The Portland daily press., 1874-04-28

merits in either house and the current report at
the Capital is that not less than six of the Sem
ators who voted for it, felt relieved when the
President assumed the responsibility of Veto
ing it.
Nothing is more certain, than that an ex-
tended and exhaustive debate not only in Con
gress, but throughout the country-in
newspapers, magazines, lyceums and 9TH
er public assemblies in social circles,
and at every freside-on the great
science of political economy is es-
ssntial to the propagation of sound views on
this supreme question of our time There
may be some angry feeling occasiened by the
act of the President. Very likely heated and |
acrimonious debate may occur. For strangely |
enough the West, the great producer of the |
Republic and therefore the section most vitality |
interested in protecting the currency from de-
probation furnishes the major part of the
brain power and voting power by which in
fation is supported. We already hear NUT
terings of jealousy and ill will towards New
York and New England. But such passions
are so utterly groundless that it will not take
long to allay them. 1t is so transparently
plain that the East and the West are indissolu-
bly, united by ties of self interest well as of
fraternity, that the idea of sectional hostility is
too delusive to last long. Every Western
railroad has large number of Eastern bond
and share holders anx Gus to witness and par
ticipate in her prosperity. All the great enter
prses of the West have been more or less pro-
noted By eastern capital. Could any thing be
more grotesquely absurd than the theory that
if the eastern people had any faith in paper
money as stimulant to business or an in
centive to prosperity, they would object to it's
diffusion among the agriculturists of the
land. Differences of opinion in such matters
must be submitted to tho arbitrament of en-
lightened public opinion, and in that broad
forum they can be harmonized to the mutual
| benefit of the parties concerned
Too much praise cannot be accorded to the
President for his courage and fearessness in ex-
ercising his prerogatve to preserve inviolate the
plighted faith of the nation No one can doubt
that his sympathies are heartily with the Sec
ton of country which feels most aggrieved by
his action. A Western man himself, his veto
| is also an emphatic expression of his dissent
| from the theory that any adveutitious help
| will conduce to the real welfare of the tillers
| of the SOIL That his course has been dictated
| by the highest sense of duty will hardly be
seriously disputed 1t is evident that he has
bestowed thoughtful and diligent attention on
the subject and that his opinions have been
formed after mature deliberation, and patient
research. The daring common sense" where
| with he is opulently endowed has led him to
conclusions, which must inevitably command
ere long the respect and concurrence of the
| whole people. ~
What complete, decisive and instant refu-
| tation, the Presidential veto furnishes of all
| the newspaper gable, with which the public
| has been nauseated for months, as to the in
| fuence of this or that man npon the occup ant
| of the Executive chair! How suddenly the
| inane notion has exploded that Butler, or Nor
| ton or Logan were ever privileged partlc-
| pants N the Presidents councils, or especial
| objects of his confidence! These ridiculous
| fables were set afoat by malicious penny-a-lin-
era, for partizan purposes but unfortunately,
they have obtained some credence among sim
pie minded though well meaning folks of
better sort. 1t must be patent now to every
body of ordinary intelligence that they never
had the smallest foundation in fact There
pr obably never was President less subject to
outside influences of any nature than Gen.
Grant-certainly no one since Jackson's time.
He is emphatically the head of the State, and
while he pays decorous and respectful atten-
ton to the views of all who are entitled to
communicate with him, he pursues his own
course, with the calmness and in1exibilty of a
man who is master of the situation, and fully
conscious of his ability to direct affairs
prudently and well. He never seems
| to feel any dispos ton to assert his power
but always perfect independence in ex-
| ercising it. He combines in rare equib-
| rum the dignity which commands Difference
| with the affability which subdues restraint If
| there is weakness in his character it arises
| from Lis great kindness of heart. A tale of
suffering will move him, when no other appeal
would prove of the slightest avail. am quite
sure that some of the few questionable APP
pointments for which he has been severely criti-
cised, have been prompted by pure generosity,
inspired by touching narratives of distress, 1
know of one instance in which he released
government defaulter from the penitentiary,
solely because he was unable to steel his heart
to the fearful entreaties of his pleading wife.
1t was not polite act. He knew it would
subject him to the censure of that numerous
class of journalists, who hold it to be the high
est proof of virtue to denounce everybody in
public life without troubling themselves to as
certain the facts. 1t formed one of the counts
in that long bill of Indictment which the Bo-
hemans framed at Cincinnati in 1872, at the
trial of which the accusers alone were found
guilty and suitably punished.
The political atmosphere will be clarified by
| the new element of debate which promises to
give elevation to the national councils There
was need enough of it, The absence of any
great issues had wrought terrible degeneracy in
the tone of popular discussion. Little scandals
magnifed and lifted into consequence bv the
ingenious drapery thrown around them by the
literary hacks who infest the capital, have
been rapidly making the newspapers of the day
an offense to decency. Even Congress has
caught the infection, and the debates in the
lower house nave repeatedly been disfgured
with petty gossip and disgraceful personalities.
A perfect simeon of defamation of public
men of every grade has been sweeping over
the country like pestilence. In so far as this
miserable chatter finds credulous dupes, it is
working uncomfortable mischief to the moral
sense of the country. The lesson it teaches is
that there is no longer any such thing as honor,
l
honesty or manliness among the servants of the
people, If there was an appreciable modicum
of truth in all this rubbish there might be
some palliation for the offense of serving it up
for the qualification of morbid appetite for
defamatory details, but being in ninety nine
cases out of hundred false in inception, and
always false in coloring, it is as disgusting and
demoralzing as reprints of the grossest French
novels ever written to cater, to the depraved
taste of a past generation, would be.
If the introduction of new topic of alb
sorbing importance shall have the effect to pro-
duce in the popular mind, distaste for indie
cent and defamatory matter double purpose
will be served. The press will perchance re-
gain its former influence upon public opinion,
and so much light will be shed upon the SUBJ
ject of national finance, that we shall see the
business and industry of the country re-
established on stable foundations. The end is
not yet. The vagares of those who cherish
deusive hope that an increase of the national