The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1877-03-05
GneGtttelIi9sufer.
The OutgoLng AdnlInIstralIon.

General Gran, has held the high Office
.of President Of The United States for
eight years. To-day another takes the
position with its honors and responsibil.
ities, and be retires to private life,
For sixteen years President Grant has
been in public life. For much oithat time
he has been the central figure of the his.
toric drama enacted OH the national
stage.
In the beginning Of the war a CAPTAIN
Of Illinois volunteers, commissioned n
Colonel on the l7th Of June 1861 fol.
lowed rapidly by his promotion TO the
rank Of Brigadier General Of volunteers,
Major General In the regular army,
Lieutenant General, and, finally, General
Of all the armies Of the United States.
From the 18th Of August, 1867, until
January, 1868, he held the position Of
Secretary Of War ad interim.
Unanimously chosen as the candidate Of
the Republican party for the Presidency
in May 1868, he was elected in the Novem.
Der following aud took llia seat in March
1869, again nominated and elected in
1872, and to-day he stands, hat in hand,
rejoicing to be released. from the burden
and responsibility Of Office. Such is the
epitomized record Of his life. His valor,
his patriotism, his brilliant achievements
in war, behold are they no, written in
tue chronicles Of the Nation.
Succeeding to the office OF President on
the heels Of the dissension aroused by the
johnson policy, General Grant inherited
as legacy the hot contentious embitter.
ed by the memories OF the civil war,
which had again rudely stirred the pas
sions Of the people. Under those circum.
stances with the difficult problem Of
State governments for the South, with
the supreme issues involved in the 18th
amendment, debated with fierce passion
by the flushed and victorious North on
the one side and the conquered and EN-.
bittered South on the other, il isnot tu be
wondered at that the civil administration
Of General Grant should, in many re.
spects, have fallen far short of the .s.
pectations Of an influential portion Of the
party that supported him.
Against all the mistakes Which he free.
ly:admits himself to have made there
remains the supreme, vital coD,r,,,;,o
fact, in the light of which the future will
pronounce upon his civil rule that tho
work of redncinp the tremeudops dsb,
incurred in saving the life of the nation
which had begun when General Grant ma.
sumed the Presidency, was continued with
that dopped dissemination TIM. invirc;.
BILE persistence. which mastered the yrs,,
rebellion. During the eiph. veor.of h;s
administration the national 5ebt b,. bonn
reduced bv more than sAo5 ooO oOo ~
nearly one.sixth of the amount on,star1.
ing at the commencement of hi. admin.
i.tration. The in,crest b.,beeu relh,cSd
by over s3OOOO 900 a wear and the OK.
penditures Of the government deereased
from sl9O OOO,O 900 10 sl5s, 100000 Tsxes
have been reduced, because the finances
have been administered with an ecopo.
my, an efficiency and an honesty that il
without parallel in our national history.
In the terrible financial crash which
came upon the country when, under the
sore distress OF business depression, there
came up from the whole land demand
for imitation of The currency and N hin