Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1872-06-01
An Overwhelming Assault upon
the PreSident---A Scathing
Rebuke Of His CaSarism.
Review Of Grants Career as Sol
dier, Statesman, NepOtist and
Gift-Taker--A Wind-Bag
Punctured.
Stanton on his ID, ath-bed Said
Grant Could Not Govern the
COuntry--Andy john
sons Opinion In
dOrsed,

WASHINGTON, May Sl.-Senato
Sumner opened his speech with the an
nouncement that he was member @
the Republican party, and one Of tn
strictest Of the sect. He had neve
failed to sustain its candidates and ad
vance its principle. Not without regre
could he see il suffer, nor without pans
could he see il changed from its origina
character, fer such a change is death
and therefore he asked, with no com,
mon feeling, that the peril which me.
naces II may pass away He stood by
its cradle, and was not willing to follow
its heaTse. Senator Sumner then pro.
ceeded to detail the rise and progress O
the party and his connection with it a.
party, necessary and permanent in al
us ways on an ascending plane; but
alas! how changed. Once principle was
inscribed on the
VICTORIOUS BANNER,
and not in a name only. 1t is not diff
cult to indicate when the disastrous
change, exalting the will of one man
above all else, became manifest. Already
it had begun TO show itself in personal
pretensiOns when the President, elected
by the Republican party, precipitated
upon the country an il-cOnsidered and
Il-OmOned scheme for the annexation OF
portion of San Domingo. In pursu-
ance Of the treaty, negotiated by one of
his own household, il was pressed for
months by every means and appliance
Of power. Reluctant Senators were sub
dued for support. While treading under
foot the Constitution, in one of its most
distinctive Republican principles, the
President seized the war powers Of the
nation, instituted foreign Intervention,
and capped the climax of usurpation by
menace Of violence to the
BLACK REPUBLIC OF HAYTI,
thus adding manifest outrage of inter
natiOual law to the manifest outrage of
the Constitution. Senator Sumner
would gladly leave this matter to the
judgment already recorded, were it not
put in issue again by the extraordinary
efforts radiating on every line of Of
flee to place its author for a second
term in the Presidency. Since
silence gives consent, all these ef-
forts are his efforts. They become
more noteworthy when it is considered
that the name of the candidate thus
pressed has become a sign of discord,
and not concord, dividing, instead of
uniting the Republican party; that these
extraordinary efforts tend directly to the
disruption Of the party, all which he
witnessed, and again by his silence rati-
fies.
LET THE PARTY SPLIT,
says the President: "I will not re-
nounce my chance for a second term"
The extent of this personal pressure and
of
an individual to compel US to consider
his pretensiOns-these too are in issue. /
On what meat doth this our Caesar feed /
that he should assume so much? There 4
Is no honor for victory in this world that /
can justify disObedience to the cOnstitu-
ton and to law; nor can il afford the
least apology for any personal immuni-
ty, privilege, or license in a presidential /
officer. A President must turn into a |
king before it can be said Of him that he /
can do no wrong. He is responsible al |
ways as President. The foremost ser |
want Of the law he is bound to obey its |
slightest mandate. As the
ELECT OF THE PEOPLE.
must be not only an example Of will /
ling obedience, but also of fidelity and /
industry in the discharge of his cOnspic- /
nous Office, with an aUnegation of all 4
self; seeking nothing for self, but all for |
country. And now, as we regard the ca
reer Of this candidate, We find to our |
amazement how little it accords with |
these simple requirements. Bring it TO /
the tOuchstOne-it falls. Not only is the |
constitution and law disregarded, but |
the presidential Office itself is treated .
as little more than a plaything and per-
quisite-when not the former, then the
latter. Here the details are ample,
showing how, from the beginning, this
exalted trust has dropped to be per-
sonal indulgence, where palace-cars,
fast horses and seaside loiterings figure
more than duties. How personal aims
and objects have been more prominent
than the public interests-hOw. the pres
idential Office has been used to advance
his own family on a scale of nepotism,
dwarfing everything of the kind in our
history, and hardly equalled in
CORRUPT GOVERNMENT
where this spirit has prevailed. How
in the same spirit Office has been con-
ferred on those from whom be had re-
ceived gifts or benefits, thus making the
country repay his personal obligations;
how personal devotion to himself, rather
than public or party service, has been
vast appointing power, conferred by con-
tinuation for the general welfare, has
been employed at bis viii to promote
his schemes, to reward his friends, to
punish his opponents, and to advance
his election 10 a second term; how all
these assumptions have matured in
PERSONAL GOVERNMENTS
military in character and breathing /
"a military spirit, being a species Of Ce- !
sarism or persOnalism abhOrrent TO re- ]
publican institutions. How, in main |
tanning subservient tools, he has ope-
rated by a system of combinations having /,
their orbits about him, so that, like the /,
planet Saturn, he is surrounded by rings.
Nor does the similitUde end here, for his {
ring-like chain Of planets are held in po- 7
sitiOn by satellites. This utterly unre- {
publican Cesarism has mastered the {
Republican party and dictated the presi- !
dental will standing in the Senate q
chamber itself, while a vindictive spirit c
visits the good Republicans who cannot ]
submit. The President himself, uncon- q
sciOus that lac has no right to quarrel, is ]
at discount. Personal government has L
been beaten I'm an ancient field. L
Caesar. with a Senate at his heel, is not a | b
fit model for our republic. King George )
III Of England, so peculiar for Obstinacy
and narrOwness, had retainers in Par 3,
lament who went under the name of :,
the kings friends. Nothing can be al y
lowed here to justify the inquiry, have .
we King George among US? Nor on a
that other question, have we party in :
the Senate for a kingly and personal :
government. It is autOcratic and in di- +
rect =
go,rET rfgr
with the system; Is destructive =
in its essence. Therefore personal z
government in all its forms, and i
when it seeks TO sway the .
action of any other branch or Overturn q
its constitutional negative, is hostile to 4
the first principle Of republican institu- 5
lions and an unquestionable outrage. 4
That our President has offended in this 4
way is unhappily too apparent. The n
President is a civilian. To comprehend Z
.he personal government that has been y
over US, We must know its 4
author; his picture is necessary, his "a
as a soldier. a
GRANT, O
Let il be borne in mind, that 4
% appreciate his peculiar character
is civilian, Il Is important 20 know Ii
lis triumphs as a soldier, for one is a 5,
natural compliment of the other. The Fl
lIccessful soldier is rarely changed TO a Il
uccessful civilian. There seems to be il
m incompatibility between the two, A
modified by the extent to which one has o.
,een allowed to exclude the other. One b
.lWavs a soldier cannot, late in life, be- n
Ome a statesman. One always civil e
an cannot, late in life, become soldier. N
n modern Europe, few soldiers have "