Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1872-08-16
Senator ConkIIng,s Defense Of Grant.

II there has been high official ever ready
10 admit and correct an error, II there Is one
VINO did wisely, firmly, well, the things given
him In charge, that one Is the soldier in war
and quiet patriot in peace, who has been
named again by every township In forty six
states and Territories for the great trust he
now holds. Yet this man, honest, brave,
modest, and who, rs proved by his transcon-
dent deeds TO have been endowed with gen
ius, common sense and moral qualities equal
to our greatest affairs; this man, who saved
his country, who snatched our nationality
and our cause from despair, and bore them
on his shield through the flame of battle, in
which but for him they would have perished
this man, under whose administration our
country has nourished as no one dared pre-.
dlct; this man to whom the nations graft
tude and benedicton are due, is made the
mark for ribsid jbes and odious, groundless
SANDERS. Why is all this? Simply because
ne stancis In the way OF the greed and ambi-
ton of political schemers. A war of mud
and missiles has been wagcd for months
The President, his family and all nearly asso-
ciated with him have been despatched
Truth and decency have been driven far
away. Every thief and drone who has been
put out, every baflled searcher for place or
plunder, every man with grievance or
grudge, all who have something to make by
change, seem to wage an unbridled tongue
or drive foul PEN
The President cannot enter the lists in the
controversy, and defend himself. The pc
culiarities of his station forbid this. The
chief competitor, managing behind the cur
tain of q newspaper from which he pretends
to have retired, Is free TO defend and puff
himself up. He fills his paper with scurril-
GUS falsehoods, in the hope of blackeung o
name which Is one of the treasures of the
nation, and which will be the pride of nos
teriJy. All this pollution will, In the end,
only disgrace its authors. 1t will not dis
grace General Grant or the nation, because
the nation will spurn and resent IL. The dis.
gusting personalities employed upon General
jackson secured his reelection. An offend.
cd people struck back, and they will strike
back again.
Had the cool veterans of the Democracy
formed or selected issues to be presented,
they would have been wise enough to so
frame them that the people could decide in
their favor without fixing a stigma upon
General Grant, without attempting to blast
his name, or without attempting to do him
wrong. But the Democratic statesmen, the
leaders OF the hundreds of fights, have been
mere lockers on. The leadership has been
assumed by Republican renegades and outs.
Men, SO eaten up with envy, or so maddened
with loss or refusal of place and patronage,
that nothing would satisfy them short of a
rancorous, revengeful personal raid. When
man turns Turk he spits on the cross and
when wde-throated ultra Republicans clan
destinely trade with an enemy, they turn
the meanest, iercest of opponents, just as
the Yankee slave overseer from New England
was always more brutal than those born in
South. Waen the men whose vanity was
hurt and the others who were gnawed by
ambition and cupidty, went out to ruin the
party which they could not rule, it was mad
ness that drove them on. They had no polar
star except hatred for Grant and his sup
porters. These lusty 'patriots," who mod
estly assumed the name of 'reformers" would
not have an ordinary Presidential canvass for
fair discussion, and political inquisition
Such proceeding wouid have been too tame
and insipid foI them. Their stOmachs craved
for stronger, more game-navored meat
Hard names must be called; vengeance must
be satisfied; the President must be political
ly courtmartialed, or dragged befre the ma
tlonal assizes to be tried as a malefactOr.
Inside Democrats kept silent or talked court
business. l give them credit for wasting
but little time. But the half of last session,
eight months in length, was worn out and
wasted by slanderous electioneering ha-
rangues aimed at the Administration and its
friends by men sadly in need of being re-
formed themselves. These self-righteous,
noisy Ordcles pitched the key in which the
anti Grant chorus was to be sung, hence
comes the absence of political questions,
and the present personal and scandalous is
sues. Public journals controlled by these
Liberals" Qiberal in nothing so much as in
praising and helping themselves) took their
hue from the heart-burnings and distempers
of ambition which set them on. Anything
to beat Grant" was their motto. 1t gratifed
their spite to assail the President personally
to heap malignant charges upon him.
Thus his character, his integrity. his stand
ing as a man have been put in issue. The
people are competent to pass upon his guilt
or innocence. The case has been so put that
the question is not merely whether Grant
shall be President, but whether Grant shall
be pronounced by the nation fool, knave,
imposter and enemy to his country. Had
issue been taken on the public measures, had
public questions been raised whether new
questions or those which have divided the
parties heretofore, the popular verdict would
nave been verdict only between parties,
policies and principles. Such verdict would
have rested on public grounds not personal
or disparaging TO any one. In that case
General Grant could not complain.
The Senator then referred to the Cincin-
natl platform, characteriZing it as libelous
upon the President, and of the men who
figured at Cincinnati as a group of disreput-
ables from the political cutters.
Their tariff resolution is mere jingle a
shallow evasion. The amnesty resolution is
spent because a general amnesty bill has al
ready passed, while that about centraliza
ton, if it meant anything, referred to the
measures of Congress which Greeley had
himself approved.
Where, then, is the political issues the peo-
pie are to pass upon? 1t cannot be civil
service reform unless dishonesty is imputed
to the President. He is for civil service re-
form. He recommended, inaugurated it.
The Philadelphia Convention specially de
clared for it, There can be no issue
of that kind except by pretending
that Grants hypocrite and that
Greeley is not Neither of these things
would be easy to prove. The coalition
presents only an assault upon the President.
and is nothing more nor less than a chal
lenge of comparison between the candidates
The issue is which is the fttest man for the
Presidency. The Democracy had surrender
ed its creed, and, now to wipe out the very
memory of Democracy, these vaulting man
ayers have selected as their figurehead a pro
fessed ultra Republican, and ask honest
Democrats to vote for him against man
born and bred Democrat, who never acted
with the Republican party till after the wal
mad raised new issues, which divided the
Democrats. The anti Grant managers arC
daring if they are not silly. Upon what
grounds were Democrats expected to vote fol
Greeley. There can be no reason, unless
Grant is unworthy of confidence or respect
and deserves to be found guilty of crime,
and vices alleged against him.
The Speaker referred to the early education
and life of Grant, reading from letters writ
ten to his parents over thirty years ago
Sumner, he said, withers him by reminding
us that he tanned hides at Galena for a few
hundred dollars year
He did not masq as a woodchopper
lie did not figure in pictorials as a farmer
He did not go round telling what he knew
about anything that he didn't understand
himself His career in the rebellion is know
to the whole world. Subsequently the Dem
oerats sought to nominate him for the Pres
idency, but he declined. His integrit!
taught him that when a party chooses a can
didate from the other side somebody is to bt
cheated. By Grants consent no one eve
was or ever will be cheated
The speaker then cited from the New Yorl
World and Horace Greeley articles cOmpli
mentary to General Grant made in 1868
Coming to the question of gifttaking b,
General Grant, he adyerted to English eX
amples to show how that country had en-
rched its distinguished men by acts of Par
lament and voluntary subscriptions.
America. too, had been lavish in this re
gard, To Sherman, Sheridan, Faragut anC
Grant large sums were given. To stanton
family and to Rawlins' were given more thar
100000 each Were these things dlshonor
able? Was IL wrong for General Grant {,