Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1873-12-03
THE PRESIDENTS MESSAGE.

III MS HrbJ paragraph Oen. OranJ
throws out bait for the Liberals, -
stating that political partisanship has
almost ceased to exist, especially in the
agricultural regions" which is neat
way of CLOSING over the recent rebuffs
of Radicalism. The offset of two mil
lions of British claims against the if
teen millions we received, with the pros
pect of more such offsets not only from
Great Britain but from other nations.
will be sad news for the tax payer who
learns it first from this message. The
condition of the Texan border is slur-
red over with characteristic disregard
OF all Southern interests. San Domin-
60 comes again to the surface in a
short but suggestive paragraph, while
the right of expatriation is pretty well
established.
The reference to urSpanish troubles
is rather brief and unsatisfactory,
though its assertions of Spanish con-
cessions are positive-far more SO than
the protocol accompanying. Half the
space occupied is devoted to a doubt
full diagnosis of the Cuban situation
per Sc, entirely out of place in domes-
tic State paper. Through the officious
Sickles we have been giving the Span
iards too much of this advice unasked,
and hence the reaction of their self
conceit which has melted them to pre-
cipitate present complications.
The President devotes large space to
fnancesand thepanic. The real causes
of our commercial constipation are in
geniously hidden in a cloud of CON-
monplace truths, which Grant or his
party have never attempted to reduce
to practice. Some of the suggestions,
which he fails to endorse, will
arrest attention, while others
will excite ridicule--for instance,
his fear that convertible bonds would
make the government pay out more in
terest in summer than in winter. jay
Cooke called the national debt nation
al blessing, and the President speaks
of the panic as "a blessing in disguise"
But it is SO thoroughly disguised that
he does well to contradict this view by
urging Congress to prevent if possible
the recurrence of such blessings.
There is brave talk of economy and
an important but impossible step sug-
gested in civil service reform. With
this we have a wholesale whitewashing
of the corrupt rings which haveswamp-
ed the fortunes of the District Of Co.
lumbia, rs well as the suggestion of
residences for Cabinet officers at gov
eminent expense, palaces for the Sena-
tors, etc. Brave talk of economy. 1t
will not reach further than the Nash
vile Customhouse.
The suggestion of a riparian canal,
running along the whole Atlantic and
Gulf Coast, to protect our timid ship
ping, fails to appear in this message.
In its place looms up big ditch from
the Rocky Mountains to the Missouri
river, designed to encourage migration
to barren desert, while millions on
millions of arabic land remain unoccu-
pied in the older States, and Iowa far
mers complain of being too far from
market. Surely the Northern Pacific
has given our people a dose
of this forcing business in the
matter of premature settlements.
The President urges the scheme of
postal savings repositories, but con-
tents himself with bare reference to
the telegraph project.
The amendment to the constitution
which he suggests, in reference to leg
islation during the last twenty-four
hours of Congress, will meet with gen.
eral endorsement, and is the best point
In this very verbose message.