Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1873-10-17
The President and the Panic.

Among the excellent executive qualities
of the President there is one which has
always most pleasantly impressed those
who know him, and that is his tranquil
tirmness when his duty seems to him
clear. Those who served nearest him in
the field say, that in the widest whirl of
battle he was never known to lose his self
possession, nor to swear He has an adj
mirable temperament for a President, es-
pecially at time when every body in
distress turns to the Government for help.
This was strikingly illustrated during the
late panic, on the Sunday that he and the
Secretary of the Treasury came TO New
York to consult with the bankers upon
the situation. The excitement that morn
ing at the Fifth Avenue Hotel was unpre-
cedented. The corridors and parlors
swarmed with multitude of frenzied
people, who supposed that incalculable
disaster impended, and that the President
had the power of staying it by word,
and of saving the country from financial,
as he had already saved it from political,
ruin. Among the crowd were many of
the men who are famous as capitalists,
and who are supposed TO be masters of
finance-a supposition not based in every
instance upon the most accurate knowl-
edge. There was also in the throng dis
tinguished lawyer, of politics opposed to
those of the President, Mr.. Reverdy john
son, whose advice and opinion were ca
gerly sought. 1t was crowd of specula-
tors and gamblers in railroad slocks, with
some of those whom they had involved,
all passionately desiring that the Presi-
dent would use the public money for their
relief
The President asked for the law that
would authorize him to touch it for such
a purpose. The distinguished lawyer in
stantly conceded that there was no lawful
authority to do it, but that the situation
of the country was so threatening that
the President ought to assume the pow
er of dispensing with law, and trust
to Congress to approve his course.
Even the hd6eds corpus act, he said, is
suspended in moments of extreme ur-
gency, and is the Treasury reserve more
sacred than personal liberty? If the
distinguished lawyer said this to the
President, the President probably replied
that the hd5eas corpus is suspended under
the express authority of the Constitution,
and that while in the existing emergency
he was anxious to do all that he possibly
could under the law, he was unwilling at
such moment to put the law aside and
establish precedent of such mOmentous
consequences. But whatever he said, his
decision was fixed from the first He
went to the verge of his undoubted au-
thority, but he refused to dispense With
the law.
1t is another of the many proofs which
the President has constantly given of his
sincere patriotism. He came to the Pres
idency victorious soldier, peculiarly un-
familiar with civil administration, and
tainted with maintaining headquarters at
the White House. But among all Ameri-
can Presidents there has been none more
scrupulously loyal to law than General
Grant. And never was that fidelity more
desirable than during a Presidency i'm
mediately following a war, which always
diminishes the sanctity of civil authority
Usurpations and dispensations with the
law might have been expected from a
military President, and at n time when an
abnormal situation would have seemed to
justify them. But General Grant has
shown no such disposition. He has not
only not assumed extraordinary power,
but he has sought to avoid even the op.
portunity of exercising lawful authority
as in the case of emergencies in the
Southern States. If there has been fault,
II is not his, but the laws. Among the
great services which General Grant has
rendered to the country, not the least is
the tranquil and modest firmness with
which he has maintained the authority of
law.-HaTper's Weekly