The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1881-07-30


would be most likely to know had seri-
Gus doubts whether he would accept
the candidacy if it were offered to him,
and with great positiveness it was
asserted that he would not accept It
unless it were offered as the "spon-
taneous voice" of the party. When it
became evident that. in spite OF all the
delegate-packing the puissant stage
managers could do there would be
powerful and resolute opposition to the
third-term programme. the tone OF the
trumpet-blowers was necessarily modi-
fed; still. the prerense that Grant was
not personally seeking the nomination.
and had no personal aspiration to a
third term was continued to the last
moment, with the tacit consent of the
chief posfulant in this game of political
hypocrisy. That it was a game OF po-
litical hypocrisy is now confessed by
Grant himself. Robertson was made
Collector because he proved traitor
TO me at Chicago, and my friends have
been insulted because they stood true
to me-" There is in this confession a
tone of asperity which shows that the
disappointment of Grant in failing to
get the nomination which his friends
said he was not seeking, and would not
accept unless it came as the spontane-
GUS ..voice of the people" was so
slight that the lapse of whole year
has not sufficed to efface its bitterness!
Robertson was made Collector be-
cause he proved traitor to me-" The
citizen who makes his confession of dis
y .x,f hos l. h
words asserts h mself with some conf
dence. A modester man might have
endeavored TO save appearances by en-
ploying form of speech which, at
least, would not have excluded the sup
position that Robertson may have had
an idea that the country, or, at least.
the political majority, was the object
which wise, if not patriotic, Presi-
dental selector should mainly consider.
1t is, indeed, supposable that citizen
of Judge Robertson's standing and
character, chosen by section OF the
people to select suitable citizen for
President, would think that the Obliga-
ton of fealty. and therefore of duty.
under which he would discharge that
trust, was to the country and not to a
poss bic for Robertson not to perceive
that, as an American citizen and Presi-
Dental selector, his allegiance was due
to single individual, and, therefore,
not to realize the crime of treason 10
that individual. This possibility Grants
confession excludes. Robertson "prov-
ed traitor TO me-" which could not
have been the case If Robertson had
not owed allegiance ''to me-" Grant
confesses that, before the country, be-
fore the Government, before the laws,
before the sovereign political being
called the people, he was personality
to whom the allegiance of an American
citizen was due.
1t is an assertion of himself which re-
minds one of the self-asseItive propen-
sity of a semi-Scotchnan of the name
of James Stuart, who came from
France to England in Ills. An aunt
of his, known as Queen Anne, had re-
Gently vacated the Chief Magistracy,
and it was believed that Stuart was an
ofiice-seeker aspiring to fill the vacan-
cy. But the Britons preferred one
George Guelph, a Dutchman, and Stuart
left the country in some haste. Bit
terry sappointed office-seeKer. He
afterward declared that number OF
Englishmen had been appointed to Of
fec because they proved traitors to
HIM, and that his friends had been in
suited, and some of them jailed, because
they stood true to him. Looking at
the matter from his point OF view, no
doubt he was right. His error was in
looking at it from wrong point of
view. Like Grant. he was too self as
sertiye; too apt TO think of himself as
person to whom other people owed ale
glance.
Grants latest confession is an ex-
tremely unfortunate one for his reputa-
ton. 1t is fatal to good deal of the
sentimental admiration with which lie
has been popularity regarded. 1t lifts
the veil Of fictitious greatness, and dis-
closes an aspect of the human nature
which the world is not accustomed to
associate with illustrious characters
Chicago Times.