Year: 1874




It will be no doubt very pleasing intelli-
eence to the supporters of Gen. Grants Ad-
ministration that the President does not
seem disheartened at the recent defeat"
Perhaps they will be gratifed to learn, too,
that he is firmer than ever in adherlng 10
the policy which he has laid down in bis
annual messages" But we suspect that
many of them will read with some surprise
the reports of his conversations with persons
in Washington, in which he is said to nave
expressed himself quite unreservcdy in regard
TO the political situation and the causes OF
defeat. If we may believe The reports OF these
interyiewers he maintains that his Admins
"tratiOn had nothing whatever to do with IL,
"aud that the Democratic successes arc Ill
"rectly traceable to loose and bad legislation
"by the two Houses of Congress; the failure
of Congress to mature bills that would have
given permanent relief to the county; to
"local troubles in several States, over which
the Administration could possibly have no
"control and to the nomination of bad and
obnoxious candidates. He believes that the
"party will now endcavOr to purify itself,
"and that if the Republicans in Congress IN
" the coming session will walk circumspectly,
"and not forget what is due to the great
"party which elevated them to power, conf
"dence will again be restored to the minds
"of the people, and the party two years hence
will be given new lease of life"


Over such statement as this we may well
imagine some of the "leading statesmen" and
great many thousands of the rank and file
of tho party rubbing their eyes in astonish-
ment and wonder. Such absolute cOmplacency
and lf-confidence has been rarely seen. We
do not suppose that of the million or more
who have set up theories regarding the late
defeat one other man than the President OF
the United States has failed to include the
President himself among the causes. There
has been Of course great difference of opinion
as to the degree of responsibility and blame
attaching to his personal character and politi-
cal conduct, but not even his most ar
dent admirer or the most cringing sycophant
in all the crowd that have crooked to
him the pregnant hinges of the knee that
thrift might follow fawning, will undertake
to say that tho Administration itself was not
in some measure responsible for the over
whelming disasters of October and November.
But this man alone in his eminence, and
possibly assuming that his elevation gives him
the largest and clearest view of the situation,
looks over it all without pang of regret at
any act of his own, and apparently without
the faintcst suspicion that in all his ad-
ministration there could have been any mis-
take. Was ever such stupendous blindness
united with such monumental assurance and
cOnceit


Well may the disgusted leaders of the party
exclaim, "Upon what meat doth this our
"CHsar feed that he hath grown so great "
Nor is the answer difficult. No one should
know as well as they who have fed him full
of nattery, and cringed and fawned upon and
followed him, magniiying him into states
man as well as hero, applauding to the echo
his hghest word, and when he spoke not,
going off in maudlin rhapsodies over his won
derful reticence and his amazing gift of
silence. These men have been his nurse,
and this is what they fed him; not with any
spoon or from any nursing-bottle either, but
from hOrse-trOughs and by the bucketful. If
Gen. Grant has come to believe in his own
infalhbilty it is tho fault of the leading
statesmen of the Republican party who have
in very large measure inflated him and made
him what he is. DO they stand and wonder
now when with the utmost calmness and
imperturbabllity he looks them in the face
and tells them the disaster is theirs, not his;
that they are the sole causes of it, and that
none of its responsibility is on his shoulders
What else could they expect7 No other result
could como from such training.


For these leading persons measured Presi-
dent Grant long ago. They knew when they
were beslobbering him with the extravaganza


hot oil 10
and nonsense, but they kept it up, even while
in private conversation they confessed how
false it was. They did not deceive themselves,
though they did him.. He was not slow to
accept it nor very long in coming to full
belief in his greatness 1t was settled very
early in his administration that he was not
only not to be cOntradcted or denied, but
that he must not be criticised. When he
cOoly asked, upon his first Inauguration,
that law which had been most wisely
enacted should be repealed in order that he
might suit himself in the appointment of q
Cabinet officer, Charles Sumner, for sustain
ing the law, incurred his enmity, and never lost
it till the day he died. The small partlsans in
the Senate took up the grudge and drove out
Charles Sumner from the party which he named
and helped to found. From that beginning it
grew. To criticise any of the appointments or
the policy of the Administration was treason
to the party. The Buffers and Carpenters and
Logans came in, and the Summers, Greeleys
and Trumbulls were crowded out. The COnk-
lincs and Chambers and CamerOns had their
own way and ran the party at their own sweet
will. Appointments such as no previous Ad-
mipistratiOn dared insult the Senate with were