Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1881-06-03
Mr.. Grant.
Neac Orleans Times.

mr.. Grant.
| NeU Orleans Times.
Some time since the Times proposed.
In all seriousness, an amendment 10 the
Constitution of the United States. that
each outgoing President should be taken,
| the day after the Inauguration of his
successor, and sOlemnly shot by the
drum major of the Marine Band or some
other high official, and buried, with all
due honors, in an appropriate manner.
Among many reasons which commend
themselves to the thoughtful mind for
an amendment of this sort one main
reason is that it will effectually prevent
ex-Presidents from cheapening or dis
gracing the high Office they have once
held We should be spared the painful
affliction of seeing the hat sent round to
keep an ex-President from starving, of
seeing him become a free lunch tiend
and a deadhead demon. and a general
pauper on the scraps from rich mems
tables He has held the highest Office
possible extant in the world at this pres.
ent time, and it is disgraceful that he
should be lick-k in the kitchens of
vulgar rich men, speculating knaves
who make him president" of this or
the other wildcat fair or company, and
dole him out his clothes and cigars, for
the use of his name.
We have at present two ex- -Emperors
on our hands. They are both healthy
and it is very likely we shall add one to
their honorable brotherhood every four
years for some time to come. They are
likely to be a growing embarrassment,
aud we see no effectual means to deal
with them except in the way of the
Times amendment
Up to four years ago ex Presidents
were generally harmless old gentlemen.
When the country or the party had got
done with them. they retired to farm.
But four years ago we got a new style
of eXPresident on our hands. Mr..
Grant had tasted blood. He didn't want
to be ex-President at ALL He had never
been able TO make his living on a farm,
in tannery. nor anywhere else. He
couldn't get dollar ahead, except when
Yankee Doodle paid his bills, and not
many dollars then Mr.. Hayes takes to
Fremont aud his corn crop. pumpkins
and pigs quite naturally. He will be
good fence viewer, justice of the peace
and judge at county fairs, and happy
old fogy for many years.
But our Ulysses doesn't like being ex
President. He never was successful or
respectable till we made him General
and President. He doesn't know any
thing about pumpkins or pigs, and
camp meetings and not county fairs
were Ulysses weaknesses He has hob
nobbed with the Emperor Ushang
Whang, of the Cannibal Islands, and
taken his beer with Victoria in his dead
head trip as ex-Emperor of America
round the universe, and be sees no love-
illness in settling down to fatten pigs and
be a moral Solon in the swamps of
Suckerdom. He wants to keep on being
President.
He is not much in the way of the
country. The country has got through
with him. But he is a dreadful nuisance
to the Republican party 1t has our
sympathies. He rides it like the old man
of the sea. 1t has tried to bribe him with
a Worlds Fair, with the Presidency of
a wild cat railroad; with unlimited free
lunches. drinks and cigars; with hat
full of contributions from all the bond
holders and monopolists. But the old
gentleman must be quiet. He owns the
Republican party. He saved it,
at all events, twice. He spread his
name over its corruptions, knaveries, dis
graces. He had the distinguished honor
of presiding eight years over the mean
est and most debauched administration
the country ever knew-an administra-
tion which will go down as mOnumen-
tai infamy to all time, with his name at
the head of it. He was the first and
higherto the only President of the United
States who used the office not as trust
but as reward, vulgar prize, won for
personal uses. He has the distinguished
honor of being the first man who cap
tured that great place and used it for
himself and his sfriends-and such friends!
And he won't forget it. The world is
changed The country is changed.
Honesty has come in or is trying to.
Modesty has sent card with regrets.
Belknap, Landaulet Williams, Tom
Murphy, "the Grant crowd" have be-
come too old. Everybody knows it ex-
cept Mr.. Grant He and his admins
tration smell strong in the nostrils of the
party. But the stubborn old man won't
see that he is a nuisance, that "the vete-
ran lagS superfuous on the stage" The
'silent soldier" we all admired land
whose silence some of US thought was
owing to the fact that he mad nothing to |
say has taken to writing letters and |
speechifying.
1t is pity he did not remain silent.
His speeches and his letters are fast |
running splendid fame. 1t is the case
of an ex President disgracing his dignity. |
He can't retire gracefully He thinks he |
owns the country, at least the Republi- |
can party. Mr.. Hayes feeding his pigs
at Fremont, Ohio, is respectable figure.
Mr.. Grant, the pensioner of stock gam
blers and shoddy millionaires, the pen
sioner of the dirtiest and meanest plutoc. |
racy that was ever seen in history, writ
ing silly letters. insolent and dictatorial,
to his party" is the most unhappy
figure on the national canvas.
But he is the Republican partys prob
lem. not ours. We speak because we
have lingering respect for 'the silent
soldier" yet. Ii he has any friends we
plead with them to take charge of him,
and save him from running a splendid
fame, from going down as at the last the
poor tool of dirty politicians, who for
their own mean ends make a fool of
him before people who have honored
him quite as much as he deserves, and
who don't want him, nor his ways, nor
his Belknaps, his Murphys, his Will
liamses, nor any of the "Grant crowd"
any more forever.
His speeches and his letters, since ''the
silent soldier" became the Cabling poll
Lician, are a living argument for the
solem shooting of all ex-Presidents on
the fifth of March Let the Times
pas!
A FIsHY STORY ABOUT THE PREsI-
DENT. "A Washington special to the
Courier Journal says: "The story print