The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1881-08-18
THE PRESIDENTS OPPORTUNITY

|
recovery as to have no disposition left to
devote to the political significance of the
moment. Let us remind such iu-advised
friends that to man in such high posi-
ton as the President holds, political
death is as much to be dreaded as the ia
tality we hope he has escaped, and that,
if the Nation permits itself to be absorb
ed in grateful emotions, the results of
the great struggle against ''bossism" and
the spoils system, as we'll az those to be
reaped from the baptism of suffering
through which we have passed, step by
step, with the stricken President, will be
| lost.
There is freedom and grandeur in the
position of the President which is not too
| much to say that none of his recent
predecessors have enjoyed. We hope as
| he rises to strength and to the use Of his
powers, he may see it. Whatever may
| have been true before, he is now free;
! his hands are united: no man and no
party can claim him; and, except by his
own act, he cannot be put into shackles
again. If he becomes shack led again, it
will only be because he sguanders the
| opportunity not only of his lifetime, but
| of the people he governs.
The people are well acquainted with
their President. They know his opinions,
his principles and his impulses. They
believe in him as they know him, and
never so much as at this moment
| He will rise from his bed to receive
from them, North and South, East and
| West, and to great extent without dis
tinction Of party, degree of confiden ce
than which no President has enjoyed
since Washington-not even Lincoln
| while he lived.
He has triumphed in great struggle
against corrupt system, and the bullet
| of Guiteau has crippled for the moment
the popular sympathy with the system
| against which he struggled. The people
| are always ready to idolize their heroe
and they are doing this at this moment
| for the President. They have settled it
that be was hurt almost to death by the
| rebound on him of a system which is as
fatally dangerous to them as Guiteau's
| bullet was to him. The murderous pur-
pose which lay in his aim is, in their
view, the tragic illustration of the yet
more deadly aim of party politics and
demagogical intrigue at the honor and
! interest of the Nation. The President
! lies on his bed in pathetic helplessness,
and the hope, the conscience, the intelli-
| gence of the Nation works out the signif-
icance of the scene. The New York cam
paign helped them on to their conclu-
sions. That struggle was marked with
a rare absence of concealment. The do
ings at Albany supplied an Interpretation
in large letters of the hidden text of our
political condition which has sunk into
the hearts OF the people, purified their
minds, and ripened their opinions.
1t cannot be denied that there have
been some act of the Administration
which could not be defended as just to
himself, nor in harmony with his known
CoHSictIUuo Ds.- r--r-- --.u .,....-
erous, aud have attributed these acts
to the stress of circumstances-to the
hard necessities of Cancellation, and to
| the immense pressure. which corrupt
| system could make q President feel.
What we hope is that the President
will isee that these apologies exist no
| longer. Whatever else the bullet of
| Gulteau may or may not have effected,
it dissipated these excuses once for all.
They can never again be thought of for
President Garfield. He is free. The
full powers of the President are in his
hands. The splendid opportunity is his
to be true to his convictions and theories
of government and to know that to do so
is both the line of sound craftsmanship
and IN accordance with the wish of the
| Nation.
| 1t is q singular commentary on the
process by which q people are educated
for the government of themselves that
this congressional command of the federal
offices, which is now perceived to be so
full Of mischief, grew up by slow degrees,
under the influence of what was suppos-
ed to be measure of reform-the desire
to limit and guard the Presidents ap.
pointing power; but we have learned
that the reform is worse than the original
evil. When therefore the President sets
himself against the system which has
cost him so dear, this fact presents itself
to him that, if he snatches power from
the senators and representatives, only to
concentrate it in the Federal Administra-
ton, and to use it there as it was used
by Jackson and his successors, he will
only throw his Administration back into
the very system which has already proved
unsound and led to the enormous abuses
of the ante-bellum period. The fact
which gives Importance and greatness to
the Presidents opportunity is that he is
free to resume these great powers, not
for himself nor his party, but for the Ma
ton. When we dispaired of getting rid
of slavery, the war brought us to the
moment which put the opportunity into
orr hands; and it is the undylng fame of
Lincoln that he was equal to the moment
and did not lose his opportunity. We
have been as much in the clouds about
the whole question of federal administra-
ton; but the opportunity is here. The
President understands the subject in all
its relations. His own opinions are
known and accepted. There is no de-
partment of the Federal Government
which he has not qualifications to ad-
| ,,;,,,tor L,rosa1f Ua - froa fro,,, tLo