The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-07-21
THURSDAY, JULY 81, 1870.
THE MASSA CHUSBTTS SENATORS,
MOTLEY, AND GRANT.

Guilty with the Massachusetts, Senators that
promises to involve him in serious and
damaging consequences, even if it does not
totally destroy his influence and make his
administration a disgraceful failure-all of
which disagreeable consequences, however,
depend upon whether the people of the United
States have as high an opinion of the
Importance of Messrs. Sumner and Wilson as
they themselves appear to have. At any rate,
the President has drawn upon himself the
wrath of Sumner and likewise of Wilson, and
be will now have to worry through the two
years and half that yet remain of his term
of Office not only without the aid and CON-
fort of the two Massachusetts Senators, but
under the weight of their displeasure. If
Grant can stand it, however, the probabilities
are that the nation will manage to get along
somehow, even if such distinguished states
men are at outs with the administration.
With regard to the reasons for the recall of
Mr. Motley nothing is certainly known, for
the President has not seen fit to take the
public into his confidence on the subject
The rumor, however, that there were serious
differences between the President and Mr..
Motley as to the proper method of urging the
truth. Mr.. Motley was the pr0tege of Senator
Sumner, and it is charged that he insisted
upon carrying out the views of his friend
rather than those of the State Department,
which would base our claims for damages
committed by the English-built Rebel
cruisers upon the granting of belligerent
rights rather than upon the violation of
every principle of international law,
friendship, and decency in permitting
these cruisers to leave the English ports to
prey upon American commerce, when it was
perfectly we'll known for what purpose they
were launched and fitted out. Senator Sum-
ners grandiloquent assertion that England
was liable for the expenses of the whole war
because she granted belligerent rights to the
Rebels was all well enough as piece of
stump oratory, but it would not hold water
FOR an instant in any court of law, especially
in view of the fact that we granted belligerent
rights to the Rebels ourselves. 1t was dis.
courtesy on the part of England to recognize
the Rebels as belligerents when she did, but
it was not point upon which we could de-
pend for a satisfactory adjustment of the
Alabama claims.
If there was such a serious difference of
opinion between the administration and Mr..
Motley, his recall was duty that the Presi-
dent owed the country, and if, as is asserted,
this difference was known when he received
his instructions, he ought never to have been
entrusted with the mission, Notwithstanding
the fact that he was the personal friend of
Charles Sumner. Whatever the reasons of
the President might have been for the recall
of Mr. Motley, Mr.. Sumner has chosen to
consider it as personal effront, on account
of his opposition to the San
Domingo treaty. Exactly how he arrived
at this conclusion it is rather difficult to un-
derstand, but he did take the matter so much
to heart that his and Mr.. Motleys friend,
Senator Wilson, wrote querulous letter to
the President protesting against the recall of
the latter, and explicitly charging that the
President intended it as a slight to Sumner
because he spoke and voted against the ratif-
cation of the San Domingo treaty. This
letter which we publish on our third page,
is not creditable either to Wilson or Sumner,
for they have some reputation as national
men and profess to be above the common herd
of scheming, axe-grinding, wire-pulling poll
ticians who infest the halls of Congress- and
it is an exceedingly forcible illustration of the
difficulty any President must labor under who
desires to administer the Government on
truly national and bipartisan basis. That
President Grants administration has not
given the entire satisfaction that it ought is
in great measure due to the fact that he did
notresolutely adhere to his original programme
and refuse to submit to the dictation of poll
tieians and so-called statesmen, no matter
what their .pretensions might be.
BY adopting a halfway policy he
has pleased nobody, and has lost
favor were the politicians without winning the
cordial support of the mass of the people who
anxiously desired that he should overthrow
the old and disgraceful system of dealing out
the public offices as rewards for political SER
vices and introduce new and better state of
affairs. That President Grant did desire this
there can be no manner of doubt, and it was
to such men as Charles Sumner and Henry
Wilson that he had right to look for sup
port in carrying out his policy, if to anybody.
He found, however, that they were as eager
to push their favorites into position as other
politicians, and that if he persisted in the con-
templated reforms he would find them among
his bitterest opponents.
Admitting that Mr.. Wilson had right tc
protest against the recall of Mr.. Motley, the
whole tone of his letter is in the highest de-
gree offensive, and, without taking into con,
sideration any Of the other features of the
% casa il is rather to- the credit of the Presi