Rensselaer Union, Volume 3, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 August 1871 — General Sherman-A Talk on Pallttcs. [ARTICLE]

General Sherman-A Talk on Pallttcs.

““ N " *• Osmoui. Submam, all ranburnt. at d doily, and freak from the plains, got in un announced on the law train to night • * • ThlaAßiorning, I met the General early, anOfrolled down to Oonrrese Spring, and then Around the patk. He wm vivacioui and Sparkling at llathorn water, and walked and talked like a boy. “ Been killing a good many Injuna oat Welt General? I aaked. “No; the papers kill more Injuns than we da Why, if we killed half as many Iqjuns as the JZeroM does, we'd be * short’ of Injuns I” . ** 1 see Parker has resigned ?’’ “ Yea; we've had so many dishonest In dian Commissioners that Congress resolved to stop the frauds, and they corked up the Indian Barcan so tight that poor Parker had nothing to do but now and then sign his name, and frank envelopes for the de Dartmen t.” “They say he is rich?’’ “ Not a bit of It,” said the General, indignantly. “ Parker has never made one cent out of his office. His record is pure as snow." “ Your friends were a little disappointed when you refused to have your name used Presidentially," I remarked. “ No, not my friends. T/<ey want me to stay where I am. General of the Army for life ia_ better than President for four years. Grant regrets that he ever left the army now, and so do I, except that he has done a good work as President." “Dojou think it policy to elect Grant “Of course I do. Why not ? He knows the ropes now— he has become acquainted with the duties—acquainted with thousands of public men, and ten thousand good-for-nothing White House bummers who would do nothing but harrass a new President for the first year. He has just got where he can tdl a good man at tight. Humbug men always get the best creden tials; every Congressman signs their recommendation at sight, and many of them deceive a new President These party frauds are now pretty much played out, and Grant is enabled to deal squarely with true men. Experience and acquaintance is the ‘ stock in trade ’of a good Presi dent” “ Who will win in ’72 ? ’’ “ There is no question in my mind,” said the General, enthusiastically. “ I’ll bet on Grant against the field —two to one.” “ Who will run against him? ’ “There won’t any body run; but, not being a politician, I can’t guess for a moment who will be nominated.” "Hancock?”

“ Well, he may be tempted to run. Hancock, you know, dislikes Grant personally, and it would be an immense tnumplTTor him to get where he could rank him. Grant never showed any dislike to Hancock. He went more than half way to conciliate him a year ago; but there is a clique in Washington, a social clique, which manipulates Hancock and keeps up the feud. Women have more to do with it than men.” bill?” “ Good bill, sir! It has already stopped a good many outrages. The fact that the President has power to send troops into any State to quell disturbances, in itself, is enough to frighten the disturbers of the public peace.” “But John Quincy Adams says the bill is an absolute surrender of the principle of free government—placing in the President’s hands the power, through that and the * Election bill,’ to raise himself to the empire. ” "All stuff! How ridiculous to talk about a * man raising himself to the emSire’ in this country! Such a man, after eclaring for the empire, might hold a regiment of soldiers in the White House yard for just one day, and then the people would put him in the Potomac River. Why, they shut up Napoleon at Strasbourg, ana ducked him in the sea at Boulogne, for just such nonsense.” “ But in ’52 he did ride to the top after all!” “Yea, but France was not composed of States—sovereign States, as far as each State controlling its own troops—and every Governor, Democrat and Republican, watching jealously his own State militia. We are not France. Let some crazy President declare himself Emperor, and intrench himself in the White House yard with the whole regular army—about 18,000 fighting men—around him, and how long would It take Governors Hoffman, Jewett, Randolph, Geary, and Claflin and the rest to surround and capture the whole concern ? No, sir," said the General, indignantly; "when a President declares Imperialism, every Governor will have to be in the mess, too, and when that shall be the case, the country will be too rotten to be worth preserving.” “ Adams calls the Ku-Klux bill Grant’s negro policy,” I remarked. “AU humbug again! It is simply a law making it possible to arrest and disperse unlawful gangs of rascals, black or white, in any of the Southern States—to imprison them, and try and punish them. Grant don’t have any negro, nor German, nor Irish policy. His policy is to protect all citizens; remain at peace, economize, and try and pay the debt. All this stuff and talk about Imperialism in America is a libel on the good sense of the people, and Adams ought to have too much good sense to talk such foolishness.”