The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1872-06-05
Simmer on Grant.

Sumner on Grant.
Mr.. Sumner delivered a four-hour
speech in the Senate, on Friday, in Bit
ter denunciation of President Grant.
The following paragraph is a sample:
ALLEGED CEsARIsM.
"On what meat doth this our Cesar
feed" that he should assume so much?
No honor for victory in war can Justify
disobedience to the constitution and to
law; nor can it afford the least apology
for any personal immunity, privilege or
license in the Presidential Office. A
President must turn into King before
it can be said of him that he can do no
wrong. He is responsible always. As
President he is foremost servant Of the
law, bound to obey its slightest man
date. As the elect Of the people he
owes not only the example OF willing
obedience. but also of fidelity and in
dustry in the discharge of his conspicu.
GUS office, with an absolute abneSation
of all selfseeking. Nothing for self, but
all for country. And now, as we
regard the career of this candidate, we
find, to our amazement, how little 1t
accords with this simple requirement
Bring it to the touch-stone and it fails
Not only are Constitution and law
disregarded, but the Presidential office
itself is treated as little more than
plaything and perquiste-when not
the former, then the latter. Here the
details are ample-showing how from
the beginning this exalted trust has
dropped to be personal indulgence,
where palace cars, fast horses and sea-
side loiterings figure more than duties;
how personal aims and objects have
been more prominent than the public
interests how the Presidential office
has been used to advance his own family
on a scale OF nepotism, dwarting every
thing of the kind in our history, and
hardly equaled in the corrupt Govern
meuts where this abuse has most
prevailed; how, in the same
spirit, office has been conferred upon
those from whom he had received gifts
or benefits, thus making the country
repay his personal obligations; how
personal devotion to himself, rather
than public or party service, has been
made the standard of favor; how the
vast appointing power conferred by the
Constitution for the general welfare has
been employed at his will to promote
his schemes, to reward his friends, to
punish his opponents, and to advance
his election to a second term; how all
these assumptions have matured in q
personal government, seml.mllitary In
character and breathing the military
spirit, being species Of CTsarism or
pGrsOaahSm abhorrent to republican in
situations, where subservience to the
President is the supreme law; how in
maintaining this subservience he has
operated by a system Of combinations,
military, political, and even Senatorial,
having their orbits about him, so that,
like the planet Saturn, he is surrounded
ty rings; nor does the similitude end
here, for his rings, like those of the
planet, are held in position By satellites;
how this utterly unrepublican Casarism
has mastered the Republican party and
dictated the Presidential will, stalking
into the Senate Chamber itself, while a
vindictive spirit visits good Repub-
licans who cannot submit; how
the President himself unconscious
that q President has no right to
quarrel with anybody, insists upon
9uarreling until he has become the
great Presidential quarreler, with more
quarrels than all other Presidents
together, and all begun and continued
by himself; how his personal followers
back him in quarrels, insult those he
insults, and then, not departing from
his spirit, cry out with Shakespeare,
1--WE will have rings and things and fine
array" and finally how the chosen
head of the Republic is known chiefly
for Presidential pretentions, utterly in
defensible in character, derogatory to
the country and of evil influence, max.
ing personal objects primary pursuit.
80 that instead of a benefcent presence
he is bad example through whom
Republican institution suffer and the
people learn to do wrong.
Speaking of adopting him as CAM
didate of the party again, the speaker
said:
In adopting him as a candidate for
reelection. we undertake to vindicate
his Presidency, aud adopt in all things
the insulting, incapable, aide-de.camp-
ish dictatorship which he has iuaugu-
rated. Presenting his name We vouch
for his fitness, not only in original
nature, but in experience of civil lite, in
aptitude for civil duties, in knowledge
of Republican institutions and elevation
of purpose; and we must be really to
defend openly what he has openly
done. Can Republicans honestly do this
thiugf Let it be said that he is rot
only the greatest nepotist among Presi-
dents, bat greater than all others to-
gether, and what Republican can reply /?
Let it be said that he is not only the |
greatest gifttaker among Presidents,
but the only one who repaid his patrons
at the public expense, and what Repub. |
lican can reply? Let it be said that he |
has openly violated the Constitution and |