Year: 1870

Standing on the threshold of the
new year with ten months of the adj
ministratiOn of President Grant be-
fore the country and the world, ii is a
lifting time to consider the present
condition of affairs, and to contrast it
with March last, when he took the
solemn oath that invested him with
the power conferred on him by the
popular vote.


EcOnOny.-In every branch of the
public service his orders initiated re-
trenchments, which have been and
are being carried out with zeal and
fidelity. Useless Offices have been dis
continued; the clerical force in the de-
partments has been largely decreased;
the army was promptly reduced; very
many of the surplus military officers,
resulting from the reorganization of
the regiments, have been ordered in
to service as Indian agents, thus sa-
wing the salaries of an equal number
of civilians; and unnecessary apprO-
priatiOns have not been used.


Honest OUectiOns.-With taxation
diminished from last year, the reve-
nue. has steadily increased, abating
the discomfort which always exists
when the honest taxpayer is COM
PEELED to bear his own burden, and
the burden that should fall on the dis
honest taxpayer besides.


Rmgs.-With this increased eff
cheney and vigilance on the part of
the revenue officers, the whisky ring
once so widespreading and powerful,
no longer exists in an organized Ga
pacity anywhere in the cities, or
throughout the land. And the gold
ring, which caused such wild excite
ment a few months ago, felt the pow
er of the President and his Financial
Secretary at timely moment, so that
it has not since shown signs of life or
action.


The De5t.-MOnth by month the
people have witnessed with intense
satisfaction the steady reduction of
the National Debt. The monthly bull
letins of the Treasury Department
have been successive campaign dOcu-
ments in favor OF the Administration
and when the year expires over one
twentieth of the bonded debt will
have been paid.


Cold Steadily, with the single ex-
ception already alluded to, the premi-
um on gold has declined, not by any
attempt of the Admin
istration to force or TO hasten the re-
sumption of specie payments, but by
the improved credit of the nation re-
acting upon it. Already the very mar
row margin between the premium on
gold and the selling price of our bonds
point Enthusiastically to the nearness of
the time when the debt can be funded
at a much lower rate of interest; ena-
bling the country, in connection with
other savings, to dispense with scores
of millions of dollars of taxation.


PIrd0ns,-lnstead of the daily re-
lease of convicted offenders against
the laws, the exercise of Executive
clemency has been confined within
proper and healthy restrictions, alike
lust to the criminal and the country
he has wrOnged.


Public O6icerS.-Whatever discOn-
tents there may have been as to this
or that appointment, no fair man can
DENY, a. a whole, the nation has new
er had any better array of officers. If
the President could possibly have been
guided by unerring inspiration, al
would not have been satisfied with his
choice; for, even if a dozen applicants
were thoroughly qualified, but one
could be selected, and eleven with all
their friends dissatisfied. And, as
there is no Congressman who Viii de-
ny that he has sOInetilnes made mis-
takes in seleeti0ns iA his own district,
where he knows personally so many
Of his constituents, how could any
President be infallible when he must
depend for knowledge a. To a very
large proportion of applicants on the
recommendation of others


RecOnstTIGctjOR.-By the prompt and
iudicious action of the President, un-
der the large authority given to him
last April, i'm the closing hours Of the
first session of the XI4Ist Congress,
the work of reconstruction draws rap
idly to its close, ana, LefOre the resur-
re6tlOn Of spring gladdens our hearts
we may hope to see every state in the
Union fully represented in the Ma
tiOnal Councils.


The IadidRs.-IT nder the Presidents
firm hut humane policy, there have
been fewer Indian Outragcs and out
breaks between tine Mississippi and
the Sierras than during any year since
1853. Peace to the frontier settle
ments is a boon whose blessings and
ioy few here can adequately realize.


Cdste.-In nothing has the admin
istratiOn been more positive and out
spoken than in the advocacy of the
Fifteenth Amendment, from the day
that it was recommended in the In
augural till the present hour, when
its final ratification seems so near AT
hand. And, before its formal adoption,
the President has illustrated his be
lief in it's justice, by appointing to
office, of both higher or lower degree,
many whose race and color, irrespect-
i've of their intellectual qualifications,
had previously placed them under the
ban of official OstFaeism, The follow
ing terse aud emphatic remark of the
President to Attorney General Hoar,
and quoted by the latter at the recent
New England dinner in New York,
Is worthy to be printed i'll letters Of
gold:


81 hope To see the time when every
man in this country may have power
to express his own opinion, to follow
whom he pleases, to vote as he likes,
and to have his vote counted, without
mOlestatiOn or hindrance or insult