The New York herald., 1877-03-16
SIX Years and On. Term.


1t is needless to say that our strong in
dorsement of that part of the late inaugural
address which recommends the extension
Of the Presidential term to six years, with
ineligibility afterward, is not a mark OF per-
sonal or political respect for President
Hayes. We do not adopt his views. He
has adopted ours We will not dissemble
our satisfaction with an Endorsement in SO
high quarter, but the ground of our salts
faction is the hope the new President
gives us that this important change may
be accomplished with his aid An array OF
great statesmen more renowned than Presi-
dent Hayes is AS yet. and of eminent PHI
losophical writers on our institutions whom
he may have studied but can never expect
to rival, long ago anticipated him In the
view he expresses. But their opinion. cor
rect as it was, strongly supported as it was
by sound reasons and solid argument, was
like seed sown by the wayside or on stony
ground. We believe that the soil is
at length prepared, that the seed which
the HERALD has been industriously SOW
ing for the last three years has fallen
upon good ground, that it will germinate,
take root and produce harvest. President
Jackson nearly forty years ago made, in his
first annual message. q recommendation
substantially identical with that of Presi-
dent Hayes; but tho sleepy journalism OF
that day had not ploughed and mellowed
the public mind for it's reception, as the
HERALD and its tardy allies have done Of
late. There has never been so hopeful
prospect of engratting this great reform in
the constitution as exists at present, when
recent events and discussions have pro-
duced strong conviction in the popular
mind Of a necessity for overhauling and re-
modelling the second article Of the consti-
tuition, which regulates the choice and
tenure Of the federal Executive.
It will not do in this connection to cry up
the wisdom of our early statesmen who
framed the constitution. Great and wise
men they undoubtedly were; and the con-
stitution, as a whole, is the most remarkable
monument of political wisdom in history.
But it's second article-the article relating
to the Presidency-is as weak as the other
parts of the document are admirable 1t
broke down within thirteen years after the
government was organized, when we barely
escaped civil war by it's defective ma
chinery for electing the President. The
alarming contest between jefferson and
which precluded another dangerous contro-
versy in the same form; but the radical vices
of the system were lett untouched. The
amendment then adopted merely guarded
against the recurrence Of q controversy
between candidate voted for as President
and one intended to be voted for as Vice
President. AS the constitution originally
stood there was no separate vote for Vice
President. The candidate receiving the
highest. number of votes, if the highest num-
Der was majority, was elected President,
and the candidate having the next highest
number Vice President. The amendment
which followed the portentous agitation in
the winter of 1901 merely provided that the
President and Vice President should be
voted for separately in the Electoral Colleges
The other parts of thoroughly defective
system were left to bear their evil but their
inexperienced fruits in the future. 1t has
been left to our own time and the recent
Presidential election to bring out in full
relief one of the many defects of this section
of the constitution. An amendment of the
constitution will follow the recent danger
as an amendment followed the great crisis of
1901 but we trust it will not be SO short
sighted and so limited in its scope. The
whole second article of the constitution is a
congeries of blunders, and the time has at
last fully come for replacing it with some
thing more rational. The absurd and
ridiculous machinery of Presidential cleo
tors must be got rid of; the people must be
permitted to vote directly for the candi-
dates of their choice; safe method must
be established for settling disputed
questions; the tenure of the President
must be limited to one term; his
power to dismiss and appoint officers
for merely party reasons must be abolished;
the civil service of the government, like the
military and naval service, must be organ
lied on q basis of permanence for meritori-
GUS officers SO long as the Offices they hold
are not abolished as unnecessary. The
second article of the constitution is demon
strated by experience to be an egregious
failure, and the time is now fully ripe for
repairing and reconstructing it from stem to
stern.
There was never more senseless appeal
to popular prejudice and stupidity than
| the habitual one about the wisdom of our
ancestors. AS if any human wisdom were
so perfect as to be exempt from the posi-
bility of mistakes. AS if the truly great
statesmen who framed the constitution
would have been no wiser had they lived to
our day, after ninety years of addi-
tional experience, than they were when