Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1871-12-28
The President and the Party.

~ From Harpers' Weekly
One Gf the clearest and most vigorO us of
political writers in this nation is George
w. Curtis, editorof -Hdrpers' Weekly Far
removed from all corrupt influences; edi-
tor of paper that sends its three hundred
thousand weekly messages all over the
world; of great sagacity and conspicuous
| integrity, his Judgment is entitled to the
greatest respect. OF the Retrenchment
Committee debate and the assaults upon
the President he says:E srf Esrs
| If, indeed, the President can be shown
to be personally implicated in dishonest
dealings, the sentiment of the Republican
party, which now demands his TenOmina-
| ton, would instantly change. But for
more than two years the attempt to impli-
cate him has been made with a steady fe-
rocity, only surpassed by its futility. In
every way, by every kind of false asser-
tion and malignant inuendO, the assault
! has been urged upon the private and pub
| lie character of man whose service to
| thegcountry is incalculable Called to q
| position of vast responsibility, for which
| his previous illustrious career had not eS-
pecially prepared him, but which he could
not decline: involved at once in the ter
rible net of the abuse OF the civil servic&
system, which the practice of every party
for forty years had meshed about the Press
ident: with nothing but his honest pr =
pose and his proved patriotism and sag
ity to depend upon; saluted in his first
sincere efforts at political independence by
the sneering amaZement of many Of his
own party-President Grant, with all the
mistakes and misfortunes which have
marked his administrations they must,
of necessity, mark every administration
is stronger in the public confidence in the
third year of that administration thana any
previous President, and is the undoubted
choice of the vast majority of the party
for the next four years.
He is plain man; peculiarly man OF
the people in the American eense-simple
in his manners and habits and tastes. He
is not scholar like John Quincy Adams,
nor a courtier like Martin Van Buren, nor
a natural diplomatist like Abraham Lin
coin. He speaks to the point, and makes
his opinions and sympathies evident. His
personal attachments are very strong, and
his fidelity to his friends so constant that
he is slow to suspect evil. But so steady
and malignant has been the misrepre-
sentation of him and his administration
in a thousand petty personal details
smoking, driving, travelling, associates,
property-that his real character and posi-
ton are obscured to many good men in the
country by a thick cloud of SANDER.
He is called member of the Seneca
Stone Ring because he does not sell stock
which he bought before he became Presi
dent, and which he holds as every Senator
or other high public officer holds his pri-
vate property. 1t is property largely
held in Washington, and the quarry is
near the city; consequently, it is much
used there; and, as certain active prOprle-
fOrc oil info ara bnH
! the President, because he does not sell his
stock, is accused Of corrupt completely.
| He is called mercenary and mean, although
| he spends all his salary and his small pri-
vate income in maintaining the proper
dignity of his Office. He has unQuestiona-
| bly, accepted certain gifts, offered in CRATE
full recognition of his services in the field,
as Golden received them for his services in
Parliament and on the platform, and as
| General Mcclellan received his house,
without suspicion cast upon his motives.
| So, also, some of his relations are in office.
We should be glad if this were not so !;
but, even accepting the most malicious and
exaggerated statement of the case, the
country Will hardly feel that it is a fact
which involves more than a question of
taste, tisiies: it appears that those persons
are incompetent or corrupt. fHww
But as we said, all the attempts to in
Volve the President in dishonest transac-
tiOns, although unscrupulOusly renewed,
have conspicuopsly and totally failed.
Even in the debate upon Senator Trum-
bulls resolution, Senator SchurZ, while
| insisting that there was some mysterious
power above the Secretary of the Treasury
which protected the general order system,
| honorably said: "There had not been suf-
ficient evidence to connect any one at the
| White House with this business; although
such allegations had been maden If it be
| the wish of Senators Trumbull and SchurZ
toinyestigate fairly the honesty and econ
omy of the public services all good citizens
are with them. But if their object be to
| identify the Republican Administration
with dishonesty ia the service, the eoun-
| try will hardly forget that General Grant
| is the only President who has strenuously
insisted upon reform of the whole sys-
tenn of party patronage-to which the
I Senators are not strangers-the only Pres
ident who has recommended it to Congress,
and who only awaits the completion of
necessary details to put it in execution.
The evil practice of the Civil Service,
necessarily breeding corruption, was first