The Findlay Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Hancock County, Ohio) 1870-1881, 1875-11-26
THE PRESIDENTS RECENT SPEECH.

THE PRESIDENTS RECENT SPEECH.
Whether the President speaks or is 81
lent, he is equally unacceptable to those
who have made up their minds to caviI
at him under all circumstances. But
the tone of his late speech at the meeting
of the Army of the Tennessee should be
very grateful to every patriotic citizen,
as its manly and simple words of soldier
ly pride and sympathy and remembrance
doubtless were to his comrades In the
tempest of contemptuous censure which
beats upon General Grant-a storm of
depreciation in which every fresh voice
strives to drown the Iast-the immense
service that ne rendered this country,
when the crowd of his present detraet-
Ors were league of rebels and Copper
heads Joined to destroy it, is quite con-
cealed and forgotten. 1--WE believed
then and we believe now, he says to his
comrades, ''that we have a government
worth fighting for, and, if need be, dy-
ing for. How many of our comrades
paid the latter price for our preserved
Union Let their heroism and patriot
ism be ever green in our memory. Let
not the result of their sacrifices be de-
stroyed"
1--WE will not deny to any OF those
who fought US any privilege under the
government which we claim for our
selves. On the contrary, we welcome
all such who come forward in good faith
and help to build up the waste places,
and to perpetuate our institutions
against all enemies, as brothers in full
interest with us in a common heritage;
but we are not prepared to apologize for
the part we took in the war" These
words seem to us quite as digniiied, sin
cere, and impressive as those of Tamna-
ny Hall bawling for reform and recon-
mending the golden rule. They have
the merit of being the words of brave
and loyal soldier who fought the enemy
in the field, not of a politician and DEM
agogue who tried to cripple the soldiers
and give the enemy the victory.
General Grant proceeded in his speech
to say that the next contest would prob
ably be between patriotism and intelli-
genee on the one side, and superstition,
ambition and ignorance on the other;
and he went on to exhort fidelity to free
thought and speech, to equal rights of
every nationality, color, and religion,
and to the free school as the security of
them all. This, again, is reasonable;
but we learn from sources that were for
meriy of the opinion that Grant was a
butcher, and more recently a tyrannical
despot and fool, that it was a desper-
ate attempt to secure third term, and
to affect the Ohio election by dragging
religion into politics aud fortelIing re-
ligious war. The sinple truth is that
the itoman Church is making a power
full effort throughout the world to re-
sume her old political ascendency. To
this end she has a perfect and world
wide organization, aud can count upon
the superstition of ignorance. In the
greatest of European States she is con-
tending to-day with the greatest of Eu-
ropean statesmen. In England the most
sagacious and sincere of English political
leaders, with mastery force expose her
designs, and the chief of English poets
appeals in strains that ring like the
twang of the English cross-bow, to the
old E1glish spirit and valor that smOte
In this country the hierarchy of that
Church has declared open war upon the
American free school, not as injurious to
American liberty, but as fatal to Rome
ascendency. This hierarchy marshals its
adherents, who are largely ignorant and
of foreign birth and association, as a
clerical political power dictated law 10
the Legislature of the State, promising
its vote at the late election to the party
of the majority which passed the lava
promise which was undoubtedly full
filed. In New York, under the plea of
paroehial schools, the same clerical pow
er,, is seeking to pervert the common
school system, to effect its easier over
throw. The attempt is open and reso-
lutte. The purpose is frankly announced,
and AL the resources of the most power
f,,I =.
into the field. To say that it is a bug
bear because it is not yet successful, or
to insist that it never can be successful
because we are such an enlightened peo
pie, is as foolish as to declare that no
evil is possible because we are so excep-
tionaIly honest and superior. The way
to prevent fires is 70 put out the sparks.
Initiation may be a more imminent peril
than the supervision of the school sys-
TEN. But it is less vitallE threatening,
because it has not behind it that COM
plete organization, that relentless pur-
pose, that impersonal persistence, which
belongs to the Roman hierarchy. Fore
warned Is fore-arIIed. When the Presi-
dent says that the security of what the
war gained lies in the school free from
sectarian control, lie is not, under exist
ing circumstances, uttering an nnappro-
pirate truism Neither his comrades
who heard the speech, nor intelligent
men who read it, are of that opinion,
whatever may be thought of it by the
organs of the party upon which the enc
mics of the schools depend.-HaTper's
Weekly.
FOR TIE BLOOD is PIE LIFE"
See Deuteronomy. xii. 23. The blood