Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1875-06-11
Is THE COUNTRY SAFE
Reverdy JOhnsOn's Criticism of
,he Presidems's Letter.
baltimore. Md. June 9. !

MY DEAR SIR :-One OF your cores |
pondents informs me that you wish me
to say to you what [ think of the Pre-
sident's letter of last Saturday, the
Doth ult., known as the I" the third
term letter" This proceed to do
There are several matters contained in
the letter that have no direct and
very slight indirect bearing upon the
Question What sacrifices, if any, the
Pr, sidelt may have made in accepting
his first nomination or his second have |
to do with his election for
third term. And whatever abuse he
may have been subjected to during the
time that he has held the Presidency
is equally irrelevant. Although it is
no doubt true that his conduct has
been subjected in some instances to
harsh and unjust criticism, yet, as he
admits in the light of subsequent
events" his conduct on some occasions
"was subject to fair criticism" he has
not always been unjustiy dealt with
What those occasions were he onlits to
say. Were they in his recommended
ton for the passage of the Force
bilP' and the suspension of the habeas |
corpus, his approval Of the conduct of |
the military at New Orleans in expell- |
ing a portion of the Legislature of that |
State, and in the yet more fragrant |
wrong, if one more fragrant could be com |
mitted, in the recommendation made |
to Congress in his Message relative to |
Arkansas, a recommendation in princi- |
pie absolutely destructive of the right |
OF the people of every State to change
their constitution? But these wrongs
are not pertinent at all to the general
question of the election of a President
for third term, except as they bear
upon his fitness for that Off sc.
What the President says is this, that
there is nothing IN the constitution to
prohibit it, and that it Can only come
before the people by proposition to
amend the constitution. The prece-
dents, no matter how long esta bllsla, d,
and no matter what may have been
the character of the men by whom
they were established, as patriots ard
as statesmen of unsurpassed ability,
and no matter how universal has bee,
their sanction by the people, these
precedents should, i'll the Presidents
view, have no Influence upon the prn-
pie now or hereafter or upon the de
termination OF him who may have oc-
cupied the Office for two terms For
he tells us that lit may happen in the
future history of the country (and this
may be the Case during the balance of
the present term) that to change an
executive because he has been eight
years in office will prove unfortunate,
| If not disastrous. It is certainly true
that the people are at liberty to elect
to a third term; but until the time of
President Grant not only did no one
of his predecessors, who had held the
Office for two terms, give the most dis
! tant hint that he wished or would &C
| ccpt the office again, but, as far as l
am advised, no individual citizen or
journalist ever proposed or suggest
ed it.
That constitutional prohibition
does not exist is no proof that the usage
of prohibition is not and should not be
| considered as conclusive. 1t is idle to
long and uninterrupted usage Can
safely be disregarded. The power OF
| the veto on the part of the Crown ex-
lists in England, but it has not been
exercised since 1892. And yet it is
| power which Mr.. Justice Blackstone
says sis a most important and, indeed,
| Indispensable part of the royal pre-
rogatlve." 1t may with truth lie said
that now. when It has been so long
disused, that its exercise by the Gro !, n
would produce fearful ferment III
the kingdom. Such, in that law abid-
| ing country, is the conclusive force
and effect of usage.
| The idea of the President that the
safety OF the country may demand the
| reelection of President for a third
| term, In my opinion, is an idle conceIt.
having no other support but the most
gorgeous vanity. Or this vanity he
himself seems to partake, since he
| says that he "would not accept a NOM
nation if it were rendered. unless it
| should come under such circumstan-
ces as to make it an imperative duty"
| Who is to Judge whether the duty to
| accept is an imperative one? 1t can
| only be the man himself. May he
not we'll conclude that a nomination
| by d convention is conclusive As to the
duty The safety OF the country he
may really think requires his contin-
uance in office, and that his own opin-
ion upon the point, if he has one, is
established by the action of the con
ventiOn, and by this process of reason
| ing he may be reelected for as many
terms az life is spared him. l think
1t may, with perfect justice, be said
! that If the convention which framed
| the constitution had known the enor-
! nous extent Of the official patronage
which in time would necessarily be
vested in the President, that they
would have limited the official term to
six or eight years and have rendered
| the incumbent ineligible.
| The question which is now agita-
ting the public mind is whether Presi-
~ IN l.
| term. Does his letter solve it? 1t
may do so practically, because I be-
! lieve that he will not be renominated,
| or if he is, that he will hardly receive
| the vote of a single State. The voice
of Pennsylvania, as spoken by her re-
cent convention, which has forced the
President to write this letter, is, judg-
| ing by all the signs of the times, con
| CURED in by an immense majority of
the Republican party in every State in
the Union. The President, indeed, SO
far as he is personally concerned, seems
to regard it as mere matter of dollars
| and cents; and 1t may perhaps be legit-
imately inferred that if the salary
which he now receives should be Sc
| cured to HIM as retiring pension he
would gladly leave the Office at the
end OF his present term and return to
that home "where the balance of his
days might be spent in peace and en-
joyment of domestic quiet" and with
out any apprehension chat the peace
and eafety of the country are not as
safe in the hands of his successor as
they had been in his ow., and this be-
lief have no doubt the public will
fully share.
Iremain, with regard, your obedient
servant. REvERDY JOHNSON.
Augusta Chronicle and Sentinel.
Anna Dickinson.
It seems that the newspapers of the