The New York herald., 1876-07-15
Tho President and Personal Govern-
ment.

-
instructive despatch from Washington CIV
ing the Presidents side of the recent remov-
ais. The fact that the country SO rarely
hears the Presidential side Of story arises
from General Grants singular habits of hav-
ing no relations with the people. His theory
is that newspapers are venal and deceptive.
He has an Oriental notion that the people
should take for granted that whatever he
does is right, let the newspapers print
what they will. The consequence is that
many things which the President does, and
which have brought upon his administra-
tion unpopularity, are misunderstood. The
President wraps himself up in stolid, slug
gish Indifference. He has a plunder-gorged
Senate and is content 1t was once his
pride that he would have no policy opposed
to the will of the people. Yet we have never
had President who showed as little regard
for the will of the people. We have never
had q President who removed officers of the
Cabinet, chiefs Of important bureaus. officers
of the law, like Dyer without deigning q
word of explanation. When the personal
government policy was introduced into
he went to the trouble of changing his
whole Cabinet so as to remove one or two
members who were not agreeable to him.
This was his Difference to public opinion.
| When Mr.. Buchanan wished to carry
| through the Lecompton legislation he re-
| moved postmasters and minor officers. AL
though the action of jackson was q violation
&c <ha osx<la ~c<
although the protests against Buchanan's
| prescription ruined his administration, in
each case there were party reasons for the
| Presidents action. But no such reasons
exist now. The men whom the President
has removed stand high in the party conf
| dence Mr.. Bristow was the choice of some
Of the best men in the republican party for
| the Presidency. Mr.. Pratt had been Sem
ator from Indiana Mr.. Jewell had been
Governor of Connecticut and also a candi-
date for the Presidency. There is not one
of these men who will oppose Hayes and
Wheeler. There is not one who is not as
good republican as the President himself
and as much entitled to the confidence and
recognition of the party.
what the friends of the President deem to be
his reasons for this strange course. The
| President has discovered that he is the VIC
tim of conspiracy. He is profoundly
convinced that he was for q considerable
time the victim of treachery in the Cabinet
Bristow, he has discovered, used the whiskey
prosecutions to throw odium on him, and
IL l.. q 4 ~.
ury, was inspiring attacks upon him in the
| press. No explanation is given about Mr..
Jewell, although he, too, has probably shown
a "disloyal" feeling, for the President is re-
puted as saying, II think I may as well
have friends in Office under me as enemies,
and am determined not to be guided by
what Senators and Representatives may say,
but shall decide in these matters for my.
self" He throws out o challenge to Bristow
to do his worst, in his letter printed yester-
day, requesting that gentleman or any other
member of his Cabinet to go before the
House and tell oil he knows. This is bold
and an intelligent defiance, and will put not
only Bristow but Jewell in an awkward
position. Each of these gentlemen has gone
before committee of the House and de-
clined to answer questions on the ground
! that Cabinet relations were confidential and
they could not speak. The President
promptly releases them from this obligation,
and they can unburden themselves at
leisure.
AS the issue now stands the President is
| in an attitude of defiance. If it is true that
| there has been treachery in the Cabinet,
that gentlemen bound to him in the most
intimate and solemn relation that can exist
in public life were guilty of treachery, then
no man of honor will for moment question
his acts. But how do we know that this is
true? If men, trusted like Bristow and
Jewell, are really conspirators against the
President the party should know it. There
could be no graver political crimc and the
President has no right to shield those guilty
of it from party condemnation, to allow
them to retire with honor from his Cabinet
to enter future cabinets, perhaps, and betray
future administrations. If the President
has discovered treachery on the part of his
| chief counsellors he wrongs no one more
than himself by shielding them. The Pres
| ident is the last man to be afraid Of the
people. The citizens of the Republic would
much rather think well than i'll of General
Grant We oil know what he has done
what he could do if the public
safety required. We all know that, long
after these hours of passion and par
tisanship are passed, his name will
be one of the trophies of our history
The President could at once rally the coun-
try to him by one of those plain, simple
letters he knows so we'll how to write. He
has but to say, "Gentlemen Of the repub-
lican party, froze Bristow out of the Cab
met for treachery. I dismissed Jewell for