Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1867-02-27
REELECTION OF PRESIDENT.

An amendment to the Constitution
has been recently proposed which mas
been often before suggested, and which
would doubtless be generally acceptable
to the nation. As introduced by Sena-
tor Wade, and modified by the Senate
Judiciary Commmittee, it is in effect as
follows:
sNo person, by virtue Of election to
the Office of President or Vice President
who has held the office Of President,
shall be re-eligible to either of these Of
fees"
In our vast national community OF
able and intelligent men, there are not
a few who aspire to the highest honor
which the nation has to bestow; not a
few who would be competent to dis
charge the duties of the Presidential Of
6ce. When a man has reached the sum
nit Of his ambition, and remained there
through his appointed term, it seems
best that, full Of honors, he should
withdraw from all further strife for dis
tinction, and leave it to crown the aspi-
rations Of others. he has supped to
the full; why should he not now retire
and allow others to come to the feast?
For a whole generation of public men,
there can be but eight periods Of four
years each. Is it desirable to diminish
the very small number of those who can
attain the fullest success? In the re-
public Of Rome there were siIty-four
consulships in the same length Of time.
There are, however, strong motives
acting upon the occupant of the Presi-
Dental ChaiS to desire a second term.
1t is mans nature to cling to power;
aud, as the poet teaches
" Ambition 10 a lust that's never quenchsd;
Grows more inaamed and maddsr by enjoy.
ment.'
But these motives are not all ignoble.
The patriot desires a longer opportunity
Of ~bene6ting his country; and, in our
system of popular institutions, a second
election is extensively regarded as the
seal of public appreciation upon the ser
vices Of the first term. In some annual
offices, it is accounted a disgrace not to
be reelected. There is also this pre-
| cedent, that the first President and FIVE
of his most popular successors were
honored with q second election. The
temptation is therefore great to seek
this; and there is great danger that a
President, during his first term, will be
shaping his measures and enlisting his
adherents for a second election, instead
Of seeking to leave the most honorable
record possible of his presidency upon
the page of history, and feeling that he
has no object to seek except the best
welfare of his country. There is also a
temptation to others and their parti-
sans to disparage him, to thwart his
measures, and undermine his popularity,
so that he may be less in the way oftheir
success. There is the further danger
that he may have a sense Of d~isappoint-
ment and dishonor, instead Of sstisfac-
ton, at the end of this race, if this
final expression Of a nations regard is
denied him. These dangers would be
completely obviated by Constitutional
provision forbidding reelection.
"But," it is objected, /" i. may some
times be of grea. Importance that, in
some particular crisis, the Chief Magis-
trate of the Nation should not be chang
ed" II might be so. We are not
aware, however, that any such crisis
has yet come that any essential harm
would have been done by the election of
q new President, even during the second
war with Great Britain, or the late war
of the Rebellion. We cannot doubt,
that, in our future history, the danger
from this source will by no e equal
the other dangers that have been men,
toned, or counterbalance the advan-
tages that would arise from taking the
head of the Nation entirely away from
the s~trifes, j~ealousies, and intrigues of
political rivalry.