The New York herald., 1876-12-06
The Message.

Grant is the emptiest document Of the kind
ever sent to Congress, but it has the merit of
being short. The President is man of sense
He scorns to make parade of recommends
tions which have no chance of adoption.
or to spin out words to no purpose We
commend the brcvity and have no particular
fault to find with the inanity of his final
Message. In the earlier days of his admin
istration, when his political party had large
majorities in both houses, he made
many recommendations which were ig-
nored or rejected and very few that
We're adopted. Why should he continue to
make idle recommendations now, when one
branch of Congress is democratic when no
bill can pass without the consent of his po-
litical opponents; when he cannot remain in
! Office to carry out new policy,
and when it is fore9one GER
tainty that Congress will be engrossed
through the greater part of this session
with exciting questions bearing on the elec-
tion of his successor? The expiring months
of feeble administration is no time for the
Inauguration Of great measures. Even if it
were certain that Mr.. Hayes is to be the
next President General Grant would natur-
ally recoil from attempts to inaugurate
new policy when the administration is about
to pass into other hands. Delicate consid-
Grafton for his successor would prompt him
to leave the future in his hands, so far rs
the future may depend on executive influ-
ence. The reasons for abstinence are. still
stronger if Mr.. Tildeu is to be the next
President. A democratic successor would
disdan to borrow General Grants ideas,
and good measures would have better
chance if the credit of originating them were
left to the new President. 1t is mark of
sagacity and good sense to leave future
measures to those who will be responsible
for their success
President Grants unexpected reticence on
the great question which SO deeply agitates
the public mind is also wise 1t was sup
posed that he would discuss matters con-
nected with tho Presidential contest, and
to any mind less practical and down.
right than that Of General Grant this
would have been great temptation.
But parade of his views on this exciting
subject would have been idle, and President
Grant evinces the solid qualities of his
mind in keeping clear of it. No recommen-
dation which he could have made in rela-
ton to the counting of the electoral votes
would have been adopted by this Con-
gress. and safeguards against the recurrence
of similar difficulties had better be left to a
calmer period. There will be opportunities
for deliberate action on this subject in less
heated political atmosphere before another
Presidential election. No precautions for
the future can be adopted until after the ex-
citement which attends this canvass shall
have blown over. The country must get
through the present alarming difficulty as
best il may, and provisions against it's re-
currence must be postponed to time when
Congress and the people are in q more judi
ciai temper President Grant is to be COM
mended for not proposing remedies which
have no chance of immediate adoption, and
which. however sincerely meant, would be
attributed to partisan bias.
The only striking feature in this trivial
Message is the apologetic and defensive tone
of remark in which the President INDUCES
at it's beginning and again near the end.
There is trite French proverb that
he who excuses himself becomes his
own accuser. To offer excuses is conces-
sion that excuses are necessary, which
implies an admission that the person who
makes them has fallen short of what might
have been expected of him. President
Grant pleads in mitigation of sentence that
ba la1 tn ba Of iaf
Executive without any previous politi-
cal training" He says that after the
! age of seventeen he never witnessed
but two Presidential elections before
he became candidate himself, and that in
only one of the two was he entitled to vote.
This pathetic plea of inexperience is of
little account During the six years that he
was General-in- Chief of the Army he was
brought into constant intercourse with
the most conspicuous public men in the
country. He spent the four years which
intervened between the close of the war and
his accession to the Presidency in Washing
| ton, the great focus of American politics.
| That was period of comparative leisure,
which afforded him ample opportunity for
political observation and for forming tho
acquaintance of all the conspicuous men
in public life. Such intercourse did not
make General Grant q statesman, but it
should have enabled him to form an intelli-
| gent judgment of the relative standing of
the leading public men of the country. Few
Presidents have had such excellent op-
portunities for enabling them to make
a wise selection of official advisers, and
President Grant has failed in civil life be-
cause he did not bring strong men into his
Cabinet. Any man of halfhis sense and pene-
tration and halfKis opportunities for observa-
ton and intercourse should have been able