The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1872-06-14
SUMNER ON GRANT.
Terrible ARA nment OF the Grant Ad-
administration Gov.
ernmeet...- Nepotism..-
ETC., Etc.

htCss ItCs
We subjoin the following extracts fror
Summers great speech in tine United State
Senate, May 3lst
PRESIDENTIAL pREfENsIoNs.
On what meat doth this our Caesa
feed that he should assume so much? N
honor for victory in war can justify disc
bedience to the Constitution and to tn
law; nor can it afford the least apology fo
any personal immunity, privilege or licens
IN the Presidential office A Presiden
must turn into king before it can be SAT-
OF him that he can do no wrong. He is re
sponsible always. As President he is fore
most servant of the law, bound to obey it
slightest mandate. As the elect of tn
people he owes not only the example 0
willing obedience, but also of fidelity ant
industry in the discharge of his conspic
uous office with an absolute abhegation O
all selfseeking. Nothing Tor self, but al
for country And now, as we regard tn,
career of this candidate, we find to ou
amazement how little it accords with thi
requirement. Bring it te the touchstont
and it fails.
Not only are the Constitution and Law
disregarded, but the Presidential Office i.
treated as little more than plaything ant
a perquisite-when not the former, then the
latter Here the details are ample show
ing how from the beginning this exalted
trust has dropped to be perfect indul
gence, where palace cars, fast horses, sea
side loiterings, figure more tLan duties;
how personal aims and objects have been
! Yho, {bo int cf,.
how the Presidential Office has been used
to advance his own family on scale Of
nepotism dwarfng everything of the kind
in our history, and hardly equalled in the
corrupt Government. in which this abuse
has prevailed; how in the same spirit Of
flee has been conferred upon those from
whom he has received gifts or benefits, thus
making the country repay his personal OBJ
legations how personal devotion to himself
rather than public or party service has been
the standard of favor; how the vast ap-
pointing power conferred by the Constitu-
lion for the general welfare has been en-
ployed at his will to promote his schemes,
to reward his friends, to punish his oppo-
nents, and to advance his election to Sc
cond term; how all these assumptions have
matured in personal government, semi
military in character and breathing the
military spirit, being a species of Caesar
ism or personallsm, abhorrent to republi
can institutions, where subservience to the
President is the supreme law; how IN MAIN
tanning this subservience he has operated
by system Of combinations, military, po-
litical, and even Senatorial, having their
orbits about. him, so that, like the planet
Saturn, he is surrounded by rings; nor does
the similitude end here, for his rings, like
those of the planets are held in position
by satellites; how this utterly unrepublican-
ism Caesarism has mastered the Republi-
can party and dictated the Presidential
will, stalking into the Senate Chamber it.
self, while a vindictive spirit visits good
Republicans who cannot submit how the
President himself, unconscio as that Pres
ident has no right to quarrel with anybody,
insists upon quarreling until he has become
the great Presidential quarreler, with more
quarrels than all other Presidents together,
and all begun and continued by himself;
how his personal followers back him up in
quarrels; insults those he insults, and then,
not departing from his spirit, cry out with
Shakespeare "We will have rings, and
things and fine array" and finally, how the
chosen head of the Republic is known
chiefly for his Presidential pretensions, ut
terly indefensible in character. derogatory
to the country, and of evil influence, ma
king personal objects primary pursuit, so
that instead of a benifcent influence he is
bad example through whom. republican
institutions suffer and the people learn to
do wrong
Would that these things could be forgot
ten, but since the officious friends of the
President insists upon a second term, they
must be considered and publicly discussed.
When understood no one will vindicate
them. 1t is easy to see that Caesarism
even in Europe is at a discount that per
sonal government has been beaten on the
ancient field, and that Caesar with Sem
ator at his heels" is not the fit model for
our Republic King George III, of Eng
land, so peculiar for narrowness and obsti-
macy, had retainers in Parliament who
went under the name of "the King S
Friends. NothiT can be allowed here
to justify the inquiry: Have we King
George among usY' or that other question,
"Have we party in the Senate of the
King friendsr
PERSONAL GOVERNMENT UNREPUBLICAN.
Personal government is autOcratic. 1t
is the one-man power elevated above all
else, and is, therefore, in direct conflict
with the republican government, whose
consumate form is ipartite-executive,
legislative, and judicial-each independ-
ent and coequal. From Mr. Madison, in
the Federalist, we learn that the accumu-
ton of these powers in the same hands"
may Justly be pronounced the very defni-
ton of tyranny" And SO any attempt by
either to exercise powers of another is a
tyranical invasion always reprehensible in
proportion to its extent. John Adams tells
us most instructive words that lit is by bal
ancing each of these powers against the
other that the two effects in human nature
toward tyranny can alone be checked and
restrained, and any degree of freedom pre-
served in the Constitution" John Adams
Works, vol. iv.. p lS6.
Then again the same authority says the
perfection of this great idea is "by giving
each division power to defend itself by a
negative. Qbed., p. 1861 In other words,
each is armed against the invasion of the
Others Accordingly, the Constitution of
Virginia, in l776, conspicuous as histor-
ical precedent, declared expressly:
'Tne legislative. executive. anu JuulCldfy ue-
paitments shall be separate and distinct, so that
neither exercise the powers properly belonging to
the other nor shall any person execute the pewers
Of more than one OF them at the same time
The Constitution of Massachusetts, da-
ting from 17S0, embodied the same princi-
pie in memorial words:
1.-THE Legislative department shall never exer-
ercse the executive and judicial powers, or either
OF them; the executive shal never exercise the le
gislatiye and judicial powers or either OF them;
the judicial shall never exercise the Legislative or
executive powers either of them to the end that
it may be a government of laws and not OF men. p"
A government of laws and not of men is
the object of republican government; nay,
more, it is the distinctive essence without
which it becomes a tyranny. Therefore
personal government in all its for.ns, and
especially when it seeks to sway the action
of any branch to overturn its constitution
| al negative is hostile to the first principles
of republican institutions. and an unques-
tionable outrage. That our President has
has offended in this way is, unhappily, too
| apparent.
THE PRESIDENT AS A CIVILIAN.
To comprehend the personal govern.
ment that has been installed over us we
must know'its author His picture is the
necessary frontispiece; not as soldier, let
| it be borne in mind, but as a civilian The
President is titular head of the army and
navy of the United States; but his office is
not military or naval. As if to exclude all
question, he is classed by the Constitution
among civil officers" Therefore, as civ.
liam he is to be seen. Then, perhaps, may
we learn the secret of the policy so ad
yerse IN Repuhli canism in which he rarsa