, 1876-01-15
PRESIDENT GRANTS MESSAGE,
(From the Spectator.J

It is obvious that General Grant has not vet
given up the idea Of a Third Term, and we
suspect that his new Message will do a good
deal to render that proposal, if not agreeable
to the people of the United States, at least
one the Misunderstanding Of which they will re-
greet. 1t is not easy for Englishmen to enter
into the deep-rOoted prejudice regarding a
third term. We are said, indeed, to BIS a
people of very persistent habits, and easily
outraged by needless innovations, and the Poet.
Laureate has described English freedom as
e." broadening slowly down from precedent to
precedent" Still, we suspect that we should
not be so much influenced by a mere negative
precedent,-by the accidental absence Of any
precedent for renewing the Administration Of
the same Minister after a given number Of
terms,-as the American people are; and
though we do not feel any special admira-
ton for he Administration of President Grant,
who has proved himself even less enterpriSing
as q statesman than we had anticipated, we
should not be sorry if the Message which has
lust been delivered to Congress were 10 take
Ruoh q hold Of the country as to break down
this particular superstition, Nothing can be
idler than the suggestion that if once a third
term be permitted, q Presidency for lta might
he the result, unless, indeed, all that is meant
il that If once a third term be permitted other
renewals might follow in the case Of a p3%rlicu-
lar President whom the people trusted, gill his
Administrator happened 10 be ended by death
or old age. OF course, tAat might be SO, and
why U0t7 The use Of the renewal at stated
intervals Is not to interrupt an Administration
with which the people are satisfied, but to give
them sufficient opportunities of terminating one
with which they arc not satisfied. For our
own parts, if our opinion were of any moment,
we should certainly wish for an abier states
man and q koener antagonist Of administrative
jobs than General Grant but as it is by no
means easy to find any man sufficiently known
and trusted by the people Of the United States
TO promise a change for the better, We should
not be sorry TO see an end of that rather silly
selfdenying ordinance which appears t. debar
the people of the United States from pleasing
themselves for twelve years in succession,
though they have no objection to pleasing
themselves for eight.
The passage in the Message which is proba-
bly, intended to win popularity, and certainly
we'll adapted to do 50, is President Grants
recommendation to Congress to consider the
@8dvisability of adopting q constitutional amend
ment establishing oil oyer the country free
schools, irrespective Of race, colour, nationality,
or religion, forbidding the teaching therein
Of religious, a~theistio, or pagan %tenets, a9d pro-
hi6ltlng taxation tor sectarlan purposes. Inc
effect of this amendment would be, of course,
to tax very heavily throughout the United
States all those who hold religious education
to be Of the essence of proper schooling, since
they would not be able to avail themselves
for their children Of the free schools for which
they were taxed, and would he obliged to tax
themselves still more heavily besides, in order
10 supply the kind of schools which they pre-
ferred. And it is precisely this incidental
consequence of the suggested amendment which
will render it very popular just now in the
United States. The alarm about Romanism,
which has almost exhausted itself on this side
OF the water, is just beginning on the other,
and a proposal which in som States would
put Romanism at a great disadvantage, and do
q good deal, in the case of the poor Irish, to
force the children into secular schools, would
exotic real interest and perhaps even enthusi-
asm throughout the Union. But we do not
suppose, on that account, that it is at all GER
tain to be carried. An American President
often proposes changes which the people like
to have proposed, and like him the better for
proposing. and which yet are discussed for
years without being matured, and are not I'M
frequently put aside in the end. It has been
50 az yet in relation to Civil.Seryioe Reform,
aud twill, we fancy, probably be so in this
case. There are three considerable reasons