The Portland daily press., 1871-12-12
THE PR ES S.
TUESDAY MORNING, DEC. 1e, 1911
The President and His Accusers.
lFrom the New York Times. ]


[From the New York Tmes.]
A few days ago the Brooklyn Eagle brought
together into one article the accusations
against Gen. Grant which the Sun, the
World, and other papers bitterly opposed to
the President, are constantly repeating. The
Presidents defamers-and it may save mis-
construction to say here that in the remarks
we have to make about them we do not in
any way refer to the Eagle, which simply re-
peats charges without inventing them-have
they probably almost believe in their Justice.
To prevent others falling into the same error,
we undertook to reply to the Eagles article
as soon as we had time to inquire into the
the facts. We shall necessarily have to give a
condensed account of the Eagles statements
here, but lest anybody should think that we
have misrepresented them, we print the entire
article on another page.
The Eagle says, "Grant went into office
poor and is notoriously millionaire already;
and he cannot have made his million out of
his official salary, or his legitimate receipts in
public SERVICE" If one part of the duty OF
the President of the United States was to an
swer every question addressed to him about
his private circumstances, and empty his
pocket-book to every visitor to show how
much money he had about him, the dignity
of the Office would not be much increased
and, perhaps, the people would not consult
their own interests by subjecting their chief
officer to such ill-usage The President con-
siders the wishes of the people, by never re-
plying to any attack made upon him. We
have no auth 2rity to speak for him-but care
full inquiries have assured us that outside of
his official salary, his income does not exceed
six thousand dollars year. His principal
property is in his farm of six or seven hun
dred acres, near st. Louis, part of which was
inherited by Mrs. Grant. The remainder was
bought by Gen. Grant from the other heirs,
out of the one hundred thousand dollars given
to him by the citizens of New York before he
became President. One of the charges
against the President is that this st. Louis
farm was present to him. The rest of the
one hundred thousand dollars referred to was
used in paying off the mortgage on his house
in street, Washington, now owned by Gen.
Sherman, and in purchasing and furnishing
his house at Long Branch, which he is charg-
ed with receiving as present from Mr.. Muir
phy-that being another of the numberless
fabrications set a1oat by the Sun about the
President, and repeated eagerly by journals
opposed to him. Not dollars svorth of
property has been giren to Gen. Grant since
he became President.
During the war the President saved some
thing out of his pay as Major General we
are half ashamed to refer to such matters,
but since the Eagle asks for the facts, it may
as well have them all,-and with the money
SO saved he bought part interest in some
Chicago lots, which have appreciated in value
but hitherto have yielded no income. He
also bought small amount of horse-rairoad
stock, which he still owns, and which pays
moderate divideud. He was given, while
General in the Army, house in Philadel-
phia, which he rents for about two thousand
dollars year.
Another statement of the Eagle is that
'sthe Sun has printed repeatedly, uncontra-
dicted from any quarter, a list of twenty-five
or more relatives whom Grant has appointed
to office under himself" We hope that the
day will come when honorable journalists
will be ashamed to assert that anything is
true of Gen. Grant because the Sun says it is
true. The list in question has been contra
dicted; it is false in every particular; and we
will print it at the close Of this article, with
comments which prove it to be false. The
Presidents relatives who do hold Office were
chiefly appointed by his predecessors; was he
bound to turn them out when he came into
Office himself? Is it to be the rule of public
life that when man accepts responsible
position he is to begin by thrusting his kins-
folks out of any offices they may happen to
hold, and giving up all the property he may
possess? Do the people expect this?
A third statement is that Gen. Grant re-
ceived twenty-five thousand dollars stock in
the Seneca Stone Company, as gift, and
then appointed Mr.. Cooke, the President of
that Compa ", Territorial Governor in
Washington, ,ereby enhancing the value of
the stock Of i. Srs. Cooke, Grant & Co."
This is total H.. presentation of very
simple transaction. Shortly after the organi-
nearT yeas tss Before %ay IN
ated President, he was invited by Mr.
FL. d. Cooke and others to take twenty
thousand dollars worth of stock as an in
restment. He thought well of it, and
surely no one will deny that he was
free to invest his money in any enterprise he
chose. He had as much right to use his
money at his own discretion as any other cit
izen. He invested ten thousand dollars in
the purchase Of the stock, and ii has nerer
paid him cent He has been anxious for a
long time to sell this stock; perhaps some OF
the accusers would like to buy it? Gov.
Cooke was appointed last February-stock
bought in 1867; Cooke appointed 1S71-and
that appointment had about as much to do
with Seneca stoue as it had with the deposits
of the post-tertiary period.
The charge that President Grant qurrels
with Summer and is friendly with Nye, &C.,
and that he absents himself from Washington
during Sumner, we leave people to form their
| own opinions about. The accusation that
somebody very near to the Presidential per-
son was engaged in the ''gold gambling" af-
| fair of Fisk and Could, Is utterly refuted by
Jay Gould's own evidence, as published in
the official report of the investigation, by the
Forty-first Congress. The President himself
gave the order to sell gold on the infamous
''Black Friday''-that order which brought
the conspiracy to an end. The only man
who ever attempted to drag Gen. Grants
name into the transaction was James Fisk,
Jr-a notorious thief and swindler. Is there
any respectable man or woman in this coun-
try who would suffer his or her estimation OF
q friends character to be lowered by any
thing James Fisk, Jr., might say? And yet
the President of the United States is to be
condemned by party papers, on the evidence
of a man who has committed the worst kind
of offences against the law, and who, to the
eternal disgrace of the Judges who admins
ter that law, is still reveuing in his stolen
wealth, instead of breaking stone in Sins
Sing.
| As to the objections to Gen. Grants
! course on public affairs, we do not profess to
| answer them now; we merely repeat our own
opinion, that in the main his policy is a
sound, wise and beneficial one. A man OF
purer private life than Gen. Grant never oc-
cupied the Presidential chair. Is it just-is
it worthy of the Presidents position, or Of
this great nation-that he should be called to
account at any moment by every disappoint-
ed office-seeker who chooses to invent new
SANDER against him? We have replied to
these charges because, by constant repetition,
they might have imposed upon credulous
minds. The more thoroughly they are sifted,
the more shamefully false and malicious they
will appear We believe that the majority OF
the people look upon these calumuies with
indignation. They have made thousands OF
friends for the President among that quiet
and thoughtful class of the community which
rarely buses itself actively in politics, but
which admires pluck and silence in public
men, which hates to see injustice done, and
which despises the towards who try to under
mine public reputation by defaming private
character. Whatever rejected otfice-seekers,
like the calumniators of the Sun, may do or