prejudice than can find lodgment in the
breast of true greatness, intellectual or
moral and when men talk with fear
and trembling of o military dictator
ship, or Cromwell or Napoleon,
tell them there is perfect safety against
Grants ambition in Grants mediocritv.
There is not Napoleon to the square
mile of such men nor Cromwell to
fifty generations of them.
"Ex pede, Herculem." The ancients
judged of the stature of Hercules from
the size of his feet. "God moves in
a mysterious way his wonders to per-
FORM" but when he wishes to develop
a tanner into a Washington he implaut.
within him a soul above the avarice Of
dolars-too big to sell cabinet Office.
for houses and lots, and quite above tie
exchange of a Premier's portfolio for
five thousand dollar dinner. In fact.
there is so much difference between
Washington and Grant in this pzrticu-
lar that l can not but commend the
reader to letter written by the former
on the identical subject which forms
such ground of complaint against the
latter. One of the finest letters ever
written by Washington was in denum.
citation of the very principle which
guided Grant in the selection of Stew
art, Fish, Borie and Hoar.
The writer then refers to the removal
of Frank Blairas Pacific Railroad Com
missioner, and the appointment of Gen
eral Longstreet to the Customs at New
Orleans, and says:
hope the soldiers of the West, who
fought under Blair on twenty battle
fields, and whose comrades and broth
ers were stricken down by this new IA
vorite of the Republican adininistra-
ton, will appreciate these two official
acts as they deserve. Not that Long
streets appointment per Sc is wrong.
for l believe the sooner we cease to
prescribe men for taking the wrong
side in the late war the better it will be
for the country. But the objection lies
in the fact that the Office given him is u
reward for the betrayal of the people
whose cause he espoused in the s,rug-
gle. 1t is an attempt to convert the
Federal government into Magdalcn
Asylum for political prostitutes.
Grants conduct toward Johnson du-
ring the closing month of the last ad-
ministration is in keeping with all the
other acts which stamp him as "the
smallest great man of the century,
TO avoid the New Years call upon the
President, which army etiquette pre-
scribed, he took the train for Philadcl-
phia, and remained there for few days
greatly ''tatigued," as the papers told
us. On the day before the inaugura.
ton Mr.. johnson wrote note to the
incoming President inviting him to ride
with him TO the capitol. 10 this Gran,
did not even condescend an answer
He rode to the capitol in his own con.
veyance-a carriage which will proba.
bly, cost the country foreign appoint.
ment, as it was donation from rich
New Yorker.
But Grant is now in position from
which his actions will speak his charac.
ter far better than ! can write it. The
people are sometimes temporarily car.
ried away by their admiration for that
particular quality which they call hero.
ism but they will find out before long
that they have made hero of one who
according to all known standards in an
cient and modern history, has as little
of the truly heroic in him as any man
who ever aspired to place and power.
MACK.
A Sermon.