The Portland daily press., 1870-10-19
THE PR,FS'Ss
Wednesday Morning, October h i0fo'
Uuprovoked Attacks Of Ger. Grant.

CuprOv0ked Attacks % 6ev-' Ofamt.
When the recklessnesgof partisan politici-
ans reaches such a hight that they do not
hesitate to deprecate and malign man of
Gen. Grants Ugh official position, distin-
guished publl services and singular integrity,
all honest yeople feel not only anger but dis
gust.
Wsthink it may be assumed that Gen.
Grants military career was somewhat credit
aole. Ii the popular impression is correct he
had some little agency in pressing things" so
as to induce the surrender of Lee. lie was
not at the Battle of Gettysburg, to be sure,
and if nothing can excuse his absence from |
Little Round Top it must be conceded that |
the fact of his receiving the surrender of |
Vicksburg at that time may properly be urged
at least in extenuation of his neglect. And.
to relieve still further the darkness of this
blot on his scutcheon, his friends might men
ton his services in Mexico, and the battles of
Doneson, Pittsburg Landing, Chattanooga,
wilderness and Spottsylvania-actions that
We're regarded in their day as somewhat i'm
portant and conducive to the safety and honor
of the country.
90, And if we consider attentively Grants civil
administration we shall find that tits little less
glorious than his military career. What histor-
ical parsonage that ever lived exhibited under
any circumstances judgment so we'll balanced,
an intellect SO clear and impartial, and con-
science so sensitive as Gen. Grant showed in
discharging the delicate but infinitely impor-
tant duties, half civil, half military, imposed
upon him by Congress in the reconstruction
period? 1t would be extremely difficult to
find parallel for such union of firmness
with Cancellation as he then exhibited. With
no precedents to guide him, with the fate of
the Republic in his hands, with the Chief Ex-
ecutive in deadly antagonism to him, and to
his purposes, Grant went forward in the path
of his duty with the serene temper and cheer
full confidence, without ostentation or display
or seeming Consciousness Of. his own gram
deur, that are characteristic of the man in all
the trying positions in which his destiny
places him. 1t is not too much to say that
man of less ability and discretion would have
involved the country anew in civil war, if
alpower.
How can the country ever be sufficiently
grateful to Gen. Grant for the services he rem
dered in saving it from the ruin which An
drew Johnson's apostacy threatened to bring
upon it9 In the difficult positions in which
circumstances repeatedly placed him during
the months Immediately preceding impeach-
ment the same great qualities to which we
have already alluded were again conspicuous.
Had he not co-operated with loyal men and
refused to be the Presidents tool or accom-
plice-nay, if he had not actively resisted his
superior's designs with all the weight of his
official position and unbounded personal in
fuence, it is impossible to conceive the extent
of the disasters that might have befallen the
commonwealth.
Gen. Grants conduct as President of the
United States has been narrowly watched,
and little is found that may justly be the SUBJ
ject of hostile criticism. He has collected
more revenue than his predecessor, notwith-
standing the reduction of taxation. lie has
spent much less than his predecessor, paying
off the national debt at the rate of about a
hundred millions year. He has been fatal
to whiskey rings and all other rings having
for their object the robbery of the people
through the treasury. His foreign policy has
been wise and conciiatory, not lacking in dig
nifty, but peaceful. His fayorite Quaker Indi-
an policy has saved thus far those disgraceful
and bloody wars which were so frequent be-
fore his Inauguration. lsf
As to the Presidents moral character, we
believe it to be absolutely irreproachable. He
may be trife Incorporate in the matter of
cigars, but this peccadillo must be forgiven in
view of the general excellence of his charac-
ter. About the absolute purity and integrity
of his private life we believe there is no ques-
lion.
The people want Gen. Grant to be Presi-
dent for second term. Of course the rings
and the ring politicians desire anything else.
His enemies have already begun to assault
him, knowing that they must go to work
seasonably if they would defeat the popular
choice. These politicians have availed them
selves of the opportunity afforded by the re-
tirement of Gen. Cox, Secretary of the Inte-
rior, to attack the President. Democratic pa
pers that profess to bs Republican for
the sake of the greatest injury they can do
to that party like the New York Post and
the Portland Advertiser, declare that Gen.
Grant has become Bipartisan Politician
They class him with Pierce and Buchanan
only that those gentlemen had "Skill, tact and
adroitness," while Grant has only Awkward
ness" He is accused of prostituting his pat
ronage to the vilest purposes. In short, the
inference from all. they say is that he would
be scoundrel if it were not for his idiocy -
They falselyaver that he drove Hoar from
the Cabinet, when it is well known that the
Attorney General was nominated as Justice
Of the Supreme Court at his own request, and
retired from the Cabinet voluntarily on the
failure of the Senate to confirm him. AS for
Secretary Cox, who has managed the Interior
Department admirably, and who has very
properly resisted the attempts of Cameron,
Chandler and the Pennsylvania poiiti-
clans to levy tribute on his subordi-
mates for political purposes, it ifs certainly
" pS piSSuhOu, IA IAC duSChCC VI pIOOl
the contrary, that he, too, retires voluntarily
But if he goes out on..compulsion Grants past
history, the decided liking for men of integ-
ity he has always manifested and the tried
rectitude of his own character, ought to stop
the mouths of those who hasten to declare
that the Secretary is sacrificed on account of
his virtues. If he retires unwillingly from
the Cabinet it is more than probable that an
irreconcilable difference Of opinion between
him and the President on matters foreign to
the circumstances on which the anti Grant
politicians dwell is the real cause. Gen. Cox
is man of more than common ability and
strict honesty but he is full of strange whims
and idiosyncrasies. When Governor of Ohio
his annual addresses to the Legislature were
philosophical dispositions on national poll
fics in which he took the ground that the ne
ht in some way to be removed from
lntry, since it is unsafe to clothe him
,oltical rights. Entertaining views of
ind it is not strange that he should come
iulo collision with his chief.
When political passions run so high and po- |
litlcal rings become SO arrogant as to take adj
vantage OF the slightest pretext to depreciate
and deiame the foremost man of the country
a man whose arm has more than once saved
the nation from dishonor-a man on whose