National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1874-04-23

gogue, anxious to catch the passing cheer,
to win the approving clamor of the hour,
the means and methods were as easy and
Is safe Is ever fell TO the lot of any man
Congress stood behind him. Two OF the
three great sections Of the country were
almost unanimous. A majority OF the
newspaper press was ready to send out its
plaudits to millions of readers Eloquent
and able leaders in both branches OF Con-
eress stood ready to defend if defence were
necessary. But the temporary gain and
advantage have been brushed aside, the
odium, if sught of odium attach to
it, has been met msnfully, boldly
and honestly as it should have been
met. The arguments used by the in
fistionists were presented with vigor and
ability almost without parallel in debate.
New theories were broached and presented
with q vigor and determination which,
by their very boldness, almost carried with
them conviction. All the teachings Of his
tory, all the lessons of prudence, were set
at defiance, and the seductive argument ad-
vanced that we were law unto ourselves;
that our broad prairies and our noble rivers.
our States as largo as empires, and our
coast lines - confining within them a
continent, could not be held and ruled
and developed upon the worn-out theories
and ideas which have made England
the mistress Of the seas, which have
carried Prussia to the pinnacle OF
national greatness and grandeur, which
have ruled the world since the world began.
We were a new people, and new race, a
nation whose great duty it was to expert
ment, to solve problems in our own way and
by our own methods. Wewere to war upon
everything that was old, and soar on the
wings Of our own imperial eagle into new
domains of financial thought and specula-
ton. The President has clipped our eagles
wings, and brought US down to the hard
level of fact of plain, common sense, in.
stead of wildcat unthinking, unreasoning
and ignorant experiment.
President Grant has done great and
noble service for the country and for the
Republican party. We do not care to dis
cuss it in party point of view, because it
never really was party question. Party
lines and party precedents were overleaped
in its discussion and in its passage. Demo
Gratis and Republicans stood side by side in
opposing lines, and party organs like the
World condemned men of its own faith,
and praised those opposed to it. because Of
their action upon one side and the other.
The people will accept the message of the
President in the same spirit. Thousands
of his friends who followed him in the long
marches Of the rebellion, who faced the
bristling batteries of the enemy, will
to-day condemn him, while other
thousands and hundreds of thousands
who have never mentioned his name, ex-
cept with words Of insult upon their lips,
will sing his praise and call him second
Jackson. But by and by, when we shall
be convinced, as we shall be convinced,
that imitation is the road to national ruin
and national disgrace, We shall hear only
hymns Of praise and peans of commenda-
ton. The subject has been talked and
written threadbare. For seven weary
months it has been almost the sole topic of
thought and discussion in one way or
another. A period Of financial depression,
such as this generation has not known,
brought it home to every man. In our
foolishness and intense anxiety for imme-
date relief we called upon the printing
presses in the Treasury vaults to turn out
more and more printed lies, to ask the
world to trust to the pledges and promises
we had already broken and disay9wed, we
would initiate revolutionary France and re-
write the history of the assignats; we would
make money as plenty as in Hayti, where
paper dollars are worth only their value as
waste paper. President Grant has arrested
us on the brink of the precipice. The party
has been reminded of its solemn pledges;
the party majority in Congress has been
checked in its downward career; the coun-
try has been rescued from the gulf into
which it was ready to leap. General Grant
has made himself the hard-money President
and the Republican party the hard-money
party.