The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1872-07-11
SUMNER on GRANT.



The Hon. Elimr Wright, the well-known
auti-slavcry writer and journalist, has
written the following letter to the Bostoa
Commonreolth: .-e.
To The Editor, o ftle Commonwealth:
SIR: You said in Your last issue
that so far as you adlsats'ercd the senti-
mcnts of Mr.. Summer friends since his
speech you had found Scarcely one that
approves it as wholly Just, or as likely to
add to his fame" Viii YOU allow me t.
count mySclf as one, and give reason or
two. Since pcrusing the answers that have
been made TO that speech am fully con
firmed in the opinion that it was not cnlv
wholly Just, as concerned President Grant,
but that the corruption of the party that
tent that Mr. Sumner had no right to
withhold it. Whatever flaws may be
picked in his taste or his rhetoric, his T.
aelity to the glorious ideal of Republic
which every good citizen ought to cherish
At the risk of party ostracism, will insure
him fame enough in the long run. Time
will lake care of that. The tone in which
the admitted nepotism and office-selling of
she President is accepted and justified by
bis many servile and sliny tongued advo-
sates is even more frightfal than the facts
themselves. 1t makes man hang his
head for shame, and almost despair of the
Republic. The failure in Office of one for
whose military services the republic is SO
Justly grateful ought not to have been
visited with the terrible penalty of re-
nomination, still less should this penalty
be enhanced by reelection. The party
should have tenaefly laid him aside, So as,
if possible, to prevent the failure from
! eclipsins the success. Mr.. Sumner would
| undoubtedly have foregOne his speech, if
the mercenary politicians of the party had
not, by their too effective arts,
| made the denomination in
evitablc Now that he is renomi-
mated, if he has true friend in the United
States, that man will be sure. whatever else
he does, not to vote the ticket with his
name on it, if it be only TO prevent the
| blight which another four years of Office is
sure to bring upon his fame Mr. Sumner
performed an unwelcome and painful duty
! not moment too early, and while he is
howlcd at as sanderous," malignant"
bitter" AMI disappointed 10y unscrupu-
lous and ign rant partisans, theresre
many saddcncl friends of Grant who know
very well that a merciful retic,nce is the
most remarkable characteristic of Mr. Sum
| ncr's speech. am at loss to see why
\ friendship, not to speak Of patriotism,
| shoull not hold a President to the strictest
| ideal of the most austere period of the Re
public, or what good can come TO him by
! letting him down to the level of those later
! administrations which slavery inflicted
upon US. 1t seems to- me the ideal Of this
dccac should b.: higher than that Of any
winch has preceded it and by the sober
second thought If the people on Mr.. sum
ners speech. | am sure it Will be. Party
is not omnip"tent, no. i $ wire workers
dcmi gois. \ people who 81 well know
| that they were cmancipated from the great
curse more by the patriotism and self sacrl-
! ice of the multi;u,lcs of the dead than by
the hcro;>m of anv one living, are not going
! to let Presidents down to the ideal of Fisk
AMI Tweed, er the little Caesar who was
4 cxtingulshcl at Selan. They will at last
honor the orator who holds them to some
thin. u little better than the world has seen
before. ! am aware that in the present
contest there is nothing left them better
riIan ncgation. But there has come an oc-
cas.on when no is more affirmative than
yes, So far as concerns the high purpose OF
the Republican party.