Delaware State journal and statesman., 1866-12-18
From the New York Nation.
HOW TO MAKE PRESIDENTS HARM



From the New York Nation.
HOW TO MAKE PRESIDENTS HARM.
LESS.
The proposal to make the President ineli
gible for reelection has good deal to re.
commend 1t, but the balance of argument IL
undoubtedly against ii. In its favor there Is
the obvious consideration that il would pre-.
vent that incessant bidding for popularity,
that persistent conversion of the admins.
tration into an electioneering machine, which
mas Deen the curse ofour politics for nearly
haii century. The President would cease
70 nave motive for deserting his party, or
| trying TO patch up one of his own, or for
shaping policy'' to catch the popular eve.
or for filling the public offices with his crea-
lures, and, in fact, for meddling unnecessarily
ana lnluriously in the work of legislation
But the arguments urged against it by
Hamilton, in the Federalist, have lost little
OF their force. They are now nearly as CO.
gent as they were eight years ago. The
chance OF reelection is undoubtedly stimu-
lus TO good behaviour. The cases which tell
against this argument, such as those ofTyler,
ana flerce, and Buchanan, were undoubt-
ediy Que TO an exceptional condition of our
politics. There is not the smallest probabili.
ty that such an abuse as slavery will ever
again arise, or that so formidable a combi-
nation OF interests, feelings and preiudices
can ever take place in support of any abuse
as that by which slavery was bolstered up
during the last thirty years. In other words,
10 iegislate Tor the contingency of such temp
tatlons as those to which Pierce and Buch-
anan were exposed would be very like
converting the nation into a camp in order
to be prepared for war. Ordinarily. a Pre-
sident would base his hopes Of reelection
upon his success in carrying out the popular
wishes, and if these wishes did not, on the
whole, run in the direction of good govern
ment, democratic government would be
failure. The only cases in which we need
ever expect President to run counter even
IN appearance to the popular will are those
IN Wnlch ne mas reason to believe that the
popular judgment has not been fairly ex-
pressed, or has not had time to ripen. A
good man will, in such case, act properly: q
bad man improperly, no matter how we ie-
gislate. The President is pretty sure to
strive to please the majority, and, unless our
whole theory OF government be erroneous,
the majority, on the whole, in the long run,
is pretty sure to be right The danger Of
making him ineligible for reelection is that
the opinion of the majority would then be-
come OF comparatively little consequence to
MN, and bad man might use his office,
during ms whole term, for the sole purpose
YOrltes. 10 be sure, a man base enough tor
this is not likely to reach so high a place;
but it must not be forgotten that very bad
men go into politics in our day, that some Of
them may reach the Presidency, and that we
do not as yet know how a bad President
would behave who knew he had no chance
OF reelection. Many people imagine that
the worst ones must always have known that
there was no hope for them, but this is a
great mistake. There seems to be some pc
culiarity about this office which preyents ali
prominent politicians from ever giving IN
the hope of getting it, and, after they have
got 1t, from giving up the hope Of keeping
In the second place, it would be rather
dangerous for the country to deprive itself of
the power of using the experience of a man
whom il has tried, and found both skillful
and faithful, and TO bind itself to make q to-
tai change Of administration, no matter what
the nature OF the crisis may be in which the
term ends. we have just had in Mr.. Lin
COIN 8 case signal example of the mischief
that may follow the removal of a President
whom the country has thoroughly tried to
make way, at a time of great difficulty. for
an unknown, and untried, and inexperienced
successor. No people ever made a greater
display of wisdom than this people did in
re,electing Lincoln, and we doubt if any in
cldent In American history made so deep an
impression on the mind of foreign observers.
bis death at the beginning of his second
term has been OF some use in showing us the
danger of swapping horses when crossing
the stream, to use his own illustration. II
put at the helm of affairs man of whom the
country at large knew nothing; of whose
real character and abilities even his own
friends knew very little; who had none of
the othcial experience or training which had
made Lincoln almost twice as valuable a
man in 1864 as he was in 1850; and who
brought TO the conduct of the Government,
at the most delicate crisis in our history, an
entirely new order of ideas and motives
We all know the result. II may be said, it
is true, that Mr.. johnson would not have
been chosen to succeed Mr. Lincoln by a re-
gular popular election; perhaps not. But a
man as incompetent and disappointing might
have been. Most people thought In 1859
they could predict how William H. Seward
would behave were he at the head of the
Republic in such crisis as that through
which we are now passing; but they would
have been mistaken. He would, if we may
judge from the part he has played during
the last year, have proved simply a more
learned and more polished Andrew johnson.
AS long as nominating conventions arc what
they areas long, in short, as the task of
choosing officials has to be delegated to pro-
lesslonal politicians-the public can never
tell who may turn up at the head of affairs.
In nine cases out of ten it will be man little
known outside his own State, and he NAV
be Lincoln or he may not
The true remedy for the evils with which
Congress is now seeking to deal would seem
TO be not 10 make the President ineligible
for reelection, and thus deprive him OF the
strongest motive for behaving well, and
force the people to dispense with his services.
ii may be at the very moment when his ex.
perience and character are most needed, but
70 reduce his patronage to a minimum. II
is with his patronage that bad President
does all his mischief; without the unlimited