Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1881-12-15
PensiOning Grant.


The public mind is in no condition to
hear with any sort Of patience of the
proposal to retire Grant on the army list
with additional hcnors and a big salary.
quite naturally Senator Logan proposes
il, and men of his character and political
associations may he found to favor it.
But it is an impudent and outrageous
proposal. Whatever dispute there may
DC about Grants character and services
rs a soldier, there is little difference of
opinion among intelligent and patriotic
men regarding his civil career. For his
services in the field his country loaded
him with public and private honOrs and
rich rewards far in excess of the long
line of more illustrious and more
deserving men who have done it ser
vice and received its gratitude. For
his administration of the presidency
he should gratefully seek oblivion and
iOrgetfulnesS. Its record is story of
shame for him and hecountry. The in
fluence of no man or set of men has ever
SO debased the government us that OF
President Grant and those with whom
he surrounded himself. His degradation
of the Office was only equallcd by his i'm
pudence in seeking to gain it for 4 third
term, against all our national traditions,
in order that he might reinstate those in
whose expulsion honest men of all
parties were gratilied. Every line of
this from the Philadelphia Times is so
true that we are glad to adopt and un-
qualifiedly approve it
But General Grant was not content to
command the homage of the whole people
by adorning private citizenship. He
plunged into partisan strife sought
presidential nomination in the face of the
earnest protests of a large majority of his
party suffered humiliatiDg defeat that
dimmcd the lustre Of the chaplets tho
country had awarded him sulked in his
political tent until tho spoils were bartered
for, and then offended both friend and foe
by the most undignified and recklessly
partisan speeches delivered in the contest.
Gen. Grant deliberately chose to appeal
to conclave Of faction rather than to the
country, and his sdisappointments were tenn
pered by generous gifts, making him pc
CuuldIIy AuuCpCuucuO lOE dA GltU0 10 come. |
His ungentlemanly and unsoldierly defam-
alton Of Gen. Hancock placed him beyond
the pale of respect in the army and be-
yond the pale of respect in the intelligent
circles Of all parties and the whole cOun-
try deplored the humiliation Gen. Grant |
inflicted upon himself and thereby un-
measurably upon tho nation.
The truth demands the statement that |
the passage of Senator Logan's bill, re-
storing Gen. Grant nominally to be pen
stoned for life, would find fcw approving
voices among the people. He has volun-
t.lriIy descended from tho high portal of
fame the country gratefully gave him, and
made himself a low partisan and a politi-
cal srecuIator, and he has thus absolved
the nation from tho duty of lavishing un-
honors upon him. If he were
in want, or even approximating want,
any measure for his relief would be cor
daily favored but gifts have been lavish
ed upon him, mainly from political or
speculative friends, until he is richer in
fortune than were Washington, Jackson
md Lincoln combined at their death.