Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1885-08-14


feelings or convenience
Gen. Grants Position on The south
crn Question.
\ Washington CORE puulent makes
public view of Gen. Grants position and
intentions with regard to the South,
when he took the Presidency, as stated by
prominent public man, not named, who
prOfessed to know what he was talking
about. Grants idea, said tins gentleman,
was to make a conservative government,
in which the politicians, who, he thought,
were doing all the harm, should be set one
side. and the men who had fought in the
two armies should come to the front.
What | want he used to say,
is to get rid of these fellows
who propose to keep on with the war, and
let the men who have done the lighting
come to the front He had plenty of re-
spect for the southern generals, many of
whom had been his intimateS, and he pro-
posed to begin by getting them enlisted
and with his army friends III the north,
recOnstitute the government on the old
lines, with Il negro suffrage, but giving
the South its share. That was the mo-
tive in his mind when he made the key
note of his letter of acceptance, Let Us
have peace
after he was elected he proceeded on
that idea. None of his Cabinet. a. al first
made up. We're Radicals. Hardly was ht
in the White House when he began to make
efforts to enlist the prominent Southern
leaders in the administration. Some OF
them accepted. Alderman became AT
torney General. Mcl.aws was collector
of internal revenue iii Georgia. Long
street accepted place. Even MOsby was
/ given consulate Paul Ilebert of Ioui
siana had ii good place. Fitz Hugh Lee
/ Pickett. Bragg, Beauregard, Ruckner AND
scores of other eX-COntederates were ask.
ed to take Office. To his regret, they gen
orally refused. Their replies were al
! courteous They would be glad to- and
they had thorough respect for him, but
the sentiment in their section would not
allow them to Join the Republican party
and they could not hold office under it un
less they did.
This" my informant continued, "was
a sore blow to him, ard after time he
gave up his idea that the Southern ques
| ton could be solved in the way he had
dreamed His idea had been that the
Southern officers, fairly beaten and gener
ously treated would, like himself, desire
to show the world that the citizen sol
diery, after four years of fighting, could
come together and agree upon civil poll
| cy The inside of this plan of his has
never been written but it is one of the
reasons why Grant has always kept his
hold on the eX-Generals of the South. y,
I his administration progressed he wa,
driven by force of circumstances into the
stalwart Republican camp, and in his of
/ fetal actions was the harshest President
we have had i'll his treatment of the rebe
States. But its leaders remembered
through it all that had they chosen to ac
cept his offers, they might have beer
among the leading spirits i'll the govern
ment 1t was their idea that their policl
lay in following the reactionary and hos
tile spirit of the Southern masses, bu
they never forgot his position.
among the Southern people Grant
never was particularly popular, but dur
ing the last term when he was President
he was well hated. When he left polite
and became again the old soldier, the men
who had experienced his clemency and re
jected his we'll meant offers, once NOR
became his admirers. And of all thing
noticeable in his utteranCes during his Ill
ness the most striking is his constant ref
erence to the sections, his hope that sec
tionalism is dying away and his klndl
feeling for the Southern soldiers. He di,
not succeed in his plan of cementing tn
North and South together, but it was hi
dream and the reason why he gave up tn
sure position of general To accept thu
transient honorS of the presidency