American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1872-09-07
Whittier are we Drifting?

Whittier are we Drifting!
ConcedinS that Grants Administration
has not been so bad after all: that the
number of his relatives whom the Presi.
dent has appointed to Office is not as many
by some half a dOZen-as it is generally
supposed to be; that i'm the San Domingo
affair he did not intend to brOw-beat our
sister republic of Hayti, or to deposit a
nest-egg for the laying on of gifts that
IN the ku-klux: General Order, and other
business of which the people have been
complaining, he has carried himself cor
rectly; and that, having served the coun-
try faithfully in war. he has served it like
wise in peace; if it thence follows that we
cannot get along without him for the next
four years, it follows, a fortiori that we
| cannot get along without him at all. The
argument that would re-elect him upon
the ground of his mediocrity would ex-
Guide from the candidacy our wisest and
best citizens, and, by lowering the STAN
dard of craftsmanship and the tone of pub
lie morality, would debase the American
people into an acceptance of him as Con-
sui or Dictator for life. The conclusion is
inevitable from the premises of his parti-
sans. who utterly ignore the pretensiOns
of anybody else to the Presidency, and
who accord to him the exclusive right to
| it. This is their dilemma and they do
not get out Oft by the bare-faced assump-
| and a ruler. That is only shifting the ar
gument from mediocrity to the argument
from fitness, so that. the longer he is in,
the more fit he will be for it, and, conse-
quently, the longer he ought to be kept
m,-i. e., for life.
That there is grave cause of danger
ahead from Grantism may be shown from
% the kind of government which it has
already set up; (2) the sort of men who
compose and control that government;
and (3) the character of Grant himself.
The government which Grantism has
set up is so unlike any which has preceded
it in the United States, or elsewhere, that
it is difficult to class it but it may be de-
fined as an inchOate despotism of the see
saw kind. Of the men who compose that
government. it is sufficient to say that they
are the tools of Morton, Cameron, MUIR
ply, ct id genus onaae. To avoid re-
turning to obscurity, they would stop at
nothing short of actual suicide. For
then, to give up place and power, if by
any means they could retain them, is not
within the probabilities and to be gotten
out they must be driven out by a vote so
preponderating that they cannot tamper
with it or dispute it. A political death
pective-thcy would not die if they could
help it. For monarchy, therefore, they
are ripe, and are ready to fall into it at
any time.
The character of man being what he
is, not what he is supposed to be, it can
only be known by his acts. These are its
manifestations. and by them it is to be as
certained. Now, what has Grant done
whereby we may nfer what he really is?
He has accepted gifts, and rewarded the
givers with office. -s5.. ,5
He has tempered with the independence
and integrity of Congress, by personally
soliciting members to favor his San Do
mingo scheme.
He has employed the army to do the
work of the Constable, and has suspended
the writ of habeas corpus in time of pro-
found peace.
He has upheld the infamous carpet-bag
rule in the Southern States, and thereby
impoverished the white people of that
section. ....
He has menaced the independence of
Hayti, while protesting to be the especial
friend of the colOred race.
He has shamefully abused the appoint
ing power, by selecting for his Cabinet
spelt by the unlettered muse-had else re-
manned unknown. ..-.-
He has set himself up for second term
in an Office which he must know, and
which he half confesses, that he is UNI
suited for.
He has ostracised every public man who
has had the independence and the manli-
ness to differ from him.
He has-but we forbear to continue the
enumeration of his notorious doings fur
Their. The instances given show that his
conception of Government consists solely
in having his own way. ...-...-5 E
Ittherefore behooves patriotic people of
all shades of opinion to consider whittier
we are drifting, and to ask one another if
it would not be more prudent to leave
Grant out of office than to continue him
in. As we have shown, the arguments
that would re-elect him could be urged
with even greater force to elect him for
the third time. and to make him Consul or
Dictator for life=CHicndD Tribune.