American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1881-03-19
What Shall BE Done for General Grants
Dignifys

The question is one that has grown
up, or been pushed up, before the public
mind only within few months. When
we first began to know the General.
there was nobody's dignity in all the
world that took care of itself: more
effectually, without the slightest atten-
ton from anybody, than U. S. Grants.
Perhaps the reason why it needed SO
little care was that it got SO little from
himself, in those days when there was
such tremendous work to do, and he
was one of those rare men who stuck
doggedly to the work, without any side
chances at the newspapers to see how
his dignity was getting on. He did not
write dramatic dispatches nor put him
self into impressive attitudes. When
it came to that kind of thing, General
Banks was unspeakably more majestic.
His dignity was sedulously taken care
of; and so, in 4 different way, was Cen
eral Buffers. But Grant kept driving
ahead at his business, knowing imme-
diately on the enemy works." as if he
didn't have any such baggage as dig
dous fighting that ended in the fall of
Vicksburg, he was sent for to. Wash
jpgton, wkere ka was the universal adk
slaI6atfon; But heltold the Pr6si l1s.&Efs
his Council Of W. shcd they
.pseid hurry hH Ibis orders,
s1sr he was Easi susiness.'
BAnd when TIC Ameriean people heard
that, they clapped their hads, like
the multitudinous waves, and said
to n one another: 'sHere's digni-
TT now! Here's man that
II thinking about feathers in his
or stars ON his shoulderi Here S
another man us Abraham Lincolnr BY
and by some fAhe politicians succeed
ed in getting att him in his tent in Vir-
ginia and whispered to him confidential
ly that a gentleman in his position could
have anything he wished for that was
in the. gift of the people. Couldn't he
think of something he would ike? And,
after reflection, he said there was one
thing. He did wish the Common Coun-
Gil of Galena would make q plank walk
as far as his front gate. But the finest
thing, it seems to me- in all Grants ca
reer. was his willingness to sit still and
hardly hold his own along tho trenches
looking toward Richmond, with all the
country impatiently wondering why
Grant did not strike, While sheridan
and Sherman, his subordinates, were in
the full blaze of popular admiration and
he himself a little in the shadow. This
was. heroic. In those brave old days
it probably did not occur to any one in
the civilized world that measures were
necessary to secure Ulysses Grant dig
nifty. But now things have changed.
The Times is passing round the hat,
and the Independent is bidding for a
pension and title, and Mr.. Hayes is
trying to invent new pattern of epau-
let, all because 'Mrs Grants dignity is
Ixr.+ Il,
for It. Nhat can have made the differ
+. suppose that there were people
who voted for Grant for President in
1868, because he "deserved" it, or
was !" entitled to it, or it was ICON
ferring honor" on him. In every
election, great or small there, are fools
who give their votes for such reasons.
But good citizens, worthy of the trust
of citizenship, voted for him not for
Grants sake, but for the cotifitry's
sake. We thought that he had quail
ties that were needed in the Presidency
the simple straightforwardness the
devotion to. public duty, without re-
gard to public interest; the faculty and
the will to find the right place; the set
resolution that would fight it through
on a well-considered line of back-door
influence; opposition in front and rear.
We thought we knew our man, and
were voting for things ike these When
we voted for Grant for President. ). We.
thought we. were doing a good thing
for the dignity not of Grant, but of the
office, by putting worthy man into it,
r&Weii, there is sno denying It, TIE,
cctintry = was partly Disappointed.
Without. repeating Mr.. Summers /.
overstrained Indictment against Grants
Administration, we have. to acknowl-,
we most relied on him he failed us.
The faculty of picking Observation-Disclosures,
which had been conspicuous in the
field, was conspicuously absent in the
Presidency. The logged tenacity of
purpose gave away on the one line of
policy on which he committed himself
most resolutely-the Civil Service Re-
form. And the superiority to all self-seek-
ing here was the most lamentable lack.
No citizen since Washington refused
crown, no President since Presidents
began to be had had SO many and such
noble opportunities for acts of dignity.
So many occasions there were when,
with the highest propriety, he might
have courteously declined gifts from
persons who might be candidates for
official favor; but he missed these OPP
portunities. The SALARY. Crab bill
in which Congress, for instance, Of
fered Mr.. Grant, then President, more
or less, for himself, as a reward for
his signing the bill that was to
enrich them, might have been returned
to the House which it originated. with
a sharp rebuke for the insult it implied.
But it was not. He pocketcd the in
suit and the cash.
1t was part of the dignityof General
Grants character. rs we first knew him,
that he s'did not like the show bust
ness" But, after eight years in the
White House, he found that there was
hardly anything in the world that he
liked so much, and straightway he set
out. like Mrs. Jarlcy's wax figure, for
a ''tour among the crowned heads of
Europe" The tour of the world to see
and learn is q worthy thing to under
The spectacle of this brave, honest sol |
dier, carried about like circus, and |
engaged in squabbles about his place at |
table, under the idea that he'w de- |
Tending the honor of his country, is |
among the things which have impressed |
his particular friends that something /
needs to be done for his dignity.
1t IS safe to say that tho reason why /
the American people did not re-elect |
Grant for President was that, +
on the whole, they did not like him for
President and thought they could do |
better. 1t could not have been on &C.
count of the ''flapdoodle'' of Caesar
ism" that was fed out so pro-
fusely to their readers by tho Herald
and the Sats [ will not saw that no.