The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1876-12-28

" ambition" and his "designs." The
tone of his Message in its personal
allusions is pathetic. But there are few
impartial Americans who have watched
the course of the Administration closely
who will not agree with the Presidents
words:
: Mistakes have been made, as all can see,
and L admit; but it seems to me, oftener in
the selections made of the assistants ap-
pointed to aid in carrying out the various
duties Of administering the government, in
nearly every case selected without a per-
sonal acquaintance with the appointee, but
upon recommen dation of the Represents
tives chosen directly by the people. 1t is
impossible where so many trusts are to be
allotted that the right parties should be
chosen in every instance. History shows
that no Administration, from the time Of
Washington to the present, has been free
from these mistakes, but 1 leave COM
parsons to history, claiming only that L
have acted in every instance from a con-
scientious desire to do what was right, con-
stitutional, within the law, and for the very
best interests of the whole people. Failures
have been errors OF judgment, not of intent.
The criticism that friend of the Pres
ident would make upon this statement
is, that tie President himself has not
distrusted sufficiently those who gave
him the bad advice, and has listened to
them after they have been plainly dis
credited. 1t is the same disposition that
has led him to cling to measures which
the country disapproved, such as the
SantO Domingo project, to which he
fondly recurs in the Message. But when
all criticisms are made, there remains
the deep conviction in the minds of those
whose judgment, in our opinion, is best
worth having, and certainly of most of
those who have been brought into close
personal and official relations with the
President, that he has acted "in every
instance from conscientious desire to
do what was right, constitutional,
within the law, and for the very
best interests of the whole people"
General Grant did not seek the Presi-
dency. 1t was thrust upon him by the
gratitude of those who had sustained the
war for the Union, which he led in the
field to triumphant victory. For that
great service, for his devoted patriotism,
and for his proved personal purity amidst
|
of his enemies, his place in American
history is secure, and the faithful record
will attest that his " failures have been
errors of judgment, not of intent"
There is tons of weariness in the last
words of this message which is very
touching:
With the present Congress my official life
terminates. 1t is not probable that public
affairs will ever again receive attention from
me further than as a citizen of the republic
always taking deep interest in the honor
integrity, and prosperity of the whole land.
That republics are ungrateful is a. old
saying, and that a faithful and we'll
meaning servant of this republic ba'
been greatly slandered in the President
there is no doubt. A letter illustrating
the ribald abuse which he has received
has been lately published, attributed to
man whose name is signed to it, bui
who, we have hoped, would disclaim it
No denial has been published, and if the
letter be genuine, it will appear thai
Charles OConor, the lawyer who trieC
to subjugate New York to the slave law
of Virginia, and the orator who tried tt
melt the manhood in Northern hearts
that the slavery-debauched South nigh
subdue the Union, has forfeited the re
spect of every honorable American b!
heaping upon Grant as he retires foule
abuse than was ever addressed to Presi
dent of the United States since Duane
Aurora spat at the retiring Washington