The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1875-11-18
Grant-His Position and Prospects.

In the great game for the Presidency
Grant has from the first held the best
cards. This is partly because he dealt
them. The possession of the Govern
merit is alone an immense advantage ;
the power to destroy, by intrigue or open
antagonism, any formidably Republican
candidate is another; he has the nation
al finances also in his control, and can
influence either of the parties by his pol
icy; at any time he may introduce for
eign complications into the canvass. In
short, the cards in Grants hands are all
trunps, and he has played them with
consummate skill.
The third term project is, in itself,
odions to the country, and no one knows
it better than Grant. But he has care
fully contrived to represent third term
as being contingent good, as compared
with other great national evils which it
might avert. In his letter to the Penn
sylvania Convention he put forward this
view for the calm consideration of the
country, when he urged that it might be
unfortunate, if not disastrous, to prohibit
the indefinite reelection of the President,
and then added that he would not accept
a denomination unless circumstances not
likely to arise should make acceptance
his duty. Since then, events have been
so skillfully shaped, and dangers have
been so forcibly paraded before the peo-
pie, that the third term movement is
made to appear, in the opinion of many,
the only means by which prosperity can
be maintained. Grant has kept himself
at the front, and towers like giant far
above the Republican leaders around
him.
Since the Ohio election the third-tern
project has taken more definite shape
By inducing the venal Democratic chiefs
to introduce the initiation plank in the
Ohio platform, Grant removed from the
canvass all personal opposition to him.
self, and substituted a financial quarrel
for the real issue of reform. The Demo-
Gratis were no sooner brought before the
enemy than like an army of madmen,
they began to fight with each other
They lost Ohio in the twinkling Of an
eye. Next they lost Pennsylvania, and
if they have not lost New York they are
at least badly demoralized by the capture
of Tammany Hall by the Custom House
politicians and the enormously dimin-
ished majority in the State. In the ma
neuvres which have led to these results,
Grant has displayed wonderful skill, and
has achieved the inestimable success of
dividing the Democratic party on the
question of imitation, and installing him.
self before the country as the Hard Mon
ey candidate for 1876. This position
alone is equivalent to a denomination
Whether such vast strides of fortune we're
anticipated even by the audacious hope
fulness of Grant himself, is question;
but whether he expected such success or
not, he has certainly exhibited the ge-
MUS of true leader, in the arrangements
which made it possible. All those quail
tiles which are essential to personal ad-
vancement, Grant possesses in superior
degree, but they must not be confounded
with the higher qualities of a statesman
who labors for the nation only. In near.
ly eight years that Grant has governed
he has not given the country peace, nor
reform, nor financial soundness, nor sta
bility, nor any great measure by which
his administration will be celebrated
hereafter; but his severest critics must
concece that he has left nothing undone
to strengthen himself as leader.
A new proof of this remarkable skill
in managing his own campaign for the
third term is the adroit manner in which
Grant reserved the Cuban card to lead
after the trick he won in Ohio. By this
new alarm, this appeal to American sym
pathy, this revival of ancient policy at
critical moment, Grant follows up his
political conquests with tremendous force.
The acquisition of Cuba has always been
looked upon by the American people as
a golden gain that Cuba should be in
dependent of Spain, they have always
considered the natural right of the Queen
of the Antilles. Grant, in making any
movement against Spain, any demand in
the cause of Cuba, appeals both to our
natural acquisitiyeness and our national
feeling of patriotism and right. His first
step has been carefully taken; the Span
ish complications have been kept before
the public, accompanied by constant
warnings and apprehensions inspired by
the Administration His Reinforcement
will probably be to announce his inEen-
tion to declare belligerent rights for the
Cuban patriots. Then will follow a pro-
posal to purchase Cubs of Spain, and to
secure the consent of the insurgents by
giving the Endorsement of the United
States Government to the Cuban bonds.
Here is brilliant programme, and one
not very difficult Of execution. The sup
position that the next House of Repre-
sentatives can be depended upon to op-
pose Grants Cuban scheme, as bridge
to third term, is not we'll founded. In
the first place; he is just as able and as
willing to buy his way through a Demo
cratic House as he was to buy it through
the Democratic Convention of Ohio and
Pennsylvania. The purchasable mate
rial in Congress is always large, and not
likely to be smaller az the next session
than in the sessions where Republicans
and Democrats were equally involved In
Credit Mobilier and Pacific Mail subsi-
dies. Besides this, the Cuban bonds held
in this country will be- powerful agents
in influencing Congressional legislation.
Mr.. Gushing, who was interested with
Dick Shell in this Cuban scheme three
years ago, is probably working pthat fea-
ture now, and Mr.. Schell might tell US,
if he were so disposed, of the great profit
to be made in the Cuban bond speculation.
But though Grant and the Cuban ring,
under his control, could easily buy ma
jority for his plans in the House, it is un-
likely that he would be forced to- spend
one cent. The acquisition of Cuba has
been the policy of the Democratic party
for thirty years, or ever since the Ostend
| Conference. No Democratic Congress
would dare to oppose that policy on the
pretext that it was presented by a Repub-
lican President.
Thus, from every point of view, the
Cuban policy, which Grant has never
permitted to pass out Of sight, and. d.which
he is now prepared to make prominent
;,sro 10 ofronr IT. is stronp with the