New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-12-31
TIE PRESIDENTS CHOICE.

President Arthur has not yet burned his
bridges. He has done things that the people
do not approve, but has not yet done more than
they can forgive. He must wish to have
united party. Every conceivable aspiration
that he can have must be sacrificed If he does
not seek that end. He is 'shrewd politician.
He knows-no man living knows better-that
the majority of the Republican party and the
majority of the people are against the men and
the policies wherewith his name has hitherto
been associated. The American people does
not often bend its will to the preferences of
one man. Stubborn pertinacity on his part, in
those points wherein his past has not been APP
proved by the people, can only cause discord in
the party, evil in the country, and the final
defeat Of the President and his friends. Only
by WISE moderation and judiciOus yielding can
he bring the party into accord.
The people are not personally ho0tile to
President Arthur They appreciate his bearing
after the assassination. They see the extreme
difficulty Of his position. They recognize with
ready thanks the good things that he has done.
They have been slow to censure his disregard
of the public will in matters Of some impor-
tance-his robbing the political graveyard in the
formation of a Cabinet, for instance. The
feeling toward him is kindly, hopeful and for
bearing But no will make fatal mistake if
he thinks that the opinions of the people have
changed, as to tho vital matters at issue be
tween different elements Nobody asks him to
cast aside all his personal friends But there
will be scant harmony if he supposcs that they
have become the party since he became the
President. If there are to be rewards for the
minority who were beaten, there must also be
federation for the majority who were victorious
at Chicago and at Albany. The party can be
united and harmonious only on condition that
the President represents the whole and not a
part of it. The majority will be in accord with
him only when he recognizes, respects and con-
suits the wishes Of the majority.
Fidelity to friends is good, but fidelity to the
people is better. Not to that shifting and
changeable breath of popular favor which mere
deniagogues obey, and to which no true man
can be faithful, but to the true interests the
earnest beliefs and the settled convictions Of
the people. One settled conviction, to which
emphatic expression has been given, is that
il is not well for the country to be ruled by
person alism. nor for the party to be ruled by a
set of bosses. Another is that party does not
deserve to succeed, and in the end cannot
succeed, which relies exclusively upon its
machine, and not at all upon genuine ad-
vocacy of sound principles. President Arthur
will respect these convictions, and bear in mind
that they have not been uprooted nor shaken,
If he seeks to bring the Republican party
into harmonious and triumphant accord with
himself.
He will be Judged by his acts. He will be
judged patiently, until patience ceases TO lie a
virtue. If that time should ever come, if
President Arthur should set himself against the
will of the majority, strive to reverse the policy
of his predecessor, and refuse to be more than
the leader and instrument of defeated faction,
the country would survive, for it is great and