Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1876-12-16
GRANT's APPOLseY.


nation. We do not propose to follow this
precedent to any great extent. A large
portion of it is occupied with matters
which will be brought up in succession
before Congress, and will be best dis
cussed as the time arrives for Con-
gressional action upon them but
there is a portion of the message which
brings up matter rather for public
opinion than for congressional action
it is Gen. Grants comments on his
own character as n public officer.
The President isevidently full ofthis
subject even to overlooking, for, without
any exordium whatever, he rushed into
it at the very commencement of the
message, and, at the very commence
ment, his words assume the tone of
apology and Observation-Disclosures seems
conscious that his record is, to say the
least, not at first sight very clear one,
and he begins by casting around for
excuses and what's his main plea in
abatement of public eensure?
HIS YOUTH AND INNOCENCE.
Yes, he claims the indulgence due
to boy of seventeen, should unkind
fate seat a youth of that age in a posi-
ton SO conspicuous as the Presidential
chair of this nation. He claims that
for all opportunities of acquiring po-
litical information his life was mere
blank, that his profession withdrew
him from all that participation in pub
lie affairs which is sort of political
education to other men, and that his
utter inexperience ought to disarm
criticism if he be found to have COM
mitted errors of judgement And he
goes on to admit that,
Mistakes have been made as all
can see, aud | admit, but, it seems to
me, oftener in the selection made of
assistants appointed to aid in carrying
out the various duties of administer
ing the government-in nearly every
case selected without a personal end
or acquaintance with the appointees,
but upon recommendations OF repre-
sentatives chosen directly by the peo-
pie. "
There is touching simplicity in all
this; it is almost equal to
Mary had a little lamb.
The very artlessness of the compo-
sition Geographically Grant himself,
without any cabinet interposition) is
calculated to unmanthe critic and sub
stitute the mildest milk of human
kindness for the gall into which he is
supposed to habitually dip his pen.
But editors havel finty hearts, the
laws of political criticism are inexOra-
BILE, and though with bleeding heart
we feel ourselves constrained to scru-
tinise the plea in abatement, just as if
it we're put in by hoary sinner OF fifty
or sixty instead of an oyergrown West
Point plebe of seventeen.
The plea ofinexperience. 1t would
have been well if his consciousness of
this had restrained him from accepting
or rather maDeuvering for the high
office of responsibility, for which he ac-
knowledges himself to have been so
specially disqualified. There was in
deed time before he was a cadidate
for the Presidency, when, in answer to
a friend who suggested that Office to
him, he distinctly avowed that all his
qualifications aud natural preferences
qualified him for the office which he
then held, that of commander-in-
chief, which he preferred, and dis
qualified him for that of President
which he deprecated. (The whole
correspondence was published a few
days ago in the Louisville Courier
JournaD. ALI if he had adhered to
that, if the consciousness of inexperi-
ence had continued to force that con-
viction on them, and had he obeyed its
dictation, how high might Ulysses s.
Grant have now stood in the estima-
ton of his countrymen. But the
tempter came, and the temptation was
too strong. Nor are we disposed to be
too severe on him for yielding, as so
many other men so tried might
have yielded, to his ambition.
by that sin fell the angels,
But when he had become President
can inexperience be pleaded in bar of
the many heavy charges against his ad-
ministration? We fear not. If he felt
himself so deplorably inexperienced
andimcompetent, ought not this feeling
to have led him to take counsel with the
wisest and most experienced men in
the political world. There were then
wise and experienced men even in his
own party, if he felt precluded from
seeking counsel outside of its limits /;
did he go to them Alas no-the error
which even his friends deplore was
that he surrounded himself with men
unknown in the party, unknown in the
counsels of the nation-men who had
given him presents, men who were his
private friends, not the men whose ex-
perience might have compensated his
own want Of training.
Nor can we admit his plea that his
appointees were s'selected without a
personal end or acquaintance with
them, but on the recommendations of
others"
1t is simply not the fact. Casey, his
brother-in-law, was not selected by
others, nor was the selection made
without knowledge of the man, Gen.
Grant knew more about him than any
one. And when we find the enormous
frauds of the New Orleans custom
house under Casey's administration
brought home to the nations cogniz-
ancc by an investigation committee
of the House we find the President
playing into the brother-iu-law 5 hands
in the way of suppressing evidence by
refusing indemnity to those suboTdi-
mates who would have informed against
him and Casey retained his lucrative
45., . -, ,.o,I +ba G,ndS and aDDlv them