The Portland daily press., 1875-11-16
Our New York Letter.
Secretary of the InieriOr.--D en- ocratic
Campaign Material.
New YORK, Nov. 13, 1875.

NEW YORK, NOV. 13, 1915.
Now that the elections are over and political
discussion flags we are pretty sure to have
surfeit of frivolous nonsense about the third
term. That has been the standing dish served
up in newspaper offices for two years and
more, whenever there was a scarcity of copy.
The President I think. was annoyed at it at
first. The very suggestion indicated an utter
misconception of his character 1t placed him,
as far as it had any weight at all, IN the light
of an ambitious schemer contriving adroit
plans to perpetuate his own power. Nothing
could be wider of the mark. The one thing
that has been most continually noticeable
about Gen. Grant from the day of his first
Inauguration has been his sturdy indepen-
dence in doing exactly what he thought right,
with supreme indifference to the cousidera-
ton of its effect upon his popularity. He
never troubled himself to consider what the
pc ople or the newspapers would sav about any
action he contemplated taking He did what
he thought was right and left the consequences
to take care of themselves. 1t seemed so
strange therefore to impute to him purpose to
set aside precedents and abet an innovation
upon the established usage of the Republic
2lOm nS tpdb bC DiSub nave U6tu
excused for some display of irritability when
the ridiculous topic was broached, at the very
outset of his second term.
But the President is Eot passionate nor
rascible man, and he soon became so Injured to
this new form of attack, that he grew to treat
ing it very much as be had the myriad of
others which had marked the two Presidential
campaigns in which he had supplemented his
victories by the sword, by equally signal tri-
umphs of the ballot. Speakin. always freely
of the whim in private conversation, not as a
thing to be discussed seriously but rejected
with derision, he nevertheless declined a'so-
lutey to lift it into adventitious importance by
dealing with it as if it were debatable mat
ter. He swerved once from this position
when he wrote the Pen ania letter. But
the reception that met with could not have en-
couraged him to repeat the experiment. Mean
time he stands precisely where he has always
stood, quite as inhexibly opposed to third
term as the noisiest of bis opponents can
possibly be, and never having by thought,
word or deed, given any human being the
smallest shadow Of excuse for coupling his
name with the illusory project.
of whole libraries of inane drvel on this
wretched puerility. 1t certainly cannot be for
lack of substantial themes that so much arrant
nonsense finds its way into print. There is
great deal to be dore yet in the way of pro-
noting the currency rectifcstion, which must
precede any permanent return OF prosperity.
There are the wheels of industry to be set in
motion, the legal tenders to be made worth
their face, and the revenue laws to be simpli-
fed and perfected. There is always broad
field for statesmaushp and that is why it is
so much the more provoking to see such a
quantity of time and space wasted in gab6le
that pro6teth not.
One thing is very certain. There never was
an outgoing administration less vulnerable
than this. There is not an allegation that can
be made against it with any show of plausibl-
ity that can impair its claim to popular conf
dence. The State Department has been con-
Quoted with a degree of ability and wisdom
that has exempted it even from the customary
electioneerpg apprehension Of the period. The
Treasury was never better managed. The fall
ing off in the sources of revenue have been
counterbalarced by increased vigilance in COL
lecting, and the frugality of expenditures has
led to steady reduction of the national debt,
in time of such unwonted depression as we
have witnessed for twenty.s'x months. No
body has any fault to fiud with the Post office,
War or Navy Departments. If any thing ever
is said against the heads of either of them, it
is so palpably spiteful and mendacious that it
receives no credit whatever. The new Attorney
General has thus far escaped the shafts of sour
rility and fabrication aud il his luck in that
gard is commensurate with his merit he will he
spared the ordinary traduction and misrepre-
sentation which are generally the penalties Of
accepting office.
Upon the devoted head of the recently APP
pointed Secretary of the Interior there have
indeed fallen missiles OF the most offensive
KIDD Senator Chandler never was in favor
in newspaper row. Singular too! He had
money enough to get himself puffed from Ore
gon to the Canada line. If it had 50 pleased
b.. he might have figured in the special tele-
grams of a thousand iouroals az one of the
mos eminent OF statesmen, one of the most i'm
maculate of men. Somehow or other he never
had the slightest fancy for that sort OF famf'
So he kept his money and has been pefs's'ently
lampooned for the last dozen years, untii the
people who pin their faith upon mere news
paper report-the number is for tunately grow
ing notably smaller every day-have rather got
the idea that he is dreadfully low sort OF per
son-not dishonest exactly. but of somewhat
loose IDEAS of public morals and not credit to
his party or his government.
Well, Mr.. Chandler certainly is not an
Apollo in appearance, nor Chesterfield in
manner. lie is a plain, blunt, old fashioned,