There is only one man that objects to The Sun violently, and that
is Grant. He sees nothing but spots on it. The very sound of the word
is so hateful to him that he loathes the whole solar system.
In the platform of The Sun for 1872 Dana advocated numerous reforms. Among them were that both Grantism and Tweedism be abolished by laws for the summary punishment of present- taking and bribe-taking as well as of public robbery; that polit- ical rights be restored to all persons concerned in the late rebel- lion; that the civil service be so reformed that appointments to office no longer depend on party patronage; and that the Presi- dent cannot appoint his own relatives or those of his wife to office. When, however, The Sun linked together the names of Grant and John Barleycorn the reading public of New York resented this Sunstroke. It cancelled its subscription, but The Sun shone on. The Sun was but a typical representative of a portion of the press which was most bitter in attacking this weakness of Grant. David Dudley Field said in a magazine article in 1876 that the following item was a fair sample in the press opposed to the Administration:
"Periodical Neuralgia" is what they call it in Washington now. Grant has it, and has not been able to see visitors for several days. Parson Newman prayed for him on yesterday, and the parson's inti- mate relations with Divine Providence, backed by continued liberal doses of hydrate of chloral, justify the hope that the patient will get his nerves steadied in a day or two.
"THE BITER BIT"
Other newspapers were just as bitter toward Grant, and The Sun has been selected for illustration simply because of its greater prominence. The assertion has been frequently made that the hostility of The Sun to the Grant Administration was due to the fact that its editor had not been appointed to the Collectorship of the Port of New York. Those who knew Dana best denied most emphatically the truth of such an assertion, and pointed out that the editor of The Sun never criticized the military tactics of Grant, but only those acts of his Administra- tion which demanded condemnation. The enemies of Dana, how- ever, inspired the publication of a pamphlet entitled " The Biter
