The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1872-04-05
FOrney's Grant,

Forney's Grant.
That intelligent and unbiased patriot,
John w. Forney, speaks thusly of Gen.
pral Grant.
" He has betrayed no one Republican
pledge or principle. He Is paying off
, the debt and reducing taxes. He has
given Us llrst.rate Indian policy has
put the civilservice bill in operation;
has put down the Kuklux of the South
and has been true to those who put
down the rebellion"
IL is capital record-on paper, but
will the facts bear il out? We cannot
dispute the assertion that he has "be.
trayed no Republican principle" The
party, Including the President, has
never had but one principle and that is,
to make all the money out of the coun.
Try which it was possible to make.
Grant has stood by this principle like a
man, and the worthless tanner of 1860
has blosscmed into millionaire in 1872.
He is paying off the debt" is he?
We think not. We have very vivid
impression that the people are doing
that iittte piece of business whilst the
bllliard-playing Secretary of the Treas
ury is keeping one hundred millions of
dollars lying idle in the Treasury, and
the people are paying interest on nine.
teen hundred millions, three fifths of
itat six per cent. We will engage to
pay the whole debt of the country if
we are furnished with the requisite au-
thority to grind it out OF the commu.
nifty. The payment of the national
debt is no longer a trump card in the
Republican pack. "He has given us a
first-rate Indian policy;" this may be,
but we should like to know what it is
at present, Quakers or gunpowder. The
policy of theadministration has slightly
varied its treatment of the Indians from
tune to time-prescribing alternately
Peace Commissioners and cavalry, NOR
al suosiOn and carbines. There may be
good Indian policy" just now, but
we should like to know what ii is. Mr..
FOrney informs US further that Grant
has "put the civil.service bill in opera
ton" Was it part of ciUH service to
the country to appoint a Governor who
had fled from the State which he had
disgraced, to avoid impeachment, Uni
ted States Minister to a foreign nation !;
was il service, civil or otherwise, except
to his own clique TO prosecute the swind.
led merchants Of New York instead of
the scoundrels in the Custom House
ring who swindled them?
He "has put down the Kuklux." AS
the lengthy investigations into the Ku
kluX outrages has failed to establish the
fact of their existence, the task was not
difficult one. The Kuklux business
has only been Of use to such political
tOadies as Forney, TO use as basis for
sensational editorials.
It's further stated that he "has been
true to those who put down, the rebel
lion" This assertion is simply and
purely a lie, and will not bear argument
Grant has been a Staunch friend to the
suffers, and bond sellers, the ornamental
brigadiers and the congressional blood
shriekers of the war, but he has not
been true to the men who put down the
rebellion, nor to the able men out of
military life who contributed largely to
the overthrow of the Confederacy.
Grant is only true to himself-that is to
say, to his pocket. Before the expira
tion of his term as President he has |
aienated most of the able men of the |
Republican party; he has lost the sup.
port and friendship of such men as
Sumner, Greeley, Schurz, Tilton, Trum-
bull and Brown, and filled their places
by such as Nye, Carpenter, Harlan and
the pictorial blackguard" of harper's
Weekly.
John w. Forney, as white-washer
and sycophant to power, has great abil-
tiles, but he has undertaken more than
he can do when he sets up Grant as an
immaculate politician even-much less
statesman. Facts are stubborn things,
and as most of the frauds discovered of |
late centre in the neighborhood of the |
White House, the people of Peensylva-
MIA are not inclined to accept as salts
factory of purity, the assertion of John
w. forney, man whose political repu-
tation Is more generally known than |
admired.