The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1872-06-07
0ur Candidate.

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mitted the savior of the Republic to pass into
the obscurity of private life after so deliberate
and so malignant an attempt on the part of
his enemies to blacken his fair fame and to
hide the shining laurels he has won in both
peace and war under mountain of calumny.
The debt of the people to Gen. Grant is too
great to permit them to join with the Sena-
torial cabal in putting him in the pillory.
Sumner and Schurz have gone beyond the
bounds of prudence in the ferceness of their
assault, and they will not be gratified when
they hear the popular response, echoing that
SO worthily given in Philadelphia.
Though Mr.. Summers speech has been ex-
travagantly praised by the Senatorial Mutual
Admiration Society of which he is member,
and has been printed in full by almost every
newspaper in the country that commended
Brooks for beating him, yet, when one comes
toexamine it carefully, it will be found the
weakest ever produced by an orator of any
reputation who had seriously set himself
to the task of entertaining the world
with genuine philippe. The models
which the Senator evidently placed be-
before him are Demosthenes's orations against
the Macedonian monarch, Cicero's denuncia-
ton of Cataline and Burke's impeachment of
Warren Hastings. With these great MASTER
pieces Of eloquence he expected his arraign-
ment Of the President to 60 down to posterity.
That he failed is not due so much TO his lack
OF skill as rhetorician as to the poverty of
his material For after going over the Presi-
dents whole public life, magnifying-glass in
hand, what did he discover? Crimes that are
disgraceful to humanity? Monstrous trans
gressions Of all laws, human and divine, such
as characterized the greater number Of the
Roman Emperorse Such weaknesses and fol-
lies even as are attributed to the greatest
number Of European princes now living? A
lack Of patriotism? Nothing of the kind
The gravest charges made by Mr.. Sumner re-
late TO certain alleged violations of law, OF
which, according TO much betters lawyers
than the Senator, the President has not been
guilty. Besides these baseless charges we
have only vague general denunciation, the
retailing of stale Washington gossip and the
exaggerations of a violent, bitter and remorse-
less personal enemy. Even Gen. Grants
disposition to confer offices upon his relatives
and friends-a fault which, we are sorry TO
say, appears to have a real existence,
and which ought, long since to have
been removed through the advice of
judicious friends instead of being left to COM
fort his enemies-seems almost a venial Of
Tense after the true extent of his offending
has been compared with the preposterous
representations of it by Mr. Sumner. So
eager was the Massachusetts orator to fasten
reproach on the Chief Magistrate of lis coun-
try, who has wounded his inordinate vanity
by emitting to show him that personal and
official consideration which he thinks his due,
that he even quoted casual remark of the
late Senator Fessenden betokening no con-
siderable degree of dissatisfaction at what
was certainly very far from criminal, un-
lawful or even discreditable act of the Execu-
tive. If the same great Senator's far more
deliberate utterances concerning Mr.. Sumner
were to be repeated-utterances which were
habitual and which embraced comprehensive
estimates of his character and ability,-Gen.
Grant would appear to have been relatively
the object of his warmest personal friendship
and most sincere admiration. Desperate in
deed must have been Mr.. Summers straits in
arranging his attomey-like harangue, when
he turned for aid TO his old antagonist, who,
while he lived, kept within some bounds the
luxuriance of the formers oratory by pune
turing his loose, illogical arguments and in
hated rhetoric whenever an opportunity oc-
CURED. If Mr.. Fessenden were now alive.
we should hear much less from the man
whose character he ridiculed and whose abili-
ty he despised.
Mr.. Summers attempt to make it appear
that the President is a man of low and con-
temptible personal traits, ignorant, quarrel
some and vindictive, is simply pitiful Hap
PLY Gen. Grants personal history is too well
known to permit such wrong estimate to
obtain moments Judgement in the public
mind. Quarrelsome, indeedl A more mag
unanimous man than the President never liv-
ed. All of us remember how hundred
times during the war, when he was greatly
praised for some fine piece of work, he said
lit was Sherman" or ''it was Sheridan -
now, when extravagant expectations were
formed as to what he was about to do, he
would declare that the safety of the country
depended on some other arm than his. With
which of his subordinates did he quarrel |?
With which of his superiors did he contend I?
About the time that Horace Greeley began
topester Mr.. Lincoln with his gloomy fore
bodings and his cowardly counsel, Gen.
Grant, who had just been placed in command
of all our armies, wrote to the oyerburdened
President most characteristic note in which
he made use of the following language:
From my entrance into the volunteer ser
vice OF my country to the present day, have
never had cause of complaint" He then ex-
pressed his astonishment' at the readiness
and cheerfulness with which all his reasona-
BILE demands had been met. This was at a
time when the military service was literally
eaten up with jealousies, rivalries and heart
burnlngs Nearly all the leading general Of
Ulcers at some time fancied that he had been
sighted, overlooked or actually wronged.
OF the opposite disposition, that which en-
dures all and dares all for the sake of country
and which completely subordinates self to the
demands of the public service, Gen. Grant is
one of the most conspicuous examples in
American history.
DIR. SUMNER, in reporting the testimony of
dead statesmen against Gen. Grant, was I'M
fortunate in the fact that their demise was
so recent that there are living witnesses who
can protect the memory of the dead from his
misrepresentation.
MI. Stanton has received ample vindication
from the testimony of friends and from re-
production of his published speeches. Mr..
Fessenden, who was never an admirer of Mr..