The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1875-12-29
Grants sources or strength.


In spite OF the array of serious
arguments and the more potent enginery
of public ridicule employed by the press OF
the country against the third term project,
it still retains a degree of vitality which
must be incomprehensible to those who do
not see, or do not allow sufficient weight to
the sources from whence its support is de-
rived. That there are influences at work for
the denomination of President Grant
which are strong enough to ignore
the cautiously worded disapproval
of the party conventions, and even
to disregard the more pronounced opposi-
is evinced by the constant recur-
renee of the movement when it
has been thought hopelessly defeated, and
the fact that it is probably
stronger at this moment than at any time
since its inception. 1t becomes, then, the
duty of the opposition press to search out
these powerful influences, to expose their
hidden springs OF action, and to set forth in
the strongest light whatever is unworthy in
them or their motives, the more effectusIly
to arouse public resentment against a party
which is unable to resist tendencies within
itself so pregnant with evil results.
There are three chief elements working
with might and main to secure the renomi-
nation of Grant by the Republican party,
and they may be briefly summed up as ig-
norance, misguided religious zeal, and Of
fetal corruption. For the first, the most
cursory analysis of the vote in the
reveals its location and its snimus. OF the
eighteen members who placed themselves
upon record against that resolution, ten are
from the South. including the entire colored
delegation. In the newly emsncipsted race
of blacks, come fresh into the political arena
with the ignorance, and prejudices of GEN.
turtles OF bondage elinging about them, ma
nipulated and controlled by designing lead
ers, who have taught them to look upon
Grant as their only refuge and protector
against the imagined cruelties of their for
mer masters, is a third term influence by no
means to be despised?
The Des MoineS speech was bold bid for
the support of class, numerous and power
full in the country, who, forgetting that we
live in the nineteenth century and
not In the sixteenth, are tortured by fear
ofthe renewal OF religious wars and perse-
cutions, from the growing influence of the
Romish- Church; and it has borne good
fruit. The large Republican gains in
the Western Reserve, last October
and the third torn resolution adopted
by Boston ecclesiastical convention show
what power in politics religious fervor
may become, when suitably aroused and
directed by shrewd political leaders. The
cry of "No Popery" may be raised in the
America of to-day to as effectual purpose as
in the England of Lord George Gordon's
time.i
The third of the great influences working
ter the continuance in power of the present
executive is the most obvious II
not the strongest OF all. To say
that the enormous army of Office holders,
who owe their places and emoluments TO
federal patronage, will work valiantly tor
the retention of their official spoils, is to
state the evident truism that self-interest is
a powerful incentive to human action; but
the incentive in this case is present in no
ordinary degree. Rarely has the oppor-
tunity been so great for official population
and the enrichment of place holders by cor
rupt means as during the last eight years,
and those who have profited by it are cor
respondingly loud in their advocacy of
continuance of the same regime Gen.
Mcdonald, now serving out his sentence
for defrauding the government, in st.
Louis Jail, spoke with we'll founded sin
cerity, If with somewhat injudicious can
dor when, In recent interview,
he declared his admiration for President
Grant and his advocacy of third term.
These are the chief components OF the
force which is relied upon to override the
better Judgment OF the nation, and carry
Gen. Grant for third term into the White
House. Independent of each other and
arising from various motives, each is strong
in itself and combined, they form a power
which will surely make itself felt iu the
coming contest, and which should arouse
its opposers to prepare for vigorous resist
ance. 1t must be remembered, too, thai
these influences, diverse and iacongruous
as they are, do not waste their strength In
independent action, but are combined.
manipulated and guided by the deft hands
of as shrewd a crew of political wire workers
as ever degraded the noble prerogstives OF
rulers to serve their private ends.
With these things IN view, we are surely
hardly justified In treating the third term
movement as mere scare crow-a creation
OF the train of political alsrmists. Ifstraws
show which way the wind blows, 1t GER
tainly argues no lack of political ssgscity to
suggest that such significant and con-
sistent facts as the vote in the House
Bishop Ravens resolution and McDonald's
remarks may be mere surface connection, in