The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1872-09-09

A/AAOvs GOWAOA 0k&A Ac1otb nOs AOosoob VAAOS~& W
Massachusetts,, candidate for the Vice Presi
dency, were all bought up in Congress by the
Union Pacific Railroad job, by brides at the
rate of two thousand to three thousand shares
each, making them no better than the corrupt
representatives who yearly fatten on the
Legislative plumber at Albany. When
republicans paint these pictures OF
republicans what can the people
think of the fraud practised upon them for
the past twelve years? As to the unfortunate
democrats, their bad character was 80 satisfac-
torily established in the war that they cannot
be said to have been sailing under false colors
until they undertook to bring their pirate
craft into port with the ensign of Commodore
Greeley flying at the FORE This campaign ex-
perience serves to show how little reliance can
be placed on any of the virtuous professions
made by the politicians pending an election,
and will help to satisfy the people how much
sincerity there is in those who are just now
clamorine so loudly about the evil of electing
a President of the United States for second
term.
Neither Mr. Summer nor any of his asso-
ciates has yet satisfied us how the one-term
principle, if adopted as constitutional re-
striction, would remedy the evils of which
they complain. So long as political
parties have ON existence the Office
holders who of course are adherents
of the party in power, will labor for
the success of their political friends; and the
President who is capable of intriguing for his
own denomination would not scruple to use
the federal patronage for the purpose of en-
surfing the succession to candidate of his
own stripe. Besides, it would be undesirable
to forbid the people in any event to re-elect a
President There may be peculiar quali6ca-
tons or particular circumstances to render the
continuance of Chief Magistrate in Office
for q second term eminently wise and bene-
fetal, and it would be the part of folly to
place any such restriction as that proposed
upon the popular will. No person can pre-
tend that the country suffered by the double
terms of Washington, jefferson, Madison,
Monroe or Andrew jackson, and few will
deny the prudence and justice Of giving Abra-
ham Lincoln the opportunity to complete the
work of reunion at which he had 30 faithfully
labored In like manner, if the commercial
and financial interests of the country deem it
expedient now to extend General Grant 8
term of Office another four years.
in order that the peace and prosperity
he has given the country for the past four
years may continue. without the risk insepa-
rable from change of administration, can
Mr. Sumner and his friends advance any sound
reason why they should be denied the privilege
: to carry out their wishes2
The narrow-minded views of politicians fail
either to grasp the true evil Of an undue desire
to continue the dominant party in power or
to discover its proper remedy. The effort at
reelection is too apt to paralyze the arm Of an
administration, and for at least fourth of
the Presidential term to deprive 1t of o firm
and well-defned policy. The country has re-
Gently felt this in the management of the
Alabama controversy, in the treatment of the
Spanish question and in our Mexican inaction,
and the people, who were so disguised with
''my policy" in Andrew Johnson's time, have
not been satisfied with the ''no policy Of the
present administration during the last twelve
months. They will be heartily pleased
when the election is over and General
Grant is at liberty to mark out for himself
an independent course free from the control Of
the political managers who OF present surround
him. In SO far, then, as the effort of the
dominant political party to secure the success.
sion either for the incumbent or o politician
Of their own school equally reliable is calcu.
lated to cripple and palsy the arm of the gov.
ernment it is decidedly an evil; but,
as we have said, it is one that cannot
be removed by the one-term restric.
ton. If there is to be partial
remedy only it must be found in the extension
OF the Presidential term to & sI1 ' 6f eight years.
which would make it Of less frequent occur
renee If it is to be wholly eradicated it mus
be done by stripping the Presidential Office o
its already overshadowing and dangerously in
creasing patronage, and thus removing tina
high position from the corrupt and selfsl
scramble of the professional politicians ant
chronic office-seekers of the country. It il
unquestionable that the power and influence
of the federal patronage threaten to become
perilous to republican institutions, and thu
day is not distant when the people will clamol
for its curtailment II Congress, which is thu
real and immediate representative of thu
country, possessed through independent ma
chinery the appointing power, we should have
no more such heated, violent and demoralizint
Presidential campaigns as that which is nov
dangerously agitating us at home and degrad
ing us in the eyes of foreign nations. A sub
stantial civil service reform under our presen
system is, as Mr.. Sumner says, a sham. II
the absence of that let us have redistribution o
patronage that shall leave no. single Office will
the anti-republican and threatening power tina
attaehas "a that Of prasidaxa& Of Tho Init