Year: 1868

that does not traditionally belong TO the
party, but it is as a strict party leader that
he stands before the country. AS such.
every day and week until the election will
bring out greater and greater strength in
him. At present, by natural reaction
from the excessive confidence of last fall,
as well as from the disposition most men
have to torment and render themselves un-
comfortable by every means, that strength
is being underrated Suffice it to saw, that.
for popular effect, the candidate was never
put into the field who could command
effort and enthusiasm in as high degree as
General Grant.


He is too often thoughtlessly spoken Of.
as if his availability as candidate were
his chief or only recommendation. Yet
such is not the judgment of thinking men.
1t was not solely or mainly because he
would run well that his name was first


mentioned and received with enthusiasm


by all classes throughout the country. 1t
was because of a general sentiment that
precisely this man was needed to secure
the full and final reconstruction of the
South, to inaugurate thorough and
searching retrenchment in the expenses of
government, to introduce into the civil
service the same high standard with which
his military selections have ever been
made. and to give the nation the spectacle
of President free from slavery to party
ties, Indifferent to reelection, and exerting
his immense patronage not to degrade, but
to elevate our politics. And this expecta-
tion was and is just, reasonable and mod
crate, in view of what we know of the
man and his antecedents.


No one else could have been chosen
whose election would not either have ex-
asperated the Southern people, or encour-
aged them in their rebellion but the cleo
tion of Grant will bring them to reason
in the speediest way, showing the hope
lessness of resistance, while offering them
terms of soldierly liberality and magnan-
unity.


Again, we have every reason to believe
that General Grant as President will snr-
round himself with the truest and strong
est men, just as in the army he displayed
an unerring judgment and comprehensive
lmpartialitv in the selection of assistants
and subordinates. The capacity to organ
ize an administration and appropriately to
officer the departments of Government is
OF far more consequence than Oratorical,
philosophical or judicial abilities of the
highest order; and this quality General
Grant, as a commander in the field, and as
the head ofthe Armies of the United States,
has displayed in a degree never surpassed,
even by Napoleon Bonaparte. Every
good man in the army had his favor and
confidence, while he never failed to detect
an imposter or charlatan at the first
glance. His favorites were always men
whom subsequent campaigns approved to
be good soldiers. His enemies always vim
dicated his judgment in the end by their
own miscarriage and failures. And lastly,
General Grant has displayed true
soldierly impatience with the whole sys-
tenn of corrupt and wasteful expenditure
at Washington. In his brief administra-
ton of the War Department., he carried
out plan of retrenchment wholly unex-
ampled in its history AS chief of our
armies, his influence has been steadily
thrown in favor of reducing expenditures
to the lowest limit of safety, and of stop
ping the myriad leaks which deplete the
Treasury. And as President, unless the
man changes his purposes, his habits of
mind and his involuntary instincts, he will
be found the friend of every good word
and work, the uncompromising foe of all
corrupt practices and all unpatriotic COM
binations. Never had party so much
reason to hail nomination with gratitude
and joy, as the Republican party to-day to
greet this nomination of Ulysses S. Grant,
whether looking to immediate success in
the contest in which he is to be its leader,
or to the credit of that administration of
which he is to be the honorable head
Springfield ( (Mdss) Republican.