Year: 1876

side with Iglesias. the rightful custodian of
the government, but in artillery the balance
turns in favor Of Diaz. Each leader is de-
manding recognition from the United States
and money from his luckless fellow citizens.


digger Men Than ola Grant"


When the foolish doorkeeper Of the Bouse
of Representatives was discovered last spring
to have announced himself to his friends in
Texas as n 'bigger man than old Grant,
there was general shout of laughter at his
ridiculous imitation. But there are at pres
ent in Washington quite a number of pol
iticians who quietly boast themselves among
their friends Ms digger men than old
Grant, and, what is more, do not hesitate to
relate with no little exultation the instances
where they have "set the old man up"
''told him what he must do" ''saved him
from another blunder," s'dragged him out
of the hands of the democrats" and so on.
We are told that these boasts are quite COM
mon, and that the republican extremists
talk contemptuously Of the poor Presidents
ignorance of civil affairs and of their power
to ''run the old man." and their determine
tion to make him do what they want.


We wonder sometimes if the President
knows what pitiful figure these unscrupu-
lous and reckless demagogues make him
cut before the country and the world. Does
he imagine that everybody does not see how
he is pulled and hauled about by them;
how at their bidding or instigation his policy
becomes as contradictory as a child's and
us ridiculous as though he were weakling
under the control of fayorite? His own
impulses on vital public questions have
always been fair and honest; left alone to
his own instincts he always wins the public
applause. But as soon as he has announced
some excellent and patriotic piece of public
policy along come these ''bigger men than
old Grant" and bully him out of it, and the
shout of public approval has scarcely died
away before he, at their bidding, meekly
changes his purposes and does their
dirty partisan work. We hardly need to
cite instances yet fresh in the public mind
to show how, in the face of the grsvest crisis
in our history, the President has repeatedly,
when acting on his own impulses and in
stincts, declared policy honorable to HIM
self and safe for the country, and how, as
soon as the ''bigger men than old Grant
could get hold of him, they forced him to
back down. Indeed. so remarkable have
been these changes that they have ceased to
be ridiculous. One cannot help feeling pity
for man who at the close of his political
and public career becomes the puppet and
creature of demagogues who boast openly of
their power over him and their determine
ton to .'run the old man."


Take for instance, the Presidents de-
spatch to General Sherman, on the 10th of
November, written at Philadelphia, off hand,
without consultation, out of his own heart.
He wrote:.-'Should there be any grounds
of suspicion of fraudulent counting on either
side it should be reported and denounced
at once" '.Spoken like man and patriot,
cried the whole American people, and we
venture to say that for at least one day after
this sentiment was made public the Presi-
dent was more widely and Justly popular
than for years before. But what happened
The "bigger men than old Grant" hastened
to surround him, and made him their tool
in covering up instead of denouncing the
fraudulent counting" In the second de-
spatch to General Sherman, on the same
day, still written while he was alone and
away from the "bigger men" who "bull-
doze" him, he said:-.sThe presence of citi-
zens from the other States understand is
requested in Louisiana to see that the Board
of Canvassers make fair count OF the vote
as actually cast. II is to be hoped that repre-
sentative and fair men Of both parties wW 90.
But the Chandlers, the Mortons, the Logans,
the Camerons, the 'bigger men than old
Grant" deeply alarmed and irritated at
proposition so fair and honest that it en-
dangered their plot, hastily gathered about
the poor old man, and, to his amazement and
bewilderment, within forty-eight hours after
he had written this honorable pledge of fair
play the President appointed committees to
so to the disputed States, composed exclu-
sively of republicans and in the main of bit
ter and notorious partisans. And when his
partisan Louisiana committee had made its
extraordinary whitewashing report the poor
President was ''bull-dozed" into the inde-
cency Of sending it as an official document
to Congress, without giving the democratic
committee an opportunity for fair hearing
at the same time.


The weather.