New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1879-06-21
TIE PRESIDENTS ATTITUDE.

"Bulld0zed again. the Democrats will say,
on learning that President Hayes has ready
another veto message. For weeks Democratic
speakers and papers have habitually disre-
garded common sense as well as common
deceDcy in speaking of the resistance of the
President to their revolutionary schemes.
The reason is that they have not dared to
admit that an Executive, who has been so far
concliatory toward the South that many of
his own party were incensed, has been led by
his own Judgment and sense of duty to defeat
Democratic plans The President has been
disposed to cOncihate, it Is true, just as
far as his duty permitted But the
Democrats have yet to learn that there are
no more resoute opponents of their coercive
and multiplying policy than the men who were
anxious to test the effect of cOnciliatory
measures at the South; and that the
attempt to strip the United States of
all power to suppress mob violence, or
rifle-clubs, or fraud and tissue-b allotting
at the polls, has nowhere more determined
opponents than among those who held that
the Government had not the right to uphold
State Governments in disputed Southern
States by means of Federal garrisOns. The
same fidelity to duty which led President
Hayes to withdraw troops from Southern
States against the protest of nearly all the
leaders Of his party, now impels him to resist
TO the uttermOst the Democratic attempt to
nullify laws of the United States, although all
the venom and vindictiyenesS Of Democrats
are empted upon HIM.
For weeks Democratic speakers have in
dulged in the assertion that the President was
" constrained" or cOerced" or bulldozed :"
into accord with his party; that speeches were
being made in Congress to " force" him into
line; that he was often visited by
earnest men of the party to impart posi-
tiveness to his opinions. 1t is not enough
to say that these representations have
been known to be ridcuously false by those
who knew anything about the situation at
Washington. The truth is that the Democrats
themselves know that such representations are
in the last degree mendacious. They know that
the President has never concealed from them
bis stern sense of duty, with respect to the
attempts made to cOerce the Executive and to
nullify laws of the United States. No man III
Washington has been more clear in his con-
vcti0ns on this subject, or more frank and
consistent in stating them, than the Presl-
dent himself; and if it were possible
to say with truth that anybody had
been led TO change position by "presslue,"
IT would be more nearly true that some Re
publican leaders had been "bulldozed' by
the President than that he had been so in
fuenced by anybody. His attitude has been
one of quiet, hopeful, patient, but unwaver-
ing fidelity to convictions which all Demo
cratic sophistry has failed to becoud, and
which no fear of consequences has shaken.
The Democrats may well quit asserting
that the President is a mere tool of his party.
The plain people know better. They saw this
same President resist the expOstulatiOns,
the entreates. the arguments, and the
threats of members of his own party
for two long years until it was not
uncommonly said that there were leading Re-
publicans who had no other hope or aim but
to drive the President into the Democratic
camp. And the same plain people have seen
him resisting with splendid firm
ness of will and GOODNESS Of Judgment,
every attempt Of the Democrats TO
cripple the Government of the United
States, either by trick or by coercion. 1t
only makes Democratic leaders and journals
appear the more ridiculous in the eyes Of plain,
practical and intelligent citizens, when they