Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1869-03-12
We Law before our readers, in this issue,

We lay before our readers, in this issue,
the inaugural address Of President Grant
As all anticipated, it is brief and has also
but few salient points. Its silence must
speak louder than its words or we can draw
but little comfort therefrom for our Cypress
ed South.
From the announcement, that he had ia
ken the oath of office without mental reser-
walton and would commence the duties In
cumbent upon him as President untrammel-
ed, as the Office had come to him unsought,
we expected like bold and Independent e1-
pressions to characterize the address through
out and bold line Of policy, SO much need
ed now to convert the political chaos of the
present into light, and bring method out OF
confusion. In this we were mistaken. Al
though he threatens with veto, yet he be-
comes suppliant in the next sentence, and
expresses his willingness to execute all
laws whether he approves them or not, con-
stitutional or unconstitutional, his oath to
the contrary Notwithstanding. His plan
for getting rid of obnoxious laws is faulty
in the extreme. The obnoxious laws OF the
last administration have been, and of the
present, in all probability, will be passed
simply because they are onerous upon sec
ton of the country which has, in reality, no
voice in their enactment and which the DOM
inant section desires to keep in its present
powerless condition. How his plan will re-
lieve from such obnoxious laws Gen. Grant
may have an idea, but we venture the as
sertion that no one else has.
As to tho public debt he seems to have no
very clear conviction. That it must be paid
he asserts, but how and when he fails to
give an opinion. He declares for economy
in expenditures, the faithful collection Of the
revenue and strict accountability for every
dollar collected. We hazard the assertion
that the carrying out Of this proposition will
be the biggest job he or any other man, or
set of men ever undertook. He has thou
sands of willy partizans. and their aiders and
abettors in Congress, to contend with single
handed If he opens fight on this line it
will consume his entire administration and
with no better result than the contest he
once waged on certain line which took all
summer. In the fall he was almost as near
the goal as he was in the early spring. We
shall however wish him better luck in this
than in his famous summer campaign.
His counsel, to consider the questions to
arise without prejudice, hate or sectional
pride, sounds oddly enough, and especially
when taken in connection with his recon-
mendation of the ratification of the fifteenth
amendment, which is but the offspring Of
prejudice and sectional hate. As a means
of securing "the greatest good to the great
est number" We think the recommendation
concerning the XIV Amendment, the only
Recommendation he makes, is sadly deficient.
As whole the inaugural must be unsat-
isfactory to thinking men Of all PARTIES
We confess that we arise from its perusal
with little hope of the restoration of peace
and prosperity to the country from the adj
ministration of President Grant, and reluc-
family inclined to the opinion that Congress
will continue to be President for the next
four years.