The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1880-03-05

prove DELAY which had for its object to
avoid a premature agitation of the public
mind on a subject so interesting as the cleo
tion of chief magistrate.
"That l should lay down my charge at a
proper period is as much duty as to have
borne it faithfully. If some termination to
the services of the chief magistrate be not
fixed by the constitution, or supplied by
practice, his.Offee, uominallyifor years, will
in fact become for life and history shows
how easily that GegenerateS into an inherit
ance. Believing that a representative gov
ernment responsible at short periods of cleo
tiOn is that which produces the greatest sum
of happiness to mankind, l feel it a duty TO
do no act which shall essentially impair that
principle and / should unwillngly be the
person who, disregarding the sound prece-
dent set by an ilustrious predecessor, should
furnish the first example of prolOngation be-
yond the second term of office.
Truth also requires me to add that / am
sensible of that decline which advancing
years bring on, and, feeling their physical, |
ought not to doubt their mental effect.
Happy if l am the first to perceive and to
obey this admonitiOn of nature, and to solicit
a retreat from cares too great for the wearied
facilities of age.
''For the appreciation which the Legisla-
ture of Vermont has been pleased to express
of the principles and measures pursued in
the management of their affairs, / am sin
cerely thankful and should be so fortu-
nate as to carry into retirem ent the equal
appreciation and good will of my fellow c!ti-
D
future days, and will close a service Of forty
years with the only reward 1t ever wished.
Similar expressions are scattered all thro'
/ his correspondence as long as he remained
I'm office and after he retired to Monticello
he continued to repeat them. His conviction
deepened as the years rolled on, that the
/ principle of two terms was the only safe one,
and he constantly expressed his gratitude for
/ the universal approval of his conduct in
adopting it.
Bot Madison also adopted the principle OF
/ his two predecessors, and retired at the end
! of his second term. Can nothing be urged
/ against the father of the constitution to de
I preciate his authority or make his example
worthless? ? Was not he also unpatriOtic and
selfshly fond of his farm? This could be as
easily said and is not harder to believe of
him than of Washington.
And there was Monroe, apparently go
clear in his great office" that rivalry itself
shrunk from his presence, and he was elected
a second time without effort, without oppo-
sition, without one vote against him, Is it
nothing to the purpose that he acknowledged
the value of the Washington precedent? ?
Concede that he, the most popular of all
presidents, except the first one, could not
have got a third term if he had asked for it,
then his retirement proves not only that the
two-term practice was right in his individual
opinion, but that the general judgment of
the nation was in its favor.
Gen Jackson does not get off easily. We
are told that "there is ground for believing
that if Mr. Van Buren, had not secured the
succession to Gen. jackson the latter would
have been retained for another term" This
is like the account We have of Jefferson 5
boom. If there was any practice Of Jack
sons great predecessor in which he acqui-
. esced with more Difference than another, it
was their voluntary retirement after proper
period of service. lie was wholly opposed
to the indefinite continuance of powerin the
same hand and he expressed his opinions OF
that as on other subjects, with an emphasis
l which left no chance for misapprehension
The ground for believing that "in certain
contingency he would have beeL retained
another term Is not anything he ever did OF
/ forebore to -dO-nOthing that he ever wrote
l OF spoke-nothing that was ever authorized
by him or by the party which supported him
or by the representative of either.
Such is the outcome Of Mr.. Howe's assault
upon the line OF our great retiring presidents,
from Washington to Jackson inclusive. L
! must be admitted that, if the predetermined
L object of the attack was to make himself ri
. diculous, it is marked success but if i
was an effort in real earnest to diminish thei
fame, lower their standing or shake the con
+. fidence of the country in their virtue, thel
= it is the flattest failure in his essay-and tina
= is saying a great deal.
: 1 think it may be affirmed with some conf
: dence that Washington was not unworthy o
the profound veneration in which he is he'll
Z, in this country and throughout the world
!, that succeeding presidents, when they fo
= lowed his footsteps, not only acknowledge
:, his wisdom and patriotism, but showed thei
= own that the American people of our day
when they refused n third term to a cand
- date who had already served for two, wei
:. not behaving like towards scared by a senst
less clamor, but doing what prudent r
card for their true interests required tn;
- when the House of Representatives, in oh
; dience to the universal sentiments of its col
- stituen.s, unanimously and without distin
ton of party, put upon its records and pu
lished to the world its solemn declaratiC
-is that the example of Washington must
ct adhered to in the future as in the past, the
70 did not enact charlatanism OF repeat roc
y Grafton, or issue a strange illumination or IL
,e peach the constitution, or libel its trainers,
at counterfeit history, or insult common sens
h but spoke what they at least believed to
no the words of truth and soberness.
-e- We are not to set up political dogmas
o. invoke blind faith even in the founders
ra the republic. The mere authority of name
TO- however great, ought not to command
in assent But fundamental doctrine, Sc
ig. evidently true, though easy to defend, is t
Cd hardest of all things TO support by athrmatl
ir argument We cannot help but sympathi
nd with the Indignation of Pitt when he thu
,os dered cut his refusal to look at books or
"a ten to logic in defence of English liberty.
- In the matter before Us, it should be pla
a. to every reasonable creature in esse" ii
long continuance of supreme executive pO
I,ie er in one hand is not only perjlous to fl
lid institutions, but perfectly certain to destr
60 them Some fixed time there ought to
"a when the people will not only have the rig
,ir but exercise it, to displace their chief mag
h, trate and take another. If they do not p
-, sess this right they are political bonds
lot wants, by law; if, holding it, they fOrego
- use of it, they make themselves quoad
voluntary slaves, and they soon come to
governed in all things by the will of I'll