The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1875-12-11
THE MLSs.lE.

IhE
The Presidents message, which will be
found on pages and of to.day's FREE IRA
DER, excites various newspaper comment, as
br,siling all over with surprises and salient
points. On the Cuban question the President
relieves himself ut considerable length, but
IN a style regarded generally MS point no
point" what he says being commonplace
and unobjec,ionable, indicating nothing prac'
teal or in the nature of "policy' on the sub
iect. In private, however, the President Is
understood to entertain ideas OF decideoly
more vigorous and practical nature, ana a
surprise on that question Is anticipated III
his promised special message on the subject
On the currency question the President con-
tents himself with endorsing and adopting
the views of Secretary BrIstow. lie con-
s,ruc,s a strong argument in favor OF an early
return to specie payment, but in his recon-
mendation of measures to accomplish 'ha'
end. is less felicitous than In his general ar
cumept To repeal at once the legal tender
act and bring down all debts and commercial
transactions to specie basis would Involve
endless hardships, and would certainly not
tend to bring specie into the country as the
President ir AGNES. There will be no flow OF
specc TO this country, or rather stoppage oil
the outflow from our mines, as long as the
currency in ordinary use is below par The
only way to bring gold here and keep it here
is to insist on having nothing but gold or us
equivalent as the currency.
But the most prominent point in the mess
age is that which relates to the school ques-
ton. The President repeats, with improve
ments and amplihcatons, his utterances in
the speech at Des Moines last fall. The pub
lie schools of this country, to the manage
ment of which the state governments had
hitherto been regarded as entirely competent,
he would make matter of exclusive national
concernment, and would provide, by consti-
tutional amendment, that hereafter every
child in the Union shall be afforded the OPP
portunity of good common school educa-
ton; that no renets" shall be taught in any
of the pablo schools, Uhc President probably
meaning religious tenets) that attending the
public schools shall be made compulsory
and lastly, that there shall be, in all the states
a formal declaration of n complete separation
of church and state, and that church property,
including church buildings. shall bear the
same proportion Of taxation as all other
hy tbrcn rpCpmmnnua.
lions the President simply means to iortify
his former Inauguration of crusade against
the Vatican, or whether he means more, and
really would fly in the face of the entire re.
ligious sentiment of the country, by insisting
on constitutional ignoring Of all religion,
is hard 10 gather from his expressions.
Speaker Blaine had anticipated the President
in proposing constitutional amendment TO
exclude the Bible from the schools and pro.
hibit the division Of school moneys among
the sccts 1t IS possible that Grant viewed
Blan's proposition (truly) as bid for the
Presidency, and IN his more sweeping recon-
mendations on the subject proposes to out,
Herod him and take the wind out of his sails
Another decided surprise IN the message is
the recommendation to provide, by constitu.
tional amendment, for an intelligence suf
frage in all the states. Nobody the President
insists, ought to be allowed to vote anywhere
on any question, who cannot read and write
English. These are not his precise words,
but that is what they mean. The most inno'
cent Interpretation that can be put upon this
recommendation is, that 1t is
bid for the white vote of the South, as the
exclusion Of ninetenths of the negroes Of the
South from the ballot is the only serious eff.
feet the adoption Of such constitutional
could have
There are various other surprising and Gu.
rious recommendations in this extraordinary
message, such as that against polygamy in
Utah, which would convert all the Mormon
spiritual wives into concubines or hired mis-.
tresscs; and his queer recommendation To-
exclude all small packages from the mails,
which woHd be worth millions to the express
but the intelligent reader is as
capable of noting them in reading the docu.
mont as we are, and Will need no further help
in discovering them from us.
s-------------
The squGbble over the supreme court judge.
ship In the Cook district IS growing some