The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-05-05

But now that the General has attained the
legitimate summit of his aspirations, it is only
natural that his uneasy activity OF mind
should sting him into occasional outbreaks OF
eccentricity. AS Richeleu thought himself q
better poet than statesman, and so wasted his
leisure in wooing an migrate Muse, our san
guine soldier is not satisfied with the COM
mand of the army, but itches to show the
world what a statesman is disguised In his
uniform. There is something fascinating
about the, Generals political utterances. They
are SO honestly and naively ignorant, so des-
titute of any connection with known facts, so
confident and cock-sure of his own powers
and his own sagacity, that they have the same
charms as the theoretical campaigns and con-
spiracies of loquacious schoolgirl. "Let us
soldiers have charge of the matter"
says the outspoken chief, land we will
soon settle everything in satisfactory man
ner." How wonderfully this sounds like a
young lady's "If l we're President" which
is always followed by some deliciously absurd
misapprehension of the executive sphere and
function General Sherman does not seem
to remember that the army only numbered a
million of men, and that this was not ma
iority of the nation. He is equally unmind-
ful of the fact that more than two-thirds of
that army disagreed with him, and held the
same just and wise views of government that
were sustained and put in practice by Lincoln
and Stanton and Grant. The glory of that
army was that they were citizens before and
after they were soldiers; and General Sher-
man is a soldier, with no clear perceptions of
the dignity and worth of the citizen charac-
ter.
In view of these patent and notorious facts,
the Generals speech might have been passed
over with an indulgent smile by the country
which knows and honors him for what he is,
foibles and all. But it has been given a sin
gular and unaccountable prominence by the
organs of the opposition. One morning paper.
which changes its favorites oftener than Ha-
roun or Brigham, seizes upon the General and
makes him a candidate for the Presidency
upon the strength of this speech AS the same
paper will nominate a dozen or so more be-
fore the election, we cannot pause to discuss
its merry-andrew performance sof yesterday.
But we feel bound to give one word of candid
caution to another paper, which assumes airs
of leadership in the Democratic party, and
which, as it only changes position radically
two or three times year, may be considered
as having some regard for its reputation
for consistency. 1t also makes this
rattling speech of General Sherman's the
occasion for delighted editorials crediting the
speaker with more than human sagacity and
integrity. 1t does not nominate him for
President, but, on the contrary, timidly sug-
gests that he had much better stay where he
is, at the head of the army-a good perma-
nent place, etc. 1t holds up to him his pre-
decessor in the command of the army as an
awful example of what generals come to when
they begin to think of the White House.
But these gentle homilies will have little
effect upon the ambitious and arrogant mind
of the brilliant soldier to whom they are ad-
dressed. He will be likely to accept as
genuine all the praise which is lavished upon
his political sagacty, and will reject the rest
as impertinent "The White House gad-hy
crazes when it stings," and the dilettante
schemers of the Manhattan Club had
better beware how they make a
candidate of Tecumseh Sherman. We
think he would make bad President for all
of us. He does not know enough of the first
| elements of political science to keep his des-
potic and eccentric impulses in check. But
| he would be an infinitely worse candidate for
| Tammany than for us. His rigid honesty,
his flighty notions of personal honor, his
| overweening self-confidence, utterly unfit him
to be the servant and figure-head of that gang
of grovelling rogues. He would smash into
splinters any platform they could frame be-
fore a month of the canvass was over; and if
| by any improbable luck he came to be Presi-
| dent, we would expect, before the Cabinet
was formed, to see Boss Tweed kicked down
the steps of the White House, slate, diamond
breasspin, and all, by the rash and splenetive
soldier, whose civil policy the ring could no
more predict or follow than the flight of q
meteor, and whose hard integrity they could
no more mould to their scoundrel purposes
than they could knead granite to their daily
bread.