The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1885-08-13
PRESIDENTS AND THEIR FRIENDS

General Grant as president took care of |
his friends. He believed thoroughly in
every man in whom he had placed his
faith, and refused to withdraw his faith
until it was demonstrated beyond ques>
ton that the man was unworthy of IT, In
his army life he was seldom deceived. As
the president his judgment was not all
ways faultless, and some of his warmest
friends surrendered to temptation and be-
came unworthy Of his confidence. This
faithfulness to his friends brought him
frequently under suspicion The whisky
frauds were traced directly to the door of
the White house, and his political ene>
mics cried out that at last he had been
caught in an effort to make money dis
honestly and dishonorably. But. while
his friends went down under investiga-
tioA, not shred of evidence that he was
guilty of wrong doing ever appeared. He
was a thoroughly honest man, and his
greatest fault was the good fault" that
he took care of his friends too well. He
was so honest himself that, as in his rela-
tons with Ward, he suspected no dishon,
esty in others; and while this fact will be
emembered to the cencured it will like
wise be remembered as a weakness with
so much Of nobility in it that it will never
be harshly condemned.
What, however, would become of a
president who ignored this weakness, to
call it by its worst name, altogether
What would become of private citizen
who should make it a principle to treat
contemptuously the claims and wishes of
his friends2 No man can live entirely
alone, and the principle of reward for
favor rec eived is as reasonable, as una
voidable, outside of the matters of grati>
tude and sentiment as problem in math
ematics. 1t takes caucuses to make pres
idents. 1t takes party preferences in
counties, in states, and in the nation
Men who are matle of stone do not reach
the first position. Men who win in pol>
tics, and generally men who win in bust
ness, are men who have personal and
political likes and dislikes. They have
friends, and they win through and be-
cause of their friends. If they are treach-
srous to these men they win once only.
If they ignor their friends to win favor of
the enemy they are so guilty of ingratie
tude as to lose not only support but re-
spect. 1t does not very well to set up
men without blood upon popular pedest-
ais and point to them as individuals who,
out Of Difference to the public interest,
slaughtered their own kind and treated
ccntemptuously the means to their eleva-
ton; but such men do not have an actual
existence, and if they had it would be of
brief duration. This country wants as
leaders live, flesh and blood men, men
who are capable of affection and grati>
tude, whose palms are not composed of
sheet iron and whose hearts are not Who'll.
ly fictitious. The civil service humbug
denounces that kind of man. 1t assumes
that he must necessarily be dishonest 1t
characterizes as bad every natural i'm
pulse of his breast 1t would have him
rebuke or ignor the very men to whom he
owes his success. 1t would have him
strike hands with mis- personal and politiN
cal enemies, the better to achieve that
base ingratitude. What miserable COM
bination of malice treachery and humbug
IL ia