The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1872-09-03
HON. W. D. KELLEY'S SPEECH.
ABLE DEFENSE OF THE ADMINISTRATION
ISLANDERS Against the rresiden, Rerated.
[Continucd from Yesterdays issue.1

relied Where is the story of SANDER and
backbitings and traducing of his chiefs by
Ulysses S. Grant, while thus ascending the
military ladder ? So quiet, so unostenta-
tious, so slightly ambitious was he that the
public only learned about him and his ex-
istence by the report Of the victories he
achieved. And this is the man who is
branded as euarreler. And when Lee
surrendered his sword and his army did
Grant quarrel any longer? No. He pa
rolled the whole army, and said to Lee,
"Let the boys take their horses home, they
will need them in making crops, ZAP
plause.] And so little of quarreler per-
sopally is he that when pressed by Andrew
johnson to arrest Lee and other paroled
Generals, Grant answered from the field,
81 have paroled them, and if they are ar
rested and my faith violated, will resign
my commission" [Applause.l A quar-
reler! With whom, except Charles Sum-
ner, has Grant quarreled ? and with whom,
who held higher place than himself, has
Charles Sumner ever lived at peace? Laugh
ter and applause.l
Mr.. Sumner denouncings president Grant
as q quarreler is very much like the fellow
who came in on the night of the seventh
day, and when the Judge said, "Gontlemen
of the jury, have you agrecd?" replied,
"Sir, there are eleven very stubborn men
here" [Laughter.l Let us look at him as
q gft-taker. Grant had beaten all the
generals and armies that had hurled our
generals aud armies back. [Applause.l
He was not the first to take commands.
We had tried Mcclellan and a nunder of
illustrious successors, all of whom we honor
in greater or less degree, aud they had all
been hurled back before the enemy. Grant
had beaten that enemy. Grant had said,
"We will fight it out on this line, if it takes
all summer" Grant had said to the people
of the country, 'Let Sherinan's men march
around and we viii crush the Confederacy,
because it is but SHE'LL" And one day
the news came, as it had come from Vicks-
burg, and Shiloh, and elsewhere. The shell
was crushed. Grant held the sword of
Lee [applausel and there went up shouts of
praise, paans, hallelujahs, praise to the
Almighty God for his having put an end to
the war in which brother was arrayed
against brother, and in which the resources
Of your country were being exhausted.
THE GIFr.TAKING ISLANDER.
Then the people appreciated Grants SER
vices. Then they traced bis simple story
back to the tanners yard, back to the
clerks desk in Governor Yates Office.
Then they recognized the fact of Grants
poverty and the great blessing he had con-
ferred upon them, and they gave him as
they gave Sherman, as they gave Farragut,
and as they gave Meade, and as they gave
a dozen other illustrious soldiers, houses
and lands and books and money. They
said, "We cannot be too grateful to you.
All that We have you have saved for US"
And they have made these men easy for
all time to come; and | ask Charles Sum-
ner, or Lyman Trumbull, or Carl Schurz,
or any other of the slanderers Of General
Grant, to show the present he has taken
from living man from the day he was in
augurated as President. IApplause.I And
while these illustrious slanderers applaud
the men who made gifts to Farragut and
Meade and the rest of them, they hold
Grant up to odum as a dishoneat man and
glft-taker, because he in his poverty did
not spurn and refuse to receive proofs Of
the gratitude of the people. There is the
whole of the story. They tell you he did
not turn his father out of the post-office at
Covington, Kentucky, to which Andrew
Johnston had appointed him. Well. If he
had, | should have been ashamed ofhim and
so would you. They tell you that some Of
his family hold office under him. Well, |
remember when Martin Van Buren, was
President, they used to talk of John as the
fair-haired Prince, because you could not
get into the Presidents presence unless
John conducted you; and if John said no,
you could not get in. Yet he was the son
of his father and very like unto him.
lI.aughter] remember when John Tyler
was there, you had to 60 through two sons,
Bob and John, both. [Laushter.] Buch-
anan had no sons or brothers about him
because he had no son or brother.
Had ker] But have no doubt if he had
had either, in whom he had great conf
dcnce and in whose courtesy he had conf
dence, they would have been near him in
the White House. 1t is shame for
Charles Sumner, Lyman Trumbull and
Carl Schurz to dabble in such shallow
pools of muddy water! [Applause.l
Such things as these may do for boys and
men who have been looking at politics
through brandy and water all the evening;
but statesmen who aspire to be illustrious,
must feel as they go to sleep at night, or
creep out of sleep in the morning, that it is
nasty and small business they have been
engaged in! Laughter and applause.ls
THE SECOND SAVIOR OF HIS COUNTRY.
But the peoples representatives FASTENED
to recognize Grants great services.
When the revolutionary war closed the
people asked what honor could be given to
Washington, and Congress made the office
of general and made it life office. But
the war was over. There were no further
military services for that great general
who had achieved the independence of his
country, and he declined it. After the
war of 1865 was over there was country
to be reconstructed. There were the re-
belious States to be held in subsection
until order could be restored through con-
stitutioual powers. There were 4 900 900
Of freed men, women end children, who
had been the chattels of the rebels, who
were to be protected and conducted into
the upward paths of freedom. There was
still military duty to do and TO be paid for,
and Congress recognizing the grateful
sense of the people, resstablished the
Office of general in the army and made it a
life Office. They made its pay more than
100000 year for life. Grant was forty
four years of age, Of long lived race,
with aconstitution unbroken by dissipation,
and he had long life of more than
100000 year, with steadily decreas-