THE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN. SPEECH Govee:^oe Jewell, CONNECTICUT, DELIVERED AT COOPER IN^STITUTE, SEPTEMBER lith, 1872. ' HARTFORD, CONN.: CASE, LOCKWOOD & BRAINARD, PRINTERS. 18 7 2. ETc .0 5^ '1 SPEECH Permit me to thank you, Mr. Chairman, for the very com- plimentary manner in which you have been pleased to intro- duce me, and you, fellow citizens, for this most cordial and flattering- reception ; which, however pleasant to mo, but in- creases the embarrassment under which I rise to address you. Engrossed as I am in my public and private duties, (having devoted my life almost entirely to business pursuits — politics being an affair in. which I have but very lately tjiken an active part,) I should have followed my inclinations and declined the polite invitation of the Republican Committee of the State of New York to appear here to-night, had I not become so interested in this campaign that I find it impossible to keep out of it. I do not propose to apologize for the Republican party, its platform, its record, or its candidates. It is within the rec- ollection of the. youngest of us, when, where, and how this party was started. At its birth its principles were very brief, and its platform still more so. It was simply this : " Equal and exact justice to all before the law." A party that could within the short space of fifteen or twenty years achieve what this has done, that could turn the entire current of thought of the most progressive nation under the sun from its old channels of looking with at least some degree of toleration on the sin of human slavery, that could change the front of 40,000,000 of people, marching with the strength and rapidity with which we are moving, towards the highest possible civil- ization, an achievement so remarkable, so noble, so important in its results for the race, needs no words of excuse or apolo- gy, not only for its existence but for its continuance. Great as have been its achievements, numerous and important as have been its victories, much as it has accomplished, there still remains much to be done before it will have fulfilled its mis- ^■. sion, and have completely carried out the idea of freedom which called it into existence. And yet we are finding not a few who have heretofore been warmly attached to the for- tunes of our party, saying that all the good which it can accomplish, it has already done, and that it ought now to give way to other issues, and ignominiously perish. Not so does it look to me. Our party must continue its onward and upward progress until the last vestige of antagonism l)etwecn the races of people, of yhich our nation is composed, has been completely and entirely extinguished. For no other possible end could Providence have raised up this magnificent and powerful party. No compensation but this will be equal to the fearful loss of life and treasure by which tlie nation has attained its present position. If any bloody chasms still exist, it is the duty of this party to (ill them up, and to plant above them the seeds of peace, prosperity, and unity. Bloody chasms do not belong to an era, to a people, to an intelligence, to a religion like ours, and it is only necessary that we attend as carefully to our political duties as to those of our private and social life, to make our fair land what we have each one of us been hoping and ex- pecting it would be, since in our childhood we learned the truisms of the Declaration of Independence. Nothing but an earnest wish to contribute my mite to the accomplishment of all this could have induced me to leave my counting-room, and a])pear before you, to-night, in the rol^ of public speaker. In all our later presidential campaigns, up to this, we have had two great parties confronting each other, each with a dis- tinct set of i)rinciplcs and candidates. Candidates have here- tofore been selected, representing the principles of their party, by a life-long devotion to them, and an earnest wish to carry them out, and each surrounded by party sal'egnards, watch- words, and histories, whith like an unwritten law would keep them in certain grooves. Hut iliis year how ditlercnt. Tbe Ivepublican party, true to its traditions, lias put forward its jjlatform, and ou it its can- didates, pledged l)y their past history to carry out to the letter tbe doet lines of which we are so proud, and for which 0« we have sacrificed so much, and with which we feel certain to succeed. We have not clianged our tactics, nor do we pro- pose to. We expect to elect our candidates, and to continue the same general course which we have heretofore pursued. But what do we find opposed to us ? Candidates taken from our own party bj a wing of discontented so called reformers — to the support of whom are invited their ene- mies and ours, and for what! simply for office, for pat- ronage, for spoils ; and how has this been brought about, and how arc our opponents seeking to carry on this cam- paign ? They do not pretend it is Democratic ; they do not pretend it is Republican ; they do not pretend it is any thing in particular. It is simply an aggregation of the outs to get in ; at the North for one reason, at tlie South for another ; in one State for free trade, in another for protec- tion ; in one place pretending to give tlie negro his rights, in another to deprive him of them ; in one section because these candidates favored the war, in another because they favored secession. It is all a dodge to obtain power and plunder. It is a fraud so stupendous in its inception, and fraught with results so disastrous could it be successful — which, thank God, it cannot be — that it would stamp American politics to be, what some of our European friends claim, one grand scram ble for office, regardless alike of the proprieties of political warfare, of the amenities of civilized life, and of respect for the reputation of our country. And while I do not, as I said before, propose to apologize for our party or its candidates, yet the campaign is being caiTied on in a spirit so unjust and so vindictive, that I do propose to defend our candidates from some of the false aspersions which have been hurled against them. ATTACKS ON PRIVATE CHARACTER. Never before in any presidential campaign has the private life and character of the candidates been assailed with such malignity and mendacity, as has that of the Republican can- didates in the present canvass, by the men who propose to rise on the ruins of those they would crush, and wliose^sole watchword is, " Anything to beat Grant." 