Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1885-10-29

1t is the fashion now among those who
denounced Ger. Grant as blunderer
and butcher while in the field, who
never had a word of commendation for
his course as President, who raised the
cry of C@Sarism against him in anticl+
patton of his election to third term,
and who took special delight in charac-
terizing him as a chronic beggsr ready
to accept anything in the way Of gift,
to laud him for his high sense of justice
and magnanimity in dealing with those
who took part in the rebellion, and to
hold out the impression that while on
his death-bed be almost regretted that
the rebels had been conquered. 1t is as
serted, too, that Grant had declared his
belief that Tilden had carried Louisiana
in 1876, and that Hayes title to the
Presidency was. therefore, fraudulent.
At the present rate of going it will
be susceptible of easy proof that Grant
was regular Copperhead all through the
war, and a Bourbon sympathizer from
that time on until his death. 1t is
astonishing to find how little evidence
it takes to convince the average Demo-
crat, now that the lips of the Silent
Man are forever sealed, that he was real
ly an old-fashioned Democrat, in feeling
and sentiment, and not Republican at
all.
1t is not necessary to inquire what
Grant was politically before the war.
Since then he has spoken in acts and
words which are engraven upon the pa
ges of history, and while be was not as
aggressive as some of the Republican
leaders in his denunciation of the crimes
and outrages for which the Democratic
party>was responsible, he has shown
himself every inch Republican as he
was patriot. As late as 1880, at the
opening of the Garfield campaign at
Warren, Ohio, he said:
II am Republican because the Re
publican party is National party, SEEK
ing the greatest good of the greatest
number of her citizens. There is not a
precinct in this vast Nation where a
Democrat cannot cast his ballot and
have it counted aS'cast, no matter what
the prepOnderance of the opposite party.
He can claim his political opinions, even
if he is only ole among thousand. with
out prescription on account of his opin>
ions. There are fourteen States aud 10
calities in some others where Republi p
cans have not this privilege This is
one reason why l am Republican,
The above words are as true to-day as
when Grant uttered them FIVE years ago.
Yet Senator Sherman, for repeating
these words in substance during the
Ohio canvass, was denounced for raising
the sectional issue, and charged with
having disobeyed the dying injunction
of the great soldier!
The assertion that Gen. Grant believ>
ad Tilden had been fairly elected Presi :
dent in 1875 is as baseless as the fabric
of vision. Two years after the excl
ting events of the winter of 1867 Gen.
Grant deliberately published to the
world this declaration: 81 never doubted
that they 1.-THE Republicans carried Lou
isiana, South Carolina and Florida 4"
The attempt to bolster up, on the au-
thority of Gen. Grant, the monstrous
claim that Tilden was honestly elected,
is as impudent as it is futile. Grant
never eondoned outrages upon the suf-
frage and frauds upon the ballot. He
was too good Republican for that
Pitts. Com. Gazette.