The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1870-03-17
THE FAILURE OF GRANT AND THE KNELL OF
RADICALISM
The New York Sun, Republican journal, thus


expresses its opinion of Grants administration:
General Grant has been in Office just one year.
What has his administration accomplished in these
twelve months, and how does he himself stand to-
day in the estimation of the party that elected
him to the Presidency?
We do not misinterpret the public judgment
when we soy that no man ever chosen to the Pres
Mential office stood SO low at the close of the first
year of his term, in the estimation of the leading
minds of his party, as General Grant does. They
perceive that he hos narrow intellect very good
when backed by rather firm purpose, or pushed
forward by the resolute will of others, TO work
doggedly along upon o plain, straight line, but
utterly incapable of taking broad views of sub
ject, or rising to heights where one may survey
the ground NIL around him, and look far ahead in
TO other fields, some of which he may soon be re-
euired to occupy. In word, his supporters have
| learned that he has not single statesmanlike
quality for meeting the unprecedented e1igency
which has overtaken the Republican party.
General Grants supporters have likewise found
out, after q year of painful experience, that he
possesses not the slightest sagacity or tact as
| politician, and has not the faintest idea of the
method by which parties are to be kept together
and stimulated to vigorous action. This total alb
sence of skill politician is, however, not sur
prisng in one who, while in civil life, during the
|
took so little interest in public afsirs that he new
er voted but once, and then for James Buchanan.
| The natural result of this oil but unanimous
verdict of leading Republicans is that not one of
them, except he be recipient of the Presidential
bounty, coutemrlates the denomination OF General
Grant-a judgment never before entered mp
against any regularly elected President at the
close of his first year in Office.
| So much for General Grant personally, and his
| rorf fbo fnfu An
how fares it with his administration Has it met
the just e1rectations of the people any better
| than he himself has The reconstruction policy
was clearly defined and nearly consummated be-
| fore he assumed the executive chair With plain
| path before it, the administration has been vexa-
tiously dilatory and shamefully remiss in compile
ting the work of reconstruction. Every State in
the Union voted for President in 1858 except Vlr-
sinia Mississippi and Texas. The Republicans
swept the field Congress assembled on the fourth
of March, 1869, and yet, after the lapse of year,
Virginia and Mississippi are only just restored to
full fellowship, while Georgia has been partially
thrust out of the Union, and Texas. has not been
admitted at oil. Can this be success, or does 1t
| not rather deserve the name of conspicuous and
utterly nexcusable failure of the administration
to carry through programme so PLAIN that q
| wayfarng man, though non political fresldent,
need not err therein! :
relations? The course of the administration has
brought the Republic into contempt both in Eu-
rope and America. While the brave, the gener-
GUS, the sagacous Rawlins gas alive, there was
hope for Cuba; for he had long been wont to ex-
ert great power over Grant At his death the
cause of Cuba fell into the hands of the pusillan-
imous Fish and the pompOus Sumner; and since
that disastrous hour we have witnessed naught but
base bowing of the knee of this great Republic at
the feet of decrepit Spain. As to the Alabama
claims, they are further from settlement now than
when Andrew Johnron left the White House, while
England views the dullness of the administration
with surprise and its imbecility with contempt. AS
patriotic and high souled Americans contemplate
the deporable condition of our foreign relations
they are fin to cry out, "Oh for one hour Of Mar
cy or of Seward! Z"
financial questions, the leading issues of the fu'
tures Has it got policy OF any sort? If so, do
we find it in the votes of the sixty Republicans Ill
Congress-. who went with Mr.. Marshall for a
strictly revenue tariff, in the votes OF the eigh-
ty or ninety Republicans, who favored protection
Do we find it in the votes of the large majority OF
the Republican members, who supported Mr..
Louchridges resolution for the issue OF fifty mil
lions more of greenbacks or IN The votes OF The
Republican minority, who resisted his PROPOSE
ton And what are General Grants opinions on
these vital ouestions2 Does he know any more
about them than the veriest tyrO in political econ
omv7 Has he got financial creed? If he has.
nrav what is il? Can Schenck, can Butler, eau
Corbin tell?
But there are loud and reiterated promises
about the reduction of expenditures. Mr.. Dawes
informed the people of New Hampshire That Gen'
eral Grant was in favor of cutting the appropria-
tions down to the lowest possible figure, aud That
wherever he could see chance TO save single
dollar it should surely be done; and the only re-
sult of this promise which the country has yet
seen so far as the President personally is con
cerned. is the raising Of the salaries OF his two or
three doorkcepers, and the appointment of two or
three needless sham secretaries on his ofcal staf
When the people begin TO realize that their taxes
are reduced, they will beg lin to believe that unne'
| cessary expenditures have been cut OF, and not
till then And even when that auspicious hour
arrives they will be apt 40 attribute this reform
more 10 their own vehement outcries for relief,
| hacked by the reiterated demands Of the indepen
den, press than to the Administrations skill or It's
| desire for retrenchment.
me nublic debt has been reduced, rs it certain
ly ouchs TO be in view of the enormous surplus In
the treasury drawn from the pockets OF the peo-
nile by an exorbitant and reporsesess system OF
taxation. When both the debt aud the taxes are
reduced. the public will begin to feel that the plan
now pursued is not merely new application OF
the old scheme of robbing Peter to pay Paul. The
reduction of the debt, too, shows rather larger on
paper than in fact; and the credit of all the real
iy valuable results in this behalf is due very much
to Mr. Boutwell,, and not at oil to General Grant.
But, after all, one of the most marked and dis
astrous failures of the administration, in its effect
upon the Republican party, and upon General
Grant personally, springs from his distribution OF
official patronage. From the members Of his cab
met and his foreign ministers, all the way down
to the very tax collectors and tide walters, no
President ever made so many weak, incompetent,
and, viewed from party standpoint, utterly
worthless appointments, The great majority of
them impart neither dignity nor strength TO the
President, his Administrations or the Republican
organization, while many of them bring all three
iEo dispepute- Nepotism, always disgraceful ;
favoritism, admirably fitted to excite jealouses