Year: 1876

i
They fit about the coveted bait like min
nows for whose tiny mouths the morsel is
too large, while the monarch of the food.
tanning his fms in the shelter of the White
House. bides his own time to dart upon the
prize with sudden and successful lunge.
Thus the maneuvres of Senator Morton in
the Republican National Committee, to di-
vert the place of the Convention from the
seaboard to the Mississippi Valley, and the
combat of the rival leaders of the party IN
New York for the control of what they call
the ''Central Committee" of this city, are only
the play of gudgeons. Even the combina-
ton which is now forming here of disinter-
! ested republicans with dissatisfied demo-
| Gratis to promote the chances of Secretary
Bristow is only a school of minnows rein
forced by that liberal republican sculpin
which invades every pool in quest of Office.
All this agitation is too late. President
Grant holds the republican nomination at
his mercy the united vote of the Southern
delegates is within his control he needs
only to secure few Northern delegates, and
of them he can have a surplus without the
asking The suggestion, therefore, that
the democrats have gained an i'm
portant advantage by the early speci-
fcation of the day for the Republican
Convention is moonshine. 1t is founded on
the fact that by fixing later day for their
own Convention they will be able to adapt
their nomination to the republican nomina-
ton and avail themselves of the weak points
.f thafr Pat 70 nc
day as it will ever be that Ulysses S. Grant
will be renominated for President at Cincin-
natl on Wednesday, June IA, 1876, if he
wishes, and we challenge the production of
any evidence that his wish is not fixed and
firm. The only advantage of the democrats
is the possibility that this desire will be
voluntarily relinquished, and how great the
chance of that is any one who has studied
Grants biography can easily compute.


Grant possessed stubborn will from
childhood, and history teaches that it is
safe rule to explore the youth of men of
strong will but narrow intellectual acquire
men.s for the germs of all the elements of
their character, since their disnclination to
seek or receive new ideas from reading or
conversation helps to develop their innate or
early tendencies. We read, therefore, with
much interest, in Mr. Danas excellent
biography of General Grant, that he ''became
accustomed to harness horses while he
was yet SO small that he could
not put the bride or collar on
that ''long before Ulysses had reached his
twelfth year he could ride horses at full
speed, standing upon their backs and bal
ancing himself by the bride reins." Mr..
Dana relates that even at that age ''he sue
ceeded in riding the trained trick pony of
circus company in spite of the pony's and
ring masters efforts to dismount him, aided
by monkey which fastened itself upon his
head and shoulders. " ''His quiet and gentle
disposition" Mr.. Dana adds, together with
a remarkable degree of frmness, rendered
him particularly successful in controlling
horses and breaking them to the saddle"


Although, in 1868, when this biography
was first published, its author was too prone
to praise his hero--a fault for which ample
atonement has since been made-yet we prob
ably may treat his anecdote of the trick pony
as veracous. Grant is now riding the re-
publican party in similar way. The party
itself is skittish, its former leaders have
made desperate efforts to dsmount the
young political equestrian, and a
whole wilderness of monkeys, in the
shape of republican newspapers, have
fastened their teeth and claws upon his head
and shoulders; but he keeps his seat,
and the pony obeys his spurs and rein, and
will continue to obey till the skilful rider
voluntarily quits the saddle Referring
again to Mr.. Dana for confirmation of our
analysis of Grants character we find it said
that nothing is more remarkable than ''the
easy simplicity with which he does the most
extraordinary things" Eight years ago,
when the people first elevated this simple
soldier TO the Presidency, not a soul in the
United States conceived that a political
chieftain more intense and absolute in his
personality than even General Andrew Jack
son had arisen chieitian who could expel
from his party half of it's trusty leaders
within the next four years, and then be re-
elected by vastly increased majority, and
who during the succeeding four years could
so distract the leaders that remained that
none of them could hinder his third nomi-
nation. Morton and Blaine, Morgan and
Conkling, Bristow and Hayes, Washburne
and Adams, might by grand combina-
ton perhaps, accomplish to-day what
Sumner and Trumbull and Cox and Schurz
vainly sought in 1871 and 1874, before they
finally forsook their party; but such a COM
bination is impossible in the nature of men
and things. 1t would require degree of
disinterestedness which is extinct in public
life, and which Grant has largely helped TO
e1tinguish.


Such being the facts, is it not wiser to