The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-01-05
CHILDISH MALICE.

| The most recent exhibition of puerilty III
high places was made in the lower house of
Congress- on Wednesday, by ex-Speaker Ran
dali, of Pennsylvania and S. S. Cox of New
| York. Mr.. Randall, as is we'll known, is an
asprant to the presidency, and desires to
regain the speakership as a stepping-stone.
In an argument with his Republican col
leagues he frequently referred to President
Arthur, and always as your President"
Such an asnine exhibition is scarcely as dig
niiied as the bubbles and quarrels of
childhood, and coming from a member of
the national legislature, must be at once
humiliating and exasperating to other mem
bers of his party. The Hon. Thomas A. Hen
bricks, of this State, stood alone in the
your President" business until now, when
a mate has been found for him. This pre-
cious pair should be yoked together on the
next Democratic national ticket They
would make a beautiful Democratic team.
"Your President" What does it signify?
Suppose Mr. Randall were to be elected
President; would he be President of this
great Republic or would he simply be the
exponent of the unsavory organization
known as the Democratic party? 1t is easy
to imagine what a Democratic President
would be. He would be "ou,r" President,
with all that the possessive pronoun implies
"Our" President to turn out well-tried Of
ficials 10 make room for horde of hungry
hangers-on who have for years been trying
! to break into Office "Our" President, to
undo much that the people, through the
Republican party, have put on the statute
books as law. Think of it. What a narrow
bigoted view for a prospective presidential
candidate. The head of the republic no
more than the exponent and tool of politi
cal organization that has thousand princi-
Piles or no principle at all, as circum-
stances seem to demand. Where would
''our" President reside? At Washington, or
| in New York, or in St Louis? Or would Chi
cago, by outbidding her rivals, get him to
locate there? And what would the repub-
tic do while the president of
the Democratic party was attending
to the affairs of that organization? This
cramped. hide bound view of the chief ex-
ecutive office is in perfect keeping with the
Democratic idea. That party has never been
able to reach an elevation from which it
could see this great country as Nation and
our many peoples as one undivided whole.
To them the Federal government has been
but an agglomeration OF petty provinces, to
them. In its legislation it can see but the
Democratic party. The dream of a solid
South was even narrower than that
sectional term implies. 1t was
gether to further its best interests, but to give
to the country President who would first
pledge his fealty to his party and then obi
gate himself to honor and respect the consti
tuition as a secondary consideration. 1t is
the meanest view of American politics ever
conceived and emanates from the only posi-
BILE source in this country. From the utter
most point in Maine to San Diego, in Cali
fornia there is not Republican anywhere
who would not have accepted and recognized
Gen, Hancock as his President, and President
of all the people, had he been elected 1t re-
NAMED for Mr.. Hendricks TO originate the
idea of partisan Presidents, and Mr.. Randall
has fallen into the same trench. When
presidential timber is selected, it
| ha nd i 70 NV
men of such calber as not
to be able to entertain broader conceptions of
the high functions of the chief executive
They might do as Presidents of the Demo-
cratic party, but what this country needs,
and has, is a President OF the American peo-
pie, actuated by the ambition to serve them
acceptably, and so discharge the duties of his
high Office as to best conserve the interests of
all the people, administering, of course, the
principles of the party which received ccnsti-
tutional Endorsement by his election, but the
administration to be for all the people, and
not simply for party or faction.
Mr. Cox beittled himself and insulted his
colleagues by dragging into the discussion,
in a wholly irrelevant manner, the bloody
work of the assassin of Garfield,
bringing upon himself the deserved con-
domination and Kisses of the more sef-re-
spectng members of the House. tits pitt
full sight, at once humliating and disgrace
! full, to witness such exhibitions Of a petty