The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-12-22
THURSDAY. DECEMBER 90, 1870.
GRANT, SUMNER, AND SAN Do
dTTNID


WE said some days ago, in commenting upon
the probable proceedings of the present ses-
sion of Congress, that the San Domingo
question would probably become an exciting
topic and that it remained be seen whether
the Republican party would not split upon
this famous West Indian rock. The debate
in the Senate yesterday shows that there was
good ground for this apprehension. Grant
and his staff of personal adherents have
metaphorically drawn their swords upon Sum
ner and his special adherents, and the Massa-
chusetts Senator displays an intense anxiety
to strike as many hard blows as ne can at the
administration. We have had nothing like
this passage of arms since the days when
Douglas and Buchanan joined issue on the
Lecompton question, but in that memorable
contest we opine that the Senatorial oham-
pon was q much more vigorous oombatant,
and armed with a far better cause than the
Senatorial gladiator in the present tournay,
while Grant is in many respects a much
stronger President than Buchanan.
The practical effect of the quarrel will pro-
badly be to make Sumner the central figure
or leader of the Republican or semi-Repub-
lican opposition to Grant, which has gradu-
and from various causes, in the Senate and in
the country. Men who do not care button
for the San Domingo business, but who have
private grievances of various descriptions to
avenge, will seek the Sumner camp, and unite
with his horde of motley forces. But dissen-
sions of this kind are nearly inevitable, and
it is perhaps piece of good fortune for the
administration that Sumner is to
become the leader OF its ene-
mics. With all his reputation
this doughty Massachusetts orator is essen
italy weak, vain, visionary, and impracti-
cable nan. After trying to make fine speeches
for twenty years, he has never yet uttered a
sentence which is treasured and familiarly
quoted by the American people. In the
Senate, he habitually spurns party obliga-
tions whenever his own bad judgment hap
pens to differ from that of the majority of
his associates. As Chairman of the Com
mittee on Foreign Relations his want of
common sense has been a constant source of
trouble and annoyance. His speech on the
Alabama claims was probably the most
ridiculous mess of nonsense that was ever
uttered by any man holding a high
official position. Considering that he
lAV1sned long Columns OF eStraVa6ant eutoSy
upon the acquisition of useless Alaska, his
present hostility to the acquisition of San
Domineo-whose territory may prove of i'm
mense service to the United States, on
account Of its geographical position, its value
as naval station, and the capacity
of its soil to produce unlimited guam
titles of coffee and sugars ludi-
crousiy inconsistent; and it proves what
the country should have known long ago, that
Sumner is totally unreliable and untrust-
worthy either as partisan leader or as a
statesman. The main pretext of his opposition
to the Presidential policy, viz, that injustice
may be done in some unexplained way to the
warning factions of Hayti, is in itself supremely
absurd, and his whole speech of yesterday
proved concusively that he is influenced by
narrow prejudice or passion, rather than by
reason or patriotism. Whatever may be the
shortcomings, faults, or demerits Of the Pre-
sident, he certainly does not deserve the
abuse that has been layished upon him for
his San Domingo experiment; and if we are
to buy an inch of new soil from any foreign
quarter, this speculation promises to be more
profitable than any of those which Sumner
has favored.