Year: 1872

IT is three years ago to-day since
General Grant became President Grant.
By these three years he will be judged at
the bar of public opinion on the next
national election day. The Presidential
office has, therefore, a triennial period as
distinct as its quadrennial, and it is more
important to estimate it correctly. After
a President has retired from public life,
or entered upon his final term, it is not of
much practical consequence whether he
is appreciated or not; but when the peo
pie are about to decide upon his retention
in office, an examination into his record
is intensely practical.


AT the time U. S. Grant took the Presi-
dental oath, he had never, we believe,
held any civil Office. 1t would seem as if
nature said to herself at his creation {:
America shall have at least one citizen
entirely free from the national mania for
office-holding" The graduate of one of
the best schools of the land, an institu-
| ton for mental discipline quite the peer
of Harvard and Yale, and having mill
tary record which would have made him
an available" candidate, had he chosen
| to enter that field, Captain Grant never
had anything to do with politics. Under
these circumstances, his elevation to the
Presidency was an experiment. All that
NOGln bC odlu III lllo Id'Ol do tllelb SOOu
Commander-in-C Chief ought to make a
good Chief Magistrate. But reasoning
from analogy is never entirely satisfact-
ory. In the general feeling of anxiety
no one shared SO deeply as General Grant
| himself


The period of faith has lost itself in the
| epoch of absolute knowledge The ex-
pertinent has been tried. The military
record of General Grant has been eclipsed
by his civil record. This is not a random
claim made in the interest of party, but
a truth from which there is no intelligent
escape. The chief points Of the record
are as follows:


/. President Grant broke up the whisky
ring. That was his first triumph. He
laid the foundation for that in the ap-
pointment of George S. Boutwell, to the
Secretaryship of the Treasury No man
in the country understood more thorough
! ly the system of internal taxation than
Mr. Boutwell,. He organized that Bu-
reau, and had been in position to under
stand all its ins and outs, from first to
last. Coupling honesty with intelligence,
he brought to the initial work of reform
the qualifications of success. Incompe-
tent and rascally officials were weeded
out as fast as possible, and every man
connected with the assessment and col
lection OF taxes reallZeQ tnat the udyS OF
connivance at thievery were over. 1t
was not three months after the present
Administration came into power before
the whisky ring, and every other ring for
defrauding the Government out of inter
nal revenue, had been broken up. The
proof of this is found in the increased
revenue derived from internal taxation
The Government has derived more reve
nue from spirits at fifty cents per gallon
under Grant than it did from the two dol
lar tax under Johnson The amount dis
titled is no greater, if as great. From the
logic of such Il fact there is no escape.


2. The next monster to fall dead was
the Indian ring That was as old as this
Democratic party. When the motto, etc
the victor belong the spoils," was made
the cornerstone of the party in power
this ring began to form. For twelve
years the Democrats held undisputeC
sway at Washington. The Wings won /:
barren victory in 1910, Tyler going over
to the enemy. Eight years more were
added to the ring. The Whig party either
did not attempt its overthrow, or utterly
failed TO accomplish it during the Taylor