Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-06-10
DANGERS ESCAPED.

view of them is both justitiable and IN
structive. The opposition to his nomina-
ton was of various kinds. Some believed
that the third-tcrm objection was the
strongest that could be made against it.
Others based their opposition upon the
many evidences of his unfitnesssfor civil
administration afforded by his two terms
of Office. Yet Others were principally
alarmed at the methods employed to fierce
his candidature upon the party. In truth
all these grounds of condemnation should
have been united, for they all contributed
10 render the nomination an Objectionable
one. But for the breakdown of the unit
rule programme, however, it is now appa-
rent that Grant would have obtained the
nomination. Had he succeeded, his cleo
ton or his defeat must have equally in
volved disastrous consequences to the
country. His defeat would have neces-
sarily been the result of a reaction against
machine methods, destructive to the Re-
publican organization. 1t would have
been produced by practical dissolution
OF that party. The Democrats would
then have come into absolute con-
troll of the Government, and con-
trolled as they are by the South,
the worst legislation must have followed.
1t is, however, doubtful whether this out
come would have been more calamitous
for the country than the success of Grant.
For his election would have involved ac-
quiescence by the majority in practically
permanent tenure of Office by the executive,
and such an acquiescence would have been
wide step forward in the direction OF
change of Government, not solely because
of the third-term principle, but because OF
the general conditions. 1t would have in
volved the acceptance by the American
people of that unrepublican method of
politics which has been employed so au-
daciously in the Grant canvass system
which embraces the theory of State con-
ofiice-holders into a partisan machinery,
which ignores public opinion, and which
undertakes to wrest every vestige of polit-
zeal influence from the hands of the people,
In contradistinction to ordinary political
methods, the position of the Grant man
ayers may be called military politics, and
whoever examines the system carefully
will see that the Grant campaign has at
bottom been far more military than politi-
| cal in character General Grant has acted
the part of Communicating Chief, and has |
delegated the execution of his plans to his
Lieutenants, each of whom undertook to |
capture an important State, and the weight |
of the Grant column was to be derived |
from the Southern delegates, which, very
conveniently for such a purpose, were
troubled with no constituencies to find |
fault with their course. 1t is not the mill
tary way to respect the opinion of the
masses. Generals learn to rely only upon
themselves, and to require only that
their orders are obeyed. General Grant
and his Lieutenants acted throughout on
this principle. They believed themselves
strong enough to afford to despise the
sentiments of the party, and though
they had ample proof that their pro-
gramme was distasteful, they were none
the less determined to carry it out.
Had they succeeded, and had election
followed nomination, il is evident that a
very great change would have been estab-
Iished in American politics. The Boss
system would Have been legitimized,
and the example set by Grants sue
cess would have been followed and i'm
proved upon in every State of the Union.
1t wonld have been triumph for machine
politics so overwhelming that all hope Of
reform would have been distinguished. |
The people, rendered familiar with the
new methods, would soon have ceased to
regard them with hostility. The centrali-
cation OF power would have proceeded
more rapidly than ever. The masses
would no longer have possessed any real
control over the Government, and the in
terests of the group of Bosses would have
inevitably led them to combine for the !
maintenance and perpetuation OF the regime
which made them so influential. 1t is
not a mere figure of speech to say
therefore that If Grant had been made |
President third time he might have been
the last American President. 1t is quite
apparent that he might have been the last
President to hold Office for four years only,
for the extension of the term to a lifc-tenure
would then have been the logical sequence |
Of the general situation. Nor does it fol-
low that safety from Cesarisn is involved
in abstinaace from nominal changes of |
the form OF government. Julius Cesar
had long absorbed supreme power when he
enthusiastically refused the proffered crown
The destruction of the liberties OF q people |
is seldom accomplished suddenly. Their |
patriotism is sapped, their vigilance is
luued to sleep by specious sophistries oe-
fore the fnal Transformation is effected,
AID they may have been fondly dreaming
that they were never more free, even while |
their letters are forging. The defeat of all
that gees under the generic name of
Grantism IS therefore an event for which
every lover of his country ought to be pro-
foandly thankful 1t is the defeat OF the
most insidious, bold, and dangerous con-
sp;racy that has ever been Matched against
the republic. 1t affords the first hope of
reform in our political methods. 1t is
rebuke to the machine aud all it implies
and covers. 1t is by no means the failure
OF an ordinary contest for the Presidential
nomination, but the collapse of move
ment which could not have succeeded with
out producing changes fatal to the preser-
walton of free institutions, and certain in
! the end to check the growth and progress
of the nation, and expose it alike to the
horrors of intestine strife and the crushing
effects CT oligarchic despotism
/ TEE UNCERTAINTIES OF PRgsIDBN.
TIAL ASPIRATIONS