Morning journal and courier., 1881-01-20
Thursday Morning, Jan. 20, 1881.
Al VOICE FROM THE PAST.

| | The proposition to amend the Constitution
 so as to make the President ineligible to re-
 election is again made, but it will probably not receive much attention. The subject was
 thoroughly discussed early in our history,
 and Alexander Hamilton's argument in favor
 of the eligibility of the President to re-elec-
 ton covers the whole ground.
 | Hamilton held that the exclusion of the
 chief magistrate, either for limited period
 or forever, from again holding the office would have effects which would be for the
 most part rather pernicious than salutary. l One ill effect of this exclusion he thought l would be diminution of the inducements to good behavior. There are few men, he I wrote, who would not feel much less zeal in | the discharge of a duty when they were con- scious that the advantages of the station with which it was connected must be relin- quished at determinate period than when they were permitted to entertain hope of
 obtaining, by meriting, a continuance of
 them. Another ill effect of the exclusion, said
 Hamilton, would be the temptation to sordid
 views, to peculation, and, in some instances
 to usurpation. An avaricious man, who
 might happen to fill the office, looking for
 ward to a time when he must at all events
 yield up the advantages he enjoyed would
 feel a propensity, not easy to be resisted by
 such man, to make the best use of his op- portunities while they lasted. An ambitious man too, finding himself seated on the sum- init of his country's honors, looking forward k1,o the exalted eminence forever, and refecting that no exertion of merit on his part could save him from the unwelcome reverse, would be much more violently tempted to embrace favorable conjuncture for attempting the prolongation of his power, at every personal hazard, than if he had the probability of answering the same end by doing his duty. Would it, also asked Hamilton, promote the peace of the commu- nifty, or the stability of the government, to ! have half dozen men who had had credit | enough to raise themselves to the seat of the l supreme magistracy wandering among the l people, like discontented ghosts, and signing 1 for place which they were destined never l more to possess
 Other i'll effects noted by Hamilton which | would result from the exclusion are The | depriving the community of the advantage | of the experience gained by the chief magis- trate in the exercise of his office, the banish- ing men from stations in which, in certain emergencies of the State, their presence might be of the greatest moment to the pub lie interest or safety; that it would operate as constitutional interdiction of stability in the administration, for by inducing the ne- cessity of change of men in the first office of the nation it would necessarily lead to a of measures. And he concluded his letter on the subject as follows: There is an excess of refinement in the idea of dis abling the people to continue in office men who had entitled themselves, in their opin- ion, to approbation and confidence the ad- vantages of which are at best speculative and squivocals and are everbalanced by disaaFan- 5ages far more certain and decisive"
 Hamilton discussed an untried experiment, put his argument is just as sound and appi- cable to-day as it was when he made it in I78S