St. Paul daily globe., 1892-10-07

name of the present force bill. 1t had
for its object, as Whitelaw Reid wrote,
the transfer of election machinery from
local jurisdiction to the hands of United
States marShalS. The same force bill
which Whitelaw Reid defends today be
loudly denounced twenty years ago.
The bill was thought to be in the in
terest Of Gen. Grants denomination
then. Today it is in the interest of
keeping Republican administration in
power. And today Whitelaw Reid
hopes to become part and parcel of the
Republican administration. The Trib-
une of May 80. 1872 said:
"Till the Cincinnati convention met it
was generally understood that the pres
ident meant to have the advantage in
power TO SUSPEND the habeaS corpus
and muster the bayonets to his sup
port. Even after Cincinnati, the senate
(now by reason of its PomerOyS, its
Caldwells and Conklings the real lower
house, persisted in renewing the Ku-
Klux bI!I for his benefit: but the house
has clearly shown its Willingness to
take another step in that direction.
Cincinnati has prevented presidential
elections under martial law in the hands
of presidential candidate"
rEhe Force BflI.
And in the second issue of the TrIb-
une after this Whiteldw Reid called the
force bill by its accepted name and
wrote:
Never weary of well-doing, Gen.
Butler and his band of superservice-
ableS rallied all their cohorts in the
house yesterday in an attempt to pass
the force bill. 1t was understood to be
a party" measure for the denominations
lists: it was really bill to give the
president power TO transfer the machin-
cry of elections from local jurisdiction
to the hands of United States marShals.
But the plot failed"
There was talk about certain war rec
ordS which were missing. Gen. Adam
Badeau, Grants chief OF staff, it was:said,
carried them from the document room
to use in writing his military history.
Whitelaw Reid, when he began his
mercilesS attack on Gen. Grants public
and private character, wrote of these
missing records:
1--WE know finally that great many,
and probably the most important, of
these documents refer to portions of
Gen. Grants military career, upon
which there is a great difference of
opinion among military critics, and that
the enemies of the president have
drawn the most damaging differences
from their extraordinary disappear
ance."
The Attack on Grant.
The attack on the hero of Appomattox
occupied column i'll the Tribune OF
May 81. Whitelaw Reid wrote:
while we do not expect Gen. Grant
to understand the scandal of many of
the appointments which he has made, it
does seem incredible that he should SO
obstinately persist in keeping men In
place who have done nothing SO thor
oughly as to demonstrate their own un-
fitness for it.
"Gen. Grant seems to have forgotten
that the president is civil and not q
military officer, and this explains his
undertaking to govern the South as if
it were still great entrenched camp !:
his manipulating our foreign policy
as if he were treating with an
enemy at his mercy and upon the
point of surrender-until, indeed, the
tables in one or two cases were turned
and be was ready himself to surrender;
his issuing his instructions to free citi-
zens about to vote as if they were his
old infantry about to engage in battle.
"Gen. Grant is soldier, and the old
habits of a soldier stick to him. He has
many of the professional faults of jack
son, and apparently no comprehension
of that strict. law-abiding conscience
which redeemed the soldierly character
of Washington, of Taylor and of Harri-
son. They were good soldiers, but bet
ter citizens. They never attempted to
govern the republic by general orders" "
Summers speech.
Then came Charles Summers famous
speech in the senate denouncing Gen.
Grant as a Caesar. Reid'S pen flowed
smoothly along in Summers praise:
1--WE are not sure that our greatest
senator did not make. yesterday, the
greatest speech of his life. Not a trait
| has been spared. He gives the cynical
nepotism, the eager acceptance of pres
| entS. the reward of personal service by
| public Offices, the Stolid, contemptuous
disregard of law, the disposition to shut
| himself up in a close phalanX of con-
| genial creatures, which have been Sc
long recognized by all intelligent people
| and so long passed over in silence by
| opponents who cared more for decorum
than for decency. -
"But now that the time has come that
all the powers of government are to be
| put in operation to compel the re-eiec-
ton of this conspicuous failure and the
| perpetuation of this dlscreditable ex-
ploitation of the executive Office, it Is
the duty of every man who disapprove.
of such a use of the presidency to speak
plainly the truth that most men feel
that Gen. Grant is not fit man to bs
president"