Year: 1868

from the National IntelligencerI


The Trick Exposed.


The exposure of the circumstances
under which General Grant lent him
self to the scheme of restoring E. NJ.
Stantsn to the War Department has
created a profound and painful impress
sion all over the country, because it
presents him before the public, not only
as the willing and subservient instru-
ment of the Jacobin leaders in Con-
srcss, but as having failed to redeem a
self.imposed and reiterated obligation
of duty and good faith towards the Pres
ident of the United States. His unscru-
pulous organs here and elsewhere, who,
Notwithstanding their hardened insen-
sibility, feel the crushing effects
of this exposure, find it convent
ent to evade On issue on the
facts, by affecting to treat them
with contempt" But General Grant
has not undertaken, and, we undertake
to affirm, will not venture to deny the
material facts as they have been stated
and repeated in these columne, and for
the simple reason that they can and will
be, if there is need, established by sew
eral men whose credit with the country
is quite equal to his own. The feeble
excuse given for the .fultilment of
the voluntary promises made by Gener-
al Grant leaves him in worse dilemma
than if no explanation had been at
tempted, aud compels the conclusion
that the arrangement between him,
Stanton, and the Radical managers was
deliberately preconcerted for pur-
pose, and with conditions which are not
difficult 20 imagine.


But leaving out of view entirely the
understanding which had long existed
on this subject between the President
and the Secretary of War Gd interim,
what was the official and personal duty
of General Grant, when he became in
formed of the action of the Senate He
had received the appointment directly
from the President, and could receive
it from no other authority under the
Constitution. He was exclusively re-
sponsible to the Executive, and to no
one else. Neither the Senate, individ-
ually, nor Congress, could command
him in the exercise of functions spring





that his official tenure ceased by the
refusal of the Senate to concur i'll the
suspension of Stanton, then the plain
course of duty for him was to have re-
linguished the office into the hands of
the President, who had honored him
with peculiar marks of confidence and
favor.


Instead of adopting that course, he
entered into all agreement with those
who have sought to strike down the
Executive authority, and became the
obcdient partisan of revolutionary
cabal, whose aim is to subvert the Gov
ernment aud to set up military dicta-
tor, backed by the regular army. The
fragrant disrespect which he thus eX-
hi6ited towards the high office of Pres
ident of the United States deserves not
only tho NEST decided condemnation,
but the grayest reelection, as an indi-
cation OF the purposes of the Jacobins,
with whom General Grant has now
openly identified himself. Their effort
has been to batter down all the safe
guards of the Constitution, destroy the
Judiciary, cripple the Executive, remove
every obstruction to absolute power,
and thus prepare the way to change the
whole form of government by the aid OF
the regular army. The evidence of this
design becomes more and more manifest
and positive every day. 1t IS for such
reasons that the Radical majority VOW
PROPOSES to invest General Grant with
Unprecedented authority, and to confer
upon him, in fact, q despotic power,
backed by the regular army, such as the
most absolute Government i'll Europe
does not allow to any commanding gen.
eral. Their intention is to decide the
Presidential election by the swords oi
the regular army, and to overawe the
people by armed organization. And II
the object thus sought can be once at
tanned, the design is to make the Presi'
dency life estate, by means of the
power of the regular army.


This programme may seem astounding
to those who cherish our free institu'
tions and the love of liberty, but it is
noKe the less entertained by the desper'
ate cOnspirators who have initiated q
revolution which, in moral sense, al
ready means the overthrow of republi
can government. There is no such des'
potism existing in the civilized world as
that which Congress has created with
the abused forms of law, and there is nc
extremity to which those demagogues
are not ready to 60, in order to retain
unlimited power. They have captured
General Grant completely, and he now
represents ideas which no man more
than he condemned at the outset, or was
willing to combat more decidedly. The
ambition which misled other militar!
chiefs has possessed him, and not con
teri with the generous esteem, liberall'
ty, and respect of his country, he has
become the mere puppet of a revolu
tiOnary faction, ready to do its bidding
and to promote his own advancement
He has chosen for himself, and must ex
pect to abide the consequences of thai
unfortunate choice.