The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1872-01-06

gular contests in the history of political par
ties.
The administration of President Grant has
been so successful in its foreign and domestic
policy, and so satisfactory to the people, that
the Democracy, unable to make an issue on a
single question Of public policy, are prepar-
ing to abandon their organization and its
principles, and go into guerilla war, under
the leadership of disaffected Republicans
The character of the coming contest is fore
Swallowed by the action of Sumner, Schurz,
and Trumbul, backed by the Democratic
Senators under the lead of Garrett Davis, dur
ing the first two weeks of the present session
of Congress. Is s...1- .2 a.-
The grand results accomplished by the adj
ministration, in reducing the rebellious South
to submission, establishing the supremacy Of
the laws in all the States and Territories;
in inaugurating an Indian policy, just, hui
name and peaceful; and foreign policy
which provides for the settlement OF inter-
national differences by arbitration rather
than by an appeal to arms; In honestly col
Letting the revenues and as honestly applying
them to the payment of our debts, thus inn
proving the public credit and reducing the
burdens of taxation, are sought to be OBJ
secured by cloud of calumny, raised by re-
iterating general charges against the Presi-
dent, which charges are unsupported by a
single specification, or a scintilla Of evidence
That the Democratic party should, in its des-
peration, resort to this mode of personal
warfare, is not surprising, as it has nothing
to lose. Nor can anything better be expected
from an ambitious adventurer, like Schurz,
whose military pretensions-based upon po
litical services-drew from General Grant eX-
pressions of contempt which he never can
forgive, and who is possessed with the idea that
the constitution ought to be changed to allow
the people to make him President of the
United States.
The course of Sumner and Trumbull, who
are men of character and reputation, and who
have the principles of the Republican party
at heart, is not SO easily accounted for; but
their attacks upon the President are in the
same spirit, and are apparently prompted by
the same motives which prompted army Off
GERS in traducing General Grant at the time
when his military successes first attracted the
attention of the country. e5 l.
The martinets, who were then drilling
their forces, marching and counter-marching
between Washington and Richmond, prepar-
ing to ''crush the rebellion by some grand
strategic combination, too profound for the
comprehension of common mortals, were in
tensely disguised with the vulgar soldier who
upset all their plans, and pricked their pre-
tensions, by knowing directly upon the enc
mics works" and taking them. So the learn
ed doctrinaires who have made politics pro-
fession, cannot endure man, who, while
they are preparing to discourse learnedly and
eloquently upon great questions of State poll
cy, goes straight at, and settles them.
Itwas certainly very ungenerous and dis
courteous to Senator Sumner, for the Presi-
dent to settle all our disputes with Great Brit
ain so promptly, so undiplomatically, and so
contrary to the principles of international law
as laid down by the great Massachusetts,
Statesman, leaving his ponderous Grafton on
the subject in much the same condition as
was Buffers powder ship after the capture of
Fort Fisher, or his Dutch Gap Canal after the
taking of Richmond. The treatment of Mr..
Trumbull was equally unhandsome. That
profound lawyer had but just begun to talk
civil service reform, and was making elabo-
rate preparations to convince future genera
tions that something ought to be done; when
the President, contrary to every principle of
modern craftsmanship, "went and did it,
without making single speech. l- %
When the Union men of the South who
were being prosecuted, scourged, driven from
their homes, and murdered by the Ku-Klux,
appealed to the Government for protection,
committee to investigate, and report to Con-
gress next year, when we will discuss the
whole matter, and see what we can do to pro-
tect our friends-if we then have any to pro-
tect." President Grant Immediately on the
adjournment of Congress sent those terrible
Federal bayonets" into the insurrectionary
districts, and said, ''let us have peace''-and
there was peace. 1t is evident that if Gen.
Grant is elected for another term the aoctrin-
aires occupations gone" tHe will deprive
them of their whole stock in trade, by quietly
settling all questions as they arise, before
they can get ready to discuss them.
Such a merciless puncture Of wind bags
cannot be longer endured; he must be talked
down, written down, put down in some way,
say the doctrinaires. But the people, who
have become surfeited with the flood of talk
and with politicians who do nothing but talk,
are refreshed with the Presidents brilliant
flashes of silence which are followed by such
substantial results; and are determined to
have Grant, and to have peace for another
four years. A --' @ .a-
The rivalry between the argus and STAN
dard for the patronage of the Democratic