The Portland daily press., 1875-06-08

hole discusslOn.-Ehe flame
famed, not snbdued by noticing 1.-THE
IngersoIl conference.-the crimes of the
Ring-their extent and daudacity.-GouId
in 1875 contrnsied with Tweed in 1871
DemornIizing influence of their exam
ple. Another crash needed.
NEW YORK, June Z, 1875.
Gen. Grant has forfeited his claim to one of
his titles ON the scroll of fame. He canrot be
styled Unconditional surrender any longer.
What fleets and armies essayed in vain, what
mousing politicians with an accidental president
among them failed to do, has been accom-
plished by toe genius aud perseverance of sin
gle newspaper The third term nonsense is the
exclusive creation of the New York Herald.
That paper might have secured copyright
without challenge. but extensive publicity aud
not exclusive monopoly constituted the whole
value of the airy bubble. Just as likely as not
the thing was started on the spur of the mo-
ment, when there was an importunate cry for
oopy and painful dearth of rational topics.
1t is by 10 means improbable that many of the
thunders of warning to the American people
against the dangers Of "C9srasm" were written
by immigrants who had not been in this coun-
try long enough to get naturalized. The arti-
cles showed manifest ignorance of, or dsposi-
tim to misrepresent, our political system. The
whole scope of their ressoning-if anything so
irrational can be thus characterzed-was to ex'
tingush utterly the theory that the people
had any voice in the selection of rulers or the
conduct of affairs. 1t was only charitable to
treat the whole thing as joke, for the as
sumption that it was serious carried with it the
consent to argue the question whether major
ity of the voters of the republic were or were
not helpless imbeciles quite incapable OF any
independent thought or action, and accepting
with accomplishing dociity the political guild
ance OF few federal office holders.
But this is an age in which there Is SO much
hard work in real life, that men want to be
amused in their hours of leisure And as the
newspaper is only read in spare moments, the
more sensational it is, SO it be racy, the more
attention it commands The great transactions
of the day are performed with telegraphic brew
ty. There is DO time for long stories But the
heavy department of the paper must be filled
up, aud an invention like C9sarism is so much
solid capital of raw material for the purpose.
Like many a great discoverer before him, the
lucky pioneer who lighted upon this stupendous
thesis had little anticipation of the great re-
suits which would follow from his exploit. The
public then seemed just in the vein to stand
something supremely ridiculous The new ad-
ministration had been quietly installed, there
were no political issues pending, We were at
peace with the world, no signs were as yet vis-
BILE of the impending financial storm which
ragged with such fury three months later, mid
summer-proverbial season for madness-was
approaching and the occasion proved opportune
for setting a gaping multitude gazing with
straining eyes AMI bewidered aspect at moth
ing. 1t was curious to watch these dupes as
they multiplied in numbers For while, only
the most pronounced enemies of the President
dropped in, then some Of the least earnest of
hi. supporters. BY and by few OF the timid
but we'll meaning members in good standing of
the Republican church thought they saw some
thing. Like Polonius they could not exactly
tell whether it was camel, weasel or a
whale, for the phantom accommodated itself
to the imaginations Of the gazer., bnt strength
enng each other in the delusion they grew
more an1 more confident there was figure in
the void.
But after all this amounted to very little so
ong as the President maintained his impertur-
liability. The one thing needed was to. capture
him. His superb faculty for holding his
tongue made the thing difficult, but they ham,
mered away at him with perSeverancee wor-
thy of more credtable purpose. To be sure
those who clamored most Justify for the utter
ance, were his most unscrupuous foes, and
it has never been his won't to take counsel
from them. But by degrees the dstemper
spread into his own political household, aud
the demand for medicament changed from
menace to entreaty. Still the great silent
man. remained unmoved AT last powerful
commonwealth, a state that had given him
only eighteen months before the largest ma
jority of votes ever accorded to Presidential
candidate, took the Herald bubble, inscribed
it's endorsement on it and tossed it in the air
Pennsylvania, it must be admitted, is not the
seat and centre of all wisdom in matters politi-
CAL A people who have alternately recognized
Curtin as a rare exemplar of sagacity, Mcclure
of advanced moral purity, Forney of eruditon
and Kelley of financial wisdom, has not yet
got entirely beyond the necessity of learning
anything more in respect of men and measures
Nevertheless she is power both geographi-
cally and numerically, and when she took the
matter up seriously and pronounced herself
with owl-lke gravity oan fancy how aston
ished President Grant must have been.
But had no idea that even that provoca-
ton could wiring a word from him on the sub
iect l knew in what contempt he held the
theme itself and the parties who originated it.
And looked on with amused satisfaction
while they were alternately bullying and coax
ing him to say something, and failing to make
the slightest impression on his firmness. I'm
agine my utter amazement when L read his
letter of the 29th ult. to Gen. White 1t
seemed to me virtual surrender and L have
not got reconciled to it yet. am afraid it
will have to 90 into history as one of the few
foolish things Gen. Grant has done. As for
its accomplishing any good results, fancy
there is no possibility of that. 1t simply gives
little vitality aud point to an issue which was
previously inane and senseless to the last de-
gree Of course the men who were most clam
orous for the declaration are the most dlssatls-
fed with it's tenor No matter in what Ian
puape il had been couched that would have in
evtably been the case.
The letter is generally regarded as a disa-
vowal of any purpose to be candidate for
third term, but it was clearly not the inten-
t;on of the writer to dignity the subject by ex-
pressing himself definitely on that point On
the contrary, after expressing his disgust in
pretty plain language at all the trashy gabbe
of the past two years about "C@sarsm" and
the ''third term" he says, With force that
carries singing rebuke with it, II haze been
surprised that so many sensible persons IN the
Republican party should permit their enemy to
force upon them and their party an issue ~hich
cannot add strength to the party no matter ho1o
met"