GRANT'S SECRET.
11l a recent speech deliveied in Now York. (Jhauneey Di-pew, the I'iu-i-li nt ot the Now Vmk Central, "t.ited tli.it then 1 was .1 chaptel in ( i rants histmy which li.vi novel been published, mid of which ho emM onh nay th it he had laid the country undi-r un obligation winch he had nevii rovialed, md of which lie h.id cuiu-d the secict I" hisgiavi; Mr Depeu added that I. is own kiiovvlft'.gu of the f.iLth was deihed fiom Ji ant's own lip*. Th -le h.rs been so much idle go^ip about hum i itton chapters of th« ah th it tin; --ttten) nfc would hive clnl lenged little attention but foi the p< s tiou of the authoi. But anything coming fmin (Jliimicy Dopew i« entitled to ie«pectfui c>n-iiloi.ition, e-p'tially now tli.it he is the chief e\ccnti\e officer ot the gieatust corpo r ifion in the country, and people all o\ci the Unite 1 States aie wondering what ' iivnt i -ectet could have bten. Two guesses have been printed in the papvi*. One is to the effect that before the surrender at Appoin.ittox the Southern lcadeis, fore^ >ei ng the inevitable end, concoctod a plot toinake away with Piesident Lincoln, with a view to the elevation of Andrew Johnson to the Pieiidcncy ; that they reasoned that Johnson, being a Southern man, would treat them moic generously than the statesman fiom Illinois ; and that in some way Grant frustrated this plot. This story smacks of the dime novel. We know that Booth and his coufedeiates did ulot the assassination of Lincoln long before it occurred, and we hn\e never exactly known who those confederate-, weie They may have included men wh > h we in t been suspected. Thus far the story is plausible, But to suppose that Johnson was a party to the plot is inconsistent with his whole course of action at the time ; and to theorize that Grant, who was at the head of the aimy m Virginia, and was fighting battles daily, could have circumvented consi>iratois at Washington is quite unreasonable. Johnson was an impracticable man, the more dangerous because lie was honest ; but a traitor he was not. He was heartily in sympathy with the cause of the Union and implacably hostile to the rebellion. It is. at> easy to believe that Seward or Suniner wei c confederates of Booth's as that he was. This theory lacks every element of probability. The other guess is to the effect that after the assassination of Lincoln, Johnson, who had his own scheme of reconstruction, proposed to adopt heroic methods ; th.it he contemplated disallowing the teims of sinrender granted to the lebel Geneials ; that he designed to bring Jeff Davis, Lee, Johnston, Beam eg.u d, Haidee, Ho«.d and the lest to trial by conit maituil, and to shoot them, as Ney was shot, if they weie found guilty. He further pioposed to impose his will upon Congress, and m case, as he feared, his plans were opposed in that body to seize the members who opposed him and to treat them as confederates of the rebels. He designed, in fact, a coup d'etat after the fashion of Louis Napoleon. Those who believe this guess go on to say that Johnion communicated his views to Grant and commanded him as General of the army to carry them out ; that Giant flatly refused ; that he also refused to resign ; th (t he communicated what he knew to the leaders of Congress and that ! the result was the unpiecedented refusal of Stunt')]) to surrender the War Department, and the passage of the memorable Civ il Hen ices Act of 18(37. Enough i> known of the protracted struggle, which ended in the impeachment trial, to impart some plausibility to this interesting story. The temper of Johnson's mind was such that the idea of a coup d' etat would not have shocked him if he had believed that the public welfare required &o drastic a measure. He had been educated in a school in which appeals from Lhe law to the sword weie recognised. He was intolerably impatient of the restraints of law, and of the opposition of men of whom he deemed less wise than himself. He had seen, for four yeais, the ordinary constitutional safeguards set a^ide under the stress of military necessity. He was familiar with blood. Bred among the mountains of Tennessee, he had watched family feuds and sanguinary vendettas from his youth up, and it seemed natural to him that the vanquished should pay the penalty of their acts with their lives. Those principles of meicy and forgiveness which inspire the policy of modern civilisation, naturally struck him as sickly sentimentality. He felt that exa mules should be made. It is thus quite possible — as the story says — that he contemplated the execution of D.wis and Lee, that he would not have shrunk from bring-ng to the scaffold Sumner and Butler and Bingham, had they stood in the way of the execution of his plan, and that he- may have contemplated erecting a military despotism ou the rains of the republic. The conjecture derives plausibility from the cv idence of General Emory on the impeachment trial. General Emory was in command of Washington and its defences. Ho was bound by law to take his orders from the General of the army and from no one else. He testified that Johnson had sent for him and desired him to takn his orders from him, the President ; that he had respectfully declined to do so. Of course the General could not be asked what he inferred from Johnson's request, nor would so prudent a soldier have admitted what his inference was, if the question could have been put. But there was no doubt in any one's mind at the time that, had General Emory acted as Louis Napoleon's Generals did and agreed to take his orders from the Piesident— passing over General Grant— we might have had a coup d'etat, and the leaders of the Republican paity, with Generals Grant, Sherman and Sheridan, might .have waked up some morning in the next casemate to Jeff Davis, at Fortress Monroe. However, this may be, the country is of the opinion that the time has now come to make the truth known. General Grant is dead, and his <>bv ions motive for keening the secret expiied with him. But there are many who must know the facts as he did. General Butler is said to be familiar w ith the truth, and Chauncey Depew says he had it fioin Grant himself. It would seem that, for the sake of the truth of history, these gentlemen owe it to their countrymen to tell what they know.
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A showman exhibiting a panorama of some mighty "unexplored" liver, incautiously replying to one of the audience, was asked if he himself had been there, said, "Been there? No; nobody's been there." A Lkadvillk hunter says that he had encountered a wounded deer as it ran down the mountains. He seized its antlers and was tossed upon its back, and 1 ode until the auinial dropped dead. The man missed his vocation. \Yith such an imagination he should have been a newspaper correspondent. Indigent Young Man'— "I would respectfully abk youv daughter's hand in marriage, sir." Rich Father (in indignant burprise) — " What ! You want to marry my daughter?" Indigent Young man somewhat flurried)— " Y-yes, sir. W-why not ? You don't know anything wrong with her do you ?"
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Waikato Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2105, 5 January 1886, Page 4
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1,503GRANT'S SECRET. Waikato Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2105, 5 January 1886, Page 4
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