Rensselaer Union, Volume 3, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 February 1871 — 1872. [ARTICLE]

1872.

The formation of Grant Clubs in the city of New York is a significant sign of the tendency of opinion in the Republican party. It shows that the conviction of the renomination of the President is so strong that gentlemen are willing to pronounce for him, thereby prejudicing their chances with any " other possible candidate. There is, indeed, no other serious candidacy, and the reason undoubtedly is that the administration of General Grant is felt to be, upon the whole, honest, efficient and satisfactory. It certainly has not lacked criticism from its friends, in which we have borne a part; but its great merit is that it has practically persuaded the great mass of intelligent American citizens that it seeks unostentatiously and economically the public welfare. A certain good sense has presided over it and, nttacked with a rancor which from its extravagance has been ofteu ludicrous, it has yet maintained its even way, and has quietly lived down a great many imposing accusations. Indeed, a feeble Republican administration would be more trusted by the country than any Democratic administration whatever. For the permanent fact in the political situation which is universally seen and pondered is that the Democratic party is the party which Rneers at the war and the victory of the Union, and which steadily honors the cause and the leaders of the rebellion. It is by Democratic votes that General Blair, who would have relinquished the victory in which he took part, is elected te the Senate. It is by Democratic votes that a portrait of General Leo is ordered by the Virginia Senate, and a portrait of General Thomas is declined. It is by Democratic papers that General Longstreet is decried, because he did not persist in his hostile attitude to the Government. It is by Democratic papers, in fine, that rebels are extolled, and the great results of the w'ar are belittled. Meanwhile the leaders of that party are seen to be substantially unchanged. The old Copperhead element is supreme. The party orators and papers cry out against Republican extravagance and corruption, while in the government of the City of New York the whole country beholds an illustration of Democratic economy and honesty! There is, therefore, and most justly, in the great popular heart of this country, a Erofound distrust of the Democratic party. f a man thinks the taxes heavy, he sees that the dominant party has both diminished the debt and reduced taxation, and asks himself whether he can fairly expect any speedier relief from the party whose last declared policy was virtually repudiation. He looks at General Grant in tbe White House, who, as General Blair told us, would undoubtedly make himself Emperor, and he asks himself whether the country would have been more peaceful and prosperous and stable if Mr. Seymour hail been placed there. He sees ever where tranquil and confident industry, and such a restoration of order as no country ever showed after so fierce a convulsion as that of the war, and he asks himself whether industry would be more tranquil and confident, and order more assured, if those who mule tbe great and bloody disorder should be called to control affairs. He sees that the intelligence, the rural labor, the moral sentiment of the country instinctively favor Republican rule, and he asks himself whether the cause of individual liberty, of education, of moral progress, of the general welfare, is likely to be more advanced by a party to which the ignorant and vicious classes naturally gravitate.

And this man sees that the Republican cause—at once patriotic, and full of the glorious traditions of the pure devotion and heroism and results of the war, and progressive in the truest American sense, the cause which is that of all our best principles and of our most legitimate hopes—is satisfactorily represented to the popular mind by the honest purpose, the sturdy good sense and simplicity, of General Grant. It does not make him an ideal hero. It does not deny that it wishes some things might be different in his administration, as, indeed, in every adihinistration. It does not defend or praise every measure; but it judges him by the character of his whole administration, and it declares that it finds him sensible, sincere, upright; a man who does not believe that the old day of slavery was better than the new day of liberty; who does not wish to try how far he can venture to return toward a policy which the country has rejected ; but who does wish to confirm and strengthen the courtry in its new and true policy of equal rights for alt men. Daring Mr. Lincoln’s first term, and in the very crisis of the war, there were thoee who thought it would be wise to try a new candidate who had not been so severely criticised. But those who heard the thrilling shout of unanimity with which he was renominated in Baltimore knew that it was the voice of that great popular confidence, which was only the surer because it was not blinded by idolatry. The good sense of the people renominated Lincoln, as it elected Grant. The same aagacity Is now turning to Grant, as a man who has faithfully served the country, and whom the country heartily trustf.— Hehr-, per’t Weekly. —The church property of Wisconsin is estimated to be worth $4,744,803. There are 1,474 church edifices in all.