Year: 1869

Grant s-And what Is It 60 he


Only five weeks remain of the term of Andy
johnson and the present Congress. The ides
Of March are coming on apace, and yet the
all-important question still hangs fire in Con-
gress whether General Grant, as the Presi-
dent elect of the republican party, shall be
admitted to the official status of Lincoln or be
tied up by the Senate like Johnson. The
Senate Committee on Retrenchment have
been considering the matter for a week or
two, and have reported in favor of slackening
a little the cords and straps Of the Tenure of
Office law; but nothing more. Grant at a
venture, they think, may be allowed little
more line than Johnson; but the Senate must
still hold him well in hand, so as to bring
him up with ga round turn" at the first
attempt to fly the track. Brought directly to
face the question in the House there were only
forty seven Of the members who had the moral
courage to stick to the radical text and pro-
nounce against Buffers bill of repeal but in
the Senate, as it appears, the Jacobins have
the game completely in their hands, and
are playing it with General Grant as the ad-
miring cat plays with the mouse.


We suspect that by adroit delays and evasions
the obnoxious law in question will go over
untouched to the 4th of March, and that then
the new radical Congress win shape its action
as the tone Of Grants inaugural and the COM
position of his Cabinet may require, gauged by
the radical programme. In this view the po
sition of General Grant in Congress is any
thing but fattering to the honest soldier. The
whiskey rings, no doubt, understand the mys-
terry and hold the key to its solution. Grant,
if allowed full swing, might turn them all
adrift and break up their machinery; but
lobby power of a hundred millions year is a
tremendous lever, even in the Senate. CALI
colt and company, Blaisdell and Eckel and
such small fry must take their chances. The
larger fish, who can only be reached by gene
raj clearing out Of the internal revenue pools,
are only afraid Of Grant. If they can head
him off in the Senate they are good for four
years more of their whiskey profits. Butler
is evidently an ignoramus on the whiskey
question.


Meantime the radical and semi-radical organs
are amusing their readers with variety of
pretty things about General Grant. Greeley
is delighted with him and all his speeches, and
in regard to the Tenure Of Office law contends
that 1t is most excellent thing that instead
of obstructing the new President it will mate
rally assist him in the matter of the offices
and tighten his labors and responsibilities.
Dana, having recovered little from the stun
ming conclusion of Morgan's defeat for the
Senate and Fenton's election, has resumed the
pleasant occupation of Cabinet making He has
already provided half dozen Cabinets for
Grant, and before the eventful day of March may
give him dozen more from which to pick and
choose. Raymond, famous for sitting on the
fence and for riding two or three horses at a
time, is now, with Andy Johnson lifted from
his shoulders, comparatively clear and ortho-
dox as halfway radical on probation; but
still, upon these issues between Grant and
Congress he is like the man who, entangled
among 'the elbows Of the Mincio," could find
his way out only through the Notifications of
Paris. He has learned to tread lightly over
boggy ground but with Johnson abandoned,
with Seward on the retiring list, with Morgan cut
off and Weed among the dead men, the junior
member Of the firm is perplexed with the diff
calties Of a new departure.


Radical or semi-radcal, none Of the repub-
lcan organs here or elsewhere have under
taken to give an earnest, helping hand to But
Ter in pushing on this bill repeating the Tenure
ofO Il. Thav l;r-o %.
perhaps, but they are afraid of the Senate
They may have some axes of their own to
grind there; they may have weakness for
some whiskey ring, or railway lobby job, or
telegraph monopoly, or Treasury clique of
brokers and stochjobbers and all such inte-
rests may be killed or saved by the Senate
In this emergency General Grant may catch
glimpse of the difficulties that lie before him.
The Congressional Joint Committee OF Public
Safety intend to keep him subject to their
bidding. They will, we apprehend, await his
inaugural and his Cabinet before they decide
upon his case They regard his unparalleled
silence meanwhile with doubts and misgivings,
and, in default Of anything better, in reading
and believing all sorts Of newspaper rumors
and sensational inventions they are as sorely
puzzled as the frogs in the fable what TO make
Of the new king that Jupiter has given them.


The real trouble will begin with the istri--
button of the spoils. We have had an inkling
Of this in the fearful squabblings at Albany
over Morgan and Fenton. When the contest
comes to the Cabinet, the foreign missions,
the fat custom houses, post Offices, inter-
nal revenue districts, &C., there will be disaffec-
tions, desertions and factious wranglings and
quarrelings on every side. The Tenure of Office
law is for the protection Of the o:ice-holders.
Its repeal will be to the advantage of the Office
seekers The Jacobins Of the Senate desire to
do the wedding, and the whiskey rings and all
the rings Of the lobby look 10 the Senate 10 save