6 Never before has my anger been roused to such a pitch ; never have I felt all the manhood within me tingling with hidignation, as now, when I sec the vile and unjust attacks u])on the President of the United States, a man to whom the country owes a debt of gratitude that no honors which it may heap upon him can ever liquidate, and the sum of wliich can- not be expressed in dollars, however many. From gentlemen occupying high places of honor in our land, down to the meanest penny-a-liner of a country newspaper, our enemies are searching their vocabulary for terras of vituperation with which to traduce the character of this man, to whom they at least owe respect for the services he has rendered their coun- try, if they cannot treat him decently as a man. Twelve or fourteen years ago there was in existence a mod- est hide and leather firm, doing business in Galena, under the name of J. R. Grant. Being in the same business, my knowledge of these gentlemen commenced with that time. They were marked in all our agency books as moder- ate in capital, fair in credit, and high in character. It is well known in the mercantile community how much care is taken that no injustice shall be done any party in his '• mark- ings," as it is termed, and that while no one shall he rated so high as to give iiim credit unwarranted by his capital or char- acter, yet that no injustice be done him, and that he shall have the full benefit of all which he has that tends to entitle him to public confidence. And now, while one of this family is out of mercantile l)usiness and in political life, we find a systematic attempt on the part of his opponents to write him down in the political " markings " as bankrupt, and entitled to no credit, either for capacity, honesty, or de])ortment. One would think by the reading of Mr. Sumner's speech, of which they claim to have distrilmtcd hundreds of thousands of copies, that General Grant had ai)solutcly no virtues, and he is accused as being guilty of nearly all the crimes forlnd- dcn in the Decalogue. Others have followed as nearly as possible in the wake of the eminent Senator, taking their cue from him, and thinking to serve their cause by not only re- echoing his malignant attacks, but by inventions of their own which are equally false. I have given such attention to some of the charges made against him as my opportunities enabled me to do, and pro- pose to answer a few of them, to brand them as falsehoods pure and undiluted and without the slightest foundation, and to defend my candidate for President against these unjust aspersions, with at least as much care for his character now that he is President of the United States as I would have done for his credit had he continued in the hide and leather business. And I propose to speaiv about nothing which I do not know. I propose to make no statements which will not bear investigation. I shall touch on no points which I have not myself looked into, and I back my assertions with all my business and political character. CHICAGO LAND. The President appointed as Minister to Belgium an old Galena friend of his, but latterly a resident of Chicago, J. Russell Jones. A few weeks ago the Chicago Tribune found a magnificent mare's nest, in the fact that Mr. Jones had deeded thirty-one acres of land to the President, and the consideration which the deed called for was one dollar ; thus accusing Mr. Jones of having bought his appointment. As he has made a most excellent minister while abroad, and has given universal satis- faction to the Americans who have had business witli him, the New York Tribune thought it a good chance to blacken both his character and the President's by rehearsing this shocking specimen of bargain and sale, and labored in column after column, article after article, and day after day, to show to its virtuous readers how corrupt an administra- tion we had, and how necessary it was to put a keen, smart, bright, honest man like " Uncle Horace " in the Presidential chair. Now I propose to give the story of this land, since so much has been said about it, and I speak by the book. I know what I am talking about, for I have looked into it. In 1867 Mr. Jones proposed to the then General Grant to join him in the purchase of one hundred and twenty-four acres of land near Chicago, at one hundred and twenty-five dollars per acre, which he (Mr. Jones) thought would be a good 8 speculation. So did tlic General, but having no], money to invest, he was forced to decline, and Mr. Jones found another man to go in with him. About a year later Mr. Jones told the General that the party with whom he had bought wished to sell out his interest at 4:ln'cc hundred and fifty dollars per acre, and offered General Grant a share in it. General Grant wrote him that he would take one-half of the interest which Mr. Jones was to buy of his partner. Before the General's letter reached Mr. Jones, the latter had made the purchase on his own account, and of course had taken tlie deed to him- self. General Grant borrowed the money temporarily with which to pay for it in part, and when he sold his house in Washington and paid the balance, Mr. Jones transferred to him an undivided one-quarter, and the consideration expressed in the deed was one dollar, a custom too common among real estate dealers to call for any comment or even attract atten- tion. General Grant actually paid, and this