Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-11-22
GRANT MUST SPEAK.
An Influential Republican Organ On
His Duty 20 the Party.

His Duty 90 the Party.
We take from the current issue of Hdr-
per's Weekly the following significant ed
itprial article:
1t is incredible that the President should
be the only man in the country who does
not understand the relation of the third
term agitation to the late elections. But a
detailed statement in one of the New York
papers, which in this case apparently speaks
with knowledge, says that be does not
think the popular verdict was influenced
by the senseless cries about a third term,
and that South Carolina was carried by
the Republicans with the third term in the
platform, while Mr.. Ellis III. Roberts, the
Representative from the Republican Utica
district in New York, was beaten after his
nominating convention declared against it.
This last remark has peculiar significance
when considered in the light Of Mr.. Rob
erts' own explanation of his defeat-an
event TO be deeply regretted as the loss in
Congress of one Of the most intelligent,
SPACIOUS, honest and able Representatives.
The Utica district is very fortunate if his
successor can in any degree fill his place.
The Utica Herald, of which Mr.. Roberts is
the editor, says:
@The story of the Congressional canvass
in Oneida tells itself. Scott Lord is the
law partner of Senator Roscoe Conkling,
and persistent effort has been made TO
create the impression that Senator Conk-
ling desired his election, while Mr.. COnk-
ling did not lift a finger to correct that i'm
preston. G. II. DennisOn, United States
Commissioner, was from the beginning a
leading adviser in the Democratic
canvass, and did not conceal his oppo-
sition to his party. William Com
stock, Register in Bankruptcy, was less
frank, and quite as mischievous. Levi
Blakeslee came from his rich berth in the
New York Post-Office 10 destroy the party
at whose hands he had received more than
$4,000 in salary as Collector of Internal
Revenue. George Klinck represented the
New York Custom-house in the war upon
the candidates Of his party. These and
such rs these organized the faction which
determined to ruin since it could not rule. +"
The key 10 all this is plain. There has
never been any question of Mr.. Roberts
honest Republican fidelity, but he was op-
posed to the third term. Certain office
holders favor it. They work against his
election. He is defeated, and The Presi-
0Gllt SAYS EAlttl HIS 4GANell oA4Ono tut ilEA
not to be unfTiendly to the project. The
necessary conclusion is that the President
would accept 4 third nomination, which
his officeholders would engineer. The
most distinguished and honOred Republi-
can editor in the United States has
already annouGeed that his journal
would not support General Grant for a
third term. We believe that he speaks for
the best Republican press of the country.
Persistence in the project, as We said many
months ago, would rend the Republican
party asunder. II might, indeed, force some
good men to consider which would be the
greater evil, third term or 4 Democratic
administration. But they would be very
few. The Republican press, which is sub
stantially unit upon the question, should
speak out plainly, aud let it be
known that under no circumstances now
conceivable would it support the PreSi-
dent for third term. Such a pro-
position not only violates one of the most
cherished political traditions of the coun-
try, but with the present vast executive
patronage, il would justly be considered
the beginning of a subversion of the Gov
eminent, and would, in itself, present an
issue taking precedence of every other.
Should such frantic attempt be made, We
should be found by the side of the leader
of whom we speak, opposing to the end
candidate sonominated.
But in view of the situation, and of the
necessity of c0ntesting the general cleo
tiCn Of 1876 with every advantage, it seems
to US the plain duty OF the President to de-
clare his position on this subject. 1t can
no longer be said that it is joke, and that
the dignity of the President forbids him
to speak. If his dignity does not forbid
him to speak of the subject at all, and the
reports show that it does not, why should
it forbid him To make the only important
remark upon il that the country wishes
to hear? Il is no answer to say that
the elections have settled the matter.
The President says that he does not think
so, and as the patronage controls the party
and as every selfish consider
alton leads the Office-holding interest to
use that control for third nomination, a
doubt and perplexity which should not ex-
list for a moment, do really menace the
party. 1t is the more important, because
the interest which would most warmly
press third term is precisely that which
believes that party organization and s'regu-
larity" can accomplish everything.
If, therefore, the unc0ntradicted report
is true, and the President thinks that hos
tility to the third term had no influence
upon the elections, and that Mr.. Roberts
defeat is the evidence, let the press Of his
own party assure him how profoundly be is
mistaken, and convince him that should he
be regularly renOminatei, the best Republi-
can journals from the Atlantic to the Pa
ci6c would oppose his election with the
same patriotism and energy that they adj
vOcated it in 1868 and 1872.