Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1871-11-01
SOME RAILING ACCUSATIONS.

Senator COnkling made an opening
( speech at Tweddle Hall, Albany, last
/ Wednesday night. In addition to
able treatment Of National questions,
Mr.. Conkling gives his attention to
someo of the small fault finding against
! the President:
The President goes to Long Branch.
For weeks he Is eight hours travel
away from Washington, with two
mails daily and a telegraph every
moment. No emergency can be so
sudden that hecannot meet it at once.
and yet what a noise the matter
makes. Long Branch is not so far
removed from the Capital as Mount
Vernon was when Washington So
jOurned there. Long Branch is close
by compared with the Rip Raps in
Hampton Roads, when President
Jackson was isolated there for long
periods of time. Long Branch is
within sight and sound, compared
with New England in the days Of
stage coaches, without telegraphs OF
railways, when President Adams
passed vacation there. In this coun-
try and in other countries it has been
thought that men in authority gained
much useful knowledge by going
from place to place; but we are told
now, whatever the example of the
earlier Presidents, that the present
Executive does wrong in journeying
or tarTying away from Washington.
This is not very large matter, but
may say that the denuneiatiOns in
regard to it will be more foreible when
anything shall suffer in consequence
of the Presidents keeping during the
hot weeks out Of the fever and ague
of the Potomac. Perhaps I need par
don for referring tOthis and to another
matter of which l would speak. A
sufficient apology may be found in
the extraordinary remarks to which
Mr.. Tilden, chairman of the Demo
cratic State committee, descended the
other day at the Tammany State Con-
vention. He says the Democratic
party has never elected to the Presi-
dency any man Of as low a standard
of official life as either Of the three
Republican Presidents By what
reasoning propriety can be claimed
for such action do not know. Be
cause one Democrat murdered Lin
coin, I cannot see that it behooves
another to tread thus rudely on his
grave. Following this assault upon
the dead, is an assault upon the living
to which / ask attention.
Mr.. Tilden alludes to President
Grant as one "who has been enriched
by costly presents while exercising
the immense power of the Presi-
deDcy." This is an unqualified asser-
ton, made as if upon absolute know
ledge, and yet, speaking upon all
the Information / have, / believe it
utterly unfounded. The allegation Is
that; since his election to the Presi-
deney, General Grant has been the
recipient of costly gifts. Returning
from the war q victorious General
and holding no civil Office whatever,
he did receive gifts shOwered upon
him by a grateful people, but he re-
eeived them as the hero Of many
battles, and before he was even nOmi-
mated for the Presidency. His case
was not solitary. Gen. Sherman also
munifieent testimonials, so
did other generals. General Nc
Clellan ran for the Presidency four
years before General Grant; he, too, !
was enriched by costly presents
given him, doubtless, in consideration |
Of his military services, and his |
political opponents never cast foul |
on him for it. Wellington,
after Waterloo, received presents |
amounting to more than two million I
dollars. -.. -..
Whether heroes, in former or in /
recent times, have done well or i'll in
accepting tributes from their country
men, is not, however, the point here
be that one way OF the other, the |
right or wrong is the same in all cases
alike, and since General Grants ae-
eession to the Presidency, as far as 1
can learn, he has not accepted q
" costly present I" from any one.