The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1876-03-27
centennial candidates FOR inc rres.-
dency.


Having submitted to our readers o list
of thirteen republican centennial can
didates, corresponding in number with
the original States of the Union. we proceed
to lay before them similar list of democratic
centennial candidates, in pursuance of the
strict impartiality which the HERALD is wont
to maintain toward political parties. The
average responsibility Of the democratic list
is quite equal to that of the republican set.
We leave the public to judge whether we
intend these lists as an encomium or satire.
In one view nothing could be more credita-
BILE to the country than the great affiuence of
political capacity implied in the fact that
thirteen statesmen can easily be found in
each of our great parties who do not fall
below the average standard of our Presidents
for the last forty years But in another view
the abundance might be taken as proof that
the standard is low when so many
men in both parties seem equally capable
of meeting it. What favored nation 1T
must be which can supply, on short notice,
a catalogue of twenty-six statesmen of the
first class Germany has but one Bismarck,
France but one Thiers Italy had but
one Cavour, whose vacant place has not yet
been filled Russia has but one Gortscha-
koff, England has one Gladstone and one
Disraeli but the United States are so rich
in political ability that thirteen statesmen can
be found in each of our great political parties
any one of whom is about as well qualified
as any other to stand at the helm OF the
government and guide it's course The null
titude of our public men who are up to the
ordinary average of Presidential qualifica-
tions might seem to indicate that the
American standard is low and that our
craftsmanship is mere handicraft. Hume
said, in one of his Incompatible essays,
that there were hundred cabinetmakers in
London who could make a piece of
furniture with equal finish, while
make verses with the same elegance as Mr..
Pope. The point of this illustration was
that multitudes could do equally we'll such
things as require mere skill, while genius
rises above competition. A statesman like
Pericles or like Richelieu, or like the elder
Pitt, is as safe against contemporary rivals
as was Homer or Dante in poetry, or Freder-
lex or Napoleon in war. If the same age or
country has dozen equally great generals
or poets, or orators, or statesmen, it is q con-
elusive proof that it has no general, poet,
orator or statesman who is really great. The
fact that we are able to present list of
thirteen republican candidates for the Presi-
or irfa
cratic candidates, any one of whom would
fill the Office about as well as any other, is q
signal ILLUSTRATION of the mediocrity of our
public men.
If the HERALD had no other argument to
offer for its proposed amendment of the
federal constitution relating to the Execu-
tive than the fact that our present
system puts third rate men at the
head of the government, that argument alone
ought to be conclusive. 1t is the shame and
scandal of our institutions that the tools are
not given to those who have skill to handle
them. The time is long past when our
ablest statesmen reached the Presidency.
In 1910 and 1S4S the wing party had Clay
and Webster, and it elected in the former
year Harrison and in the latter Taylor. In
1852 the democratic party elected Pierce, al
though it had Benton, Cass and Marcy in
the full vigor of their faculties. In 1874 it
elected Polk. In 1860 the republican party
set aside Seward its ablest statesman, and
elected an Illinois politician from whom lit
tie could have been expected, but who, in
deed, turned out very we'll The same party
elected General Grant in 1868, a man utterly
destitute of civil experience, although sew
eral of its old leaders were still living The
honors which our political parties have be-
slowed on mediocrity for the last forty years
have SO lowered the standard of Presi-
Dental qualifications that it would be
easy to find not merely thirteen but
thirty men in each party who would
not fall much below the ordinary level of
dull and barren mediocrity which it is the
custom of the country to put at the head of
the government Could there be a greater
satire on the working of that part of our
constitution which relates to the Presidency?
wise system would put our ablest states
men at the head of affairs; and, besides the
other conclusive arguments for a change, the
fact that we habitually catch up some politi-
cal nobody and make him President proves
that there is a fundamental defect in our
institutions When every one of the list of
thirteen republican candidates which we
printed last week has q better chance for the
| Presidency than Charles Francis Adams,
there must be some bad flaw in our political
svstem A list of thirteen possible tory suc-
cessors to Mr.. Disraeli, or thirteen liberals
with q chance of taking the place formerly
held by Mr.. Gladstone would be
absurd and ridiculous, because the
English practice of putting only first rate
men in the highest position restricts
| Al e !. =.