The New York herald., 1874-10-26
win the President Answer Hi. Friends >

II the President intends to speak upon the
third term question he must speak very
soon. He returns to Washington to find him
self in new position in respect to this issue,
and it is not possible that he should fail to see
it. When the HERALD first urged him to spare
the country painful and possibly disastrous
struggle by making manly declaration that
he would not again be candidate he had
this pretext for his silence, that the press of
his party treated our warnings as mere moon
shine and mischief When men like Mosby and
Gordon declared in favor of q third term he
had the excuse to plead for silence that
they were not authorized to speak for
him, and when the movement for his re-elec-
ton almost amounted to an organization he
could still assume that it was made without
his permission. 1t is true that during this
period his silence encouraged the formation
OF third term party and connived at the in
PRODUCTION into our politics of an evil prin-
ciple which he might have crushed with
word. But then the President is silent
man by nature the dignity of his great Office
forbids him to take the people into his con-
fidence he would not speak on compulsion.
and, besides, sit was not a practical ques-
ton" SO when he was asked if he would
continue to hold his Office he responded by
holding his tongue.
But now an answer is requested of General
Grant, not by sensational newspapers which
want to get up an excitement which steadily
increases for eighteen months, nor indirectly
by the enthusiastic politicians who have been
for months shouting for him as the third term
Washington, but by his trusted friends and
by the party which elected him. Since Gen
eral Grant left the capital for Western tour
the October elections lost two great States to
the republican party, and the democrats made
enormous gains in the next Congress. The
fear of the people that he intended to
use the republican party as an instru-
men to obtain his reelection was the
main cause of its defeat. Many Of the ablest
republican leaders firmly believe this, and,
alarmed at the danger threatened by the
Presidents intention, or the silence which is
eloquent of ambition, they have appealed to
him to remove it. When Governor Dix said
that he was opposed to third term it was an
appeal When Judge Kelley declared his oppo-
sition it was an appeal. When Senator
Morrill, urged Senator Edmunds to use his
influence with the President to disavow q
third term purpose it was an appeal When
Secretary Robson said the President
was not candidate that was an appeal
for confirmation. It was an appeal
more significant, because it was unexpected,
that the New York Times made when it
begged Governor Dix to save the party in
New York by proclaiming himself against the
third term. When the Indianapolis Journal,
Senator Morton's ''organ," said that the
President should make manly announce
ment, and that s'this is what he should have
done long ago, and would have done had he
properly appreciated his duty to the country
and to the republican party" that was an ap-
peal. When the Evening Post tells General
Grant that his present taciturn policy i'm
poses upon the republican party ''the bar
,.barous alternative of suicide or his renomina-
tion-to destroy itself or be destroyed, it is
an appeal of the strongest kind
The question is now formally addressed to
the President, not by his enemies, nor by
those who are independent Of him, but by his
friends. The republican party now demands
an answer. Its very life depends upon the
issue. So long as the President will not
declare himself against the third term move
ment it will increase under his encouraging
silence like vegetation in the darkness, and
when the light comes men will be astonished
to behold it's growth. This is what the re-
publican party fears; the corruption of
been shown by our canvass of Con-
gressional opinions, and its consequent
committal to a purpose which the people
will not approve. The October elections have
shown that the people will not be controlled
in this matter by the politicians, and the
friends of General Grant have been forced to
SO inform him. They are his advisers now,
not we. They implore him to save not merely
the country, but the party. They ask an
answer at once, that the elections in Novem-
Der may not add to the October losses 1t is
hard to see how he can long maintain his
silence when so earnestly besought to speak
Yet when the subject was alluded to in the
Cabinet on Saturday, in connection with the
elections, he summarily dismissed it as
irrelevant and said it would be extremely
indecorous in him to take notice Of news
paper discussion. This may do for the
Cabinet, but it will not do for the party
General Grant may wait till after November g.
but it will be at his own risk for if the re-
publican party is then defeated its friends
who are his friends also, will hold him re-
sponsible for the ruin.