The New York herald., 1870-11-22

| little thought that he would sfetch up" in Sep
| tember at Sedan. So our sef-conceited poll
ticians, with their Napoleonic ideas, are al
| ways getting int trouble. Senator Sumner
| belongs to this class. On his present lecturing
tonr ont West he has been interviewed" by
an expert reporter, and has availed himself Of
the opportunity to define his position in re-
ference to General Grant. The Senator ''has
no doubt that General Grant is an honest man
and administers the government the best that
he knows how" ''He has had the best chance
conceivable to do great things. ''but he don't
know everything, and, unfortunately, he don't
know that he don't know it. Now, Zach
Taylor, continued the learned Senator, "was
not a brilliant man or statesman, but he
knew it and surrounded himself by men who
made up his deficiencies" Here, then, the
old proverb win apply, ''The fool thinketh
himself wise man, but the wise man know
eth himself 10 be a fool" This, as near as
we can make il out is Summers parallel be-
tween Grant and Taylor.
Il further appears that Mr. Sumner is OF the
opinion that The st. Domingo annexation
treaty, with numerous lots staked of along
SANTANA Bay and marked ''Cazeneau' and
''Babcock" and ''Baez," with one or two par
ticularly large ones marked "Grant," ''was a
bad business J" that Minister Motley, intensely
American and first rate diplomat, who, after
the fashion OF Caleb Gushing, wrote out his
owa Instructions, has been removed on the
Senator's account, for that General Grants
personal feeling is very bitter in that direc-
ton" This, too, with Motley's eulogium on
Grant embodied 10 Badeau's Life Of the
General, and when Secretary Fish jumped at
the plan of Motley writing his own instrnc-
lions. Worst ofall evidently in Mr.. Summers
estimation, Grants administration seems to
go too much by personal preferences. To
sum up these views Of the disappointed Ssna-
tor in plain terms, he thinks that General
Grant is an honest man, but fool that he is
doing the best he can, but is doing everything
wrong that he was up to his ears in the St.
Domingo speculation that Motley was re-
called because his friend Sumner opposed and
defeated the treaty in the Senate, and that
General Grant in his appointments prefers his
friends to his enemies.
But what does all this amount to? 1t is
but the ringing Of the changes in the same old
story which sel-conceited, soured and disap-
pointed politicians have raised against every
President from Washington down. We do
not remember that Mr.. Sumner had any better
opinion of Lincoln in the White House than
he has OF Grant, and, if we are moi mistaken,
n. al.
johnson. The Senator's opinions, therefore,
Of General Grant are of little consequence,
especially while Motley is his only wear
But he takes very shallow view of that st.
Domingo treaty. What did it signify if few
spectators on the ground had staked off GER
tain lots on Samana Bay, marking among
them some for General Grant, if You please
! What did that bagatelle Of an objection amount
| 10 when the treaty for some two millions
Of money would give us a tropical island
worth forty North Pole Alaskas? Yet we
know that Mr.. Sumner warmly supported the
Russian treaty, although numerous lobby birds
shared at least the two hundred thousand over
and above the seven millions in gold paid for
Alaska.
Mr.. Sumner, however, is not the only wise
man of the East or Of the West who has dis
covered that General Grant has no sense and
is driving his administration and his party to
the dogs Senator Fenton, since the appoint
| ment of Honest Tom Murphy as our Collector,
/; is Of the same mind as Sumner. We have
seen, too, that according to our amiable poets
of the Post nothing has gone right with Gen
eral Grant s'uce the appointment OF General
fearful rumpus raised among the Pennsylvania
party wirepullers when the kind-hearted Mr.
Borie was made Secretary of the Navy. They
could not see that the President was in this
appointment paying neat compliment to the
Presbyterian Church (Old SCHOOL, and our
American citizens of French descent-k killing.
you may say, two birds with one stone. As
for Carl Schurz, of Missouri, he is of the go
ahead school of George Francis Train, and
doubtless thinks that if he is not President he
ought to be, and that General Grant was toe
presuming in acting in his Missouri appoint
ments upon his own JUDGMENT. Schurz, after
his late services to the democrats in Missouri
called the other day, it appears, to report pro-
grass at the White House, but General Gran
was engaged. We infer that Schurz is more
concerned about Grant than Grant is about
Schurz Ever since that tremendous retreat
of Schurz at Charlottesville we have thought
that in tactics and strategy. he is hardly equal
to Grant.
Far ahead, however, of all these other re.
publican free shooters ('Der Freischuts) il
the bold, dasbing and slashing fellow Of the
Chicago TriJune. Convinced, by hook or by
crook, that free soil, free speech, free press
and free men are dead issues, and that the
time has come for free trade or reyenue re.