The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1874-07-06

electioneerng purposes. But the enormous
growth of Executive patronage since the war
enables the President to elect, through the ac-
tivity of dependent and devoted ofice-holders,
a majority of the delegates to every political
convention whose action he wishes to control
The reason why the public mind is so dis
turbed by the third term question is its
knowledge that President Grant can as easily
secure majority of the delegates to the repub-
lcan convention of 1876 as he did in 1872, and
that it practically rests in his own choice
whether he will have another nomination or
not Once nominated, it becomes simply
question whether the republican party is
stronger than its adversary. If the Executive
patronage has become strong enough to en-
able a President to re-elect himself, against
the presidents and public feeling, which stand
opposed to third term, there ceases to be
any security that President, once in office,
may not re-elect himself for life. II Grant
cannot be successfully opposed, with all the
precedents of the government against him,
it will be vain to resist him in any future cleo
ton after these precedents and the strong
body of public sentiment by which they are
supported shall have been broken down. If
he is elected third time he will become the
master of our liberties. He owes it to the
country to put an end to this disquieting APP
prehension which is so largely shared by our
citizens.
If President Grant is not nursing the kind
of ambition of which the country suspects
him his credit and usefulness require that
he should speedily set this question at rest
Public confidence in his measures and the
moral might Of his administration are de-
stroyed until he convinces his fellow citizens
that he is not acting from selfish interested
motives. Every wise as well as every unwise
thing he does or proposes will be attributed
to sordid, self-seeking ambition unless he
puts stop to the speculations which fill and
poison the political atmosphere. 1t WAS
understood during the latter part of
Rights bill passed he would veto
it, and many Of its friends supposed that he
was counting the political favor of the South
with view to its support for third term. A
President whose motives are thus distrusted
unsettles and demoralizes the public judy
ment and cannot expect fair play even for his
best acts. The usefulness of government
functionares depends upon public confidence
in their character and disinterestedness, and
SO long as it is supposed that General Grant is
scheming for third term everything he does
or forbears to do will be subject to injurious
misconstruction, which will fatally impair his
influence. If he is wise and seeks the good
of the country he will disabuse the public
mind of the prevailing idea that he is medi-
Eating step which the example of Washing
ton, the strongly expressed opinion Of Jeffer-
son, the uniform presidents set by all his pre-
decessors and the settled judgment Of the
country condemn as fraught with the gravest
peril. Why should he keep the country in a
state of painful suspense and apprehension,
when few decisive, authoritative words
would restore confidence and secure q candid,
independent judgment of oil his future public
acts?