The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1872-09-12
The One-Term Absurdity.

The New York Herald thus concludes a
long article under the heading "The One
Term Absurdity Should the President be
Ineligible for Second Term ?"
Neither Mr.. Sumner nor any of his assoc
ciates has yet satisfied us how the one
term principle, if adopted as constitu-
tional restriction, would remedy the evils
of which they complain. So long as politi-
cal parties have an existence the office
holders, who of course are adherents of
the party in power, will labor for the sue
cess OF their political friends; and the Pre-
sident who is capable of intriguing for his
own denomination would not scruple to use
the Federal patronage for the purpose of
insuring the succession to candidate of his
own stripe. Besides, it would be undesira-
BILE to forbid the people in any event 10 re-
elect President.
There may be peculiar qualifications or
particular circumstances to render the con-
tinuance of chief magistrate in office for
second term eminently wise and beneficial,
and it would be the part of folly to place
any such restriction as that proposed upon
the popular,will. No person can pretend that
the country suffered by the double terms of
Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe
or Jackson, and few will deny the prudence
and justice of giving Abraham Lincoln the
opportunity to complete the work of re-
union at which he had so faithfully labored.
In like manner, If the commercial and
financial interests of the country deem it
expedient now to extend General Grants
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 inseperable from
a change of administration, can Mr.. Sum-
ner and his friends advance any sound rea-
son why they should be denied the privi-
lege to carry out their wishes
The narrow-minded views of politicians
fail either to grasp the true evil of an un-
due desire to continue the dominent party
in power or to discover its proper remedy.
The effort at reelection is too apt to para
lyze the arm of an administration, and for
at least fourth Of the Presidential term to
deprive it of firm and well-deiined policy.
The country has recently felt this in the
management of the Alabama controversy.
in the treatment of the Spanish question,
and in our Mexican inaction, and the peo.
pie, who were so disguised with "my pol
icy" in Andrew Johnson's time, have not
been satisfied with the '.no polcy'' of the
present administration during the last
twelve months. @ s!.5
They will be heartily pleased when the
election is over and General Grant Is at
liberty to mark out for himself an inde-
pendent course free from the control of the
political managers who at present surround
him. In SO far, then, as the effort ofthe DOM
inant party to secure the succession either
for the incumbent or politician of their
own school equally reliable is calculated to
cripple and palsy the arm of the govern
ment, it is decidedly an evil but, as we
have said, it is one that cannot be removed
by the one-term restriction. If there is to
be partial remedy only it must be found
in the extension Of the Presidential term to
six or eight years, which would make it of
less frequent occurrence. IF it is to be
wholly eradicated it must be done by strip
ping the Presidential office of ITS already
overshadowing and daily increasing patron
age, and thus removing that high position
from the corrupt and selfish scramble of
the professional politicians and chronic Of
fice-seekers of the country.
1t is unquestionable that the power and
influence of the Federal patronage threaten
to become perilous to Republican institu-
tons, and the day is not distant when the
people will clamor for its curtailment. If
Congress, which is the real and immediate
representative of the country, possessed
through independent machinery, the APP
pointing power, we should have no more
such heated, violent and demoralizing Pres
idential campaigns as that which is now
dangerously agitating us at home and de-
grading us IN the eyes of foreign nations.
A substantial civil service reform under our
present system is, as Mr.. Sumner says, a
sham. In the absence of that let us have a
distribution of patronage that shall leave no
single Office with the anti-republican and
threatening power that no W attaches to that
of President of the United States.