New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1875-12-08
THE ME.S.NiGL.

II was waited for with curiosity, and VIZ
no doubt lie read with unusual interest. Not
because it indicates the policy of u party just
entering upon power, whose purposes III adj
ministeiing the government are to bo gathered
from it: for this is the last ann ual message,
before the choice of his predecessor,
of a President who has been six years
in Office and is delivered for the first time in
fifteen years by a Republican President to
Congress in one branch Democratic. fair
and reasonable construction of it is that it is
addressed. not so much to an Opposition House OF
Representatives which would naturally and from
partisan instincts sbun its recommendations,
as to the People who within the next
twelve months are TO elect new Congress
and new Administration. 1t will be read
curiOusly as pointing out in some sense the
policy of the party of the Administration rs
against its opponents. In larger sense,
il will be read as an indication
of the policy of the Administration
itself rs regards its own continuance and per
pctuation. For it must be admitted that not
withstanding the Presidents own letter, and
the utterances of several Republican State
Conventions upon the subject which would
seem sufficient to end the matter, there are
grave suspicious that the President desires
denomination. They may be unfounded. This
was the occasion TO prove them So and set
the question at rest beyond doubt. Let Ills
see then What is to be learned from this mes
sage as to the policy OF the party and the pur-
pose of the President.
la the first place, does the President recog
MIC the wish of the party and withd aw from
the candidacyi What would he naturally do
under such circumstances What more Datu
raj for him to do than review his two terms
OF administration, and gathering up their full
fruits of whatever has been successful and
glorious, present them As The consum-
mate result of his endeavor, and gracefully
Withdraw That would be most natural in the
Executive of two full terms who was deliver
ing an annual message to Congress OF
which one branch was iii opposition To INN
and his party. Common sense teaches us it Is
what any President would do who had made
up his mind his public service was ended.
What has he donel He has given no in
timation that he considers his public career
ended, except in the closing paragraphs OF the
message where he repeats and recapitnatcs
what he has recommended, because, u he says,
" this will be the last annual message which
81 shall have the honor of transmit
" ting TO Congress before my successor Is
"chOsenr This is no withdrawal. 1t
leaves him there, candidate; much
candidate as before the Conventions had
spoken as much a. before his letter of with
drawal, in which he declined denomination,
"unless it should come under such cir
"cumstances rs 10 make il an impera-
" tive duty = candidate " in the hands of
"his friends )" candidate who has never so
much as murinurcd | will ne'er consent"
The message is, a. We have said, chiefly of
interest as indicating the policy of the
party and the purposes of the President In
the campaign Of 1915. What are thcyi
The principal points are our Cuban reia-
tons, out of which it is sunlised we may
he drawn into war which will in many ways
strengthen the Administration party and the
Presidents and the school question, which, rig
idly defined, ia an anti-Catholic issue,
from which the Administration party
hopes great things and tho Head