The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1873-08-01
PRESIDENTIAL TERMS.

ituhDus-lnG Inlf0-
Term Nonsense-The People are not
Fools, and President Grant Is not IA
Dangerous Man, hut am Honest Ex-
ecutive.
from the Brooklyn Eagle, Democratic.l
A desire even for second
term has been the catastrophe of every
Executive who INDUCED it since Jackson,
save Lincoln and Grant Both were re-
elected because of exceptional services
and circumstances. Their reelection
was clear success of the popular will.
In each case the men made the running,
and the two-term principle was simply
form adopted by the people, who could
to their own satisfaction honor the men
they had resolved to honor in no other
way. On the whole, the rarity of re-
elections confirms the assertion that one
termism is the general habit and prefer
ence of our country. We depart from
that habit in few cases, but just often
enough to show that we can do what we
please with our own. We have never
shared the apprehensions Of the one
term school. We would be willing to
see the Constitution amended as that
school wants. But we are not very earn
est about it. The people of this country
always have been able to take pretty
good care of themselves. We reckon
they always will be able to do so. One
thing seems certain : there have been
times when a One-term amendment
would have been suspended. The peo-
pie could not have been kept out of re-
electing Jackson and Lincoln by any
thing printed on paper. Another thing
is certain Unwritten custom has always
been sufficient to insure the dispen-
sation with the most popular Presidents
at the end of their second term. That
custom is absolutely sure always to pre-
vail. The people can be relied on very
quickly to dispose of any who propose
to discard it.
This people are sovereign in sense
which panicky papers are too apt to for
get. They don't intend to tie them
selves up from havinga man whom they
want second time. Neither do they
intend to allow any precedent to be
made which will continue an Executive
longer than that. The men most alarm
ed about two-terism have principally
been statesmen who coveted but never
reached "just one term" All policies
WulCn DlOCCto vi tliC tcbuhi PoiOi
the time will be when this people cannot
control their own affairs, are illusory.
The one-term theory and the specter OF
third term, or perpetual President,
have never taken hold of the public i'm
agination. They cannot be made to take
hold of it, simply because the first Occa-
sionally becomes crossed by the steady
wish of the people, and because the
second is felt to be rebuked by that part
of the career of the fathers which is
more potential than anything else they
furnished to posterity-their example.
Abstractly, the "alarm" is a bugbear
that has never exerted any influence ex-
cept on sensationalists and Missionaries.
The people "feel it i'll their bones" that
it is nonsense, and you can't work the
conviction out of them.
Nor do we believe that Grant is the
sort of man to trouble himself with that
phantom of third term. There is no
evidence that he desires it. Men in this
latitude want no better assurance that
it won't snow in July, than the fact that
it is July. Nor do sensible folk want
any better assurance that Grant is not
imbued with the third-term nonsense
than the consideration of what kind
of a man he is, and the consid
Grafton of what sort of "souces
those are whence have issued this
midsummer madness. 1t does vio-
lence to common sense and universal
knowledge of him to paint him as a COM
pound of Guy Fawkes and julius
Caesar. Frank P. Blair, Jr., made some
discoveries about Grant, which five
years of his occupancy of the most pub
lis of our offices have not confirmed. 1t
was the calm conclusion of that retired
prophet that if Grant ever got to be
President the people would never get
rid of him. The people of Missouri
had no such difficulty with Frank. The
people of the United States will have
no such difficulty with Frank miscon-
strued President, when the time comes.
There is no single act of administra-
ton, there is no known habit or associ-
alton of the President which tends tow
ard third term. We dissent from
the tentative policy, we disagree with
most of the appointments, We do not
relish the domestic or foreign tone of
the Administration. But we find in
none of these things the slightest pre-
text on which to see the shadow of a
shade of apprehension about absolut-
ism or Cesarism. On the contrary, the
reverse is what we find.
The habits of the President are prim-
itively democratic. He goes where he
wants to and leaves when it pleases him.
He travels invariably with his consort
and children, like the good family man
that he is. He has properly low value
of the force of unjustitable denunciation
and snap criticism. He is lamentably
lacking in appreciation of the self-pro-
claimed illimitable power of the press.
In short, he does what he pleases, unless
he pleases to do something else. 1t pal
pably pleases him to keep his mind and
body as snug and comfortable as possible,
especially i'll hot weather. We wish he
was less Indifferent. But for the life of
us we cannot esteem him dangerous.
We wish he was less phlegmatic and
more dignified but that in his mind he
harbors a coup d etat is asking too
much for people to believe who recog-
nize in their Chief Magistrate matter
of-fact person, devoid of airs
altogether, of proved patriotism.