New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1872-08-07
OUR NEW YORK LETTER.

Grant son n Lone Barren Isle 1.-The
SchurZ-PlensOntOn Correspondence
Washington IniTigues-SumneT's Let
ter-Its Effect, Etc.
New YORK, July 30, 1872.
President Grant has fed Long Branch
and taken refuge upon an almost desolato
island-one of the Thousand Islands"-in
the st. Lawrence river, on the border Of
Canada. The only inhabitant of the place,
now the isolated abode of our detected
President, is said to be an old man and for
mer friend of Grant. The old fellow lives
there alone. A mystery surrounds his her
mitage. Grant, disguised with the Long
Branch surroundings and the gloomy politi
cal prospect before him, seeks this retire
ment for rumination. 1t is a good way to
escape the smoke and clangor of political
strife, q conflict not as pleasant to an mex
pericnced man like Grant as an open field
fight between two physical forces, especially
if the general-in-chicf is favored with over
towering numbers of experienced and well.
drilled men, who are Differed by brave and
skilled generals, like Meade and Hancock
and Warren and Sheridan, to lead them to
battle and victory. The commanding gen
eral sits by his camp fire and issues his order
of battle, regardless of the sacrifice of
human life The subordinate generals
have no alternative but to obey The chief
tain in his tent thinks only Of his own per
sonal glory, and the disciplined and Off
Cered army is the instrument which moves
at his will. Such is our military system.
Our political system is different. We fight
political battles not according to Grants
military tactics The subordinate generals
can not be moved at the will Of their chief.
There is apt to be cheating and treason in
camp. Such political generals as Conkling
and Murphy and Casey and Morton refuse
to obey orders, unless they first know the
terms upon which they are to fight, and
how much it will profit them. In that way
they are constantly upon Grants flank.
They are dimming the military glory which
the galaxy of brave Union generals and
the genius of Rawlings shed upon Grant in
the Wilderness and elsewhere, and which
Bhone with such lustre at AppOmatoX. 1t
comes to pass that that brightness was not
real 1t was only reflective, like the light
Of the. moon, which is borrowed from the
sun. Rawlings is dead and Grants disk
has darkened. Fortunately there will be
total eclipse in the political heavens on the
fifth Of November next. But the light of
Liberal Republican Democracy will dis
perse the darkness in the coming March,
and the nation will be rchabilitated in puri
fed robes.
Senator Carl Schurz' speech in St. Louis
let so much daylight into Grants corrupt
mode of administering the government that
the people are getting to understand him
better. Grant authorized Morton in the
West, and Conkling in New York, to deny
that he ever offered to buy Schurz' inhu-
ence in the Senate on the San Domingo
swindle. The Senator's presentation of
General PleasOnton's letter. in proof Of his
assertion, has fallen upon the presidential
house like a thunderbOlt. 1t becomes a
question of veracity between Grant and
Pleasonton. Grant occupies very delicate
position in the matter. When he was dis
dismissed from the army, in California, for
drunkenness, he was penniless and did not
know how he would be able to get home to
St Louis Rleasonton and one other military
gentleman gave him money enough to pay
his passage home via the isthmus. This fact
had something to do in influencing Grant
subsequently to appoint Pleasonton to be
Commissioner of Internal Revenue There
is no doubt that Grant relied upon Pleasan-
ton to fight his political battles and
to engineer his jobs. At one time
Grant would have turned Boutwell, out Of
the Treasury to crafty Pieasontou,
If he had not feared that Morton of Indi-
ana, would insist upon having the place.
Grant said ne was afraid Of Morton; that
he knew he was not honest, and was job
bing all the time in the departments and
was anxious to be appointed Secretary of
the Treasury. Grant went so far as to give
PleasOnton and his friends to understand
that if Dawes, Of Massachusetts, would
take the treasuryship that he would make
such a change because he Grant could
make Morton understand that Massachu-
sets must have the place, and that upon
no other conditions could he remove Bout
well without offending his tGrant'sD polit-
ical friends in that State. The project was
unveiled by several newspaper writer's, and
when Boutwell, heard of it he demanded
the removal of PleasOntOn. Grant had his
choice either to comply with Mr.. Boutwen's
request or accept his resignation Pleas
anton was accordingly forced out OF his
position in a manner considered humiliat-
ing by all who were familiar with the facts
at tie time. He claimed that Grant should
have protected him. He denounced Bout