Year: 1876

Grant is the emptiest document Of the kind


ever sent to Congress, but it has the merit of


being short. The President is man of sense
He scorns to make parade of recommends
tions which have no chance of adoption.


or to spin out words to no purpose We


commend the brcvity and have no particular


fault to find with the inanity of his final


Message. In the earlier days of his admin
istration, when his political party had large


majorities in both houses, he made


many recommendations which were ig-


nored or rejected and very few that


We're adopted. Why should he continue to


make idle recommendations now, when one
branch of Congress is democratic when no
bill can pass without the consent of his po-


litical opponents; when he cannot remain in
! Office to carry out new policy,


and when it is fore9one GER


tainty that Congress will be engrossed


through the greater part of this session
with exciting questions bearing on the elec-
tion of his successor? The expiring months
of feeble administration is no time for the
Inauguration Of great measures. Even if it


were certain that Mr.. Hayes is to be the
next President General Grant would natur-
ally recoil from attempts to inaugurate


new policy when the administration is about
to pass into other hands. Delicate consid-


Grafton for his successor would prompt him
to leave the future in his hands, so far rs
the future may depend on executive influ-
ence. The reasons for abstinence are. still
stronger if Mr.. Tildeu is to be the next
President. A democratic successor would
disdan to borrow General Grants ideas,
and good measures would have better
chance if the credit of originating them were
left to the new President. 1t is mark of


sagacity and good sense to leave future


measures to those who will be responsible
for their success


President Grants unexpected reticence on


the great question which SO deeply agitates


the public mind is also wise 1t was sup


posed that he would discuss matters con-


nected with tho Presidential contest, and


to any mind less practical and down.


right than that Of General Grant this


would have been great temptation.


But parade of his views on this exciting


subject would have been idle, and President


Grant evinces the solid qualities of his


mind in keeping clear of it. No recommen-
dation which he could have made in rela-
ton to the counting of the electoral votes
would have been adopted by this Con-
gress. and safeguards against the recurrence
of similar difficulties had better be left to a
calmer period. There will be opportunities
for deliberate action on this subject in less
heated political atmosphere before another
Presidential election. No precautions for
the future can be adopted until after the ex-


citement which attends this canvass shall
have blown over. The country must get
through the present alarming difficulty as
best il may, and provisions against it's re-
currence must be postponed to time when


Congress and the people are in q more judi
ciai temper President Grant is to be COM


mended for not proposing remedies which


have no chance of immediate adoption, and


which. however sincerely meant, would be


attributed to partisan bias.


The only striking feature in this trivial


Message is the apologetic and defensive tone


of remark in which the President INDUCES


at it's beginning and again near the end.


There is trite French proverb that


he who excuses himself becomes his
own accuser. To offer excuses is conces-
sion that excuses are necessary, which
implies an admission that the person who


makes them has fallen short of what might


have been expected of him. President


Grant pleads in mitigation of sentence that
ba la1 tn ba Of iaf


Executive without any previous politi-


cal training" He says that after the
! age of seventeen he never witnessed


but two Presidential elections before


he became candidate himself, and that in


only one of the two was he entitled to vote.


This pathetic plea of inexperience is of


little account During the six years that he


was General-in- Chief of the Army he was


brought into constant intercourse with


the most conspicuous public men in the


country. He spent the four years which


intervened between the close of the war and


his accession to the Presidency in Washing
| ton, the great focus of American politics.
| That was period of comparative leisure,


which afforded him ample opportunity for


political observation and for forming tho


acquaintance of all the conspicuous men


in public life. Such intercourse did not


make General Grant q statesman, but it


should have enabled him to form an intelli-
| gent judgment of the relative standing of


the leading public men of the country. Few
Presidents have had such excellent op-


portunities for enabling them to make
a wise selection of official advisers, and
President Grant has failed in civil life be-


cause he did not bring strong men into his


Cabinet. Any man of halfhis sense and pene-


tration and halfKis opportunities for observa-


ton and intercourse should have been able