American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1873-05-24


father was lost at sea, burst into tears, re-
making, "he had my best jack-knife with
him."
The Presidents Wanderings.
CONGRESS adjourned two months ago,
and the President has been absent from
the Capital more than half the time since
then, in search of personal pleasure and
qualification, without giving thought to
| the urgent demands of official business, or
manifesting the least concern for the high
trusts which are unfortunately committed
| to his keeping. Incompetent as he noto-
riously is to fill the great office which he
| merely occupies, his constant and culpa-
| Bile neglect of the most ordinary duties
renders the inefficiency not only glazing,
but seriously injurious to the public inter
| ests. And it is not redeemed by the slight
est effort to satisfy public opinion.
| Gen. Grant regards and treats the Presi-
dency as perquisite and pension for his
military services. He has never risen and
| never can rise to an appreciation of its
dignity and duty, from the want of educa-
ton, training, and taste. A stranger to
| the anxieties which the disturbed condi-
| ton of affairs naturally excites, without
elevation of thought or practical outlook,
| he seeks recreation among congenial
| minds, and finds fellowship with those
| who worship power and flatter the low in
! frmities of its possessor. He considers
his reelection as an approval by the peo-
| pie of all his acts and omissions, and the
doubling of his salary-which he indecent
| ly urged in personals recognition by
| Congress of unrewarded merit
Thus fortified in his own estimation, he
defies opinion, disregards criticism, and
| treats with scornful Indifference public
| questions upon the happy settlement of
which the peace and prosperity of the
country may be said to materially depend.
The President is directly responsible for
the anarchy which exists in Louisiana to-
day. Without his official aid, interven-
ton and authority there would be order
and harmony. After a fair popular vote
had rejected the corrupt faction, which
was only upheld by Federal patronage
dispensed through the hands of the motor
ious Casey, the President entered the State
with military force ,dispossessed the chosen
authorities, and installed the vile crew
upon whom the public had passed judg-
ment of the sternest reprobation. He did
all this willfully, and to sustain his own
brOther-in-law in usurpation and outrage.
And when this criminal interference
eliminated as it was easy to foresee it
would do, in new aggressions on the part
of protected plunderers and resistance on
the part of the oppressed people, the Pres
ident, instead of striving to correct his
former errors, and to do partial justice to
a community which he had revengefully
trampled under foot, leaves the response
bility with his subordinates, tells them to
send more bayonets, and starts out upon a
journey of amusement. He cares not fig
for the suffering people of Louisiana He
does not see how the destroyed commerce
of New Orleans reacts harmfully upon
New York and other great markets; nor
does he heed the mutteringS of the storm
Which threatens destruction, unless there
be more wisdom in the conduct of national
affairs.
While the President is indulging his
passion for diversion and enjoyment, and
violating all propriety by such unseemly
tritiing, the Geographic wires from the
Pacific coast are weighed down with the
cries of the wounded and dying, as well
rs with the grief of survivors, whose
kindred and friends have been made the
victims of Executive incapacity and negli-
gence. At such time as this, when every
thought and energy should be strained to
protect the exposed settlers in Oregon and
California, and every resource Ofexperience
employed to make this little contest-for
war it can hardly be yet called, though it
may soon become sO-shOrt, sharp and
decisive, the President is junketing round
the country, seeing sights, and snuffing
in the incense burnt by his official satel-
lites. That is his occupation as Com
mander-in- Chief of the army and navy,
while the lives of gallant soldiers are
daily sacrificed by scores to defend what
has been boastfully called the Presidents
policy.
If Gen. Grant has any usefulness at all
in the Presidential office, it ought to be in
the direction of military matters and in
the treatment of Indians Previous to his
involuntary retirement from the army as
Capt Grant he had been stationed in
Oregon, and had had experience and rela-
tons with the Indians which ought to be of
some value in this emergency. But
whether that past contact be useful or not,
the absence of the President from Wash
ington in the presence of existing facts is
a shame and a scandal which deserves
universal rebuke. 1t not only evinces his
stolid Indifference to duty, but heartless
absence of feeling which justly provokes
popular indignation. And as fitting
pendant upon the Presidents wandering,
the Secretary of War, who at least ought
to be at his post, has been amusing him
self for several weeks past upon an excur-
sion to Texas, while the Modocs have
murdered one of our foremost generals,
and in combat slaughtered more than
their whole number of our troops. These
are public functionaries who have had |
their pay enormously augmented, and this |
is their manner of requiting that mistaken |
generosity.-Ne,o York Sun.