Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1880-09-09

ensuing would nave prOlor S0Q Inc evils OF au
Irredeematle raptr currency under which we
were then suffering? / need not accumulate
further examples to show how incapable the
Democratic party proved itself to understand
and appreciate not only the immediate require
ments Of the times, but facts that had been
virtually accom- lshed, and how its greatest
| efforts were directed to the end of obstructing
| things that had become inevitable, and which
| it afterwards found itself compelled to admit
as good.
And now in the year 1880, when the war issues
are fairly behind Us when, by its eonciliatoIy
spirit and its strict observance Of constitutional
principles, the Government has removed all the
elements Of discord between the two sections
which it was in its power to remove; when,
aided by 2 wise and successful financial policy,
general prosperity is again blessing the land.
and when the people look above all thir gs for
| enlightened, practical craftsmanship that well
understands the questions it has to deal With to
foster and develop that prosperity; now the
Democratic party knows nothing better to do
than to set aside all its statesmen OF known and
settled opinions, political experience and train
ing and to nominate for the presidency a
major general Of the regular army, profess
sionGI soldier, Oho has neUer been anything
else but that, and who from, the Uery nature
and necessities Of has profession has always
stood atocf from the management Of political
questions.
! HANCOCh tOR PRESIDENT.
The question is not whether we shall honor
deserving general. The question is whet Their
that deserving general, General Hancock,
would be the kind of a president who can be
| depended upon successfully 10 solve the prob
lens of state manship which are now before
us; to preserve the good thirgs already done
and improve upon them. To lead battalions
ct brave men against fortified position, or to
win campaign by dashing man9uvre is one
thing; to regulate the finances Of The country
| in such way that the blessings of a sound
currency may be permanently secured to us;
to develop cur commercial opportunities; to
organize the civil service IN such a manner
that it may conduct the public business upon
sound business principles, is another; and IN
the latter case the brave spirit and ability
which storms hostile batteries and lays low in
vad1ng hosts does not appear in the first line CT
importance. When Ich difficult civic duties
are to be performed we shall, as reasonable
men, inquire whether the brilliant captain,
who appears so gorgeous at the head Of his
columns is also familiar with the complex in
terests which in official station Re would have
to serve; whether his knowledge, training, ex-
perience. and mental habits fit him clearly to
distinguish on the politica field good for evil,
not only in the abstract, but in the confusip 6
multiplicity and variety of forms in which
things appear in reality.
1t is believed by many that it is an easy task
| to perform the duties of president of the
United States-that the only thing he has to do
is to form programme of policy which he de-
sires to carry out. and to call good and expert
enced men into his cabinet to attend to the de-
tails of the business without meddling himself
with its intricate complications. The expert
ence have gathered from personal observation,
not only as a member of the Legislative body,
but also of the cabinet, has convinced me that
| this Is great mistake.
The president of the United States, by the
very nature of his position, is obliged TO spend
far more time in listening TO the advice and the
wishes and the urgency Of men outs de of his
cabinet than to his consultations with cabinet
ministers themselves The opposition he may
encounter from the opposing party In Congress
| and IN the press Is, III most cases, the least of
the difficulties he has to contend with. The
greatest puzzles that are apt to perplex and
sometimes TO overwhelm his mind come from
his own party, who have a claim upon his at
tention and insist to have the claim respected.
Not only upon the great meas ures of the ad-
mlnlstratlon, but upon every detail the advice
of the members Of his party, especially those in
Congress: is urged upon him with all magma
BILE sorts of argument and from all imaginable
sorts of motives. There is scarcely an ap-
pointment he has to make-there is certainly
not reform he wants to execute-that he will
not have to carry through siege and storm OF
opposing wishes and interests. Every object
he pursues will run counter to the wishes not
only of his opponents, but of some Of his
friends every reform, the execution of which
may appear to him desirable, will tread upon
the toss of somebody whose interests lie in the
abuse to be reformed, or who has friend to
protect who is connected with it and all these
pleas representations, remonstraIces, urgen-
cies, and pressures go to the president not
through the members of his cabinet, but behind
their backs; and it is matter of long and varied
experience that unless the president himself
has sufficient knowledge of affairs, clear
eye to see through arguments and motives, he
will inevitably be run over and lamentably
fail.
/ speak from experience when I say that
most Of the good things that have been done
under this administration, whatever merit the
respective cabinet ministers may deserve for
them, are no less due to the clearheaded and
faithful support, frequently called the
"AMIABLE oBsTINACY,''
with which President Hayes stood behind
them by warding off the opposition. 1t is for
such reasons Of inestimaple benefit to an
administration that the president himself
should have had the experience of active work
IN legislative bodies, and especially in the Con-
gress of the United States. 1t will require in
a president high degree of that intuitive
genius with which but very few men in CEN
fury endowed to make his administration
successful without that experience.
Now put for the sake of argument in that
most trying position, Gen. Hancock or any man
| "
which he is so conspicuous an ornament
| What has there been in the school Of his past
life to fit him for it? As boy he was accepted
| by the Government as cadet at West Point,
aud that was his college and university That
school absolyed, the young man entered into
the regular army service. Of all classes of our
society it may be said that our regular army is
the most exclusive, the most widely separated
from the ordinary business life of the people in
point Of sympathy, duty, and habit. If we
nave an apart class among US, class whose
contact with the cares and endeavors and bust
ness and obi ects Uf the life of the masses is
only occasional and unsympathetic; class that
in its ideas and aims is separated from the
multitude, it is the officers of the regular army
Their duties may be arduous but, except In
places Of highest command in active warfare
they are extremely simple, specific and narrow,
| and 1t is common experience that the mental
horizon Of men is apt to become limited by the
| sphere of their duties. l have heard it said q
hundred times, by men who had spent the best
part of their lives in the regular army, and
| then were thrown upon their own resources to
make living in ordinary pursuits, that their
army life had untitled them for the everyday
tasks Of society.
1t LAY be said, therefore, without exaggera-
| ton, that in a hundred cases to one, by taking
an old regular army officer, who has never been
anything else, and putting him into the highest
and most difficult political position, and you
spoil an excellent general in making a poor
| president.
| There he is, with an honest intention to do
right and serve his country. Problems of
financial policy suddenly rise up before him
| questions of revenue, of commercial policy, not
| IN the way of general maXims and vague prin-