Year: 1868




the VIII Of the People.


General Grant has defined his position. On
Friday evening last the committee appointed
by the late Chicago Convention to present to
General Grant and Speaker Colfax the record
of its proceedings and its platform, and to in
form officially each of these gentlemen of his
nomination on the republican Presidential
ticket, met at the Generals residence in Wash
ington, and before an assemblage of some two
hundred persons, including the families of the
two distinguished nominees, the committee
discharged the duty assigned them. General
Hawley, chairman, expounded the party plat
form to General Grant, described the unani-
nous vote of each and all the States and Ter
ritories in behalf of his nomination for the
next Presidency, and then said-''We know
that you will be faithful to the constitution and
the laws and to the sympathies and principles
you are called to represent We know that
you will not seek to enforce upon the unwilling
representatives of the people any policy of
your own devising; for you have said that the
will of the people is the law of the land The
records of TIE war and of your subsequent
fidelity afford the evidence that the nation can
safely and wisely place you in the chair of
Washington and Lincoln"


General Grant in reply to all this said, 81
will endeavor in a very short time to write you
letter accepting the trust you have imposed
upon me-" Then, after thanking the Conven-
tion for its confidence, and expressing his
pleasure for the harmony and unanimity which
governed its proceedings, he said-''If chosen
to gil the high Office for which you have select
ed me will give to its duties the same energy,
the same spirit and the same will that have
given to the performance ofall duties which have
devolved upon me heretofore. Whether l
shall be able to perform these duties to your
entire satisfaction time will determine. You
have truly said, in the course of your address,
that shall have no policy of my own to inter-
pose against the will of the people," This is
the emphatic point of the Generals little
speech. He will not attempt the troublesome
game Of Andrew Johnson-of running muck
with Congress on a policy of his own. This
declaration identifies him thoroughly with the
policy Of Congress. in opposition to the policy
OF Mr.. Johnson. II is declaration, too,
which is fully sustained in all the official acts
and opinions Of the General since the close of
the war, and especially in the Grant johnson
correspondence touching the removal of Stan
ton, the late Secretary of War. He fully sub
mits to Congress as the lawmaking power, and
fully recognizes the majority of the two houses
as the embodiment of the will of the people.


This defines the position of General Grant
ana covers the whole Chicago platform. Nay,
IL goes further. IL commits him to the legisla-
ton OF Congress under his administration,
whetDer radical or conservative In declaring
that Il shall have no policy Of my own to in
terpose against the will of the people," he
substantially says that the policy of Congress,
the peoples representatives, will be nv policy.
We may, therefore, assume that with an ultra
radical majority in the two houses of the next
Congress, and the next beyond it, there will be
no Executive veto interposed against anv radi-
cal measure by General Grant az President
and that accordingly there will be no occa-
sion for two-thirds radical vote in each
house, but that working majority in each will
be sufficient TO carry through the whole radical
programme. This policy will doubtless save
the General, If elected President, from all the
trials and troubles of Andrew johnson in bis
terrible conflict with Congress on constitutional
law points aud interpretations Of the con-