I know, for principal, interest, searching records, stamps, &c., eleven thousand, two hundred and twenty odd dollars. To such desperate straits have the opponents of the President been driven, to blacken his name and that of his efficient officers. But this, ridiculous as it is, does not l)egin to compare in infamy with the stories about the President's LONG BRANCH COTTAGE. A large amount of the capital which has ])cen contributed to the Democratic concern with which to do business against the President, has been the cry that Mr. Muri)hy gave him a cottage at Long Branch, in consideration of wliich the Presi- dent appointed him Collector. On examination into the cir- cumstances attending tlie purchase of this cottage, this dreadful transaction on the part of the President, which has caused the saints of the Democratic party to hold up their hands in holy horror for so long a lime, vanishes into thin air. Mr. Mui-phy has published a card in whicli he says he did not give the President a cottage at Jjong Brancli or anything of the kind, or contribute towards one. nor docs he know of any person who did. Stories have been circulated with great persistency that a gentlemen in New York had known or seen 9 or heard of a paper having been circulated in order to raise money to buy a cottage for the President at Long Branch, or somewhere else, and the opponents of the President have undertaken to make much capital out of this wild rumor, but come to chase it down, tlicre is notliing in it. No man has ever circulated a paper for such a purpose by authority or with the knowledge of the President or any of his friends. And yet in spite of the proved falsity of these rumors, prom- inent gentlemen and newsi)apers continue to charge that of- fice-holding friends of the President assisted him in some manner in the purchase of his Long Branch property, all of which I know to be false, as certainly as a man can know anything of the kind after a most thorough and searching examination and chasing down each story as it appeared. Had the eminent gentlemen who have made these charges given as much attention to them as one of their constituents would have done to find out the responsibility of a party to whom he wanted to sell a case of brogans, they would a long time ago have discovered their utter falsity. The truth is, the President owns two cottages at Long Branch, in one of which he lives, and the other he rents. None of this property has ever been owned by Mr, Murphy, nor was he in any way con nected with its purchase. During a visit of the President at Long Branch, some of his friends expressing a wish that he would make that his summer residence, he signified a willing- ness to do so could a place be found within his pecuniary reach This was finally done, and afterwards an additional lot was purchased, on. which he erected another house at an expense of about $18,000 besides the land, for which he paid about 86,000, the money to pay for the same being raised by the sale of government bonds in which he had invested the money which had been presented to him by liberal citizens of New York while he was General, and long before, he thought of being President. Now all this hue and cry about the Pres- ident's Long Branch cottage having been given him by office- holders, is a tissue of falsehood, invented by people who should have known better, and would, had they been half as careful to look into the truth of stories while circulating them as 2 10 they were zealous to give them additional publicity after they had been started, and shows the anxiety of our opponents to make a sensation and to create public opinion against a politi- cal adversary. And it is all on a par with their tactics. Most of the speeches of the eminent senators, and most of the addresses and manifestoes which are issued from Liberal Republican headquarters, are made up of mere clap-trap. They assail the President right and left, but have very little to say against the measures of his administration, and still less in favor of Horace Greeley, his principles, his promises, or what he proposes to do in case he should be elected. He talks much about hand-shakings across imaginary bloody chasms, dressed in an old white hat and coat, and his friends think that this sort of a show will attract such attention as to conceal his defects, and put him into the White House with a hurrah. Ihit they will learn their mistake when the question comes l)efuic the people for their decision. The American public is too intelligent to be caught by any such Falstafhan device. The time has passed, and the temper of the people is too serious to care for the age. color, or style of hats and coats. The qualities of leadership which we now require arc hon- esty of heart and purpose that none but proper measures may bo wished for, firmness and capacity of head and brain to ])ro- joct, and strength and steadiness ot hand to execute. For these qualifications we are quite willing our candidate should be subjected to the closest scrutiny. "We do not fear the comparison with any of his contemporaries or of any charac- ter of American history. THE RAWLINS SLANDER. The recent converts to Democracy exhibit the same traits and enthusiasm for their cause, for which new converts arc so proverbial. Notably is this so in the case of that famous general who did so much to advance the respectabili- ty ot the American nation while representing it at a foreign court, and who has been so notorious for his self-sacrificing devotion to the Republican i)arty, while he was a member of it, and for whom wo have done so nuich apologizing in time 11 past, which duty I am thankful has no^y been transferred to the other side — the impetuous and virtuous Kilpatrick. This gallant chieftain, after having been kicked out ^ a New York court, has lately been disporting himself in Vermont, and the results of his labors were plainly visible in our glorious vic- tory a few days ago. He there turned upon