The comet., 1880-10-16
THE GREAT AMERICAN ASS.

Whatif the American people should
make the discovery that there was
somebody else in the broad limits OF
their country who was entitled tt
eclat besides Grant? Suppose they
should find out that they had been
worshipping a "King Log" who
when he did break his impenetrablc
silence, wrote himself down as an un-
informed, indelicate, venomOus, dis
appointed military peacock, who has
strutted around the world under the
impression that he was the only man
in it entitled to be central figure
Suppose that they should be made to
understand that Grant is an ass--a stu
pendOus asian ass of colossal dimen-
sions-who has, until now, developed
exactly the wisdom of an ass-the
wisdom of silence, except when he
brayed-and who, when he pulled off
this veil which concealed his glaring
deformity of manhood and intellectual
imbecility, exhibited himself as full Of
the petty spite ond spleen of personal
disappointment, which could have no
lOdgment in great soul nor find any
expression from great intellect. We
are willing to admit that we never had
any admira ton for the character of
Grant. He has permitted his name
and fame to be prostituted as ignoblc
tools for the accomplishment of lgno
bic purposes. With opportunities
greater and grander than almost any
other son of earth ever had to mark him
self high up on the enduring tablets Of
the worlds history AS a truly great
and efficient agent in the immeliora-
ton of human woes and the promotion
of the prosperity and happiness of
mankind, he has dwarfed them all to
the ministratiOn of a boundlCss selfish
ness and the cultivation of set of
rcdemptionless scamps who have dis
graccd him and the nation they
betrayed.
But nothing has ever occurred in
the accidental career of Grant which
made him absolutely contemplate
until he took occasion to vent his
peevshness against Ger. Hancock
because that brilliant officer was
beginning to occupy more of public
attention than himself. He styles
Hancock as weak, vain, fond of praise,
etc. Was there ever II more transpa-
rcent effort of a disappointed martinez
to judge man by his own standard ?
could anything be palmer than the
fact that he measures Hancock by
himself? Was there ever more
shameless confession of individual
chagrin? 1t scarely rises above the
modification of n schoolboy who is
defeated as the leader of one side of n
base ball game. 1t exhibits Grant
plainly as the custodian of sentiments
and capacities which he weakly tries
to fasten on Hancock. Can the bit
terest opponent of Gen. Hancock point
to a single instance where he, amid
all ofhis crosses and disappointments in
being rudely supplanted by Grant, even
approximated to 50 great littleness
1t is base insult to the unsullied re-
cord of a real hero and genuine
man, to intimate the possibility of
such supercilious belittlement. But
Grant has done this thing, and it is
the few acts of his life not
prompted by brute force or sublime
luck, and it damns him etfectually in
the estimation of all real nobility of
He cannot recover from it.
1t is killing in its effects, and shelves
him for the future. His influence is
gone. No amount of sOphistry,
no accumulations of sycophantic
no density of stupidity
and "silence," can ever bring him
forward again. His keepers ought
to have kept the paddock on his
mouth. 1t was dangerous to let
him speak, for he don't know how to
talk.