Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1879-11-15
GEN. GRANT AND THE PRESI-
DENCY.

1t is to be hoped that most readers
still bear in mind the good old JEFF
fersonian test for office, and that
such as do not are willing to be
reminded of it. The questions to
be applied to every candidate were,
"Is he honest? is he capable ?''
Nothing short of an affirmative
answer, clear and distinct, could
justify any citizens vote. Should
it not be so ere1a nOi0? Indeed, as
the republic is now far more en-
dangered and corrupted than then,
so much the more need of adhering
strictly to the test.
Is there an intelligent reader
without the proof of Grants dis
honesty? If so, one great outstand-
ing fact is enough. The salary-grab
filching most unjustly from an
oppressed .ax-paying constituency
thousands upon thousands, puts an
end to all strife and all doubt on
the matter. If that shameful meas
ure were not dishonest, if it were
not virtually stealing, then is there
no dishonesty nor any stealing. An
honest President would dig or beg
rather than stoop to such grab.
AS in all like cases, many, if not
most items in his blundering adj
ministratiOn, drifted along the
same line of injustice.
Nor can it be more necessary to
submit facts to prove the incapacity
of such a man to rule over free
people. The most clustering friend,
trying to do his utmost to make
him President, including Wash
born of Galena, has seldom dared
to even insinuate his capacity or
qualifications as a statesman. His
talent and attainments were alike
too manifestly under par to author
ize even an apology for them. Nor
can it be shown that upon the field
of carnal strife he ever achieved a
victory by strategy or man@uver.
To the heartless and needless sacri-
fee of his soldiers and to his over
powering numbers and equipments
must be attributed his tedious con-
quests.
The first act of his administration
in nominating his munificent donor,
A. t. Stewart, for Secretary of the
Treasury, was an objectionable
blunder, aggravated by persistent
to override the law by
domineering the Senate into con-
him as the money king of
his Cabinet. So was it with his
bullying conduct over one or two of
the poor little West India Isles.
Because he could, he would with
his war vessels brOw-beat them
into subjection, and that, too, as an
Senator clearly showed to
the Senate and the world, against
all the well-known and universally
adopted laws OF nations. In Grants
narrow, spiteful spirit this patriot
for his loyalty and duty to his
country must teen be degraded
from his position as Chairman of
the Committee on Foreign Rela-
tions. Nor is it needfulI to emu
merate any more of the numerous
blunders and wrongs disgracing
this stolid warriors administration,
since on his second nomination he
acknowledged to the nation and
world that he was a novice in states
and since that time the
best men in the Republican party
met at Cincinnati TO nominate a
better man, and at the end of his
second term all with one consent
conceded his entire disqualification
for the White House. Soon there
after the writer in his humble way
the probability of his
drifting back into the Republican
political army and once more COM
the regulars. The Demo
cfat of st. Louis, the Chicago and !