Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1869-03-11
Thursday Morning, March IL, 1869.
President Grant.


This day, one week ago, the newly cleo
ted President of the United States, took
upon himself the obligations of the high
office to which he had, to all intents and
purposes, been duly elected, although it
is moot-point as to whether he would
have been the chosen one, had the whole
voting population of this country been free
to give its suffrage to whom it would, I'M
tramelled by fear, favor or affection. At
all events the new President is now seated
in the chair once occupied by Washington,
Jefferson, and the eminent statesmen who
have SO grandly graced it in the times
long since past, and it remains to be seen
whether he will make the effort to restore
to it the purity and glory that we hope
has departed from it only temporarily
That he has the opportunity to do so none
can doubt, for if this poor distracted
land ever needed guiding hand now is
the time. If it ever needed man at the
helm-one who could raise himself far
above the petty aspirations and unworthy
longings of the partizan one who could
throw aside the unnanly revenges of the
dominant faction, and stand paramount to
all, save honor and the good of the whole
country, now is the time for him to appear.
In word, Gen. Grant can make himself
the foremost man of this continent in fact,
as we'll as name, if he has the patriotism
and the will to do so. Let him WELD the
immense power attached to his exalted
position for the good of his countrymen,
and, not for self-aggrandisement. Let
him grasp with kindly hand, from the
precipice of total arrangement, that south
whom he cannot fail TO honor, if he is
man at all. Let him recall, ere it is too late,
eight millions of his brothers, whose es-
arrangement increases, and will continue to
increase just in the ratio of the bitterness
exhibited towards them. Let him take
a firm stand for the right, and never
finch from his sworn duty, and grateful
country will bless and honor him long af-
ter the names of the malignant and cow
ardly wretches, who will seek through him
to crush out the very life of the inhabitants
of one of the fairest and most fertile spots
on the face of the globe, shall have sunk
to the oblivion they so truely merit.
We do not like to look upon the dark
side of the picture, nor will we abandon
all hope, until the new incumbent shall
have fully shown, by some decided act,
that he intends adhering to the suicidal
policy of the majority in congress, yet we
must acknowledge the grounds are deci-
dedly tenuous upon which to base hopes,
knowing that Grant has been elected by
the party aEowedly opposed to all concep-
sions, and who seena determined upon
building a wall betwixt the two sections
that may require years of labor to demol-
ish, if that consummation is euer reached.
He may, but it is beyond all earthly d.
Vination at this time, rise superior to the
influences by which he will be surrounded,
and pour she oil of paci6cation upon the
troubled waters of his unfortunate country,
instead, as is hoped by the fratricidal
denagogues whose sole aim is office, link
ed with the qualification of a groveling
spirit, attempt to subvert the whole form
of government, cad trample beneath the
heel of tyranny the last vestige of the
autonomous rights, of net oaly the South,
but of the entire confederation.
La regard to the Inaugural Address we
have little to say There are differences
of opinion concerning that document. Of
course the Radical press deem it state
paper of unusual import-foreshadowing
q policy at once stringent and decisive,
and in accordance with their views. 9th
ers, portion of the conservatives-well-
meaning, but alisled-see it in exactly the
opposite light whilst still another class,
whose estimate, in our humble judgment
is the most sensible, can CLEAN nothing
from it but repetition of sounding phra-
ses, a conglomeration of ordinary news
paper asseverations, and tissue of the
tritest commonplaces.