New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1872-07-12
FIGHTING OR FARMING.

Men sometimes speak carelesSly Ill the ex-
element of addressing political meetings; and
we cannot but think that the Rev. Henry
Highland Garrett said without sufficient con-
sideratiOn at a Grant gathering the other
night: "Ameria wants q President who can
tell the Rebels, not what l know about
90 farming but what know about fighting.'
Mr. Garnett is minister of the gospel of
peace. He has probably in the course of his
studies read something of the evils of war-Of
the burnings, the ravishngs, the plunderings,
the massacres and the waste We presume
that he has preached scores of times upon con-
citation as the better policy; upon the duty
when one cheek is smitten of offering the
other also; and upon Christian love and for
giveness of our enemies. And yet Mr.. Gar
nett, undoubtedly for want of a sufficient con-
sderation of the subject, says that 1t is best to
mediate musket in hand, to persuade with the
pistol, TO pacify with the bayOnet, and sword In
hand to sOOthe the angry passions OF men. He
is for the reelection of Gen. Grant not because
he ia a statesman with sagaciOus and far
reaching views of public policy, but because
he is a soldier who knows how to lead armies,
beleaguer cities, and conduct sanguinary cam
paigns. This is the kind of pacificatiOn to
which nation still gasping in the exhaustion
of civil war is invited. And Mr.. Garnett is
not alone in his idea of the soothing influence
of gunpowder. Many if not most of those
who support Gen. Grant, if they would but
confess their honest opinions, believe in the
continued military occupation of the South
in maintaining there the Federal power by
! the grace of garrsons; in troops at the polls,
and at political meetings-in troops in States,
in counties. in towns, in cities-in troops
wherever Southern men are corrugated for
any person. Gen. Grant is just the man for
President because he can tell the Rebels
what he knows about fighting"
Substantially this theory of Cancellation by
force means nothing better than the complete
determination OF the minds if not the bodies
of all citizens of the South who remain in
any degree dissatisfied with the present
position of affairs. They are not so much to
be persuaded as frightened into loyalty. Is
| there need of pointing out to any Intelligent
reader that though disatfected man may be
bullied into silence for time, yet he Is only
| to be trusted while the pressure is upon him.
and will always be ready to return to his old ways
whenever it is possiblef Military Cancellation
| is nothing but contradiction in terms. When
rebels are actually in arms against govern
ment, their banners Haunting, their drums
sounding, their loud defancies filling the air
there is nothing to do but to fight them and tc
fog them into quietness, if haply they do moi
happen to fog us. That is war, inevitable
sometimes, but always to be regretted. Bu
what are victories good for If they bring NJ
peacei An endless succession of victories
would be as bad as an endless succession o.
defeats.
We presume that it would be possible to bea
the remaining manhood Of the South out o.
all semblance of humanity-possible, that is
unless the indignant hand of Providence
should interpose to rescue the wretched from
such gratuitous cruelty. Is that what thu
clergyman above mentioned wants. Does h'
pine for a forty-years war; Is he in love with
| tho death and das2AhQp Of tho battlefield