The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1875-08-13
Is the President a More FIgurehsad

OF course Mr.. Fernando Wood does not
intend 10 smooth the way for n third term,
but the views he expressed in the interview
we printed yesterday are calculated TO allay
alarm on that subject. If ii be true as
Mr.. Wood maintains, that the President of
the United States has no real power, and that
it is of little practical consequence who fills
the Office, the danger of perpotually rc-elect-
ing the same man is too chimorical to be
worth regarding. We are astonished that
gentleman of Mr.. Woods sagncty and expe-
riencc should commit himself TO so wild an
opinion. ''The truth is" he says, ''the
President has no power, and il is rs inmate
rial who may fill that office us it is who may
happen to be King or Queen of England.
''The President must in future bow to Con-
gress; not Congress TO the President. Hence
any respectable, wcll-bchaved gentleman
may fill the Presidential chair without harm
or benefit to the nation" If it be of so little
consequence who is President our free insti-
tutions could not be put in jeopardy by the
perpetual reelection of President Grant dur
ing his natural life, nor even by making the
Office hereditary
But Mr.. Woods paradox will not bear OK
animation. Why have we always mado the
Presidential election the main pivot of our
politics? II may have been mistaken esti-
mate of the power of the Office but the mis-
take has been shared by all our public men.
The constitution, as well MS public opinion,
makes the Presidency important The man
agcmcnt of our foreign relations is committed
to his discretion, and although The power
to declare war is vested in Congress the
President can mt any time put things in such
posture as to leave Congress no choice, as
happened at the beginning of the war with
Mexico. All our immense acquisitions of
territory have been the direct consequence of
Executive acts. When the country is in q
state of war the supreme command of tho
army makes the President o dospot if he
chooses to abuse his authority. 1t is true
that tho Senate holds a check on his appoint
ments, but it is n nero negative, and when
one nomination is rejected the President
sends in the name of some other personal
adherent, no better, perhaps, than the first.
Moreover. both houses of Congress gener-
ally belong to the same political party rs the
President and the members are subservient
to his wishes for the sake of strengthening
themselves at home by the local patronage.
Mr.. Wood refers to tho history of the last
twelve years to prove that the President has
no influence. Andrew Johnson, indeed, had
but little influence because two-thirds of
both houses were against him, which was an
exceptional condition of things But Presi-
dent Grant has not been destitute of influ-
encc. Through his exercise of the appointing
power he changed tho majority of the Su-
preme Court and procured the reversal of its
solemn decision on the legal tender question.
The President can thus change judicial in
corporations of the constitution and fix upon
it any meaning that suits him. BY his veto
of the initiation bill he gave new direction
to the financial policy of the government.
He was the sole author of the calamitous
Louisiana policy, to which Congress gave its
tact sanction Secretary Boutwells finan-
cial measures were really the Presidents, and
Congress gave them its steady support until
they resulted in the great explosion and
panic of 1873. The paying out in the midst
of that panic of the greater part of the forty
four millions of retired greenbacks was an
Executive act, unauthorized by law and
fraught with the gravest consequences, and
vet Congress never called him to account nor
expressed Interpretation. With these and
similar instances of the Presidents power
fresh in the public recollection it is amazing
that gentleman so intelligent as Mr.. Wood
can hazard the assertion that the Presidential
Office is of so little Importance that it is i'm
material who holds it. General Grant will,
no doubt, be duly grateful to him for so in
genious o method of proving that third
term or any number of terms would be per-
fectly harmless
The TANTMANY TROUBLES eliminated yes
II A. -. Al - r.