The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1872-11-02
A Great Man.

IF Cen Grant was man who would forego
a Sunday drive, or day of his proposed va
cation. or one of his after-dinner cigars, for
the sake of posturing in an amiable, virtuous
and interesting light before the public, and
exciting an ante-eecton spasm OF admiration
and respect among the people whose votes he
desires, it might be suspected that his recent
ly published letter announcing that there
would be no change in the Indian policy ex-
cept to make it more humane, was a bungling
attempt to make political capital. Bungling,
we say, for he is almost certain to lose votes
by it. Not that the majority of the Amer
lean people are opposed to the Indian peace
polisy, but that the majority Of those who have
the most immediate and intense interest in
the matter, and are accordingly likely to have
their political action influenced one way or
the other by it, are bitterly hostile to the at
tempt to subdue the Indians by treating them
with kindness and Justice. The frontier the
ory of pacificating the aborigines is held In
almost the whole wide belt of country be-
tween the Mississippi and the Indian reserva-
tons and hunting grounds, and the same ad-
vocacy of shot and shell evangelizatioa is
heard in communities far removed from the
scene of hostilities, among people to whom
the barbarity of Indian revenge has been
brought home by the loss of some friend or
neighbor. On the other hand there are
thousands who, while they greatly approve
the Presidents noble persistence in magma
nimity toward the Red Men, would not, in
case he thought change of policy nee
ss.ary on account of the failure to obtain in
Simultaneous and universal peace by the means
now used, turn against him. While there
fore. he will lose considerable number of
votes in the Western States, he will probably
not gain one anywhere by standing by his
Quaker diplomatists SO manfully. But we re-
gard his letter to Mr.. Stuart as the most salts
factory transaction in public life that for the
last decade has been absolutely crowded with
brilliant events. 1t is the thing which more
than any other shows the greatness of the
man. This is precisely one of those oc-
casions on which Gen. Grant displays his pro-
verbal obstinacy. When patriotism, human
ity or friendship require anything at his
hands he is adamant against all persuasions
to swerve from his chosen path. But where
it is matter of personal preference or quasi
personal policy we hold that no man has ever
shown himself more manageable or selfsacri-
ficing. The element in his character which
led him to yield so gracefully to opposition to
the San Domingo scheme, to his plan for re-
lieving A. T. Stewart from his disqualified
tions for Secretary of the Treasury and to
his proposition to repeal the tenure of office
act, is fifty supplemented by that clement
which caused him to press forward so obsti-
nately against the armed foes OF his country,
to withstand President johnson so firmly
when it cost him the friendship of large
part of his previous admirers, ard to insist on
saving the treaty. of Washington when he
could have for the moment better pleased the
noisier and more impetuous part OF the peo-
pie by cheap buster about the treachery OF
perfidious Albion and smashing the treaty."
leaving John Bull to reap the consequences
of his folly. Gen. Grant is not at all success
full as ''show man. but we submit that
there is much in his character calculated to
inspire hearty admiration He is preem-
nently a safe man. While he disdains to
bully weak powers, like the Indians, Mexico
and Spain, he is periodically prudent about
involving the country in unnecessary and
dangerous complications with stronger pow
ers. Yet it is doubtful if the dignity of the
United States was ever more successfully up
held or if its influence and power were ever
more generally respected abroad. Indeed the
conviction with which the present political
canvass began that Gen. Grant is at least
good deal better than Horace Greeley, has
long since given place to another that he is
better qualified for the Presidency than any
other man ia the country. y -.