Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1885-08-23

people, ere he pronounced fces Of France
and the declared friends Of Germany. The
error has creps into the biographical die
tionaries. The very day that the news
reached Us OF the death o. the ex-President
was strclhng along the quays, looking at
the secondhand books that are always ex-
posed there in great numbers, when nv eyes
CHANGED to light on WeIlknown French
biographical dictionary, / turned to the
article devoted 70 General Grant, and there
was stated in prose what Victor Hugo had
expressed in verse. 1t is MOTTO be wondered
at therefore that when the Partisan Journal
lists prepared their obituary notices last
week, with Victor Hugo's poem in their
minds and these dictionaries under their
eyea they transferred to the columns OF
their newspapers these same silly and Ill
founded assertions. | lave run over sew
eral of these notices, and with scarcely an
exception they are sll p rvsded by an un,
fIitndEness to the man whom America VII
have buried before this letter appears IN
print with q sorrow and pomp seldom
witnessed in any nation OF the old or new
world
Notwithstanding this Injustice shown Him
by the French, Grant in his public gsp-rs
and in his private conversations gave eVl'
depce of entertaining only the trlendhest
feelings Tor this country. In that message,
already referred to, in which the President
was constrained TO refuse France material
aid, occurs this passage: AS soon as |
learned that a republic had been proelaln cd
at Paris. and that the people of France had
scouiesced in the change, the Minister OF
the United States was directed by telegraph
10 recognize it, and to tender my congrstu-
lations and those OF the people Of the United
States" And Mr.. Wssh5urne acted prompt
". On September I, three days after the
proclamation OF the republic, our Minister
sends N Favre letter in which he states
that the Washington Cabinet recognizes
The government Of France, and then ne
adds: They THE government and people
Of the United States will have learned with
enthusiasm Of the proclamation OF a replo
lie in France, accomplished without tue
shedding Of drop OF blood, ana they Will
associate themselves in heart aud sympathy
with the great movement, confident in the
hone Of the most beneficial results to the
French people and TO mankind
d. Favrs in his Reply
of the next day states that the new govern
ment received as its first diplomatic sup
port the recognition of the government OF
The L tied States" The same afternoon q
crowd marched 10 the American Legation
with the French and American flags at their
head to thank Mr.. Wsshburne for the grand
moral support which he had thus given to
the Young republic. The Minister replying
to this popular delegation said: I'm my
communication 10 which you 80 kindly al
lude only expressed the sentiments OF the
President and of the people OF the United
States
General Grants sympathy tor Republican
France was sall more openly avowed IN pr,
vate. John Russell Young in his Around
he World with General Grant, reports
several conversations with the General on
/ this vyry subject | select few scraps from
those interesting paragraphs: There ex'
/ lists. and has siGce the foundation OF ouI
/ govsGnment always existed, traditional
. friendship between our people aud the
/ French. | had this feeling in common with
/ nv couptrymen. But | feel at the same
time that no people had 80 great an interest
| in the removal Of Napoleonism from France
as the French people
No Man Outside of France
has a deeper interest in the success OF the
French republic than l have. Again he
said: Il was very much pleased with the re
publican leaders in France. They seemed
/ a superior body of men. Ny relations witt
them gave me great hopes for the future o.
! the republic They were men apparently
ct sense. wisdom, and moderation
And yet, :: spite of General Grants warm
feelings for France, as We have seen then
expressed both in his state papers and II
conversations with his friends, Frenchmer
have never ceased to treat him with tst
greatest severity. From December, 1870
when Victor Hu-o Illuminated against him
as President, dosn TO the years 1917 and
/ 1878, when be appeared in Paris as a visi
Tor, and again this month when be was once
more brough 10 the attention Of France as
a victim Of an ur;imely and a painful
death, French public opinion has perversely
and unfairly determined to see in Clysse;
| S. Grant declsrei enemy rather than .
pronounced friend
THEoDORE STANTON.