Eureka daily sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1871-1887, 1878-08-04
a DTeTINCTION WITHOUT A DIFF.
FERENCE.


Major Dennis, Of the Tin'es-Rerteu,
makes the first public apology for Govern
or Bradley and the third-termers. He sd-
mits the anti-third term attitude Of the
Democratic party with reference to the
Presidency, but contends that it does not
include State officers. We appreciate the
Major a. q man of too much candor and
honesty to believe him guilty Of lodging
behind . mere bubble. We therefore
conclude that he has written without due
reflection on this subject. He must know
and admit. on mature deliberation, that
the distinction which he seeks to establish
has never been drawn by a Democratic
convention anywhere. On the contrary,
the doctrine as hitherto enunciated and ac-
cepted, has always been broad and general,
absoiately without limitation or distinc-
ton in its application to either
the official head Of o State or
the Federal Government. This fol-
lows naturally from the theory Of
Che doctrine itself. The thing that the
Democratic party has sought to put down,
and the thing to which it stands unmistak-
ably pledged, is that the patronage at the
disposal Of an incumbent shall not be used
to promote the election of said incumbent
for a greater period than two terms; that is
to say, that the President Of the United
States and the Governors Of the several
States, constituting the only officers under
our Government who have official patron
sge to dispense, shall not be eligible for a
third term.
We are told that the patronage Of the
Governor of Nevada amounts to nothing.
True it mounts to but little, yet it
amounts to something, and that something
repels the idea that a cardinal principle of
party faith shall be openly violated and
overridden in the interest Of any individual
member Of the Democratic party. The ap-
pointing power Of the Governor of Nevada
Is precisely the same as it is in the great
States of the Union. In case of
vacancy from death, resignation or
other cause he may appoint United
States Senators, Judges and Commission
ers. The appointment of military officers,
Notaries Public, officers Of the Peniten-
tiary and other State institutions, belongs
to him by operation Of law. Bradley has
as much patronage at his disposal in this
State as Hayes has in this State. So do
ali the Governors in their respective States.
Take New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and
the rest of the large States, with their
multitude of Commissions, and is it not
to presume that the local patronage of
either Of these is largely in excess OF that
by the President within the same
territorial limits?
Why, Major Dennis well remembers in
the olden times when the "Chivs" ran
California that the State patronage-the
patronage Of the Governor-was consid-
cred equal to the Federal patronage there.
He must remember also how the patronage
Of that commonwealth, Federal and State,
used to be doled out and divided up
between the friends Of Gwin and Broderick
and Latham and the rest. In fact, and it
is q fact, the local patronage OF any State
in the Union is of quite as much impor-
lance in determining conte SITS as that Of
the Federal Government.
There has never been any halfway bust
ness on the part of the Democratic party
regarding this question. 1t has simply
stood against third terms generally as to
Executive officers, and we submit to Major
Dennis that it is too late now to draw dis
tinctions, or to offer amendments to past
platforms, in order that a weak old mar
may be foisted on the Democracy of Ne
vada for Governor for a third term.