Year: 1872

Slavery.


Although no person would attribute to
President Grant the character Of politician,
In the general acceptance Of the term, he has
certain qualities which supply
the place Of political experience and sagacity.
and enable him to meet political strategists
without disadvantage on their own battle
ground The country had evidence of this
during the last months of the rebellion, when
the Union leader firmly and successfully
resisted that unwise Interference OF the
Washington politicians with the army in tho
field which had served to prolong the war and
had so frequently brought disaster upon our
arms. Il was shown in his effective rebuke
of the same intermediates when they proposed
to ignore the parole extended to General Lee
and his officers, and to arraign them as GRIM
inals in court of justice; in bis famous
report on the acceptance Of the situation
by the Southern whites; in his protest
against the immediate enfranchisement Of
four millions of ignorant freedmen in tho
South, and in his general recommendations to
Congress in the early part Of his civil career.
We have confidence, therefore. that President
Grant will fully comprehend the lesson of his
recent magnificent victory at the polls, and
will appreciate the suggestions offered by the
independent press in regard to the future
policy of his administration. His natural
shrewdness will enable him to detect at once
the object of those politicians who are already
combating the idea that the election was won
on the personal merits Of the leader of the
Union armies, and claiming the result as due
to republicanism alone They desire to retain
in power for another four years the 'rings'
which for the past two or three years have re-
volved about the Presidential Office, borrowing
from it their light and life But the very argu-
ments which their stipendiary organs advance
in support of this theory effectually destroy it.
The republican nominees for local and State
officers, they say, run nearly or quite up to the
Presidential ticket, and from this they reason
that republicanism alone elected General
Grant In every State in the Union, we be-
lieve, the Presidential ticket will be found
ahead of the State ticket, and hence


the conclusion is irresistible that General


Grant dragged the local candidates after him


to victory through the strength of his own
name Indeed, in the case Of the defeat of


Judge Settle, in North Carolina the President
Of the Republican Convention, we have o
proof that without Grant republicanism was
powerless. Had the North Carolina State
election been held in November Judge Settle
would have been carried to success in the
wake Of the Presidential ticket The State
votes in Indiana, Pennsylvania and other
States which held their local elections before
November, as compared with their Presi-
Dental votes, are positive evidence that the
personal merits and popularity of the Nations
Soldier were the key to the recent victory, and
that the President saved republicanism,
instead Of republicanism saving the President.
General Grant is quite politician enough to
grasp these points, and when an English
edited organ of the "Ring," which knows


little about America or Americans, impudently


tells the conqueror of the rebellion that he


would be ''as unceremoniously dropped by


the people if he should ''turn traitor to his
party" as were "Sumner, Schurz, Trumbull
or Greeley" General Grant will understand
that it is only threat uttered to remind him
that he is expected to renew the lease of power
of those who claim to represent the republican
party aud who have surrounded his admins
tration during his present term of Office.


The HERALD has already insisted upon Gen.
eral Grants independence of these scheming
politicians and of the Hessians who draw
rations from them, and has called upon him
to shape the future policy Of his administra-
ton in accordance with the evident sentiments
of the people, whose President he can now
emphatically claim to be. When the republi-
can party was demoralized and shattered he
was taken up on the shoulders of his country
men and carried to triumph over all parties
and combinations The very organ which
now impertinently tells him that he had no
strength apart from republicanism was few
weeks ago pleading with 'shonest democrats"
the commercial interests" the ''independ-
ent Masses" the ''brave soldiers the 'intel-
igent Germans" and every conceivable power
in the canvass, to give their votes to the repub-
lican candidates independent of politics"
The appeal was answered, and General Grant
will enter upon his new term of Office
as . President chosen on his own
merits alone; as q President in whom the
great body Of the American people have per-
sonally reposed confidence. He will have
before him ON opportunity such as no former
Chief Magistrate ever enjoyed to render his
name as famous in peace as it already is in
war. Striking off the trammels of party, he
can pursue popular policy, that will place
our government in higher position than it
has ever before occupied, both at home and
among the nations of the world. The settle
ment Of the Southern question on q broad,
generous basis Of constitutional freedom for
every State in the Union, leaving the negro
problem, like every other, to be solved by local
laws and local interests, will raise him in