The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1875-06-04
General Grants Conduct Sub
ject to Correction.
THE UNWRITTEN LAW.
"Idle Conceit" Based Upon
"Egregious Vanity"
Give Him Retiring Pension
and q Haven OF Rest.
BALTIMORE, Ma, June2, 1875.

BALTIMORE, Ma, June2 1875.
To THE EDITOR OF THE HERALD:-
MY DEAR SIR-One OF your correspondents In
forms me that you wish me to say TO you what I
think OF the Presidents letter ofast Saturday, the
goth ult, known as "the third term letter. This
tanned in the letter that have no direct and very
slight indirect bearing upon the question. What
sacrifices, II any, the President may have made in
accepting his first nomination or his second have
nothing TO do with his election for third term.
And whatever abuse he may have been subjected
to during the time thar he has held the Presi-
dency 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 ain the light OF subsequent events"
his conduct on some occasions "was subject TO
fair criticism" he has not always been unjustly
dealt with What those occasions were he omits
TO say. Were they in his recommendation for the
passage OF the ''Force bil' and the suspension OF
the haoeas corpus, his approval OF the
conduct OF the military az New Orleans
in expelling q portion OF the Legislature OF that
State, and in the yet more Migrant wrong, II one
more fragrant could be committed, in the recon.
mendation made TO Congress IN his Message rela-
tive to Arkansas, a recommendation in principle
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 q Presidents
for third term, except as they bear upon his
fitness for that once.
What the President says is this, that there is
nothing in the constitution to. prohibit It, and
that 1t can only come before the people by a pro-
position to amend the constitution. The prece-
dents, no matter how long established, and no
matter what may have been the character OF the
men by whom they were established, as patriots
and as statesmen OF unsurpassed ability, and no
matter now universal mas been their sanction
by the people, these precedents should, In
the Presidents view, have no influence
upon the people now or hereafter or upon
the determination or him who may have occupied
the once for two terms. Fer he tells us that 'ft
may happen In the future history or the country
his present term) that to change an Executive
because he mas been eight years IN once viii
prove unfortunate, n not DISASTROUS IL is GER
tainly tnat the people arc at liberty to elect
10 third term: but until the time OF President
Grant not only did no one OF his predecessors,
VINO had held the once for two terms. give
the most distant hint that he wished or
would accept the once again, but, as far as am
advised, no individual citizen or Journalist ever
proposed or suggested 1t.
That a constitutional prohibition does not exist
is no proof that the usage ofprohibiton is not and
should not be considered as conclusive 1t is Idle
say that in government ike ours long and unin-
terrupted usage can safely be disregarded The
power OF the veto on the part OF the Crown exists
in England. but 1t has not been exercised since
1892 And yet II Is power which Mr..
Justice Blackstone says sis a most important
and, indeed, indispensable part OF the royal pre-
rogatlve." IL may with truth De said that now,
when It has been so long disused. that its exer-
else BY the crown would produce a fearful fer
ment in the kingdom. Such, in that law-abidlng
usage.
The idea or the President that the safety OF the
country may demand the reelection OF Presl-
dent for q third term. in my opinion, is an idle
conceit. having no other support out the most
egreglous vanity. or this vanity he himself seems
to partake, since he says that he "would
not accept a nomination II 1t were rendered, I'M
less 1t should como under such circumstances as
to make 1t an imperative duty.n Who is to Judge
whether tue duty to accept is an imperative onei
1t can only be the man himself. May no not well
conclude that nomination by q convention is
conclusive as 10 the duty The safety OF the
country he may really think requires his continu-
ance in ONCE and that his own opinion upon the
point II he has one, is established BY TIE action OF
the convention, and By this process or reasoning
ne may be reelected for as many terms as life is
spared him. think It may, with perfect justice,
be said that n the Convention which framed the
constitution had anticipated the enormous extent
or the ofiicial patronage which in time would
necessarily be vested in the President, thai they
would have limited the ofncaI term to SIX or eight
years and have rendered the incumbent in.
eligible.
The question which is now agitatng the public
mind is whether President Grant shall be
elected TO a third term. Does his letter
solve itP 1t may do so practically, because
believe that he win not be renominated or II ne
is that he will hardly receive the vote OF single
State. the voice OF Pennsylvania, as spoken BY
her recent Convention, which has forced the
President to write this letter, is, judging BY ali
the signs or the times, concurred in by an i'm
mcnse majority or the republican party in every
state in the Union. The President, indeed, so far
as he is personally concerned, seems to re-
and cents; and IL may perhaps be leriti-