The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1874-11-12
s. G..
Thurs lax Morning. Nov. IL, 1874.
The President and tho OWL Rights

4uuIS 18& morning. NOV. 10, xo(4.
The Presidont and tho OWL Rights
Bill.
President Grant comforts himself
with the reflection that not to him but
to Congress is due the grand defeat
and rout OF the Republican party.
His reasoning upon this subject is
wholly personal and peculiar, and is
the last and most, conclusive evidence
that his mind is impervious to the
truth and insensible TO the facts which
abundantly attest this disaster to have
been caused in q considerable degree
by himself. His puerile talk about the
little effect of the third term question,
and the instances he cites in proof that
it did not injure him in South Caro-
lima, but its reputation injured can
didate'in the overwhelming Republi.
can Utica district of New York, are
not worth discussion or notice. An.
other observation Of his, however,
should not be allowed to pass without
protest and correction. The President
did not like the late Charles Sumner,
whose since:e RAdicalism became mo.
dified in several particulars. at the
same time that the Presidents became,
in consequence OF. his surroundings,
more artifcially intense. Now that
Summers bill is as dead as its author,
the President stalks fort h from the
White House to spit upon and con-
TENN it. To it is to be charged more
than to oil other causes combined the
defeat of the party which sought to
force it upon the American people. A
very true bill is this which President
Grant has found, but he.neyer had
sufficient light before these disastrous
elections to discover it or courage to
express it. He hastens now, at Sum-
ner's expense, to plnce himself on the
strong side on the vexed question,
which is dead enough without any
Presidential post moriem kicking. In
every message he has sent to Congress
he harped upon the string which is
aow SO discordant to his ears. He was
always assiduons in paying court to the
power which, claimed to protect aud
extend the special rights and privileges
of the negro race. He urged as
strongly as he could urge anything
that these rights shauld be secured by
stringent legislation. Whatever apo
logising correspondents may now
choose to say as to his purpose to veto
Samner's bill, if perchance it should
pass at the next session Of Congress,
he had no such idea at ite opening.
Two considerations have no doubt
brought the President to better and
more reasonable frame OF mind on this
subject; the one, that the bill is Sum
ner's and Sumner is no longe. living
to defend it; the other is, that it's
doom has been pronounced in the
popular verdict against it, For enter
tanning the latter, the President can
not be blamed. Better late than
never. But his aatterers have no war.
rant to say that he had the ssgacity
and the principle to discover the folly
OF all this thing originally. He must
bear his part Of the blame in egging
on this agitation while it paid, as lie
now may, perhaps, be entitled to what
ever credit there may be due one who
abandons what is no longer popular,
aud which cannot any longer serve the
ends OF his own ambition.
The Earnest OF q Moro Complete Vic.
tory.
In every quarter where the recent
Democratic victories have been oeIe.