Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1881-09-29
General Grant.
Montgomery Advertiser


ga man is judged by the company ne
keeps"
There was never a iuster standard by
which TO measure the calihre snd character
Of q man; and yet it would be unjust yet
to Judge that President Arthur does not
mean to rise above the level of General
Grant in the high Cffiee upon which he has
Just now entered.
OminOus as it may appear to see this no.
torious patrOnist of corrupt rings, this cen
trail figure of the third term revolution, so
early and cOnspicuOusiy accompanying the
new President yet 1t may be more the re-
suit Of accident or of former friendship and
association than from any purpose of Presi-
dent Arthur to be guided by so dangerous
counsellor. IL may seem strange, indeed,
that General Grant should be so prominent
figure since the death of the late Presi
dent. He is arm in arm with President Ar
thur st Elberon, accompanying him to New
York then seen again among the high
officials of the government In the funeral
journey to Washington keeping In COM
pany all the while with President Arthur,
and then at the ceremony Of the inaugura-
tiou.
II is announced that the President already
is looking troubled and cAre-Worn.
No wonder; the gravity Of the situation
is immense-the responsibility prodigious.
Never before has President Arthur had
such q demand made upon his frmness;
never was such a test made Of his man
hood. He cannot fail to see and appreciate
that It is absolutely necessary for him to be
rid of Grant and all his third term fol-
lowers. For he is forced to see that the ad-
mission of Grant to his councils is simply
20 open the door again to Brady and
Belknap and Dorsey and Babcock and
Landaulet Williams, and the whole host of
scOundTels that swarmed around Grant and
are ready to crowd iuto whatever place be
may be suffered to enter.
Grant undOub' edly is the most dangerous
nan 10 America-dangerOu TO the liberties
OF the people and the honest administration
of the government. 1t is not because of
| his brilliant intellect; for he is nOtoriously
stupid. Il is not because of his sObriety
/ for he is prOverbially otherwise. IL is not
because OF his good faith; for President
| johnson proved him falsifer in the pres
ence OF his whole Cabinet. 1t is not be-
cause OF his tTuthfulDess; for when last
year he went from the hOspitalities and
kindness he had received at the South, he
! veniured at Cairo and elsewhere to read
| the truth as he had seen ft, and had written
It, to the crowds that gathered TO
see him, and yet in few weeks thereafter
all over the North wherever Mr..
Conkling carried him, he stood, SIS
well he could, before vast crowds, and in his
Il
had told, and slandered the South as he did
| Gen. Hancock, to his hearts content, and
/ to the delight of those who trained him. He
/ is dangerous, not because his own admins
tratiOns were honest and able, for they were
the most corrupt and pitiable that ever dis
/ graced a civilized people. An eminent
/ citizen. Senator Vest, of Missouri, in q late
/ letter quoted from Gen. Grants recent Ut
teraDce ''that pensions must be paid to none
but Union soldiers, aud asks what drug
can have so changed the speaker since his
words st Cairo and Bloomington, when he
paid tribute to the devotion to their country
of those who wore the gray? The language
of Grant is an insinuatiOn of the basest sort,
for ex- COnfederates have neither asked mol
thought of pension suits"
Aud yet for all that, It is simply like him
to make such iusinuatiOns.
He is dangerous, because of his untamed
ambition for power and his Unsuitable greed
| for gold He is dangerous, because OF the
strange infatuatiOn for him and his ways
that possess so large a portion of the North.
He is the recognized head centre and tool
of the imperslists. Aud the imperialists,
though still now, are not dead. Conkling
Is coming TO the front again. Cameron is
waiting and watching. They failed at Gin
cinnati in opening the way to the throne;
! but they showed the spirit that possessed
them. 1t is the spirit that clings with the
tenseity of death to its purpose.
President Arthur must see that it is duty
he is compelled TO perform, no matter what
it msy cost him, to be rid of General Grant
and all that Grant implies.
There is no honor to President Arthur mol
safely TO the country in the path Of the
| imDeTfalist