Whig and tribune. [volume] (Jackson, Tenn.) 1870-1877, 1874-05-02

fractOry west ana OOuLN, ana II
''the inflationists" (as they are call
ed) take another step forward and
become regulators. then we sup
pose that those who arc now 90
loud in their praise of Gen. Grant,
and so jubilant over the victory Of
the contractionists, will take upon
themselves the entire response
bility.
SUAmER's LATEST FUSERAL.-Mon-
day was a prancing field day in Con-
gress, and the effigy of the Massa-
chusetts senator was borne at the
head of the political procession. Or
dinariIy we are not disposed to
question the sincerity of those who
euIogize the dead, but 1t seems to us
that the attempted dedication of
Chas. Sumner is a sham. Taking Mr..
Hoar's speech as a sample of those
delivered by the rest Of the orators of
the day, with the exception perhaps
of Mr.. Thurman IN the Senate, and
of Mr.. Lamar in the House, we see
nothing but the outcrOpping of the
intensest party malignity aud bitter
ness. Mr.. Hoar pronounced Lincoln
the first of the martyrs, and Sumner
the second. Booth and Brooks, the
bludgeon and the bullet, werg the
burden of his strain, and in tblDi shere
was not even the parade of pain. 1t
was cold blooded calculation. The
object was to fire the Northern heart
and to reopen the half-closed leaves of
of its most exasperating memories.
Such language was coarse but the
whole thing has been coarse from
first to last. The direction that
the Sumner sensation has taken
is perfectly characteristic of
New England Radicalism, which
amounts to saying that it is perfect
" despicable. When Mr.. Sumner
died he was the recipient of very
generous and general euolgy. Every
body knew that he was a cold man,
that he had no sympathy with the
people, and that human wrongs were
to him mere distractions upon which
he theorized as such, not caring par
ticularly whether they were allevi-
ated or not. But he died suddenly,
died under something of cloud, be-
cause he had quarreled with Gen1
Grant, and because he had gone with
us on the Greeley wild goose chase,
and Southern presses, with singular
kindness and charity accorded him
honor, They could commend his
personal integrity, and they did it
freely They admitted that he had
done much in the acquisition, the
arrangement and the application of
historical facts, and many of them
even went further than the decencies
of the occasion required. Our in
stincts enable us to state positively
that the praise of Mr.. Sumner, en-
anating from Southern sources reach
ed no deeper than the lips, but it is
scarcely deemed a sin to speak I'M
truthful words when these words are
intended to cover up the frailties
of the dead.
In this spirit the entire South join
ed the North in doing honor to the
Massachusetts Senator, but what
do we get in return? New England
loves a hobby, and never tires of
riding it. Sumner died at Just the
right moment, so far as post norton
honor was involved. Boston was at
feud with Gen. Grant on account of
the Simmons affair. The dead sena-
tor had not been friendly with the
President-his death also wildly re-
called the gigantic proportions of
Preston Brooks-and to make the
elements of sensation complete, he
had iii dying said foolish thing to
Mr.. Hoar about his civil rights bill.
This was enough, and Radical editors
and poets aud orators have gushed
and overhowed upon the theme, I'M
TIL all sensible people are disguised
with it. The other day we read an
Grafton in which all the old bitterness
that preceded the war was revived,
in which Brooks was denounced as
an assassin, and in which there was
open exultation over the fact that
his grave was overgrown with BRAN
bles, and his native State shackled,
while his victim was honored every
where, and Massachusetts, was .happy
and prosperous. Ministers of the
gospel, who tell the plain people who
make up the mass of average human
ity, that they must in some way recog-
nize the divinity of Christ, or else
expect the pains of unending hell
fire, come before these same work a.
day people, proclaiming that Mr..
Sumner passedIEfrom honor in the
courts below to yet higher honor in
the courts above. So far as we are
concerned we would not assign any
one to perdition. After life's fitful
fever we hope that Mr.. Sumner sleeps
well, but we could suggest to those
Northern clergymen. that they ought
to be consistent, and that they had
better not look for saints among the
leaders of the Radical Eparty. The
Stewards, the Greeleys, the Garrisons,
the Summers, the Stevenses and the
Lincolns did not pretend to be Chris
tians, but no matter whether they are
shot from the proscenium boxes of g
theatre or die with senselsss rawlings
on their lips about iniquities like
the civil rights bin, it is all the same,
and they are made saints at once
This whole business is hummery. 1t
is intended merely for political effect.
If Summer hadsdied during the Gree
ley canvass the same orators, the same
preachers who are now so loud in his
praise would have reviled and in
suited his memory. They now tall
of building him colossal monument
but they will never do it. They talk
ed the same way about a monument
for old John Brown who died grimly
upon the gallows at Harper's Ferr,
in attestation of his faith. The,
raised money for q monument t.
Lincoln. but it was stolen. That
Stevens lies in a neglected grave, anC
Thus it NAV be after all with Summer.