The Tiffin tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1868-1887, 1871-12-21
From the y. Y. Times, Dec. So
TIRE PRESIDENT IND HIS ICCUSERS.

{ From the y y. Times, Dec. -
TIRE PRESIDENT IND HIS ICCUSERS
\ few days ago the Brooklyn Eagle
: brought together, into one article the
e accusations against Gen. Grant, which
= the Sun, World and other papers bit
terly opposed to the President, are
z constantly repeating. The Presidents
= defamers-and il may save miscOn-
. structiOn to say here that in the re-
marks that we have to make about
them we do not in any way refer to
the Eagle, which simply repeats
charges without inventfng them
, have echoed their complaints so often
! that at last they probably almost be-
, lieve in their justice. To prevent
! others falling into the same error, we
undertook to reply to the Eagles art
icles as soon as had time to inquire in
: to 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.
l.. The Eagle says: "Grant went into
{ the office poor, and is nOtOriOusly q
millionaire already; and he can not
have made his million out of his sal
AIRY, or his legitimate receipts in
! public service" If the President
of the United States was to an
swer every question addressed him
about his private circumstances. and
empty his pOcketboOk 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 i'll usage. The
President considers the wishes Of the
people, by never replying to any at
tack made upon him. We have no
authority to speak for him-but care
ful inquiries have assured us that out
side his official salary, his income does
not exceed six thousand dollars a
year. His principal property is his
farm Of six or seven hundred acres,
near st. Louis, part of which was in
herited by Mrs. Grant. The remain
der was bought by Gen. Grant from
/ the other heirs, out Of the 500, 900 CIV
/ en- to him by the citizens of New
York before he became President
One of the charges against the Presi-
dent is that this st. Louis farm was
! present to him. The rest of the $780,
| GOO referred to was used in paying off
/ the mortgage on his house in I street,
/ Washington, now owned by Gen.
Sherman, and in purchasing and furn-
/ ishinga house at Long Branch, which
/ he is charged with receiving as pres
| ent from Mr.. Murphy-that being an
other of the numberless fabrieations
I set afloat by the Sun about the Presi-
dent, and repeated eagerly by journals
opposed to him. Not q dollars GCOTth
Of property has been giUen Gen. Grant
since he became President.
During the war the President saved
something out of his pay as Major
General-we are half ashamed to re-
fer 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 a part in
terest in some Chicago lots, which
have appreciated in value, but hither-
to have yielded no income. He also
bought a small amount of horse rail-
road stock, which he still owns, and
which paws a moderate dividend. He
was given, while q General in the
army, a house in Philadelphia, which |
he rents for about two thousand dol !
lars year.
Another statement of the Eagle is |
that "the Sun has printed repeatedly, |
uncOntradicted 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 jour |
nalists will be ashamed to assert that |
anything is true of Gen. Grant be- |
cause the Sun says it is true. The list |
in question has been cOntradicted 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 relatiqe5 who /
do hold Office were chiefly appointed /
by his predecessors; was he bound to |
turn them out when he came into Of |
flee himself? Is it to be the rule of
public life that when a man accepts q !
respOsible position he is to begin by |
thrusting his kinsfolk out Of any OF /
flee 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 /
received twenty-five thousand dollars /
stock in the Seneca Stone Company, |
as q gift, and then appointed Mr.. /
Cooke, the President of that company, /
Territorial Governor in Washington, /
Thereby enhancing the stock of
Messrs. Cooke, Grant & Co." This is |
a total Misrepresentation of a very |
simple transaction. Shortly after the
organization of the Seneca Stone /
Company, in 1867, nearly a year before /
Gen. Grant was nominated President, /
he was invited by Mr.. H. d. Cooke,
and others, to take twenty thousand
dollars worth of stock as an invest
nlcnt. He thought well of it, and /
surely no one will deny that he was
free TO invest his money in any enter
prise he chose. He had as much right /
to use his money at his own discretion
as any other citizen. He invested ten I
thousand dollars in the purchase of
the stock, and IL has neUer paid him q
cent. He has been anxious for long
time to sell this stock; perhaps some
of his accusers would like to buy it?-
Gov. Cooke was appointed last Feb
ruary-stOck bought in 1867; Cooke
appointed in 1S7l-and that appoint
ment had about as much to do with
Seneca stone as it had with the depOs
its of the post tertiary period.
The charge that President Grant
quarrels with Sumner and is friendly
with Nye, ETC., and that he absents
himself from Washington during sum-
mer, we leave people to form their
own opinions about. The accusation
that somebody very near to the Presi-
Dental person was engaged in the
"gOld gamblingu affair of Fisk and
Gould is utterly refuted by Jay GOuld's
own evidence, as published in the Of
fetal report of the investigation, by
the FOrty-frst Congress. The Presi-
dent himself gave the order to sell
gold on the infamOds "black Friday"
that order which brought the con-
spiracy to an end. The only man
who ever attempted to drag Gen.
Grants name into the transaction was
James Fisk, ira notorious thief and
swindler. Is there any respectable
man or woman in this country who
would suffer his or her estimation Of
friends character to be lowered
by anything James Fisk, jr., might
say And yet the President of
the United States is to be condemned
by party papers on the evidence of
man who has committed the worst
kind Of offenses against the law and
who, to the eternal disgrace Of the
Judges who administer that law, is
still reveling III his stolen wealth, in
stead of breaking stone in Sing Sing. i
As to the objections to Gen. Grants
course on public affairs, we do not 4
profess to answer them now; we mere
" repeat our own opinion, that in the
main his policy is a sound, wise, aud
beneficial one. A man Of pUrer priv
ate life than Gen. Grant never occu-
pied the Presidential chair. Is it just
is it worthy of the Presidents posi-
ton, or of this great natiOn-that he
should be called to account at any
moment by every disappointed Office
seeker who choose to invent a new
slander against him? We have re-
piled to these charges because, by con-
slant repetition, they mighs have i'm