Year: 1872

Term-A magnificent Opportunity for


Glorious Record.


One week ago this evening President Grant
was at the Academy of Music in this city, wit
Messing the realization Of the poets dream of
Fausts Marguerite in the performance of the
fascinating Lucca and hearing the music Of
Gounod massacred by the rest of the company.
Soon after his entrance he was recognized from
the orchestra, and the stirring notes Of ''The
Star-Spangled Banner" burst forth from the
instruments. The audience speedily discovered
the cause, and, rising amidst the clapping Of
hands and the waving of handkerchiefs, sent
up cheer after cheer for the Hero Of the Will
derness. 1t scarcely needed this spontaneous
tribute from large assemblage of persons OF
intelligence and refinement to prove that the
services rendered to the nation by the leader
rebellion have not been forgotten by the
American people, and that the verdict soon to
be rendered on Grant as a President will in
great measure be influenced by tho re-
membrance Of Grant as q general We
are no advocates of hero-worship. We
know how many of the great men Of
the world are indebted to accident or
to the force of circumstances for their fame.
and we are not among those who believe that
the Union cause would have been lost but for
General Grant. There are hundreds Of excel
lent soldiers, like Sheridan. Sherman, Thomas
and others whose names were familiar in the
war, either of whom would doubtless have led
the ''boys in blue over the corpse of the Con-
federacy into Richmond if fortune had elevated
him to the principal command. Nevertheless
we regard the continued recognition Of the
Presidents military services as creditable to
the country. The plea that the war is over;
that we now need peace and reconciliation;
that the soldier should give place to the
civilian in the government of the nation, is
good one in its way; but it's true application
is to the Congressional policy which seeks to
keep alive the issues of the war and the pref
udices of races and sections, and not to
General Grant personally. So far as the Pres
q civilian in peace, and his military training
teaches him to faithfully carry out the policy
Of Congress. AS soon as the rebellion was
subdued the HERALD advanced the name
Of Ulysses s. Grant for the Presi-
dency, not as a military hero alone,
but as leader who had displayed qualities
in the field that would be likely to prove valu-
able in the Cabinet. We knew that the nation
owed a heavy debt of gratitude to the success
full soldier, and would take pride in accord
ing him the highest civil honor in its gift; but
we knew also that General Grant had chosen
his military subordinates with skill which
proved his correct Judgment of men; that he
had stood firmly in resistance to the intermed-
ding officiousness of Congressional poll
ticians and we deemed that these qualifica-
tions would be as available in peace as in
war; The people thought as we thought, and
elected General Grant as their President, not
that he might lead them to further conquest,
but that he might complete in peace the re-
union he had won by arms. It is yet too
early to forget vicksburg and the Wilder
ness; and while there will not of course be
the same amount of military enthusiasm in
the election Of next week that there was four
years ago, many thousands of votes will still be
cast for General Grant as the soldier who
did such good service in the field, and, as we
have said, the act will be creditable to the
nation.


At the commencement of the present cam
paign we warned the President that the real
danger to his cause lay in the character of his
surroundings and the unpopularity OF the
measures he was forced to carry on his shoul-
nhcou rovt hoy Nal
him that our judgment was correct The op-
position speedily gathered a strength it could
never have attained had it been directed against
General Grant or his personal record alone,
and within few days past an administration
journal in this city has deemed it necessary to
put in plea that the President is not respon-
sible for the Objectionable acts of the republi-
can majority in Congress; that he did not
advise them-knew nothing of them until they
became laws-and had carried them out with as
much moderation and discretion as possible
But, whatever the errors Of his party and the
shortcomings of his advisers, it is evident
that the lucky star which seemed to hover
over General Grant during the war is
still in the ascendant The Alabama ques-
ton has been brought to q close, no matter
how; as announced by our special cable de-
spatches the San Juan boundary question has
been settled to our satisfaction, and now even
the candid portion of the opposition must ad-
NIT that the Presidential question is almost
as good as decided The American people,
with their Characteristic generosity, have
agreed to look only at the credit side of the
Treaty of Washington, and to try General
Grant for another term in remembrance of his
past services, despite the degeneration Of re-
publicanism and the blunders of the Cabinet
They will ask, however, that in the four years
that are coming the experience Of the four
years that will soon have passed shall