National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1875-12-09
RAGE OF A pIsAPPo1ErED PROPHET.


conventions in 1875 killed it; Grants letter
killed it. (although the Herald, we believe,
then intimated feline specimen hidden in
that heap of Indian meal) the results of
the elections of 1876, taken in connection
with the anti Third Term resolutions of the
Republican conventions, killed it, and, in
short for thing which never had even
the shadow of an existence anywhere else
than in the belonged vision and bedizened
brain of the intellectual department of
the sensational New York press, it has en-
joyed a most remarkable number of deaths
and resurrections. But the most renlarka-
BILE feature of these demises and resppear-
ances is the fact that they, all of them, &C.
cur at the bidding of the chief necromancer
of the New York Herald. As theoretical
magician and a resurrectionist he has no
equal in this or any other country. As a
consistent truth-teller and safe political
adviser, who is distinguished by fidelity to
principle, he is a lamentable failure. Since
the days of John Tyler's administration
there has been no President that the Herald
has not fisttered, patronized and abused by
turns without any very remarkable sue
cess. 1t has volunteered advice to them
all upon almost every conceivable subject
and policy of character that no statesman
or patriot could reasonably be expected to
accept, coupled generally with promises of
its powerful support in the event of accept
ance, and its advice has almost as invaria.
bly, been rejected.
The Presidents Message, which was
read in both Houses of Congress on Tues
day, has evidently both surprised and dis
appointed the Herald. Upon all those
subjects that the Herald had predicted that
it would put its foot in it, to use
homely slang phrase, it seems to meet the
appreciation of that journal. In this mat
ter the Herald is greatly disappointed, and
on this account it is unable to conceal its
chagrin. But as it is rarely at a loss, In
common with all chrome grumblers, for
something with which to find fault, so now
it discovers a new cause for sensation in
the recommendations of the President for
amendments of the Constitution concerning
the public schools and taxation of church
property. Itsays: 'He is sound on the Cuban
question; sound in the main on the most
important of the financial questions; sound
I" and admirable on the question of cable
monopolies; discreet and even wise on
" the Mexican question; plausible at least, if
" not right, on the naturalization question -
The President should be, and no doubt is,
thankful for this liberal Endorsement from
such a fountain of wisdom and oracle of
profound craftsmanship upon five points of
his Message and these the very points
upon which this great political seer had
predicted that his political ambition would
lead him astray.
And yet this most wonderfully sagacious
prophet, with the full light of the Des
Moines speech Of the President before him,
is angry with himself because he failed to
predict that the President would recon-
mend in his Annual Message that the doc
trines announced in that speech should be
engrafted upon the Constitution of the
United States in legal and constitutional
manner. This, it must be admitted, is most
unfortunate for the character of the Herald
as chief political prophet of the country, but
it is difficult to see how the President can
be blamed for the shortcomings of that
journals prediction editor. And it is still
more difficult to reconcile those short
comings Of its intellectual and imaginative
departments with the torrent of abuse and
with which the Presi-
dent is visited on account of them in the
following TRADE: but on the combined
&" religious and school question, upon which
d" he lays his chief stress and emphasis, he
4" is wild, Quixotlc and utterly absurd.
" This attempt to introduce religion as a
" controlling element in our national poll
" tics, the zeal with which he filings this
" firebrand and tries to kindle theological
" animosities for party effect rs the most
" mischieyous and monstrous violation of
" fitness and propriety ever perpetrated by
" a President of the United States"
Passing by as unworthy any journal pre-
tending TO dignity and responsibility, the
assertion that ''he is wild, Quixotic and
utterly absurd" in these recommendations,
it may not be amiss to call attention to the
willful misrepresentation contained in the
sentence Immediately following it. All
classes of readers, of all sects and denomi-
nations of religion, unite in ascribing per-
feet fairness and the most liberal tolerance
to all religious opinions as the basis of the
Presidents proposition. Carried out to its
logical results it will secure forever in this
country entire immunity from religious i'd
reference with the politics Of the nation.
The people, as well as the President,
foresee the necessity of settling this ques-
ton now beyond all peradventure. lift is
deferred until later period, when any one
denomination or sect may obtain prepon.
derance in our population, we may be Wis
tied with those religious difficulties which
the Herald affects to be so anxious to
avoid, but which are in no way raised by
this proposition, because it is equally just
to all and leaves all sects to stand or fall
entirely upon their respective merits.
The Herald, most uDjustly and with I'M
blushing efrontery, profers this degrading
insult TO the intelligence of its readers in
the same issue which contains the text of
the Message, including the proposition of
the President which exposes the falsity and
mischieyous malignity of the assertion:
/" He hopes to array the Protestant preju.
" dice and Protestant bigotry in political
" crusade against the Catholic Church, and
thereby carry the Presidential election"
No one but the Herald can perceive the
slightest advantage or injury to either Pro-
testant or Catholic that could possibly re.
suit from the proposed Constitutional
amendment On the other hand, the propo-
sition should receive the unanimous support
of all political parties and sects Of religion
as certain to remove forever the possibility
of religious questions entering our political
arena, with their prejudices end animosi.
ties.