National Republican., 1875-06-24
eEoReE WILKES AND MADAME RoLAEI

have earned throughout life, every act OF
which has been performed under the blaze of
the MONDAY sun, will not protect itself during
the delay Of few weeks, then we have lived
in ain."-Goorgs Wilkes ia the Spirit Of the
Times, jane ~.
Mr.. Wilkes has weakness for whatever
pertains to the drama, and though his
nose, at the present time, is buried in
Shakespeare, it will delight him to take
down his CongreVe, turn to the play of
Glove for Love, and to read, after taking
a good look at himself in the glass, this
elegant extract Ferdinand Mendez Pinto
" was but q type of thee, thou liar of the
" first magnitude" Stimulated by this
discovery, he will study up the character
and accomplishments of Pinto, and find
that to the graces of finished liar he added
those of the malicious slanderer; and be-
Yond all this Mr.. Wilkes will discover an
other type" of himself in the custom of
Pinto, after reckless exhibition of his ac-
complishments, to publish in the Spanish
Gentleman's Newspaper" double loaded
groan likethe one quoted above. Offensive
as liar, tainted as a slanderer, what right
has Mr.. Wilkes to appeal to American gen.
tlemen to suspend judgment, and to wait
/" few weeks for him to Yindicate himself
from charges affecting his moral charac-
Ter? John Selden, whose capacious brain
included, at one time, the greater
part of the polite learning of Eng
land, said: " Judgment falls upon a
man for something in him we cInnot
abide" so Judgment falls upon" Mr..
Wilkes, notwithstanding his piteOus pleas
for mercy, because he is an inventor of
lies and distributor OF SANDER concerning
public men; because he puts into the mouth
of the President declarations he never made
or thought of making, and because he de
nies to the Chief Magistrate the possession
of patriotism. 1t would be becoming in
Mr.. Wilkes while he is shedding tears in
public over his own misfOrtunes, and i'm
ploring the country to wait till he can vim
dicate himself, to keep decent tongue In
his head when referring to his betters
''The Two Principles, the elective and
reflective" is the title of Mr. Wilkes
leader in the Spirit of the same date as
that containing his wall for mercy, and
when reading the article we can no more
help admiring the audacity with which he
lies than We can help plying the supreme
ignorance shingling every sentence with
the dullness of lead:
HThe celebrated exclamation of Madame
Roland, 'Oh liberty, what crimes are COM
mitted in thy name p never had its moral more
keenly pointed than now, when we find a
President Of the Republic declaring that the
reflective principle is essential to the freedom
of the people"
Madame Roland again has the express
sion of our sympathy. Why can't the
poor old lady be permitted to sleep, at
least one day, in her grave, undisturbed?
Mr. Wilkes has an eye for dramatic sit
uations," and perhaps he thinks she is in
troduced into the foreground of his non
sense with telling effects" But what
does he mean by the ''re-elective princi-
ple?" Has it any meaning whatever be- .
yond the elective principle?" And is the
stupid ass trying to say ''it's crime in the
"name of liberty to re-elect q citizen to
the same Office he has once held?" If 1t
is, American voters must be well indurated
by this time in the commission of that
specific crime. No one denies or ever
thought of denying the right of the appli-
cation of the ."re-electiVe principle" to
every elective Office beneath the grade of
the presidential, and this application has
been made under the authority Of the Con-
and that sacred instrument sets
no limit upon the number of times citi-
zen may hold the office of President. All
it does say on this point is in these words:
He shall hold his Office during the term
"of four years. The "re-elective princi-
ple," after a service Of four years as Presi-
dent, has been applied to Washington, to
jefferson, Madison, Monroe, jackson, Lin
coin and Grant, and to the very first and
second of these patriots, third applies
tion of the elective principle. which is
only another way of saying a second ap-
plication of the 're-elective principle"
was strongly urged by our fathers in
those better days of the Republic, " and
Washington'a third election would have
been made unanimous had he not
sbTank from the abuse of the liars and Ca
lumniators of his time; and when Jefferson
was solicited by all the leaders Of Ifs party
to accept the nomination for the third
term-shrinking from it for the same rea-
son that Washington did-he wrote letter
declining the nomination. In it he re-
ferred to 'the sound precedent set by an
illustrious predecessor. This letter vas
written IN reply to the States of Massachu
sets, Vermont, Rhode Island, New York,
Pennsylvania, Maryland, New jersey and
North Carolina, whose Legislatures had
nominated jefferson for third term; and
it clearly proves that the wise and patriotic
men oftiat day attached no significance
whatever to the precedent set by Washing
ton, nor were any yells heard for Madame
Roland TVbap Iafrarooy, cnf11d hava nonu.