Rensselaer Union, Volume 1, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 September 1869 — The Administration. [ARTICLE]

The Administration.

Ik the most forcible objection that could be made to the administration of Gov. Hodman were, that he goes to Saratoga and dances quadrilles, and if this apallipg fact were repeated day after day in every form, it would be tolerably dear that nothing serious could be urged against his conduct of affairs. The incessant twaddle in the Democratic journals about .the President's summer excursions shows in same'way the absence of any serious complaint If one such significant and fatal act could he truly alleged of the President as the signing of the Erie bill by Governor Hoffman, he would be allowed, as the Governor is, to dance, if he were so inclined in peace. By the veto power, says, Mr. C. F. Adams, Jr., in the last North'American liecieu, Governor Hoffman won and lost his reputation. It is well' said, and the fact will not be forgotten. He used it to stop a drop, and he refused to use it against a torrent. But of the administration of General Grant no grave accusation has yet been made by the Opposition. The key-hole gossip of the papers that record tiie hour when the President rises and the number of cigars he smokes, i$ the characteristic effort of Jenkins in politics. He. should confine himself to describing Miss A’s ribbons and Mrs. B’s slippers. Mr. Wendell Phillips, indeed; holds the President responsible for the result of the Southern elections, and for the injustice which is still shown to the colored population ; and Mr. Phillips so early and so dearly foresaw the dereliction of Andrew Johnson that he has earned a peculiar right of speaking u|>on the subject. The men whose example he quotes would unquestionably have carried the elections; but they would have carried them by the sword —and Grant is a constitutional President. If he had given every office in those States as Mr. Phillips jiad advised, if he had written the strongest lotters, could he hare cajoled the votes of those who hate the negro? Could he give or withhold the suffrage ? If Mr. Boutwcll had been President does Mr. Phillips think that Mr. Stokes would have been elected' in Tennessee? The system of government upon which Mr. Phillips latterly insists is the sheerest Ctesarism, He is impatient of the necessary frictions afid delays of a free, popular government. He names Richelieu, Bonaparte, Walpole. He might as wisely name Ghengis Khan and Timour tins Tartar. If, as Mr. Phillips says, Northern property is nowhere safe at the South, if Texas reeks with outrages, if Southern loyalists declare that there must be a change at Washington, or they must fly, Is it hi«»ahity to. tell us wlist Richelieu would have done or what President Grant can do ? Mr. Phillips seems to us to overestimatc the Executive power in this country, and to underestimate the element of time in producing changes of public opinion.

Those wMb rOppo*e(J, aa certainly Mr. Phillip* took care to tell us In advance that he did not suppose, that fraternity and good will were instantly to prevail in the South, the public debt to be paid, the Weal ladle* to be annexed, and taxation to be abolished by General Grant’* election, have been naturally disappointed. lie liecanto President when there was a deplorable social condition in the Southern State*, n heavy debt and taxation, and perplexing foreign question*. Toward the end of the first half year of his administration the debt is materially reduced, and nntional credit improved ; the principle* of radical Republican reconstruction and the Fifteenth Amendment have lxym formally, if not from conviction, approved in the Southern State* that have voted { the English question, if not settled, is not embittered; the neutrality laws of the United States have been most firmly and successfully enforced ; and tlte efficiency and honesty of the public service have been promoted. The American people sec in tlic conduct of the Administration thus fat; a steady regard to honesty and economy, a firm maintenance of the honor-and best traditions of the country in its foreign relations, and strict fidelity to the principles which elected the President. Contrasted with all the biter Democratic administrations it is free both from crime and from “ buncombe,” while in what condition the country ut home and abroad would now have been if Horatio Seymour and Francis P. Blair had been elected, with Wade Hampton and his allies controlling affairs in the Southern States, is pluin enough to every thinking man. The foolisli abuses of the President by those who could not find words contemptuous enough for him when he wus a candidate, is appropriately expressed by Hit; pen of Jenkins and the tongue of A. Oakey Hall. But vyhen Mr. Phillips accuses the administration of “disloyal apathy, or honest incapacity,” he ought certainly to give some proof of his charges. — Harper ’* Weekly.