his old leader in a manner as vile, as vindictive, and as malevolent, as his fawn- ing had heretofore been conspicuous. He did not hesitate to charge the President with behaving in an unfeeling manner towards Genei-al Rawlins, between whom and General Grant it is well known had existed a long and intimate friendship. He there charged the President with remaining at Saratoga, pursuing a life of pleasure, while the friends of poor Rawlins were telegraphing him to hasten to the bedside of the dying Secretary. The only dispatch received on the Sunday named was one from General Sherman that Rawlins was worse and wished to see him ; though previous dispatches, of which there were quite a number, had been more favorable as to Rawlins' condition, and had not indicated that he was dan- gerously ill. Upon the receipt of Sherman's dispatch, the President hastened, with a single secretary, to take the first train from Saratoga, not giving time to Ins family even to accompany him, such was his haste, and also breaking an engagement which he had made to go to Utica the next day, against the remonstrances of his friends and to the great dis- appointment of thousands of people. He took special trains where he could, and regular trains where he must, to Baltimore, where he took special carriage across the city, and on special car flew to Washington, but arrived one hour after the death of his old chief of staff and favorite secretary. General Rawlins, before his death, made a will, leaving his estate and children in care of the President, to which estate the President contributed $2,500, and has ever since looked carefully after those children and the fund left them. The children are now with a married sister of General Rawlins at the West, and are carefully watched over by the President. With his usual care and st>licitude for the interests of otliers, he has placed their properly in registered bonds of the United 12 States, ia their own names, to guard against possible acci- dent. And yet thi^ Democratic orator, this " truthful James" of this mongrel party, has the efi'rontery and shamelessness to accuse his old Commander-iu-Chicf of acting towards his friend and his friend's orphan children in an unfeeling man- ner. Perhaps such statements as these are not worth noticing, and yet as they form so large a part of the stock in trade of our opponents, I cannot hold my peace, but wish to add my pro- test to that of more eminent gentlemen than myself, who have denounced these slanders as being without the slightest shadow of a foundation. Scarcely three months liave yet elapsed since this slanderer was asking the President for still further favors at his hands, the refusal of which may in some degree account for the bitterness of his hostility. THE COLORED CADET. A similar sort of a story has been gotten up in regard to ihe President's ccniduct towards the colored cadet Smith at West Point. As the Tribune gives the story in its campaign sheet, the President is made to say to the Secretary of War that he, the President, wanted the court-martial so made up as to dismiss the cadet, when the facts are exactly the re- verse. Gen. 0. 0. Howard, the well known friend of the colored people, was made President of the court, and the cadet was not dismissed, though he was found guilty of conduct unbe- coming an officer. And yet a Liberal Republican, a gentleman who was some- what prominent in tlic Cincinnati convention which invented Mr. Greeley as a presidential candidate, has declared in the Tribune that Gen. Iluward told him all tliis stuif about the President's request to the Secretary of War. Tiic President, Secretary of War, and Gen. Howard all liaving denied the whole story, it appears to be now a question of veracity between the Liberal Rei>ublican before referred to and G(>n. Howard, and \m oiu: who knows them both will 13 hesitate long in deciding as to which lias the most treacherous memory. No man has ever been more true to the colored race, both in general and in detail, than has our President. He has labored no less incessantly tb keep cadet Smith at West Point in spite of the findings of tlie court which were against him, than he has to give our colored friends all over the South the rights to which the constitutional amendments entitle them ; and whether this is appreciated or not by the Liberal Repub- lican patron of cadet Smith, (who, while this colored United States officer w^as on a late visit at his house, did not allow him to sit at tlie table with the family, but treated the cadet like an inferior,) the colored people generally appreciate it and ever have The President's interest in them is shown by acts and deeds, and is vastly more effective than the boasting words of the Liberal Republicans. When the President was nominated at Chicago four years ago, he vras not selected for his known fidelity to the princi- ples of the Republican party, but for his eminent services as a soldier and a citizen. We were not at all certain at that time wliether he would enter with zeal into .our particular notions of equality ; but we find, much to our delight, that he has endeavored to protect all classes of citizens, regardless of color or locality, in all the rights to which they were entitled. Xo man could be more true to the Union mci^ of the South than has our President, and in his course toAvards them he has been manfully sustained by Horace Greeley, to his honor be it said. Xo man has been w^armer in his encomiums on the President's policy at the South than Mr. Greeley, and to no man would we have been so reluctant to look upon as an enemy of the President as he. And why does not Mr. Gi'eeley like the President ? He has over and over again de- clared that the President had stood manfully by the doctrines of the Republican party on the question of the colored race ; that Gen. Grant would be better fitted to be President the second term than the first, and that he never had been beaten and never would be. To all of which we most heartily re- spond, and in which we entirely agree with Mr. Greeley. 