National Republican., 1883-06-20
President Arthur.

The following candid expression from the
Brooklyn Union will be read with interest
especially by those who know that il was
probably written by the man who was for
years the editor of the New York Times, and
who did more to mako it q great metropolitan
journal than any other man ever connected
with it;
There have been but few presidents whose
blundors could be packed into such small com.
pass. There has been none who has so success.
fully avoided the mistakes that friends aud foes
alike expected from him.
lie has been blamed for lack of vigor when he
really deserves credit for the resolution with
which he resisted all solicitations to effect changes
for mere sake of change. He has been abused for
his discrimination in favor of the "stnlwart"
faction of officoseekers when he was canning
their enmity and becoming the object of their
vitupcration,
Ills accession to the chair OF President Garfield
was associated not only with great national mis-.
fortune and deep and lasting manifestation of a
peoples grief but with the bitter disappointment
OF one party faction and the exultant expectation
of another.
President Arthur has justified neither the ap
prehensions of the friends Of his predecessor nor
the expectations of his own. He has met the de-
mands of position of exceptional difficulty with
remarkable success, and has given no one cause to
assume that either the qualification of ambition or
the satisfaction of any feeling OF wrong has af.
ected his discharge Of the duties Of his high Office
The standard ofablity which lie has maintained
in his appointments TO administrative and judi
cial positions have been, on the whole, higher
than that of either Mr. Hayes or Gen Grant, his
proved fidelity to the cause Of civil service reform
is all the more creditable In view of the blunder
ing trustfulness Of those charged with It's promo.
ton; his resolute opposition to congressional job
berry, such as was embodied in the river and
harbur bill of 1889, has been emphatically APP
proved and practically applied by the people at
| the ballot box.
| If President Arthurs administration rests its
| claim to public admiration as much on what it
has left undone MS OH what 1t has performed, let
| 1t be remembered that the world suffers from
nothing so much as from being too much gov
erned, and that of all prominent positions that OF
President of the United States is the one least
suited for the display of restless activity. For the
| dignity with which Gen. Arthur has borne him
self in the white house, for the frmness which he
has brought to the disposal Of all questionable
demands made on him. at home or directed at
him from abroad, for his graceful discharge ofall
the social responsibilities of his position and his
scrupulous respect for its propretes, he deserves
| the warmest Acknowledgements Of every American
citizen. There has been no opportunity publicly
to convey to him an expression OF the feeling
| with which his official career is regarded among
| a comm unity which numbers so many of his per-
sonal friends. But the appreciative and intelli-
| gent people of Brooklyn may be trusted to make
a fitting use OF the present one and to employ II
to manifest alike their approval Of the President
| and their respect for the man.