New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1874-07-29
TIE THIRD TERM IN THE SOUTH.


THE THIRD TERM IN THE SOUTH.
There are some points about the singular
movement now going on in the South In favor
of the nomination of President Grant for
third term, WHICH indicate deeper seated
political disease than most people have as yet
recognized. The letter from Richmond which
we published several days ago gave lucid
analysis of this movement and a classification
of those who are taking part in it. They are
composed of the professional politicians who
are tired of being defeated, and who imagine
that with Grant there is a chance OF winning;
of men of deficient sagacity and strength OF
character who have been the recipients OF
ordinary courtesies from Gen. Grant, and hav-
ing their heads turned by these insignificant
attentions are now anxious to perpetuate the
tenure Of one whom they regard as their
friend of those who are insincere In their adyo-
cacy of Gen. Grant, and who hope by such means
to discredit him in the North F; and OF largo
number who, despairing of any hope from
any other quarter, look to the President as
the only possible refuge from the continued
domination of the negroes and of those dis
honest and rapacious Adventures who have
made with them an alliance for plumber The
number of these last is probably larger than
is generally imagined, and the fact that 1t
exists ut all is a symptom OF state of feel
ing in the highest degree important aud
OminOus.
Most of these men have no sympathy and
no admiration for Gen. Grant They are not
unacquainted with the history of the last five
years. They know how far he has been
responsible for the wretched generalization
into which the political life of nearly all the
Southern States has fallen They know that if
in one or two as in Virginia, for instance,
there still exists some security for life and
property, some shadow of self-gOvernment, it
is due not to Gen. Grant but to persistent,
laborious, and successful opposition to him
and his administration. In Louisiana it is
his hand which has been put to the throat OF
every revolt of the manhood of the State
against its thievish rulers. 1t is his favor and
protection which have given Casey and Du-
rell and Kellogg their will of the Common
wealth. He alone has made Powell Clayton
in Arkansas so strong for evil. When the
taxpayers of South Carolina came up to ask
some countenance and support in the struggle
they had resolved to make against the rob
bers who have rendered the State bankrupt
and almost uninhabitable, Gen. Grant was in
duced by such cOnfederates of the Ring as
Patterson and Sawyer to turn the taxpayers
out of the Executive mansion and send them
back with no encouragement. These things
are perfectly well known in Richmond and
Charleston and New-Orleans Yet reputable
men in all of these cities, some of them who
have no Offices and few who do not hope
for any, are beginning to look to Grant as
the only chance for escape from the plight
their section has fallen into.
1t is of no use to say to men of this way of
thinking that what they propose is abnormal,
amounting to little less than revolution.
Gen. Gordon, in denying the report that he
fayors the third term movement, alludes to
the example of Washington as invested with
the force of an unwritten article OF the Con-
stitutiOn, and says that he would not favor a
third term for "a Democratic President as
"pure as Cato and as self-sacrifcing as Doria."
This is the way in which such scheme
would naturally be regarded by one who
still believed in the old traditions of the
Republic, and trusted to democratic
methods for the redress of grievances.
We hope that there is still large
majority everywhete with whom these words
of Gen. Gordon have weight. But to those
in the South who are talking about third
term for Gen. Grant, they mean nothing at
all. They have no hesitation in avowing that
they no longer believe in the Republic, and
that they see no possibility of any re-
formation of the present state Of things
through democratic and constitutional methods.
A lCharleston paper, The Ne,cs and Courier,
admits that the reelection of Gen. Grant
would be virtual revolution, which might
establish personal government but regards
this danger, which would be shared by the
North and West alike, as less pressing than
the immediate danger of utter ruin now
threatening the South. Several other Southern
journals of standing hold the same view, and
in any gathering of Southerners where politics
are mentioned, some one is sure to say, Let
"Grant veto the Civil Rights bill and give us
"a show, and l am for him as many terms as
"you please" The fact that this is utterly
unreasonable has nothing to do with the fact.
1t merely shows that good many people in
the South have been deprived of theirIreason,
by the long continued wretchedness of the
political situation in most of the Southern
States, and by the seeming impossibility of
curing it by any constitutional means.
-
NTH REGARD TO The CHRISTOPHER.
Comes this way now on lifted wing with