The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1872-12-27
The Easy Road to AbsOIt.tiss,..

As a nation we are in an improving way.
We are making progress. Not by fierce
political convulsions, but gradually and
surely Accordingly we have great cause
for gratitude. Other countries and reo-
pies have been obliged TO pass through the
threes of revolution and the agony of strife
to change their form of government
Seven years of war were needed 20 give us
the republic which we are now casting
aside; France never changes from q repub-
lie to an empire without blOCdshCd ip all
other countries tho shock of political con-
vulsions accompanies the transfer nation
But in this regard how signslly blest we
are! We are passing by such easy stages
TO an absolute centralized government,
that the charges is hardly noticed. Letus
be very thankful for it.
We began, in the usual way, with mil
itary leader. And with leader whose
strongest characteristics were his reticent
behavior and the habit Of pursuing his
purpose in dogged, persistent silence. No
thing in history is more striking than the
ease and certainty with which President
Grant has so far made and is continuing
his approaches to the form of government
he desires. His first step was the very ma
tural one Of appropriating to himtelf per-
sonallv, tho Presidential Office, and divid-
ing tho patronage among his family reia-
tives and dependents, and the military
hangers on at his court. Following this
was the announcement that he should be
iuderendent of politicians, under cover Of
which he made his choice of those politi-
clans whom he could make most service
able, and united them with his military
adherents in ring more powerful than
the Persignys, De Mornys, and st. Arnauds
of Louis Verhuel Then to .est the tenn
per of the people he broashed. of his own
motion and independent of his Cabinet or
Congress, his annexation policy, from
which he cautiously seemed to receoe for a
time when he discovered that he was lit
tie too fast. He made another tentative
movement toward absolutism when, under
the cover OF moving the crops, he took the
money market Of the country in his own
hands and controlled it through the Treas
ury. His allies bungled at that, and he
cautiously withdrew. In his management
for reelection he was equally shrewd
and careful. There was nothing to shock
the ordinary citizen in any of the methods
or means by which he swayed the conven-
tion of his party. They were as smooth
and beautiful as an assessors notice, but
they meant business.
And now having been reelected by
smaller vote than before, he interprets the
result as indicating, first, that thousands
Of citizens have so far lost thoir interest in
political affairs as not to vote for Presi-
dent, consequently that they are indiffer-
ent whether they shall live under the gov
eminent of all or tbe government Of one !;
and secondly, that those who voted for
him and who alone have any voice III the
Government or any rights under it, are en-
tirely willing that he should go his own
way to the end. Accordingly we find him
in his first message to Congress after the
election proposing a system of internal i'm
provements grander than the widest con-
ceptions of any European monarch. and
costing, if carried out, hundreds of millions
of dollars subsidies of twenty-five mil
lions to private corporations the confsca-
tiOn Of the telegraph lines Of the country
80 that all postal and telegraph communi-
cation shall be controlled by his Govern
ment, and every letter and telegram be
subject 10 the oversight Of his office hold
ers and through his Secretary of the
Treasury the adoption of a financial policy
which will give him absolute power over
the money market in order to Toye the
crops. He sends troops into Arkansas and
directs the Legislature of that State and
his retainers in the Senate rebukc the Ar
kansas Senator for inquiring the reason for
it. He sits in Judgment upon the qualif-
cations of members of the Alabama Legis-
lature, and his law officer decides V ho shall
be United States Senator. He steps in with
Federal officeholders and United States
troops, and, in order that his brother in
law may be elected United States Senator.
sustains a man az Governor of Louisiana
whose only official existence was as State
Senator whose term of Office had expired.
Under Grant there are no State Govern
merts, and State authority is extinct.
He is doing his work well. With all his
family in Office ; the army under his hand,
and no one allowed to call him to account
or ask reason for his disposition of it
State Legislatures made or unmade by him;
the legality of State Governments ard the
qualification of United States Senators sub
iect to his decision millions at his disposal
for subsidies and Government works and
the whole correspondence of the country,
by mail and telegraph, open before him,
what is to prevent his making tie Govern
ment in name as we'll as in fact absolute
and personal?
By all means double his salary. None Of
his predecessors severaccomplished so much
as he. The man who can carry the coun-
try through so quiet and SO sure a trans
as thst we are experiencing
earns whatever he chooses to e1act.-R
7. Sun