The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1870-03-12
TIE FAILURE OF GRANT.
LEADING REPUBLICAN JOURNALS OPINION
OF THE ADMINISTRATORS.
The Knell OF I,ndicmlIsm.
From the New York Sun, March 81

From the New York Sun, March 81
General Grant has been in office just one
year. What has his administration accom-.
plisbed in these twelve months, and how does
he himself stand to-day in the estimation oi
the party that elected him to the Presidency
We do not misinterpret the public Judgment
when we say that no man ever chosen TO the
Presidential Office stood go 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 has mar
row intellect, very good when backed by q
rather firm purpose, or pushed forward by The
resolute will of others, TO work doggedly along
npon plain, straight line, but utterly incapa-
bic of taking broad views of o subject, or ris-
ing to heights where one may survey the
ground all around him. and look far ahead into
other fields, some of which he may soon be re-
uuired to OCCUPY. In word, his supporters
have learned that lie has not single states
manlike quality for meeting the unprecedcnt-
ed eXigcncy which has overtakcn the Republi-
can party.
General Grants supporters have likewise
found ont, after year OF painful experience,
that he possesses not the slightest sagaclty or
tact as politician, and has not the faintcst
idea of the method by which parties are to be
kept together and stimulated to vigorous ac-
tion. This total absence of skill as a politician
is. however, not surprising In one who, while
In civil life, during the stormy controversies OF
the last twenty years, took 50 little interest in
n;iblic affairs that he never voted but once,
and then for James Buchanan.
The natural result Of this all but unanimous
verdict of leading Republicans is, that not one
of them, except lie be q recipient of the Presi-
dentia, bounty, cOn'emplates the denomination
OF General ,irant-a Judgment never before en-
tercd up against any regularly elected Presi-
dent al the close of Ills first year in office.
So much for General Grant personally, and
his aspirations and hopes for the future. And
now. how fares it with his administration
Has it met the lust expectations OF the people
any better than he himself has The recon-
struction policy was clearly defined and near
" consulnmatel before he assumed the cX-
ecutive chair. With plain path before it,
the administration has been veXatiolisly dila-
tory and shamciully relniss in completing the
work of reconstruction. Every State in the
Union voted for President In 1863 except Vir-
ginia, Mississippi and Texas The Republi
cans swept the field; Congress assembled on
the fourth of March, 1863, and yet, after the
lapse of year, Virginia and Mississippi are
only lust restored TO full fellowship, while
Georgia has been partially thrust out of the
Union, and Texas has not been admitted at all.
Can this be called success, or does it not ratll-
er deserve the name OF conspicuous and ut
terly inexcusable failure of the administration
TO carry through programme 50 plain that a
wayfariag man, though a non-polltical Prcsi-
dent need not err therein!
HOW stands the case in regard TO our foreign
relations? The course OF the administration
has brought the Republic into contempt both
In Europe and America. While the brave, the
generous, the sagacious Rawlins was alive,
there was hope for Cuba; for he had long been
wont to exert great power over Grant. AT
his death the cause of Cuba iell into the hands
OF the pusillanimous FISK and tne poinpous
have witnessed naught but base bowling of the
knee of this great Republic at the feet OF de-
crenit Spain. AS to the Alabama claims, they
ore further from settlement now than when
Andrew johnson left the White House, while
England views the dullness of the admlnlstra
ton with surprise and its imbecility, with con-
tempt. AS patriotic and high souled Amerl,
cans contemplate the deplorable condition o.