New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1872-10-30
DO VOTERS MEAN THISP

1t is useful for cOnscent iOus voters to con-
slider, in the few days which remain between
this and election day, what vote for the re-
election of Gen. Grant means.
1t is very true that the country owes much
to Gen. Grants persistence and military SIKH
during the war; but is it worth while to pay
more than VIC Owe7 The reelection of Gen.
Grant means the condoning of certain acts,
which need only to be named to appear what
they are-somc fragrant violations of the Con-
stitution and laws, others contemptuous den
ance of public opinion. others yet having both
these qualities.
Look, for instance, at the Presidents inter
ference in The Missouri State election, two
years ago. when he openly displaced pubhc
officers, not for unfitneSS or incapaclty, but
on the sole ground that in a local political
contest, where the Republican party of the
State was divided, these offcers-perfectly
capable men, against whom no charge was
brought-chose conscientOusly to support the
wing of the party which the President did
not favor but which some of the Republican
leaders did favor.
A loud cry went up against this inter
ference by the Federal Government IN State
election, and one of its results was to widen
the breach in the ranks of the Republican
party. But Gen. Grant did not heed this dis
approval, for the Missouri interference, bad as
it was-and it was as bad as anything of
Buchanan's in Kansas-was followed by
still greater and bolder act of the same kind,
when Gen. Casey, the Presidents own
brother-in- law, the Federal Collector of Rev.
enue in New Orleans, carried off part of the
State Legislature of Louisiana in United
States vessel, in order to secure to himself the
control of the State Government. This act
of usurpation and interference was commit
ted by a near relative of the Presidents,
whose corruptness and unftness for his place
is notorious and undenicd but who, in spite
of all, is still to-day kept in bis place by the
President.
Next came the SantO Domingo business.
Here the President, without the knowledge OF
his Cabinet, sent a private messenger of his
own to the Island, on the pretense of looking
at the harbor of SANTANA, but with the object,
as the sequel proved, to negotiate treaty,
which he brought back, signed on the part OF
the United States by himself, totally unau-
thorized person. While this treaty so made,
without authority, was pending in the Senate,
of dollars in keeping his naval vessels on the
Santo Domingo coast, solely to threaten and
coerce a people with whom Ostensbly we were
at peace, though really the President assumed
toward it the attitude of war, and this in de-
fance of the Constitution, which gives to
Congress the power to make war.
In the midst of the SantO Domingo struggle,
too, the President, with a singular and gross
contempt for public opinion, caused Mr.. Sum-
ner to be Ousted from the post for which his
experience prominently fitted him, of Chair
man of the Committee of Foreign Relations,
and caused to be put in his place one of the
most notorious corruptionists of our politics,
the Tweed of Pennsylvania, Simon Cameron.
Again, when the notorious maladministraton
of the NeW-YOTl, CustOm-house by his and
Tweed's favorite, Murphy, became unendura-
BILE to the merchants of New-YOrk, and the
President was forced to dismiss him, the only
case. during his administration, wherein he
has paid even the slightest respect to public
opinion. he not only allowed Murphy to name
his successor, but insulted and defied the pub
lie by sending him an open letter strongly
approving his course.
Finally, he has broken with all the states
men of reputation in the Republican party
Trumbull, Schurtz, Sumner, Wells, &c.-and
taken into his confidence such men as Morton,
Chandler, Butler. Conkling, Murphy, the hang
ers on, the bummers of the party and these
are his chosen advisers.
Now, we have named above only few
conspicuous cases of Gen. Grants malad-
about which there is no dis
pute. What are the characteristics of these
actsf Are they not defiance of law, disregard
of the decencies of public life, contempt for
the moral sense of the peoplef And what Will
be the meaning of his. reelection wan 1t not
be public and official conformation OF all these
grave Offensesf 1t is in that way that the
President himself looks at it. His remark IS
notorious--that he did not at first care for
reelection, but that he has become anxious
that these and other acts of his shall receive
the public approval.
Nor should Gen. Grants character be for