The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1880-02-27
Judge Black on the Third Term.

Senator Howes argument in favor of the
third term, previously published in the same
magazine. The following resolution, offered
by Mr.. Springer of Illinois, passed the House
of Representatives on the 18th of December,
1875:
Resolved, That in the opinion of this House the
precedent established by Washington and other
Presidents Of the United States in retiring from
the presidential Office after their second term, has
become by universal consent a part of ourrepub-
iican system of government and that any depart
IRE from this time-honored custom would be uu-
wise, unpatriotic and fraught with peril to our
free institutions.
This resolution, Judge Black declares, re-
Ceved the support and appreciation of all
parties. Mr.. Howe has no doubt it was the
sole cause of Grants defeat in 1876. He is
equally certain that it was all wrong, and his
present intent is TO rally the routed third
termers by the assurance that the jobs and
offices are safe after all.
After reviewing in detail Mr.. Howes
charges against the Springer resolution, Judge
Black points ont that the burden of Mr..
Howe's argument is that, rs the Constitution
does not forbid reelection, reelection should
in practice go on without limit. Mr.. Howe
also sets up the plea that re-eligibility was
very much favored by the authors of the con
stitution. The.reyerse of this, however, is
shown by Judge Black to be true for the
preponderance of opinion in the Constitu-
tional Convention was in favor of limiting
the eligibility of a President to one term, and
the present plan of choosing the President by
electors, with re-eligiblity, was only agreed
to on the last day but one of the final adjourn
ment
Mr. Howe asserts that Washington refused
third term not because he was opposed to
it, hut because he preferred quiet country
life. Judge Black defends the character of
Washington from the imputation cast by Mr.
Howe and says that raging third-termer has
as good q right to sneer at the Father of his
Country as an independent Hottentot has to
beat his mother.
Judge Black quotes II letter from Thomas
Jefferson to the Legislature of Vermont, in
which the great statesman says:
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..office nomnally for years, will in
fact become for life, and history shows how
easily that degenerates into an inheritance
Believing thatareprcsentative government re-
sponsible at short periods of election is that
which produces the greatest sum ofhappiness
to mankind, feel ii duty to do no act which
shall essentially impair that principle, and
should unwillingly be the person who, disrc-
garding the sound precedent set by an illus
trious predecessor, should furnish the first
example of prolongation beyond the second
term of Office
Madison also adopted the principle of his
two predecessors and retired at the end of
his second term Monroe, also, who was
elected a second time without opposition, ac-
knowledged the value of the Washington
precedent
After successfully rcfuting Mr. Howes ar
guments that the ex-Presidents did not desire
third term because they could not get III
which proves, as Judge Black says, that the
general judgment of the nation was against
it, he points out with clearncss and precision
the evils which would follow violation OF
the precedent forbidding the election of any
man to the Presidency for third time, and
insists that the only safeguard against those
evils is the frequent election of new men. He
says
In the republics of ancient and modern
times the Chief Magistrate was intrusted with
only temporary power and always went out
of office at the end of n short period, fixed
and prescribed by law or custom 1t was this,
indeed, which made the substantial distinc-
ton between them and the monarches
around them An unpVnished transgI ession
of the customary limitation was uniformly
followed by destruction. Everywhere and
always it was the fatal symptom of decay
the sure forerunner of ruin. When Caesar
refused TO lay down his consulslp, as his
predecessors had done at the end of wear,
and was reelected time after time with the
acquiescence of the Senate and the people. all
that was real in Roman freedom ceased to
exist. Two republics in France were brought
10 IN end in the same way. Napoleon began
by being consul for term, then was elected
for life and finally became Emperor with the
powers of an absolute despot. The last Bo-
napartc was President for four years, was re-
elected for ten, and ended, like his uncle, in
grnspng the imperial crown. MAY this be
washed in the Lethe and forgotten" Shall
these lessons be lost? Shall the lamp which
guided our forcfathcrs be eXtinguishcd? Shall
the broad daylight of all human experience
be closed up in little dark lantern manuf;c-
tured at Milwaukee? | think this cannot be
done; " the eternal vcritics" are against it.
The most powerful thrd-termcr may as well
try to blow oul the sun, as he would tallow
candle, with the breath of his mouth.
A third term for Grant does not mean a
third term only, but any number of terms
that he chooses to demand The imperial
method of carrying all elections by corrup-
ton or force, or of declaring them to be car
rled when they are not is to he permanently
substituted for the system of free popular
choice The figure of Grant standing with
the seal of primary on the mountain top and
looking down on the inhabitants of the plain
below, gives measure of the elevation
which his sycophants flatter him with the
hope of attaining. They urge the necessity
OF Il strong government almost in the VERY
words used by the adherents of Caesar and the
two Napoleons. Strong government, in their
sense, means weak laws and a strong ruler :;
in other words, substantial monarchy, DOW
erful in its scorn of ali legal restraints A
free Democratic Republican system of Govern-
ment honestly administered by agents of 1he
peoples true choice; n government such as
ours was intended to be- with the powers of
the Federal Government, the rights of the
State and the liberties of the people so har-
monious!y adjusted that each may check the
excuses of the other-such q government.
scrupulousiy administered within its constitu.
tional limits, is without doubt, the choicest
blessing that God, in His loving kindness, ever
voulisafed to any people. On the other hand
it is quite as sure that the false administration
ola government theoretically free which ac-
knowledges the rights of the people and vet
continually treads them under foot which
swears to save and perjurious'y works to de.
stroy; which receives and promises to execute
Almost sacred trust, according to terms prescrib-
cd with unmistakable ciearness and then dis
honestly breaks the engagcment-such n Gov.