The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-04-26

People did not understand that this slow, OBJ
stinate man, with a fixed idea in his head
had deliberately become the slave of a party
in order to make himself its master Came
ron, Chandler, and the rest, who rejoioed at
their capture Of the President, little imagined
what Greek horse they were taking within
their party walls; and Morton and Butler,
who fancied they we're using Grant, did not
see in his stolid face the satisfaction with
which be suffered them to make him their
owner. Step by step, Grant has so fastened
his grasp upon the radical party that tod "
half the seats in the Senate are filed by
his tools, hired by his patronage to fight
for him, no matter what may become
of the party, and his hirelings are con-
trolling the party in more than half the
States. Demanding of the party the,decapitas
tion of Mr.. Sumner, against the protests of
shrewd leaders who knew the danger to the
party, he then made that very danger q
pretext for demanding bill giving him power
to use the army wherever he pleased To
Morton and others he argued that the bill
must pass in order to save the party. Have
not Morton and others the sense to see that
the same bay0net power will also be used to
control the party? Grant means to be a can
didate whether nominated or not, and to use
his power to elect himself, but calculates that
the apprehension of this course will force the
Republican nomination. He is probably right.
Morton, Colfax,. Blaine Logan, and all the
rest of the Presidential aspirants will find
themselves compelled to act as the tools of
the man who came into the party as its slave
order to rule it as its master. and through
t to rule the nation.
Grants character has one salient trait-he
is o living incarnation of selGshness. Cold
and secretive as @clam, he has as much of
patriotism; he relies upon nobody fuses with
nobody, knows friends only as far as he can
use them, and lives, moves, and has his being
solely for his own convenience. The same
vulgar passion which prompts him to dis
grace the Presidency by taking presents
makes him accept party leader or party as
his tool. He became-a Republican when that
patty offered him the nomination, and radi-
cal when that faction offered him. the means
of power and mastery; he would leave either
or both if he could gain by it, rhe United
States Government he looks upon as his
farm, to be managed purely for his own ad-
vantage. Its offices are part Of the fruits
of his farm, to be sold or given
away, as may best suit him. Its parties are
mere machines, to be employed in ,cultiysting
that farm SO that it may yield larger crops.
Statesmen like Schurz, independent men like
Sumner, are merely inconvenient stumps, to
be pulled up and got out of the way of his
cultivator. Laws are mere fences good when
they suit him, to be torn down when they do
not. The Constitution is to him only plan
of his estate, to be made over whenever he
wants to add new farm. This is Grant s
idea of the Government Incapable of re-
fusing presents he is also incapable of laying
down the sword for with him greed, whether
of power or pelf, will last as long as life,
and to him Office is not a.trust but possess
sion.