The Tiffin tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1868-1887, 1872-08-01

gnawed by ambition aad cupiditv
went out % ruin the party which they
could not rule, madEess drove them
on. They had no polar star exeeDt
hatred Of Grant and his supporters
These lusty patriots, who mOdestiy
assumed the name OfrefJrmers, would
not have an ordinary presidential
canvass for fair discussion OF pOIiti-
cal questions; such = proceeding
would have been too tame aEj lnsipid
f0E them. Their stomachs craved
stronger, more game favored meat.
Hard names must be called. Ven
geance must be satisfied. Tue Presi-
dent must be politically coart mar
tailed or dragged before the national
assize to be tried as 4 malefacfOr. In
the Senate the Democrats proper kept
silent, or talked about business.
give them credit for wasting but lit
tie time. But half the last session,
eight months in length, was worn
out and wasted by slandernus cleo
tiOneering harangues, aimed at the
administration and its friend, By
men badly in need of being reformed
themselves. These self-righteOus,
noisy oracies, pitched the key in
which the anti-Grant chorus was to
be sung. Hence comes the absence
Of political questions and the pres
ence of personal and scandaIOus IS
sues. Public journals, newspaper
correspondence from Washington,
controlled by these LiberaIs-liberai
in nothing 50 much As In defaming
honest men, praising and helping
themselves-tOOkt the cue from heart
burnings, distempers, and ambitions,
which set them on. Anything to
beat Grant," was the motto. It graf
flied their hate and spite to assaii the
President personally, heap malignant
charges upon him. Thus his charae-
ter, his integrity, and his standing as
a man have been part in the issue.
The people are compelled to pass up
Oh his guilt or innocence. The case
has been so put that the question is
not merely whether Grant shall be
| President, but whether Grant shall be
/ pronounced by the nation q fool, a
knave, an impostOr, and an enemy OF
/ his country. Had the issue been tax
en- upon public measures, or a public
question been raised, whether new
/ questions or those which have divided
parties heretofore, the popular verdict
would have been verdict only be-
/ tween parties, policies, and principles.
Such verdict would have rested up
on public grounds, personally dispar-
aging to no one. in that case Gen.
Grant could not complain.
The Senator then referred TO the
Cincinnati platform, charaeteriZing it
as libelOus upon the President, and of
the men who figured at Cincinnati as
groups of disreputables from the pOlit-
ical cutters.
Their tariff resolution is q mere ian
gle, a shallow evasion. The amnesty
resolution is spent, because a general
amnesty bill has already been passed,
while that about centralism, if it
meant anything, referred to measures
of Congress which Greeley had him
self approved. Where then is the po-
litical issue the people are to pass up
on? 1t can not be civil service re-
form, unless dishonesty is imputed to
the President. He is for civil service
reform. He recommended il, inaugu-
rated it. The Philadelphia eOnven-
tiOn specially declared for it. There can
be no issue of that kind except by per-
tending that Grant is a hypOcrite, and
that Greeley is not. Neither Of these
things would be easy to prove. The
coalition presents only assaults upon
the President, and is nothing more or
less than challenge for a cOmpari-
son between the candidates. The is
sue is, which is personally the fittest
man for the presidency. The DemOc-
racy had surrendered its creed, and
now, to wipe out the very memory of
Democracy, these .vaulting managers
selected as their figurehead a professed
ultra-Republican, and ask honest Dem
Ocrats to vote for him against a man
born and bred a Democrat, who new
er acted with the Republican party
till after the war had raised new issues ]
on which Democrats divided. The /
anti-Grant managers are daring, II /
they are not silly. They attempt to /
crowd down. the throats of Dem Jcrats, |
who fought the Maine law, the |
man who drowned all other voices in |
his outeries for penal statues, Sunday |
laws to stop by force drinking even I
lager beer. Upon what grounds are 1
Democrats expected to vote the Gree
ley ticket? There can be no reason
unless Grant is unworthy of conf |
dence or respect, and deserve 10 be
found guilty of the crimes and vices
alleged against him
The speaker then referred to the ear
Iy education and life Of Grant, read
ing from letters written to his parents
over thirty years ago. Mr.. Sumner,
be said, withers him by reminding
rs that he tanned hides at Galena for
4 few hundred dollars a year. He
did not masquerade as a wood chop
per; he did not figure in pictOrials as
I farmer; he did not 90 round telling
what he knew about any thing that
he didn't understand himself. His
career in the rebellion is known to
.he whole world. Subsequently the
Democrats sought To nominate him
iOr the presidency, but he declined.
His integrity taught him that when
party chooses candidate from the
)ther side somebody is To be cheated,
md by Grants consent no one ever
vas or ever will be cheated.
The speaker then cited from the
New York World and Horace Greeley
illusions complimentary tO Grant,
made in 1865.
Coming to the question of gift-tak-
ng by Grant, he adverted to the Eng
ish examples, and showed that that
country had enriched its disting-
lished men by acts of Parliament and
subscriptions. America,
90, had been lavish i'm this regard.
70 Sherman, Sheridan, Farragut, and /
Grant large sums were given. To
StantOn's family and to Rawlins' ,
we're given more than hundred thou
and each. Were these things dis
Was it wrong for Grant
o accept such gifts? The charge is
IN insult to the nation who witnessed
md apDlauded the proceeding. It can
lot have been dishOnorable or imprOp- (
II for him to accept gift, without {
Is being dishOnOrable and improper
o offer it. Bismark has recently re-
,eiYed a bonded estate as a gift, and
vas made Prince. The charge that {
frant accepted any gift after he be I
.ame President or after he was nOmi-
lated is wholly false. He has accep- ,
of value since his first
even . carrige and ]
lOses, although Lincoln, Buchanan, ]
Pierce, Taylor, and other Presidents,
lid accept carriages and horses after
heir election But it is said men
Who subscribed gifts were appointed to
,ffice. The insinuatiOn is that they 4.
we're appointed because they had sub
cribed gifts. The fact that hundreds
who gave have never been appointed
70 anything would of itself seem to
Iisprove the charge that official pat
onage has been used To repay gifts.
)nly three, or at most four, cOntribu-
Ors to the funds raised fOr Grant have
.yer been offered appointments. It
would seem far-fetched to explain the
election Of the three for reason ap-
living to more than three hundred ,
Who were never selected at all. a. L. 4
Stewart subscribed to the Grant fund;
10 did every leading man in the city 4
IF New York who then supported the
party. No man on Man
lattan island vino would have been
thought Of for the Cabinet refused 70
subscribe. When Gen. Grant became :;
President, had he named for his Cab
net E. d. Morgan, George Opdyke,
Jackson S. Schults, William E Dodge, Il
Henry Clews, OF any other leading
merchant or banker who supported !
him, it would have turned out thathe,
90, was a gift giver. The same
hing is true Of BOrie, late Secretary
II the Navy. The Cabinet Ministers
we're selected for supDOsed fitness, be