Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1871-01-10
Low ESTIMATE or GRANT.

Presidential tertn-even going so far as to in>
clude in its list of preferences "Picayuue
Butler - It remarks ave would prefer
Horace Grcely, high tariff and all, to second
term of Grant. Charles Sumner would be an
improvement. Why not try tall man Just
OnceH Sumner is person of stature in all
respects. If Sumner is impracticacle, try
Charles Francis Adams. There is no better
material than Adams. Aud'if Adams won't
do there is COlfax, Henry Wilson, Ben. Butler
anybody. The country has not wholly dried
up. Men still grorr in it"
The New York Independent (iutensc Rad
icaD says the following of the President and
his administration of affairs "The Presidents
reputation has passed into history. 1t has
thus. in measure, departed out of his own
hands. He can no longer Use it as charm
to conjure with. The only thing which can
serve his POLITICAL ambition in the future (ifhe
has any, and We presume he has) will be to
convince the county before his term shall end,
that he has learned, at last, after much disap-
pointmeut, how to be a statesman. As yet,
he has made no >-tIt civil, as he has militia
~ impression, on the American mind. = X
''PaLLic ctices are practically bought dn,'
/ soid at auction. Political parties are supper
| ted by an open and shameless tax.levy on the
salaries of officials. Influence, patronage, aud
! Il friend at court-these are the pillars on
/ which our politics now rest. The glory which
/ attached TO the public service in the days of
/ Hamilton and Jefferson has departed. A
/ public Office is now considered chiefly in the
/ light of furnishing its occupant with an OPP
{ portunity TO earn his living or make his for.
tune, rather than as a place in which he is to
! serve his country and benefit mankind. The
nation asks for thorough, cogent, terrible
reform"
To sum Up all; VIC say that no President
ever ran down as rapidly as Grant has done,
and, at the rate he is going, there will not be
a corporals guard, outside of tire officeholders,
to favor his preteusions two years hence.
THE ZEAL ARMAGEDDON.
Alexander II. Stephens, of Ga, in letter
/ defending himself from the charge of reviviug
secession, Gays to his opponent:
AWAY, my dear sir, with the chimera of
/ Secession RevivcdT Give yourself no un.
easiness from any teachings of mine on that
| score. The right mode of redressing griev-
auces or wrongs of any sort, and the policy of
| it, are very different questions, and present
/ very different considerations. Secession As a
] mode OF redress of grievances or breaches Of
| the Compact between the State has been
abandoned in good faith and doubt not for.
! ever! That is, indeed, dead issuc But the
| iadestructiblo right upon which it rested, can
! and will never die. 1t was abandoned not
because of the want of right, but because Of
/ Its imPoIicy in attending the objects aimed at
( By its advocates as the surest aud safest mode
( Of escape from the usuTpation of Power
| One Of It's greatest errors in policy at the time
1t was restored to. consisted in 'the separation
which 1t necessarily produced between the real
/ friends of the principles of the Constitution,
/ North and South, in common contest between
/ them and the Ceuualis;s. 1t was, in truth,
/ great batte-thc Political Armagcddon of
/ America-in which there should have been a
| concentration of forces instead Of that disper-
| sion which of necessity resulted from seres-'
/ SION
/ This Political Armngeddon of America is
! yet tdAs6ecided not on the battle fields, but
| IN the Forum. on the Hastings by the Press,
! andSt the Polls The contest is now waging,
] and in it is involved the greatest living issue
'.at present before the people of every State and
section, rs the greatest that will be before them
for years 10 come. 1t is the issue on one side,
| Of Consultation Ccntralism- Empire; and
| on the other the Sovereign Right of Local
| Seii-govcrnmeu' by the Peoples of the several
States on ttbESConunent."
| Mr.. Stephens quotes any number of New
: England and other revolutionary authorities
/ to prove that the fathers never dreamed Of n
consolidated government:
Every advocates Of the Constitution in the
( Convention Of Virginia, rs in the State Mas
! sachusetts, of Pennsylvania, of New York,
. and every other State, supported it as a Fed
eral Constitution. Did not Madison. in reply to
/ Patrick Henry, say: Who are the parties to
it2 The people, but not the people as COM
posing one great body; but the people as com-
posing thirteen sovereign,ies 2"
Later, Gen. Jackson said
at is too obvious for argument that single
consolidated Government would be wholly in.
adequate TO watch over and protect its interest,
and every friend of our free institutions should
always be prepared to maintain unimpaircd
and in full vigor the rights and sovereignty
Of the States, and to conflne the action of the
General Government to the sphere OF its APP
prop.ate duties"
Alexander Hamilton, in the Ratiiying Con-
vention of New York, maintained that the
plan of government proposed by the Cons,itu-
tion vas "CoutedeTa;ed Republic" and
said
The States can never lose their powers till
the whole people of America are robbed of
their liberties. These must 20 together they