The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1880-02-26
THE THIRD TERM.

The opposition to General Grant in
republican circles is really not from good
motives. They see nothing in tradition
which should be held sacred as the con-
stitution with which it is co-eval. In
Great Britain the will of the people thus
Enthusiastically expressed in the practice
of century, would have crystallized in
to part of the constitution not to be
amended until warranted by some grave
emergency. But in the United States
the hunger for official position is SO
strong that the general welfare and pub
lie policy would be willingly set aside
that these official harpies may be fed.
The men who want Grant are those who
profted by his patronage, and those who
violated law and defed justice. The
''strong" government which is the great
desideratum, is one having that strength
which will make the servants of the law
stronger than the law. The whiskey
thieves, the carpet baggers, the Indian
ring managers and corrupt ofieeholders
see the opportunities for plumber return
with the administration of Grant and
they love ''them good old days, as
fondly as the freebooter does the
periods of social disturbance when he
piled his vocation without fear of the
consequences.
But the opposition to Grant from his
own party does not come from respect
to the time honored custom which re-
NAMED inviolate to the present. 1t does
not come from fear of the repetition OF
a corrupt administration of affairs. 1t
has its origin in the interest taken by
pariisans of other presidential aspl-
rants. Blaine with his railroad record
and sectional preiudices is hardly an
Improvement on Grant. He has shown
no great interest in pure administra-
ton. He is a partisan rather than a
statesman. The evils of Grants admin
istration would be magnified in his.
Tavoritism would flourish carpet baggers
would be reinstated, and the civil service
would be an immense party machine.
Friends of the administration when de-
tected in stealing might not enjoy the
same immunity from the penal laws
But Blaines administration would not
be an improvement on Grants before he
was ''broadened" by foreign travel.
Sherman is hardly an improvement on
Blaine. His hands are stained with par
ticipation in Louisiana corruption. He
is an inheritor of the infamy Of the re-
turning board. Not like Edmunds in
sustaining the board in its proceedings,
but in actively aiding the fraud which
was countenanced by the electoral COM
mission, the highest judicial tribunal ever
elected in the Uuited States.
1t is because such men as these seek
the presidency that republicans, parts
ans of these men, are opposed to the
third term. Conkling is third term man
because he was q trusted lieutenant of
Grants administration. Cameron loves
the president who gave him place in
his cabinet to which his abilities would
never have called him. While it was
believed that Grants mere wish for a
third term would secure him the nomin-
alton by reclamation. third term had
no terror for those men who now see in it
'horrorupon horrors head" WhenGrant
descended from the lofty plane to which
he was raised by subservient party, to
enter into a scramble for the nomination,
and 1t was found that the people were
not so unanimous as it was believed,
the third term began to assume features
which startled conscientious republicans.
How near to peoples interests lies that
peoples conscience!