The Rhode-Island Republican. [volume] (Newport, R.I.) 1809-1841, 1827-09-20

/ THURSDAY MORNING, SEPT. 20, 1897.
THE PRESIDENCY We closed our re.
marks last week, by expressing our appre-
tensions of the danger Of carrying this mill
tary feeling in Government like ours, to an
unlimited extent-that if an individual in this
country had no other claims or qualifications
| for the Presidency but his military achieve.
mcnts, and his attainments in the science Of
war, to support him for the first Office in the
gift of free people on account of those,
would not, in our opinion, augur well for the
safety or pcrpetuity of our free institutions
In no free government have men been sup.
ported for high and responsible places on ac.
count Of such qualifications, and when such
alone are to be passports for Offices, we think
VIC may bid long iarewcll to ali our rights
aud privileges. A distinguished commander
in the army or navy, who has become distin-
guished by having done, in fact, his duty, Is
to be the Governor of a free people; he who
has been in the most battles, is TO be consd
cred the bravest Of the brave, and entitled to
| tho greatest share of the sufiragcs of the peo.
pie We have never yet considered the Pres.
! dental chair within the reach of such men
who had not other qualifications. Assuming
! this as a rulo, 1--WE mean signal services in
battle) our lamented Perry, if living, or cap.
tain Isaac Hull, would have as good, if not
better claim for the Office Of President, ls An
! drew Jackson. We believe them both to
have possessed qualifications superior to him
| Yet the former gentleman, while living, new
er dreamed of this place, nor do we believe
the latter ever has or ever will think Of it
! Once in thousand years we may find such
non as Washington, equally distinguished lor
! their military achievements and for their 9th
or qualifications necessary to make them the
rulers of free people. II General Jackson
has no other qualifications for the olevatct
post for which he is now candidate but thos,
which arise from his good fortune in war, and
independent of these he is without any one, +,
what shall we ascribe this fever which nov
RACES among the military in his behalf, but a
desire to make military merit passport t.
nigh places. We believe this feeling has been
carried far enough: we believe that Prcsidcn'
Monroe set a bad example when the Army
was reduced, by appointing military men to
stations that had formerly been filed by ctl-
zens, to the places Of Governors Of Territories
Collectors of Ports, Judges of Districts, &c
We do not intend to say that all the oficers
of the late war who have been appointed to
places of this description were not mcritoriOu,
men in the war, and distinguished, (some ci
whom we know were by their services but Il
it were impracticable to retain them in the
Army, and they were consequently made to
suffer loss for which they had a fair claim
on the justice or gratitude of the country the \
ought to have been paid or rewarded in some
other way. We have at times been led to be.
lieve that but for this example set by Presi
dent Monroe, (and we are sorry that for his
conduct in this we must condemn him. Gen
Jackson would never have aspired to the
Presidential chair, nor would his friends for a
moment have entertained the thought of his
filling it. For n moment we will consider
some Of the evils which a war in country
but more especially such an one as ours
brings upon the people, Privations of an hun
drcd kinds; famine, sacrifice of lives, devasta
tion, conhagraton--but what are all these
when compared with the demoralizing eff
fcctS Of war-thc nurture and raising up a
class ofmen, who must, as they think, eat the
fruits of the earth raised by the sweat and
labor ofthe honest and hardy yeomanry of our
country; a set of men whose element is war,
and who rather than breathe and lnhalc the
atmosphere of peace, would prefer an ever
lasting state Of hostilitcs. AS glorious as
were the achievements of the Army and Navy
during the late war, and Just as were the
causes Of that war, if those who Sought our
battles, and who by a fair contract engaged
to do that, arc never 20 be satisfied, let the
Government DO what it may, all it ever a.
greed to do, nay ten times over, wc shall be
!. disposed to say, better would il hare been il
war had never been declared, that our seven
thousand freemcn were incarcerated on board
of British prison ships, and our commerce
swept from the ocean. We were not amenc
those who believed the late war unjust, oil
unnecessary, but if military men are to FL
public places because they have fought wei
and fought with success, and have no qualifi
cations for those places, we do say the evil'
{ which have grown on, of tho war, are as on'
hundred to one, when compared to those
which existed anterior to IL. We will for thi,
time close our reflections and remarks on thi,
subject, by suIj0ining sketch Of Gen Jack