The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1874-04-08
A WHITE HOUSE SCENE.
[St. Lou 9 Republican,

A very painful scene occurred at the
White House last Saturday-One in which
the Presidents unhappy habit of officially
remembering and resenting personal inju-
ries was strongly exhibited. The occasion
was the visit of South Carolina taxpayers
to the President to present the almost I'M
endurable hardships Of their condition and
ask for his assistance in procuring relief.
1t was strange spectacle-these once
naughty but now humble citizens of a
State of heroic history coming as petition
ers, and almost as supplicants to the Presi-
dent of the United States, as supplicants
were accustomed to approach the throne OF
an ancient king, and asking for deliverance
from the barbaric despotism of their former
slaves.
1t was scene that might we'll have re-
kindled whatever emotions of fraternal feel
ing still exist in the breasts of the conquer
Ors for their conquered cOuntrymen. 1t was
one, too, in which the man who stands pre-
eminent among the cOnquerors, and whose
sword more than any other dealt the decis-
i've blow of subjugation, might have been ex-
pected to forget himself in a manly sympa-
thy for his vanquished victims. But, unfor-
turately, it had happened that during the
proceedings Of the taxpayers convention at
Columbia, which appointed the delegation,
had the bad taste to denounce President
Grant, Congress and the Republican party in
a violent though pretty effective speech.
The convention had 50 little approval
for this speech that it took occa-
sion to condemn it and it's author by
recommitting the report that had been the
pretext for it. Nevertheless, the opponents
of the taxpayers movement took pains to
send the speech to the President, whom it
reached in advance of the delegation.
While the delegation, therefore, were pre-
senting to the President their grievances,
the President was thinking Of his griev-
ances. Hon. w. d. Porter, of Charleston,
presented the case of the taxpayers in a
dignified, respectful and impressive speech,
and the President gave reply the first
less. But, before he closed, he threw this
cruel javelin in the faces Of the astOnished
delegates:
"But l will say to you candidly here the
Presidents manner hardened visibly that
while have watched the proceedings of
your Taxpayers Convention with no little
interest, portion of my sympathy has been
distracted by the perusal of a certain speech
delivered during it's deliberations, viler and
more slanderous than anything have ever
experienced before. even among my worst
enemies in the North a speech more bitter
in it's personality and falsehOod than any
thing have ever seen, even in the New York
Sum-"
Here the President paused. His visitors
were completely taken aback by his words,
and still more by the unpleasant vehemence
with which they were uttered. Several OF
the delegates fastened to explain the cir
cumstances connected with the speech,
which l have already briefly noted, but
their explanations seemed to fall unheeded.
The President met everything that was said
with some fresh reference to the irritating
subject. l quote his words in rejoinder to
the expositions of one delegate:
81 have never seen a 'speech equal to it
in malignity, vileness. falsity and SANDER.
When think of it / can scarcely restrain
myself"
As this very painful and embarrassing
interview closed, Mr.. Porter ventured to
suggest that it was hardly just to hold a
whole community who were seeking relief
from iatolerable oppression, responsible for
the improper utterance of single individ-
ual. But the remOnstrance was scarcely no
ticed by the President, and the delegation
sadly and silently withdrew, panied and
deeply mortified that the respectful prayer
of the whole body of suffering tax payers
in one of the old thirteen States of the Amer
lean Union should have been presented to the
President of the United States only to be
outweighed in the balance by the foolish
TRADE OF crack Drained politician.