14 Perhaps Mr. Greeley's opposition to tlie President arises from the fact that he was not, like Mr. Greeley, ready to let the South go out at the opening of the war ; perhaps because he was not willing, like Mr. Greeley, to make peace on any terms during the war ; perhaps because he did not, like Mr. Greeley, approve of treating with armed emissaries of the re- bellion ; and perhaps the motive of his action is to be found in later and more personal difference of opinions. Be that as it may, the antagonistic opinions, during the war, of the two men who arc now rival candidates, have become matters of history, and for those opinions they must answer to the American people. Gen. Grant l^elieved and acted upon the belief that rebel- lion was not only unjustifiable, but a crime, and should be put down ; that the right of secession did not exist ; that uo treaty could be made with rebels in arms ; that no peace could be valuable or lasting that was not achieved by force, and that the only way to treat traitors in open rebellion was to crush them into submission. The result justifies the correct- ness of these ideas. Had we followed Mr. Greeley's advice at the beginning of the rebellion, we should not now have had a country, undivided and powerful, over which to elect a President, but should have been broken up into a group of petty sovereignties, without respect or influence among the nations of the world. ECONOMY OF THE PRESIDENT. Among the characteristics of the President, which have challenged my admiration from my first acquaintance with, or knowledge of him, has been his strict adherence to all the rules of propriety, of deportment, justice of administration, and economy of business management. These were notably shown while he was in command of the armies, as they have been during his occupancy of the Presidential chair. After the surrender of Lee at Appomattox Court House, this mod- est gentleman and prompt man, instead of going to Richmond and receiving an ovation as most commanders would have done, and which would have been somewhat excusable, hur- ried at once to Washington, the next post of duty ; but, before doing so, however, he tclegraplied at once all over the coun- try, that the war was at an end, that we needed no more men, and that the recruiting offices must shut up shop instanter, which was an immense saving to the government, for every day's business cost a large sum of money. It struck me then as a most timely, prompt, and economical measure, and increased my confidence in him, as his first impulse was to stop expenses, reduce the forces, and commence to liquidate. The difference between a prompt, economical, far-sighted business manager, at that critical juncture, and a hesitating, vaccinating, or vain man, can be counted onlv by millions of dollars of debt. When we calculate the large number of recruiting offices, then in full operation, tlie amount of materials of war being manufactured, the perfectly enormous amount of daily ex- penses, which were necessarily being incurred in consequence of the large army we then h;;d in the field, it is impossible not to admire the practical matter-of-fact view, which the General took of affairs. He had for years been directing his attention solely to the -suppression of the rebellion, paying little or no attention to its cost, but looking only to results. But no sooner was tlie fact accomplished, no sooner had this long wished for, but long delayed result been brought about, than we saw this mighty chieftain, this great captain, who apparently had no thoughts in his mind except those of war, at once assume the reins of active business management, at once commence to repair our losses, at once turn his entire attention towards the ways and means of peace. How shall the nation best and quickest get back to its peace footing ? was the first question he asks of himself. His decisions were then, as always, marked by a promptness, a common sense judgment, and a sound discretion, as unex- pected and unlouked for, as they were proper and economical. He disbanded our armies quicker than any similar event of recorded history, and almost before the nation knew it, we were in the full tide of peaceful prosperity and develop- ment. 16 Our hundreds of thousands of soldiers had changed front, and from heing consumers, had become producers, — another proof not only of the ability and lionesty of our General and his officers, but of the capacity of our people for self govern- ments Had our government contributed as much money out of its treasury as a token of confidence in and obligation to this practical, prompt, and silent General of our armies, as have other nations for far less valuable services, it would not have paid to him as much money as he saved to it l)y putiing in practice his lessons of business, life. PROPRIETY OF THE PRESIDENT'S LIFE. When he assumed command of the armies operating against Richmond he found liquors being freely sold by sutlers and others, to the great detriment and demoralization of tlie army, and on the 4th of September, 18G4, he issued the following stringent order : Headquarters Armies of the United States, City Point, Ya., Sept. 8th, 1804. Brigadier General 31. R. Patrick, Provost Marshal General Armies Operating against Richmond. General : The attention of Lieutenant General Grant having been called to the large quantities of liquor being brought within the lines of the armies operating against Richmond, he directs that, from and after this date, you prohibit all kinds of sjiirit- uous, vinous, or malt liquors from l)eing brought above Fort Monroe, Virginia, except sucli as belong to the commissary or medical departments. I am, General, very respectfully. Your obedient servant, (Signed.) T. S. BOWERS, Assistant Adjutant Genei'al. Ti\is order indicates that he ])roposcd to carry out through the entire army the same rules