The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1877-01-31
PRESIDENT Grants Message.

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 81. 1871.
President Grants Message.
The message Of President GRANT APPROX
inv the bin providing for and regulating the
counting Of the electoral vote sufpfiseo US,
md added another to the many proofs that
President GRANT Is an enigma. he mas pro-
nto,nnccd some Of the most peaceful ana
civil Of sentiments, and has been guilty OF
some al the Eost unauthorized and cruei Of
.css. He has marked his political history
with a number Of strange inconsistencies.
Fi. first act was his loyalty to LEE ana ms
followers. Thst viii always cover . mnsIl.
] tude Of sins. His next was his opinion OF !.
The pacific and sincerely loyal character Oh
the southern people. Then follower n''
doublc-dealing with ANDREW JOHNSON.
Elected to the presidency, heagain show
ed his desire for harmony. He addressed
a man in soldiers clothes and begged nam
n % home and pull of his martial drapery,,
informing him that the war was over, ana
there should be no appearance OF The signs
Of hostility. The GROWING sentiment about
that time was his &C Let us have peace" In
his first message he continued his better
temper, and with fairness and liberality de-
clared, In substance, that the best men OF the
South had been employed in the southern
cause, and that they were not only neees-
sary to manage the public affairs after the
war, but were more reliable than the tickle
men who had vibrated between the two
causes, and w no were at last Republicans
from interest.
AS soon, however, as he got well into his
administration he gave ready audience 10
all the manufactured falsehoods OF the car
pet-baggers and negroes, and implicitly be-
lieved all the suborned certificates signed
with crosses by ignorant negroes; and ne
nut in force the " enforcement laws /"
with rigor, subiecting southern white
people to untold cruelties. All remember
what favor was extended at the White
House to the continual visits OF the MERGE
nary, strolIing wretches who were robbing
the southern States and suggesting all man.
ner Of expressions to deprive the southern
white people Of all participation in the gov
ernments Of their own States. His mes
sages soon showed the power exerted over
his mind by the agencies OF robbery and
wrong-of the "thieves "-and by the
"bloody uitras in Congress.
Through such trials have the southern
States been painfully passing under the
GRANT administration and under the eng
maticai policy Of the President. The closing
act OF his monstrous administration was bis
deliberate plan Of forcing three southern
States to submit their civil proceedings Of
counting" the votes for President and
Vice-President to the supervision OF the
Federal military. and to the Judgment OF
the Federal judiciary, for the purpose OF
compelling those States to vote for the can
didate of the Republican party, which he
boldly declared to be the party he himself
represented. The events are too fresh in
the minds OF oil people to need more par
ticular allusion to this champion outrage Of
the GRANT administration. All remember
the fair language Of Che President, his
assumption >of sincerity and integrity
OF Intention. in attempting to COM
pel civil officers to DO right by
keeping them under military guard! All
remember his earnest appeals to good people
to 60 down to the subjected States and see
that the count was "honest." So like was
this to the artifice Of the necromancer who
calls upon all present to watch closely and
see that there is no cheating in what he is
about to do! And we have all seen that the
act of the President was precisely the trick
Of the necromancer repeated.
Do we not all remember how the Presi-
dent plainly intimated that force was to be
employed in Washington to suppress disor-
der, &c. which everybody understood as
meaning that the work Of the reversal Of
the voice OF the southern States was to be
carried through to consummation, and that
force would crush any dissatisfaction which
might assume tumultuary and insubordi-
nate form. In as many words the unmis-
taxable indications at Washington told the
world that HAYES would be inaugurated by
force.
Afterwards the great constitutional law
yers came together, and the result of their
conference, with their judicial and civil
minds and natures, was the peace measure
and its final passage; and now General
GRANTS better nature appears, showing q
facility OF metamorphosis not excelled by
the agility Of BA1LIE NIcoL JARvIE. When
we saw from the telegraph that he would
send to Congress some reasons for ap-
proving the peace measure, we thought he
could hardly abandon his partisan relations
so completely as to write . message that
wonld be free from some reference to those
returning boards which were so dear to
him, and had been worked through the
Cabinet agent, CHANDLER, with such facili-
ty, such aiacrity Of conformity by the boards
to all requirements-theg greatest readiness
appearing in the performing Of the most
dishonest articles. 80 40
We confess our agreeable surprise on
reading that message to find it so civil and
so patriotic in tone. True that, coming
from the President, the appreciation OF the
civil and fair terms and regulations Of the
bill for the settlement reads very much like
the devil quoting scripture. But then we
have ever been Of opinion that the devil
should be allowed to do kiRd action when
eyer he desires IN f1o on.. +'-