The weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1878-1881, 1880-05-11
THE LAST OF. THE sLooDY sHfar.

General Grant seems in a fair way of losing
one of his titles, that of the "Silent Man,
During the candidacy for each Of the two
terms during which he has already sat in tie
Presidential chair, he enjoyed the full benefit
of that fund of latent strength which consists
in mere silence. But the policy of silence
once adopted should have been persevered in;
for if it be true that the "silent mouth makes
a wise head" it is no less true that the head
is very apt to lose its reputation for wisdom
when the mouth, through speech however
silvery, forfeits its attribute Of golden
silence. A change of this character has late
ly been observed in General Grant, whose
success. as an orator has been the reverse of
striking. Indeed, according the Nation, Cen
eral Grant, in his speech making, has come
very near repeating the performances of the
Hibernian gentleman, "who never opened his
mouth without putting his foot in IT., and the
consequences are about as disastrous as those
resulting from that historic, gymnastic feat.
Throughout his southern tour General Grant
delivered several little speeches and as the
effect Of his clio luence CONSERVATION prevails
in the ranks of the Northern stalwarts. The
speeches were not untruthful. They con-
tained ne misstatements. On the contrary
they were only too truthful to be made avail
able as ammunition in the northern cam
paign. Untruthfulness is not a trait in Gen
eral Grants character. Even if ; it were he
would scarcely have possessed the assurance
to stand before the Southern people and belle
them to their very faces. The trouble did
not arise then from misrepresentation con-
tanned in hisspeeches; but rather from the sur
plus of unsuarded candor they contained.
In their delivery the orator seemed to take
into calculation the effect of his words upon
his immediate auditors, only, and to forget all
about that more distant and more numerous
auditory in the North, to whom the omni-
present press was ready to reecho his words
with a thousand tongues, The consequence
is that at one and the same time are published
General Grants speeches telling us the real
attitude and sentiment of the Southern people
towards the nation, together with the speeches
of the Northern stalwarts in which is de
scribed what they would like to make us
believe the Southern attitude and sentiment
to be. Grant speaks as follows:
at has been my good fortune to have lust
passed through a little bit of every one of e
Southern States lately in rebellion, and il 8
gratifying to me, and l know it will be to you,
that in every one of them scenes, decorations,
and speeches were much the same as we see
and hear to-day. The stars and stripes were
floating everywhere. A great portion Of the
speakers i'll every instance were men who in
the conflict wore the grey and the speeches
which they made show their present devotion
to the flag for which we fought, and which is
all we ask of them-Lhat they should respect
and honor the flag aud become citizens, and
hereafter, if it should be assaulted by a foreign
foe, that they should unite with us as one
people. From the assurances they give |
believe they are sincere, and | hope they
expressed the sentiments of the great majority;
for, united as one people, united as generous
rivals in building up our several States for the
whole Union, and a feeling of loyalty for that
flag, we are a great people, the greatest nation
in the whole world"
But while in the South the ex-President
speaks in this manly and truthful, albeit
unsophisticated style, in the North we have
The tribe Of stalwart orators and writers
preaching the gospel of hate. From ex-Sec-
'e't ia eHS u
RerieW for April, to General Logan, who went
to Illinois to "fx things Gor Grant, it is the
same old sing-song with which we long ago
gre" tamiliar-the same old story about
Southern rife clubs and Regulators White
Leaguers and Ku-kluX, and the new rebellion
whose outbreak is only to be averted by the
election of a radical Republican to the Pres,
ldency. Curiously enough General Grant is
himself the sstrong man" whose election
Boutwell,, Logan < Co. insist upon as neces-
sary to tide us over The danger They SO wildly
describe. In other words, while those North
society which would justify the policy of the
stalwarts, General Grant, himself-he in whose
cause every stalwart warrior has enlisted
assures us that no such state of society exists.
The result of this conflict of authority is a
most distressing contretemps. There is no
subalterns, the words spoken by the COM
mandel-in-chicf, and spoken at the scenes
they pretend TO describe. From such a
dilemma there is no escape. The outrage mill
must cease grinding; the bloody shirt stop
waving and at the eleventh hour, almost ON
the eve Of the election, the radicals must
change their policy. They must bring forward
some other plea than that OF the necessity Of
a%verting a danger which does not exist if they
would justify their claim to a renewal OF the
power they have so shamefully abused.
Hard times are a. length forcing The
California and Nevada Papers to clamor for Il
reduction OF miners wages nn the Comstock.
They do not come out boldly and call for {