New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1872-09-19

cation to find themselves sadly despatched
with the dust and mud they had raised t.
prove the President guilty of a breach o
neutrality, and some of the highest officials
as combining i'm that Illegal traffic for the
object of dishonest gain. They have had tho
chagrin to see that the scare-crow of usurpa
ton of constitutional powers in the Santc
Domingo affair. through which they had hoped
to infiict a mortal blow on the President
was blown to atoms by his prompt abandon
ment Of fayorite measure, the moment he
discovered that he was not backed by suf'
ficient majority nor has the disappointment
been spared TO them to discover that even
the terrible bugbear Of military despotsnl
failed to frighten the most credulous, in spite
Of the evidence they offered that Generals
Porter and Babcock have been detailed to
act as his secretaries without receiving addi-
tional pay. in open violation of law. They
have moreover become convinced of the utter
| hopelessness Of the attempt to ALLEVIATE the
affection of the people for General Grant and
their confidence in him by fiddling endless
| variations on the statements of the Presi-
dents prediction for horses and cigars, or
to impress them with sense of his perverse-
ness for the reason that he, like almost every
body else who can afford it, prefers to spend
summer in cool place rather than in the
not yet removed the harmless old gentleman,
his father, from his lofty position as Post
master in Covington. Thus bafiled in all
| their attempts TO fasten blame either On his
| ADMINISTRATION or on his character even by
viewing them through the blacklist of spec
tacles and putting the most odious construc-
ton on his most Indifferent acts, they have
determined to ruin him by charging him and
his surroundings with dishonest and dis
honorable acts and vices which would abso-
lutely unfit a man for any position of trust
and honor. Every day brings some new
SANDER, some scandalous story, to finish up
the picture of a human monstrosity compared
to which even Andrew johnson would be
rather an attractive and honorable old gem
tleman. In turn he has been made drunk
ard, he has taken brides, he has been in
volved in the disgraceful speculations of
Black Friday and in other money transactions
even more dishonorable, each of which, if
true, would be more than sufficient to make
the name Of any individual in obscure station
notorious and disreputable, but would have
been sounded all over the country long be-
fore this if committed by man in so high a
station. Indeed, if the campaign progresses
as it may be confidently expected it will, it
is quite probable that by the time of the Oc-
tober elections Democratic and Liberal rage
will have reached such point that some
morning the Tribune will have raked up evil
dence to convict General Grant of some
criminal ofiense, as for instance, incendiarism
or bank robbery.
1t is useless to refute all those vile fabri-
cations, the more vile because brought forth
in the name of outraged virtue, honesty and
purity, easy as their refutation has been in
every case; for they are like the heads of
the Hydra. For every single falsehood that
is exploded, ten new ones will be started,
since their invention is but trifiing task
even for the most imaginative mind. There
is in fact but one way to put an end to this
kind of warfare, and it has lately been
resorted to. The enemy has compelled us to
meet him on his own, on personal ground,
though not with his own weapons, namely,
those of Islander and vililication, but simply
by turning on some of the noisiest of those
Liberal and Democratic saints and display
ing them to the world in the full light of the
well authenticated evidence of their own
deeds. More than one of them has already
been driven ANONYMOUSLY from the battle
field, and over others the sword is suspended,
ready to come down at any moment, and rich
material there Is for it. 1t is sad that it
should be so, but it cannot be helped.