National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1875-03-09

feeling and even future prosperity by ex-
tending the right hand of fellowship and
warm recognition to the gallant men whose
surrender to him at the close of the war
added so much to the lustre of his fame.
But he expected, in return for his conces-
sions, an implicit obedience on their part to
the laws which are but the natural conse-
quence Of that surrender, and when that
obedience was not forthcoming he did not
hesitate, with equal disregard Of personal
feeling or even future prosperity, to apply
all the resources at his command to compel
it. No unprejudiced observer of the pro-
gress of his administration will deny these
facts. They are plain as the noon day sun,
and only the most distorted mind could
conjure them into anything like an at
tempt to promote selfish end.
But, as time wore on and the Southern
troubles required firm and decisive action,
the suffering Republicans in that section
began to appreciate the irmness of his char
acter anew, and to perceive in his undeviat-
ing devotion to justice the policy of their
political salvation. He did many things
they disliked and denounced. He repri-
manded Gov. Davis, of Texas, and sus-
tanned Coke, the Democratic Governor
elect, in his right to be inaugurated. He
sustained the Opposition in Arkansas, and
as a consequence the opponents of his ad
ministration were installed in Office against
the earnest protests of some of his warmest
supporters. The Southern Republicans
knew these facts, but discovered under
them motives which they could not forbear
admiring, and, as we have said, accepted
him as their political savior. They took
up the cries of men who hated him and
used them as the cries Of men who loved
him. They said, LET US re-elect him."
and said it with an earnestness that could
only have been prompted by a sincere be-
lief in his patriotism, and at the same time
his enemies said, HE is trying to re-elect
"himself because lie is not patriot, but is
"a selfish and ambitious schemer." 1t
was, then, these yearning cries of oppressed
citizens of the South, aided by numbers of
loyal Northern sympathizers, for safety
under the protection of his firm rule that
gave to the Third-Term project all the
solidity it has ever had. The anti
Grant leaders and papers have made the
most of it, and are welcome to the re-
suits of their labors. They have, per-
haps, succeeded, as the Inter- Ocean init
mates, in creating rabid jealousies, but
they have not detracted one jot or title
from the nobility of his character or the
firmness of his purpose. He goes on to-
day as Indifferent of praise or blame as
when before the war he proceeded with his
plans of great campaigns regardless of the
conceited criticisms of ignorant scribblers
or jealous rivals. And above all things, he
has been properly and discreetly reticent
regarding his future desires and personal
ambition. He has never, by word or deed,
intimated wish to be reelected, and as
we have said before, remembering the pre-
cedent established by Horatio Seymour's
blatant declination Of a nomination before
it was rendered, has refused to say that he
does not desire denomination, because he
knows his enemies would wickedly con-
strue such declaration to mean that he did
desire it. His experience with the Indepen-
dent Press, and his knowledge of their in
fallible habit ofmisconstruing everything he
says or does, justiies him in this course, and
will sustain him il, it in the future until the
time when some authority of acknowledged
significance calls upon him to speak.
In the meantime the ambitious leaders of
the party, who profess to fear so much at
his hands in one breath, and who deny that
ho hoe ability q TNO1itiao1 in
the next, can enjoy the responsibility they
have assumed in turning the South over to
the control of the enemies of the Republi-
can party. But their enjoyment will be of
brief duration. The very means they have
sought to deprive the President of a power
he did not ask, will result in a certain de-
mand that some man of his pith and mar
row shall be elected. Is there one of that
kind among those members of the House
who sustained the Poland resolution? When
the Southern States begin, as they have al
ready begun, to eXpunge the clauses from
their constitutions recognizing the suprem-
acy of the General Government, when
State rights are reasserted as the funda-
mental principle of Southern State policy,
when murder and rapine are increased ten
fold, as they will be during the coming
election campaigns, and when the dearly
bought results of the war, the constitu-
tional amendments, and the reconstruction
acts, are about to be lost, the people will
ask this question with something akin to
anxiety. They will not dare to intrust
towards with the fate of the nation, but
they will seek strong men, brave men, uu-
selfishly patriotic men. There are plenty
of men of this kind now in the ranks of
the Republican party who have not been
so long out of the Democratic ranks as to
forget exactly what kind of managementis
required to successfully cope with the
strategy of the latter organization.