wliich were oliscrved at his own headipiarters. At no time during his command in the East, which is as far as my information extends on this point, did he ever allow one single drop of intoxicating drink, either wine, or spirituous, or malt liquors at his mess table. This rule 17 was strictly adhered to, and lie enforced it, not only at his own mess, but, so far as he was able, all through the army. Much was said by his enemies at the time of his first sucj cesses at the West, in regard to the habits of General Grant, who was then comparatively unknown. When he was accused to Mr. Lincoln of using intoxicating drinks, Mr. Lincoln in the quaint manner in which he refuted all such accusations, simply replied " that if such was the fact he should like some of the same kind of whisky for his other generals" — thus in- dicating that he did not believe a word of it, in which he showed his usual good sense, for persons who are in the habit of being under the influence of liqaor make mistakes, which Grant never did in the army. None of these stories liave ever been proven, but on the contrary have been found false whenever examined into. One of the notable cases was at the battle of Shiloh, where he was accused by the whole rebel element in our midst of having been under the influence of intoxicating liquor. The following letter from his then Chief of Staff seems to settle the question so far as that day is concerned : Chicago, Sept. 4, 1872. Col. Isaac S. Sfercarl : Dear Sir : — ^Your note of the 2d inst. is just received, and in reply I have to state that you are authorized on my behalf to deny in the most emphatic manner all statements of Gen. Grant having been drunk or in any degree under the influence of liquor at the battle of Shiloh. I was at this time his Chief of Staff and Chief of Artillery. I breakfasted with the General at Savannah on Sunday, the first day of the battle. I went on board the boat with him and rode into the field with him at about 8 1-2 o'clock, in person, and was necessarily with him, except at intervals of ab- sence on duty, during the whole day. I lay down with him long after dark that night, on a small parcel of hay which the Quartermaster put down to keep us out of the mud, in the rear of the artillery line on the lelt, and I never heard till long afterward of any idea entertained by anybody that lie was drunk, nor did I see him drink during the day, and I am sure he "Was perfectly sober as he was self-possessed and collected during the vai-y- ing ibrtunes of that celebrated battle. If there are any words in which can deny the miserable charge more fully and distinctly, I am ready to adopt them. Very truly yours, J. D. WEBSTER. Late Brevet Major-General Volunteers, and Chief of Stafi'to Gen. W. T. Sherman. And so it is with all these stories. No man was ever more careful of the influence of his example than Gen. Grant all through his military life — nor did his thoughtfulness in 18 this respect end when he was elevated to the Presidency, but be carried out the same idea in high places. On the first New Year's day after his inauguration, he re- quested his cabinet to refrain from having any intoxicat- ing drink on their refreshment tables. This request was gladly complied with, except in the case of one oflFicer who was not present when the request was made, and ever since this has been the rule with the President and Cabinet on New Year's day ; thus setting an example at the capital of the na- tion, and in high quarters, which it would be well for our country to have everywhere followed. Many of you will rec- ollect with what pleasure the fact was known at the time. His deportment and example has always been on the side of public morality and virtue, to which I can bear much personal testimony, and which has not yet been disputed l)y any ci-edi- ble witness. His language is singularly chaste and moderate, as is his life. It is the universal testimony that, since he has been Pres- ident no man has ever heard him use an expression in private conversation that was not proper to be made on the platform. Having had much opportunity to observe him, I wish to bear witness to the propriety of his life. Having seen him under many varied and peculiar circumstances, never in a single in- stance have I seen anything in him which I could regret, and all stories reflecting upon the propriety of his life 1 believe to be false. In fact, I knoic them to be so, as much as any man can know the facts concerning one with whom he is on familiar terms, but with whom he is not in constant communication. He is singularly discreet also in regard to promises of pat- ronage. General Pleasanton, who was a mutual friend of the President and Senator Schurz, undertook to bring them to- gether, and has made a singiilar statement, intimating that the President promised patronage to the Senator if he would go for certain measures. Being in Washington myself at about the same time, December, 1870, I undertook to do tiie same thing, and asked the President if ho would not see the senator and undertake to reconcile their dillirulties. He replied that he know of no reason why there should be auv (lilbouKv be- 19 tween them, and said he should be glad to meet the senator, which I communicated to Senator Schurz, who declined to visit the President unless invited to do so in writing. Nothing was said or intimated to me by the President about patronage, and it is a singular fact that General Pleasanton has stated to a gentleman within the last month, that the first mention of patronage came from the senator himself. THE BOWEN-SHERMAN HOUSE. And speaking of patronage, there has been one distorted story that would never have been given to the public, probably, had the President appointed Mr. Sayles J. Bowen minister to the Argentine Republic, as Mr. Bowen last winter requested, nay, almost demanded. It seems that in the winter of 1869 General Grant s(;ld his house, through Judge Latta, a real estate broker