Year: 1873

General Grants Power and Oppor-


tunity-Lst Him Build vendone


Column ~ Pesce-The Country Do


manding . Generous Policy.


The practical fact that underlies tho present
discussion Of the immediate issues of our po-
htical future is the dominance of the repub-
can party and the subservience of its leaders
to General Grant In this respect our history
is repetition of the history of Jefferson,
Jackson and Lincoln. Instead of encounter
ing new issues we ara simply in the presence
of historical crisis repeating itself What
is the most patriotic duty of all who wish
well to the Republic? Naturally it will be
said, the way TO defeat General Grant and the
spirit of Cesarism which is now incarnated
in his administration is to consolidate the


democratic party, and under its lead over
throw the administration. In other words,


under new and broader issues we shall unite


in doing what Mr.. Greeley and his followers
strived to do. But we answer that nothing
would be more vicious than an enterprise Of
this kind. The alliance which Mr.. Greeley
formed and commanded had in its ranks many
true men. But as general thing it
was as corrupt as any political party,
and deserved the defeat that fell so
signally upon it. A performance like the
Cincinnati Convention must only be remem-
bered for the naming it gives, as we remem-
Der the Hartford Convention in 1912 or the
cowardly Wing Convention in 1852 The way
to elect Grant third time is to repeat the Gin
cinnati comedy. The true course for generous
action lies in another direction. In seeking it
we must not forget that there can be no sound
political combination that ignores or under
rates the administration.


Those who remember Paris in the earlier
days, before the Commune and Prussian
sieges, will recall the feeling with which they
came suddenly upon the Column Vendome.
There was the massive, graceful, ornate
square of Louis Xv.-a city within city,
and Baby1onian in it's breadth and
sweep. There, towering from the base of
bronze and dark marble, rose the graceful
column, with Caesar at the top, the foot
slightly bent, the Roman habit draping the
limbs; on the brow the laurel, in his hand
the emblem of victory; his eye looking beyond
Tuileries gardens and Seine River to the bur-
nished dome of the Invalides, under which his
body lay. And in legends Of animated bronze
you read, as you looked closely, circling the
column from base to cone, the story
of the modern Caesar, his victories
in Germany and beyond the Alps,
and the feats Of the valiant men who were his
comrades in effort and victory And you
were told in classic Roman phrase, written
deeply on the bronze base, that this column
celebrated the victories of the modern Caesar
in his German wars, and was builded from
cannon captured at Ulm and Jena and Auster-
itz. 1t was type of all that modern French
glory could give; and when it fell men
mourned at the fall of the embodiment of so
much splendor and power But now it rises
again, and will be known hereafter not as
monument to Caesar, but to French heroism.
This Republic is wise enough to say that there
is nothing in the Column Vend6me or the men
and times it typifes in which republicans can
not share.


The effort to pull down General Grant and his
administration, as the utmost political necessity
of the time, resembles the folly of the men who
marked their brief reign of power by pulling
down the Column vendome. General Grant
belongs to the history Of our country. He
was the conspicuous man in gigantic and
for long time uncertain struggle. To his
sword we largely owe the achievements Of the
civil war. And to deny them now and dis
honor him would be to do as wild thing as
was done by the mad Communists
ungrateful a thing as was done by the
degenerate Roman emperors when they dis
missed the virtuous and triumphant Belisarius
to poverty and shame We shall have no part
in political transactions of this kind. They
are unwise, unjust, and will never be welcomed
by our people We accept General Grants
position, because without accepting it there
is no way to reach true solution of the prob
lens of the day. For good or for evil, Gen.
eral Grant is master of the political situation.
Nor can his mastery be destroyed by calumny
and detraction.


What, then, should General Grant do? Let
him build for himself and his administration
q Vend6me column of peace that will rival in
its beauty and fame the one that now lies in
ruins on the banks of the Seine Let him
first declare that, under no circumstances, will
he become q candidate for denomination; that
he will regard as his enemy whoever makes
the suggestion, and that he will support any
good, true man nominated by his party. Let
him call attention to that weakness in the con-
stitution which gives the residential Office its
vast power, and show how such ON Office, with
its attributes and immunities, its virtual free
dom from impeachment, its responsibility
and immutability is inconsistent with genu-
inc republican form of government.
No man can say this as we'll as
Grant, or with 80 much force and
magnanimity. Such declaration would give