New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1872-10-31
rHE pERSONAL DIGESTION.

On Tuesday next the people OF tnc UnlJcu
States will decide whether Horace Greeley or
Ulysses s. Grant is to be President for the
next four years. The merits of their respect
i've policies, as represented in the platforms of
principles which they have accepted and APP
proved, have been discussed in these columns
fairly and without reserve. But on
account of the peculiarly intimate rela-
tons, existing between Mr.. Greeley and
The TRIBUNE, we have dwelt less than would
otherwise have been natural upon the adj
vantages which the Liberal candidate possesses
over Gen. Grant in respect of personal fitness
for the Presidency. We do not consider it
fitting, however, that the campaign should
close before we have once borne our testimony
to the transcendent superiority of the man
under whose leadership we have been priv
ileged to make this fight.
In doing this we need have nothing to say
of President Grant. We have never chosen
to attack him personally. His entire unfitness
for high civil Office is universally recognized
alike by his friends and his opponents. We
have perhaps laid less stress upon this fact
than it deserves, but our motive can be readily
appreciated. Respect for the Executive office
and for the honorable record of Gen. Grant as
soldier have caused us to speak with the
greatest reserve of the glazing de-
fects of his personal character and
civil administration. All candid men
will admit that on the other side this reserve
has found no imitators. The storm OF calumny
and abuse directed against Mr.. Greeley 'has
never been equaled in our history, and at the
end of the contest what remains of It'll Less
than remains of q snowfall after a day of
sunshine. Nothing has been truthfully alleged
against him which weighs in the least against
his good fame. His character is impregnable
to any assault. For the last third of cen
fury he has been in the hottest of every
fight, never seeking and never avoiding
a personal controversy, and has come
out of every conflict unstaned. He has
demolished scores of false and dishonest
regulations. His own has needed no care and
NJ defense. The very men who are assailing
him to-day know in their hearts how false are
their ISLANDERS, and how useless they will be
against his permanent renown. lie is an alb
solutely honest man, as all men know. He
is Just and yet generous. For his justice
never closed his heart to the cry of distress,
and his generosity never rendered him inca
pable of meeting all his obligations.
AS to his capacity for affairs, that can best
be judged from two points of view. His ex-
ecutive ability is seen in the history of The
TRIBUNE, which is his own creation, and in
which he has always been absolute. 1t will
scarcely be denied that journalism is one of
the most important practical professions. and
that Mr.. Greeley stands cOnfessedly at the
head of the journalism of the age. This is no
accidental or temporary success. 1t has been
achieved by unit ing industry and unfailing
sagacity The man who has built up from
nothing the most widely read newspaper of
the Continent will not be likely to fail
in any place requiring the exercise of
ready and practical sense. There is
even less reason to doubt the breadth and
Of his views in public affairs.
He has passed his life contending for princi-
ples which sooner or later have become part
of our national system. His views of Slavery
he has seen incorporated into the COnstitu-
ton. His economic principles, after years OF
defeat, were at last successful in politics, and
have for many years prevailed in the legisla-
ton of the country. The abuses he has attacked
have generally fallen. The measures he has
supported have usually become laws. He has,
l. is true, often been in minority, but 1T
was always a growing minority, and the people
have always ended by coming up to him and
around the standard which he had
planted in advance. If sometimes he has
seemed alone, it was always the isolation OF
leader, and never of a straggler.
While he has the courage and the quick
sympathies of reformer he has also the
practical wisdom and judgment which every
statesman should have. While he was the
strongest pillar of the Anti-Slavery cause in
the North, he never shared in the fanatcism
of those who would destroy the Union to
abolish Slavery. He yields to no man in the
vigor and pOsitiveness of his opinions in
questions of political economy; but he
has never asked for reforms so sudden
and radical as to derange the business OF the
country. He has manfully contended for
opening to women the widest fields of effort
and employment, and has set his face like a
flint against those reckless schemes OF social
anarchy from which women would be the first
and heaviest sufferers. He has ardently
snpnorted the cause of freedom in every
land. but discouraged flibustering and
And while he has been among
the most earnest in insisting upon the enfran-
cbisement and proper protection of the freed
men of the South his voice was the earliest
and most illustrious of all which have been
raiaed in favor of Universal Amnesty and Ma
tional Reunion.
Thus every important qualification for the
place is his Among the minor morals OF tho
service, is it not desirable that the President
should be able to communicate with ease and
intelligence, either orally or by writing, his
thoughts and his counsels TO Congress