of Washington, to one Sayles J. Bowen, for forty thousand dollars, and Mr. Bowen put up with the broker one thousand dollars to bind the bargain. When the gentle- men from New York came on to present General Sherman with a house, they took a fancy to this same house, and offered to take it at the same price and pay twenty-five thousand dol- lars for the furniture, for which General Grant had no use, the White House to which he was about to remove having its own furniture. Mr. Bowen was asked if he was willing to cancel the contract and take back his one thousand dollars, to which he readily assented. General Grant paying the broker's commission and all expenses. After General Sher- man had taken possession, he for some reason thought he would prefer the money to the house, and offered it again to Mr. Bowen for the same price he had before agreed to pay General Grant, which offer was not accepted ; and that is all there is about the Bowen-Sherman house, and the transaction would have remained in oblivion had the President given Mr, Bowen all the patronage he desired, which was not a little. The New York World published a distorted statement of the facts reflecting on the President some time ago, which Mr. Bowen denied in a card. 20 But ill doing as he has, Mr. Bowcn has only followed the example of his superiors, as perhaps Senator Sumner's oppo- sition to the President might have been more mild, had he appointed the senator's biographer, Mr. Phelps, to the posi- tion of U. S. Marshal and turned out General Andrews, which the senator persistently urged. He might also perhaps to this day have retained the friend- ship of Mr. George Wilkes had he appointed him Minister to Mexico, for which Mr. Wilkes thought himself so well fitted, and in which the President dilTcred from him. Yet the Pres- ident tried to please Mr. Wilkes by appointing the now famous George H. Butler, Consul-General to Cairo, for which Mr. Wilkes pleaded personally and earnestly, he being the only man who did back this appointment. Whether the editor of the Spirit of the Times would have been any better Minister to Mexico than his proteg^ Butler was Consul to Cairo, is a problem which, alas ! will never be solved. SPECIMEN OF INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM. On the 22d of June last, the editor of a not entirely unin- fluential paper in New England, in writing of the Fifth Avenue Conference of the Liberal Republicans and Dem- ocrats, alluded to the nomination of ^Ir. Greeley as follows : " Whatever might have been the sentiment of the people immediately aftei" the nomination, and however severe the disappointment, one thing was certain from the tone and temper of this carefully selected conference of men, who had been or were sujijjosed to be disallected at the result, to wit : that the country had settled down to it, and wisely or unwisely, de- cided to accept and make the best of it. There was a very frank disdo- , sure of personal objections to the candidate, and no one pretended, as some of the lying politicians who re-nominated Gi'ant the other d;iy did, that he was their first choice, or that he was anybody's ideal of a candi- date. That sort of nonsense is tor people who discover heroic qualities in a horse-jockey, statesmanship in a dog-fancier, and moral worth in the conijianion of lewd women and base men." When asked personally if these insiiuiaiiniis were aimed at Gen. Grant, he frankly saitithcy were, and was told that they were every one false, but did not retract them. Now the fact 21 about Gen. Grant's horses is, that while he loves a good horse — as do most of us — and is a good judge of one — as, alas ! most of us are not — yet he never owned a horse for running or trotting, keeping, in fact, no " fast horses" at all, not one of them ever having been on a race-course, but uses what he does keep simply for driving. Nor has he ever been at any race since he has been President. Who of us has done bet- ter? He has never owned a dog, they being one of his an- tipathies. The other insinuations are too base to need reply ; suffice it to say, that no gentleman, except the one alluded to, has to my knowledge ever dared to make such an insinuation ; and he is no longer an editor, but has gone to his own place. He is now chairman of a Greeley State Committee. The New York Tribune and the Democratic press of the country has constantly talked about Grant's dogs, and " Marshal Brown's pups." How this stuff originated no one knows. The only connection between them is, that Gen. Grant happened at one time to live in the same block with Marshal Brow whose son-in-law had a fancy for dogs. SENECA STONE CO. But one of the most absurd stories, after all, that has been trumped up against the President, is the Seneca sandstone quarry business, of which I would not speak but that I have known something of it from the start, for I talked some of taking" stock in it when it was started, but did not. Gen. Grant bought in 1867, for an investment, as he would buy anything else, and as plenty of other people did buy, ^10,000 worth of stock of the Seneca Stone Company. It has never paid him a cent of dividend, nor has it much if any market value now. No public building has ever been built of it, though it has been used .considerably for other building purposes. This is all there is in this much talked-of stor}'. Why the President has not a right to own stock in a stone quarry as much as any other man, is a mystery to me, thougli as a business man I wouldn't hold the stock unless it paid dividends, which it does not. I have now alluded to most of the prominent attacks against the President's personal character, and have been at some 22 pains to get at the facts, and I firmly believe he is as honest and pure as he is modest and courageous. Occupied as he constantly is, when in Washington, with public business, scores of people seeing him at all hours of the day — standing on a pedestal so higli that his slightest