Knoxville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1875, 1872-05-22
GREELEY ON GRANT.

From the beginning of President Grants
administration down to the day Horace
Greeley began to believe he had some
chance for Presidential nomination he
had been the earnest supporter of the sol
der President.
In March, 1869, of Grants Inaugural
Address, he wrote: "Those who doubt
this mans craftsmanship, should analyze
his brief speech and see whether he has
left anything unsaid. We
have had so many picayune Presidents
that it is refreshing to find n man entering
into the Chief Magistracy with something
more than q mere caucus and q political
convention record. y He takes
into his new place broader renown than
any President since Washington"
The above was Greeley's estimate of
Grant on the day following his Inaugural
ton. We pass now to the end of the same
month-after the cabinet and most of his
appointments to important offices had been
made and after the country had reflected
upon them. Here is what the great Horace
hen said General Grant is the Presid ent
of Reform. AS to the patronage
thus far we have q better proportion of
good men going into office than we have
seen for many gears. The ctdmor about
family and personal appointments is the
men who are in. We do not orpect from
General Grant an infallible admin
istration. We presume he will make
plumbers. The wisest of men have
tripped and fallen. The President has
done nothing to change the confidence of
the country-he has done everything to
s!refgthen it. Our credit is better be-
cause Gen. Grant is President. In the
South peace reigns-tredSon recognizing
the moral weight of his 2ooiOer and not
needing any physical manipulations
This is our Republican President, acorthy
of al that we have done for him, worthy
still more of the support of the whole
country"
Grants first message on Reconstruction,
Greeley pronounced 'eminently wise, jul
dicious and timely" About the same
time he declared Grant did not intend to
be "a dummy-P resident-a mere call boy
of Congress, or any other power"
Az the end of the first session of the 41st
Congress Greeley said: 1.-THE Act by which
the session will be longest remembered is
one for whose prompt passage we have to
thank the sdgdciOus craftsmanship of Gen.
Grant. We mean the law that closes the
series of reconstruction measures, and pro-
vides for the grooming of the edifce."
But we come to later dates. OF Grants
second annual message Greeley spoke in
the highest terms. He closed an enthusi-
astic editorial thus: HE is Abraham Lin
coins liueal successor and the popular
heart beats in unison with his aspirations
Last summer, reviewing the work of the
forty-second Congress and endorsing what
he calls Grants "bull-dog tenacityn Gree
ey raped his Southern friends thus:
If there is one solitary truth, which before all
Others ought by this time to be beaten into
Southern heads it is that the requirements of
the constitution of the United States are good
things to obey. Yet, emboldened by the signs
of trouble at the North, they suddenly broke
out into moro violent and general outrages
against Southern Republicans black and white,
than have been possible, even there, for years;
and this compelled an instant closing of Repub-
lican ranks in Congress on measure to repress
kuklux outrages.
Even down to last December Mr.. Gree
ley praised Grant and his last annual mes
sage and closed by saying $50 many Mil
Mons paid offevery month are to General
Grants administration what Union victo-
ries on hard fought fields were to Mr.. Lin
-coln.n
Thus we have Gen. Grants opponent
endorsing him, step by step, through three
years of his administration, and only fall
tering when his inordinate ambition led
him to suppose he might reach the White
House through boilers and Democrats.
But he will fare as did Seward and Chase
Greeley is not the first man ruined by
white House on the BRAIN" 1t is not
often that candidates for President can
quote their warmest eulogiuns from the
mouths of their opponents, as can Gen.
Grant.