Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1883-02-08
Third Term and Empire.

Third Term and Empire.
General Grant is one of the Commits
s:oners on the part of the United States
| to negotiate a new treaty of commerce
with Mexico. This is the ostensible
object of his present visit to Washing
ton. but it is not by any means the only
| or the most important one.
That he came to help Fitz-John Porter
! is, openly declared by himself. But it
/ is a curious fact that, with all his mill
tary prestige and his political afinities,
! Grant was not able to affect single
vote in the Senate. With the exeep-
ton of Hoar. the Republicans who voted
| for Porter were all committed before
Grant espoused his cause.
? When General Grant got the an
nouncement made that he had with
drawn from politics, he did not accom-
pany the advertisement, as MIR, Conk-
7 ling did, with notice of an engage
ment in another pursuit. He simply
retired on his laurels. Now. the Old
Guard that will not die, and does not
know how to surrender, is unwilling to
have the General put on the shelf, and
i Grant has long since been convinced
! that the shelf is bad place for his
| merits.
| A movement is organized to bring
| Grant out next year as full-fledged
candidate for the Presidency. The
managers think the third term
clamor." as they call it, has died out.
They claim that new conditions have
| arisen since 1880, and that the "preju-
dices' against Grantism have also
ceased TO exist. One argument used to
I ~ ,,A
that Grant gave to Garfield in the dark
hours of the campaign, when Blaine had
lost his own State, and the outlook
everywhere was dismal and forbidding.
Strange as it may seem, this scheme
is advocated by certain so-called Demo-
Gratis. who have failed to crafty their
ambition inside the party lines. Grant
aid of .Fitz John Porter naturally
strengthens him with this class of per-
sons, and the effect OF it is partially seen
in the attentions of Mcclellan and OF his
immediate friends to the aspiring third
termer during his present visit to the
capital .sE 81 ~
Grant came here as the guest of
"Ned' Beale, who managed, as Sur
yevor- General in California. to put aside
a valuable ranch, which is the backbone
of considerable fortune. He is now
at one of the large hotels, where familiar
intercourse with the transient popula-
ton is more easy than at a private
house, and where his movements will
be less remark ed upon. ".HE
When the question is asked: What
are the sources of Grant strength as
possible candidate for the Presidency?
his special friends answer without re-
serve. They are to be found in differ
ent directions. some OF which are re-
garded as unpopular by the press, but all
of which are believed to have elements
Of strength for political purpose.
1t is alleged that the great railroad
and manufacturing corporations, the
banks, the rings, the spectators, the
jobbers, the contractors, the shoddy
princes. and the Adventures that
swarmed about the White House from
1870 to 1877, will rally and put forth all
their power to elect Grant. They be-
lieve in strong Government and in one
man rule. such as was audaciously ex-
ercised in 1876 when the Presidency
was stolen, backed by force and by
Overgrown wealth, acquired by COM
binations of which the people are uni
formly The victims. longs for titular dis
tinctions, which shall separate it as
class from the toilers and the common
taxpayers. The possessors of this
wealth are ready for an empire, and
they would pay literally to bring it
about. They have long aped, in pomp,
in parade and in meretriciOus display,
the vanities and the vices of that which
fell in France when the first gun that
{ ermany fired overthrow its gilded rot
tenness.
That experience, with all its stern in
struction, is not needed by men who
have no faith in free institutions. They
saw under Grant a protiigacy in public
and IN private life and desire for show
such as had been witnessed under Louis
Napoleon, with a more resolute will in
the former than in the latter to carry
out any plan he might adopt, in utter
defiance OF the popular will.
Hence their confidence that Grant
wou d not only protect at every hazard
their moneyed interests, but that he
would also CRAFTY their selfish ambi-
ton in other respects. They are greatly
encouraged also by the centralizing
policy OF the Republican leaders. whose
Legislation all tends to the destruction
of State boundaries and of State
autonomy, and to the building up of gil
gantic monopolies.
When it is suggested that Blaine's
followers combinedlto defeat the third
term conspiracy at Chicago. and that
the ex-Secretary stands as a lion in the
path for the coming Convention, the
Grant managers quietly pooh pooh the
objection. '.You don't know Blaine"
say they. '.Why, he is dead duck
politically, and if he was not we can
reach the CAPITALISTS who own him some
of whom are principal hackers in our
movement He will be forced by the
necessities of his pocket to make COM
mon cause with US. Blaine goes for
money primarily, believing it to be the
handspring of power. He will not
trouble us in 1884,"
The Grant ball is thus set in motion.
-Washi,agto,, Cor. AZ. !. Sun.
The New York Times notes the fact
that 1.modern steamers are built with E,