Year: 1878

Boston Post.


The Grant movement, whateve


Massachusetts Republicans may al


feet to think, is the dark clou,


which is looming up before them
/ His strength consists in two facts


he has the support Of all the ring


and bummers which made his ad


ministration so odious as to fore,


the watchword Of 'reIorm within
! the party" into the last campaign


The other aspirants are jealous 0


each other, and are therefore con
tent to agree on him, trusting tC
1884 to give themselves a better


prospect respectively. This will


present a difficult programme fol


the Republicans of this State. One


of their prominent Representatives


told the public at Cincinnati that il


was the conviction here that the


body polite was suffering from q
chronic disease which required the


most radical treatment. That feel
ing disposed of Grant, as everybody
supposed, for all coming time. II
set Blaine aside because he did not
possess the confidence of these party
reformers. 1t eliminated in the
nomination Of Hayes, and he does
not propose to run again, even if
invited. As a reformer it can hardly
be claimed that he has been a sue
cess. He was counted in by fraud,
which did not give his administra-
tion prestige of improvement, had
he attempted it. He has, in fact,
attempted nothing in the nature of
a policy. For all practical purposes
Mrs. Hayes could haveadministered
the government quite as efficiently
as he. To be sure, he made some
conciliatory speeches down South,
and assured the erring brethren
they had only been fighting for
their convictions. But this compos-
ing draught only served to make
the Radicals very sick. They are
the men who clamor again for
Grant. They know what they
could do under him, and are hoping
to get another chance at the fat
pickings which were easy Of access
before.


The disease, therefore, of the body
polite is proposed to be cured by
employing all the agencies which
produced ii. What will be the next
battle cry under such circumstances p?
"Grant and reform" would be Gu
rious device. "The rings to be put
down by rings with the ringleader
at the head," would be the apprO-
pirate one. But where are the re-
formers whom the Massachusetts
sent to Cincinnati to
go in this contingency? What sort
of speech could they make over
the languishing body polite two
years hence, which two years ago
was confessedly so low as to de-
mand the most radical treatment
''We have come to bury Caesar, not
to praise him." must fall from their
classic lips. Some of our neighbors
are already in tears at the prospect.
Every mention of the hopeful look
for Grant stirs up the fountains of
commingled with grief.
Some griefs are medicinable."
not so in this. 1t was hoped
it would be so in 1876, but its object
is sicker than ever under their own
and both it and they
are in worse condition than ever.
Grant is a wonderful man truly. AS
a statesman nobody ever had any
respect for him. He was run the
first time as a party necessity. His
administrations disgusted the decent
men, and were used by every other
class merely as a convenience in the
of pelf. Yet, with these al
most admitted facts, he seems to-
day to have as much control over
his party as if the nomination were
fixed. He is its Caesar. The
people must see to it that he does
not become the Caesar of the coun-
trV