acts, both public and private, are plainly visible to the eye of a jealous public — standing as he now does between two great parties, and with the disposition now so prevalent to pull every man down who is prominent, the only wonder is that nothing has yet been brought against him jwhich investigation docs not entirely clear up. CIVIL SERVICE. One of the topics which has properly agitated the public mind of late, has been the so-called Civil Service Reform. There is quite a general desire on the part of our pcoi)le to raise the standar.i of our Civil Service to a higher degree of efficiency. The President has been very earnest in this mat- ter, as he is in every thing in which he heartily believes and which comes in his line of duty. He is determined tiiat so far as it is in his power, the civil department of our government shall be as well administered as are its military and naval — and to this end is he directing his best energies. He finds many difficulties in the way, as may naturally be sujiposed, still difficulties are more easily overcome by him than in the case of most men, as ho never gives up when he thinks he is right. This trait of character gives any man great power. It has come to my knowledge that within the last month a member of Congress, upon ask- ing him to remove an officer for political reasons, received for his rcj)ly, that political grounds alone were not sufficient to cause the removal of any man — and that for himself he pro- posed that Mr. Curtis and his plan of Civil Service Reform should have a fair trial. And now, why should not this man be re-elected President of the United States? The acts of his adminisiiation are not even much attacked by our opponents. ^Vhy should not Republicans and Democrats unite in continuing an adminis- OQ tration which has given us peace at home and ahroad, an economical government, a large reduction of both taxation and the public debt at the same time, and has in all particu- lars fully made good the promises and predictions with which it started ? What we need in this great and productive coun- try more than all else in a government is stability, that our financial and domestic affairs shall be carried on with an even hand. So long as this is done we shall have the same prosperous times which we have enjoyed during the last three years, and if we continue the present administration there is every reason to believe that we shall continue to prosper and to add to our wealth and resources, and thus add to our power and respectability. I am interested in the active, pro- ductive, material affairs of the community in which I reside. I belong to the class that take risks, own property, owe debts, and employ labor, and my experience is that with an even, stable, and economical administration of our govern- mental affairs I can make more money, pay better prices for labor, and pay my debts easier than I can to have a vacilla- ting or an uneven course pursued by those in authority. Do not all of you find this to be your own experience ? We are all of us under great obligations to Mr. Bout well for his hon- est and even administration of our finances, and for one I wish to have another four years of just such opportunities of developing the resources of this great nation as the last three have been. Mr. Greeley's constant shrieking to have the Treasury depleted of its gold and to resume specie payment by legal enactment, is too absurd to demand a moment's no- tice from any thoughtful business man. Whatever his policy might be in regard to the questions concerning the races, it certainly could be no better than General Grant's, and. I have no anxiety to see it tried ; but I consider his head not level enough to direct our finances, and the .ther groat operations of our nation. Capital and labor always siirink from experi- ments. Neither one nor the other has in this crisis of our country's history and developement, any ambition to follow the vagaries of a visionary brain like Mr. Greeley's. Parties bid fair to have their foundations broken up as the 24 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 013 789 553 5 result of tliis election. The Democratic party has alieaay sold out its birthright, and from present prospects for a very small mess of pottage. Whether it can ever regain its as- cendancy is certainly problematical. It surely ought not to be permitted to do so unless it can be a better party than the sample you gentlemen have had here in the city of New York. The only principle to which it has always been true is that which one of its leaders said kept it together, — the co- hesive attraction of public plunder. From this })rinciple it has never swerved. It has never failed to keep the spoils fully in its eye, or, for that matter, to get them fully in its hands, and should they succeed with Mr. Greeley as their leader, it is quite a question whether they will not give the same assiduous attention to the treasury at Washington that they did to the treasury of New York City in their successful days. But a change has and will come in your State, and I pre- dict that after the next inauguration of Governor, if any man attempts to haul out any public plunder he will be shot on the spot. It is a good rule to stand by the party that has stood by the principles which we hold most dear; and when they say we can be just as good Republicans and follow Mr. Greeley as if we follow Gen. Grant, I take issue on it at once. It is impossible to exactly tell our political future, (except that the election of Gen. Grant is getting to be a certainty,) nor can any of us tell exactly to what political party he may belong four years hence ; but for this campaign and this election I propose to stand by the regular Republican organization — by that party which has never turned its Itack on any man be- cause he was poor, or because he was ignorant, or because he was black. I LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 013 789 553 5 p pH83