Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1872-01-25

too, in every department of the gov
ernment To be consistent we would,
of course, have to yield them every
thing, which would not be quite so
agreeable. But how demoralizing is
such principle! We call the offices
''spoils," as if they were something to
be plundered, and then complain if
anybody, taking US at our word,
plucks the official goose. We incul-
cate the idea that a man can have
claims upon an office simply because
he has had a longer purse, or been
more free with his whisky than some
body else. That is, we do these things
if we adopt the Jacksonian idea. They
are its logical and necessary conse-
quences.
And yet bow vain and futile is pat
rOnage as q means of controlling pub
lie opinion was never better illustrated
than in Andrew Johnson's attempt to
use it for that purpose. Never was
the influence of official patronage
more powerfully eXerted, and yet nev
er was an administration more over
whelmingly condemned by popular
verdict
~ 10 ONAASfOA OJ AAO SAA't
the belief is said to be gaining ground,
that the office of President should be
limited to one term, lest, by the
shrewd disposition of offices, that
functionary shall influence unfairly
the peoples choice of his SUCCESSOR
Now whatever be the merits of the
ONE TERM IDEA,
it certainly cannot stand on that
ground. Take the case of Grant, for
example. What is the real cause of
nine tenths of the opposition to his
denomination to- day? Not failures in
his administration, for no signal ones
have yet been pointed ont. Not cor
ruption, for no specific charge of dis
honesty against the President has yet
been established. Not opposition to
reform, for in this he has been lead
er, even in advance of public senti-
ment. Nearly the whole trouble has
arisen from his appointments. Pat
ronage, instead of helping him, has
been his weakness. The New York
Collectorship was the rock on which
Dana foundered, and the venerable
Greeley split. The distribution of
patronage in New York is what hurts
Fenton, and case of brother-ir-la
is said to be the trouble with Trum-
bull. In short, appointments and re-
movals have been the inspiring cause
or basis of more attacks on the Presi-
dent than anything else, and had he
been divested at the beginning of his
term of every ounce of influence de-
rived from patronage, there would be
far less opposition than there now is
to his denomination. But, as the Pres
ident has voluntarily surrendered his
power to appoint or remove the vast
majority of officers for political or per
sonal reasons, this ought to silence
cavil on that point. The argument
that the Executive should be limited
to one term because he will otherwise
abuse his power to get a second, fails
when the power of abuse is itself taken
away from him.
The question has been perth emily
asked, how Mr.. Sumner, who has pro
posed IN the Senate one-term amend
ment to the Constitution, would like
to have the same limitation applied to
Senators. He has held three or four
successive terms in the Senate, and it
is notorious fact, though not in his
case, that patronage is more used and
more abused in the election of Sena
tors than in any other way. 1t can
there be eXerted more effectually be
cause it is used upon the fewest num-
Der. Now, if it is necessary in order
to purify the civil service, that the
President shall be limited to a single
term, it is equally necessary, and for
the same reason, that Senators shall
be likewise limited. If it be said that
Senator should be re elected because
the people should have the benefit of
his experience, the same is true ef the
President. Experience is just as val
liable in the Executive Mansion as it
is in the Senate Chamber, and there
can be no doubt at all that for every
public position it is one of the most
desirable qualifications. Why, then,
should the people deprive themselves
of the power to re- elect the President
any more than of re- electing any other
officer? Let Mr.. Sumner answer that
conundrum. A. E. L.
A sockdOlager Against Railroads.
Under the head of an "Old Fossil;
the Celina Journal says;
There is one left, and he lives in
Mercer county; he is opposed to rail-
roads, and argues against them thus
ly 30, they bring into the country
different set of people-folks with
larnin', who want to get along with
out work and who aint satisfied with
one suit of nlIIIIrno7n Int must have
store clothes, and a clean shirt every
week, and who go fursing round
They spile the country and are a cuss
to it. They set all the youngsters era
zy-can't make 'em work after that
they must have buggies and paper col
lars, and shined boots; then they aint
so healthy, and doctors bills run up
like all sixty. 1t spiles biznes, too,
these railroads do. Wherever there's
a railroad they don't do biznes like we
do; you can't sell so high to people;
these smart fellows come in and sell
cheaper; and we'll have to pay darnd
: Al