The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1879-10-02
CRAMPS GREATEST SPEECH
THE GREATEST OF ALL HIS
VICTORIES.

NECIOHIESs
The personal government OF Grant
was natural. It's willful selfishness
sprang from his military training,
modes of thinking aud habits Of life.
A soldier should not govern a republic.
The people blindly reverence gunpow-
der glory, and he who wins it as q SOL
der is apt to find willing slaves for the
willing despot. Therefore the danger
runs IN both directions. See how the
great multitude of San Francisco, in
cluding sn organized association OF
Confederate soldiers, respect the pres
ence of the silent soldier. NiLe
can say that these demonstrations
signify nothing; on the contrary, they
are confessions of the glamour OF
Grants greatness achieved by great
deeds. He orquered Lee and Davis.
He opened the Mississippi when Con-
federalism sbsurdly sought to dam it
up with bayonets and custom houses
at Cairo, and he said, in November,
1861, Just after Belmont was fought,
tn It when the river was open from it.
source to the sea, he would RESUME
peaceful avocations. b It o:her CONT
mental and perhaps ambitious purposes
mastered him, and alta Donelson and
Vicksbuig fell, and victory was
snstched from defeat at Shiloh,
and the Mississippi and its tribu-
taries and its cities were held by
bis legions and navies, there remsined
Chattanooga and Richmond to capture,
and Grants great talks were done.
Not until all these triumphs were
achieved, either one enough to make
his name immortal, was the conquest
complete and soldiers glory perfect.
When Grant has been freed from the
presence and influence of depraved
partisans he has acted and spoken
generously Of the soldiers and people
of the South. When he had assented
to Lincoln's most liberal plans of re
construction and been always Demo-
crat, addicted, in the old army, to
Southern associations, the South re
jected him as candidate for the
presidency and voted solidly against
him. This was right and proper, but
proved impolitic. II the South had made
him President the South would have
been as blest as 1t has been accursed.
Grant was driven into an organization
which he originally disliked even as
Congressman have suffered themselves
to be driven by party managers into
the discussion of questions that appeal
directly to every prejudice and passion
begotten of war. The people of the
South are plundered and tyrannized
over and reviled; but the party-lead-
ers and politicians use the facts to
keep themselves in Office, and however
degraded our lot those who dragged US
into the pit and keep US there are
arrayed In purple and fine linen. They
hold the offices, Federal and State, and
simply by pandering to Northern and
Southern passions and prejudices
rather than appealing to the country's
common sense. That Grant has great
wees must be confessed, but he has
grand virtues and is one of the greatest
men that lives to-day. The world
never confessed the fact till he said,
within the past sixty days:
NJ man who knows what the presi-
denoy imposes would care to see
friend in the office. / have had my
share of it-have had all the honors
that can be or should be given to any
cit zen, and there are many able and
distinguished men who have earned
the Office. To one of them it should
be given.
General Grant having said this
and feeling and believing it, is no
politician, and hence we may speak of
him in non-partissn spirit. But he is
not fit for the Presidency. He has ge-
MUS to comprehend, and ability to ex-
ecute, but his government was the
government of Grant, rather than of the
Constitution aud laws - the govern
ment of soldier and not of ciyilian.
Yet Grant deserves the honors extend
ed him, and nothing more becomes a
soldier, Northern or Southern, worthy
of the fame of heroes, than the con-
duct of those scared and gray Con-
federate soldiers who marched in q
body and paid respect to the presence
of the ex-President. His greatness
and his glory, as with the immortal
Lee, are not of the North or Of the
South but of the whole country, and
true and brave men may pay respect to
the presence Of the one as they honor
and revere the memory eof the other.
1t is needless to say that Grants
grandest, greatest victory is thir, which,
in declining the presidency, he wins
over himself and thus does he win the
confidence and admiration of his coun-
trymen.