The Portland daily press., 1872-07-27
Notice 10 TreSnAsSerS.
fFfom the Portland Advertiser. ]

lFIOM tHe IOFttuHu duUeftoef.1
Somewhat unnecessarily, it seems to us, but
very distinctly, Mr. Clifford gave notice yes
terday to Republican supporters of Grant, that
they are not wanted upon his premises during
the Congressional canvass which has now
opened in this district. There was chance
that some Republicans, honoring. our Chief
Magistrate for his past services and refusing to
listen to his present defamers, but i'll satisfied
with his surroundings in Congress, might have
felt at liberty at this uncture, TO have cast their
votes for Representative so well fitted for a
useful public career by natural gifts and indus
trious habits, and whose youth itself unembar-
raised by fixed associations and inveterate pre-
judces is special qualification for an epoch
of transformation and reorganization: 1t was
indispensable, if he was to be elected, as Mr..
Sweat pointed out in his address to the Bidde-
ford convention, that a portion of the Republic
can vote should be attracted to his support But
to all hesitating voters, Mr.. Clifford turns with
contemptuous words. instructing them that his
main purpose is "to rescue the government
from the dull and logged ignorance of an uu-
this corrupt, sordid, personal administration of
Grant," which he further describes as "weak,
uncertain, absurd and dangerous"
This is not the estimate:which the Republi-
cans of this district have formed of General
Grant and his administration. They see in
him quiet, modest man, suddenly called from
obscurity to the highest duties, winning in a
few swift months a fame of which the nation
will long be proud, summoned from his we'll
earned repose to assume the untried RESPONSE
bilit;es of his civil station, hampered by Con-
gress which in dealing with his predecessor had
been, compelled to usurp supreme authority and
is slow to unlearn the lesson, and through all
this wonderful career preserving his equanimity
his simple habits, his manly reserve, never
boasting, never apologizing, but patiently and
steadily applying himself to the work in hand
without troubling himself very much about the
credit which is his due but which he never
stoops to claim. To tell us that this man, who
has so often shown the clearest comprehension
of the most complex and difficult situations, is
only dull, logged, ignorant and unteachable
President, is an absurdity which reaches the
climax when it is proposed to exchange him
for rhetorician, who, while Grant was hand
ling armies and afterward administering the
government, sat in newspaper Office stringing
forcible adjectives into editorial articles and
came into actual contact with affairs only in ar
ranging political conventions, bailing Jefferson
Davis, and negotiating peace with George
Sanders.
There are other features of Mr.. Clifford S
speech, which we can better accept. 1t is true
that the history of the Democratic party is con-
sistent in the high sense which he so well sets
forth. That party has adhered with strictest
consistency to the letter of the fundamental
law, accepting, because tho constitution accept
ed, slavery with all its consequences, and ac-
cepting now, for the same reason, the war with
its consequences. We can appreciate the at
fractions which such history presents to many
minds The surrender of that party to hith-
erto inveterate opponent, if he were worthy of
it, would indeed be magnanimous act. But it
is not to be forgotten that the devotion of the
Democratic party to the letter of the consttr-
tioual bond, led them into what Mr. Clifford
himself calls "bewildering prejudices,'' devel-
oping sudden incapacity for approaching or
understanding the glorious revolution which
opened ten years ago. 1t must be remembered
that the Democratic party in Jackson's time
perverted the civil service into the political en-
CINE which it now is, and that the chief engi-
neers on the Republican side were trained in
the Democratic school, 1t must be remember
ed, especially, that the change to which they
now invite us is simplp change of officehold-
ers. And bearing these facts in mind, it is
easy to see that the party of reform and pro-
gress is not yet in the field, aud that the choice
for the next four years is simply between Grant
whom we know, and Greeley who does not even
know himself