New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-06-10

on the public.
THAT THE PRESIDENTS FRIENDS SAY.
"a little infusion of Conkling makes Ar
thur all right" was the observation of prom
inent New-York politician and a professed
friend of the President, as reported Id a daily
journal Be the quotation correct or not as to
the particular person referred to-, there is no
room for doubt that it accurately expresses the
feelings to which a great many Stalwart poll
hcans are continually giving utterance. In
the President himself they do not profess to
have confidence. But they feel sure that he
is unable to resist the influence of Mr.. COnk
ling. 1t happens, too, that the general opinion
of the Stalwart politicians is also the opinion
of much larger number of citizens, who have
no especial admiration for the ex-senator or
for the President. That course which his
friends desire, and which other citizens do not
DESIRE is now generally expected by all be-
cause the Stalwarts themselves have created
the impression that the President will do what
Mr.. Conkling demands If that impression is
unjust to Mr.. Arthur, he must certainly real
ize that it exists because he has not taken
steps to correct it.
The Republican party has from the first been
it was possible 1t has hoped very earnestly
that he would rise far above the mere leader
of a faction. The course and conversation OF
the Presidents friends have done more than
anything else to chill this hope. They have
assumed from the first that he would act on
the level of the cheap ward politician. They
have openly and persistently boosted that he
would make himself the mere leader of a
beaten faction. The misfortune for the Presi
dent is that, after more or less delay, he
has in almost every case done the things
that they expected him to do. Particularly,
they expected that he would do the will
Of Mr.. COnkling, become the instrument
of his revenges, and treat him IN all
respects as if the ex-senator had not been dis
missed from public life i'll obedience to an
overwhelming public sentiment To put it
| bluntly, they have said that Mr.. COnkling
| could pocket the President or use him when
| ever he pleased. If the President did not
wish to have these assertions credited it would
have been easy for him to dispose of them
completely and forever. The fact that they
| are still made, by people who are near him,
| and more confidently than ever before, shows
| that he has not seen fit thus far to refute
them.
| 1t is often said :" The President has right
" to trust and listen to such friends as he
"pleases." That implies that he has by acct
| dent fallen heir to autOcratic power. But
| when the people elect President in this free
country they elect him as the servant and
trusted instrument of their will. Garfield had
no right to disregard the will of the people,
and was elected because the people were sure
that he would not. He had no right to give
ear to counsels hostile to the declared and de-
liberate will of the only true rulers of this
country. A right which he did not possess
| certainly has not fallen to his successor. 1t
| has been the fatal error of every other Vice
| President who has succeeded to Executive
power that he has undertaken to pursue
| course antagOnistic to that of the President
chosen by the people, and to manufac-
ture a public opinion different from that
which the chosen President sought to
obey. Not unreasonably, the people
have met every such reversal Of policy and
defiance of their will with intense resentment.
If the most active and noisy friends of Mr..
Arthur do not do him great injustice, he is
beginning to tread in the same beaten path
which led Tyler Fillmore and Andrew john
son to place in the memories of their cOun
trymen which they did not desire.
Mr.. COnkling is man who insists upon
being boss nothing. Nobody can keep
friendship with him by going with him half
way. For that very quality, and for his readi-
ness to sacrifice great public interests to his
personal dislikes and resentments, the people
have condemned him. Beaten at Cincinnati in
1876, in spite of bands and professions and
loud flourish of trumpets, beaten again at
Chicago, in spite of powerful and persistent
efforts, this Senator tried to dictate to the
chosen President of the people, and resented
his failure by most undeserved and unseemly
abuse. Thereupon he was beaten in his own
State. An Administration which makes itself
his instrument must expect to encounter not
only the feeling which followed Tyler, Fill
more and Johnson to their political graves,
but also all the unpopularity which Mr.. Conk-
ling's own course has aroused. The Stalwarts
who expect this of General Arthur must be-
lieve him very bold man. 1t rests with HIM
TO show whether they are right in attributing