Year: 1875

|


The Message of President Grant published
in yesterdays HERALD, urging upon Congress
special legislation in reference to the sim
portance of preparations for war, in the arm
ing of our seacoast defences," is an event Of
unusual significance. 1t is o technical and
brief Message. and on its face seems simply
suggestion to Congress of the necessity of
the procurement of heavy cannon. The
President properly says that in time of war
such preparations cannot be made. Cannon
cannot be purchased in open market nor
manufactured at short notice; they must be
the products Of years of experienced labor.
Constant appeals for legislation" says the
President ''for the armament of Notifications
ought no longer to be disregarded, if Con-
gress desires in peace to prepare the material
without which future wars must evidently lead
to disaster" This Message comes at the
same time with official and semi-oficial
rumors to the effect that we are now about to
| have vigorous policy with Spain. that
american honor is to be indicated" that
the Vrginius question is to be redressed and
| that the Republic is about to assert its place
|
the present critical time in our political
affairs, it is document of the gravest impor.
| lance.


Nothing is moro proper than that tho Pres
+ ident should keep . vigilant eye upon the
! condition of our national armament and es-
pecially our forts and seacoast defences. But
this is q duty that should be delicately per-
formed A communication to Congress, ask
ing for guns of larger calibre, should be made
by tho head of department to the proper
committee in the House. and not by means of
o formal message. When the executive head
of great government publishes to the world
that the Notifications are practically worthless,
and that new armament is necessary, he
means one of two things-either to invite ON
attack from some enemy or to inspire legisla-
ton of a menacing nature. A message of this
kind, addressed by the German Emperor to his
Parliament or by Marshal MacMahon to the
Assembly at Versailles, would set Europe in
blaze. Taken in connection with the general
drift of events for the last few months we
cannot solve the Presidents meaning without
arriving at conclusions that give us uneasi-
ness and concern.


What is the situation ut present? President
Grant is in the sixth year Of an administra-
tion that began by violation of the traditions
of the constitution in this respect-that the
Presidency was to him personal and not o
representative power. The effect of this, at
the time, apparently harmless innovation, has
been to change the whole tone of our politics
and our government Since the war military
sentiment has controlled the republican party
The old fealty to ideas which animated men
like Sumner and Chase and Greeley, and
which made the party Independent, aggressive
and pure, has given way to an absolute sub
mission to the will Of chief The Presi-
dent commands the government and tho party
Just as he commanded an army. There
is no will but that Of ths SILENT
inscrutable master in the White House.
Occasionally there has been . murmur. as in
St Domingo and more recently in Louisiana.
| For q moment we have expectations of q
mutiny or division. One or two independent
men venture to assert that they are the peers
and not the slaves of the President But dis.
cipline is resumed, the murmur dies away,
acts of an extreme and unconstitutional nature
are condoned or forgotten, and tho party
moves on and on, obeying the will Of a chief
as implicitly as that will was o5eyed by the
armies of the Potomac and the West


! If the head Of this party were self-deny-
ing, patriotic man, animated by the senti-
ments of Washington, or even of jackson,
with no ambition but the public welfare, no
personal friends to support and no personal
interests to advance, we might be content with
this anomaly in government, feeling assured
| that in time it would right itself, and
that the nation, after passing through
/ its military fever, would drift back
to condition of pristine health and freedom
But President Grant is no such man. Obsti-
nate, able, independent sef-willed, amenable
to no influences except those which appeal to
his pride and his vanity, believing that he is
more necessary to the party than the party
ever has been to him, and regarding the
Presidency as a personal possession, flushed
with power, he does not mean to resign the
Office to which he has been chosen until he
has exhausted every means of retaining it.
Upon this theory his policy is as clear as
crystal We can understand it We can
see that he has been from the beginning driv-
ing at one purpose, and in pursuance of that
purpose nothing is more natural than that he
should threaten war with Spain, and ask Con-
grcss to give him money 80 as to purchase
guns of larger calibre.


The uprising of the people in the last can
vass against the idea Of the third term de-
stroyed every belief which the President had
entertained as to the power of party discipline
to retain him in the Presidency. Bat two
chances remained--a rebellion in the South
and foreign war. Nothing has prevented
the revival in the South of the rebellion but