Birmingham state herald., 1895-11-17
WANTS A THIRD TERM.
friends of the President, With His Knowledge, and Consent, Planning an Active
 Campaign.

1xs
 Walter Wellman in Chicago Times Her
 aid.
 One of the shadows cast over the demo- cratic party by last weeks elections IS that of the third term. It looks now as if an organized effort is to be made by the Cleveland wing of the party to thrust a fourth nomination and third term upon their ideal This effort is to be started and directed from the cabinet, and with the knowledge and apparently with the ap- proval of the president. Doubtless every federal oficehoIder in the country will be expected to do his share of the work. The third term experiment is now on, sure enough.
 In one week there has been change of base on the part of the administra- tion, amounting to revolution. Before the election the members of the cabinet, almost without exception, believed and said the president did not want third term, that he did not believe in a third term as a matter of principle, and that in case circumstances seemed to require 1t he would make public announcement of his views and of his refusal to run again. Now 1t Is different story.
 The day after the election, as was told in my dispatches to the Times-Herald, the members of the administration began talking of fourth nomination. They Sdld lHc pISSlQcHls III NiSW Ol tiiS iCSQll of the elections, was the only man who could lift the democratic party out of it's slough of defeat and despondency. The volume of this sort of talk has visibly increased for some days. It broke out with great force after Fridays cabinet meeting, at which 1t is known the presi- dent and his official advisers spent nearly two hours talking over the political sit uation. If it is fair to infer the motives and plans of an official family by what the mebers of 1t have to say, then movement for a third term was virtually decided upon at the meeting of the cab inet, and may now be considered afoot.
 Comes From the Throne.
 All that shall write in this dispatch ia derived from talks with men who are near to MT. Cleveland, and who, presuma- bly,, would not be bold enough to air per- sonal opinions of such peculiar and im- portant significance unless they were act ing in pursuance of a plan agreed on among themselves and with assurances of approval of their chief.
 The third term movement, then, as we have it described and defended by the presidents personal and official associ- ates, Is as follows
 MT Cleveland Is the only man who can be elected as the candidate of the demo- cratic party. He is the only man in the party who is greater than the party. He is the only democrat whose personality is platform in itself, and who is able to command a great vote from the independ- ent or republican elements, or at least from elements which go to the republican ticket when MT. Cleveland is not a candi- date
 Continuing the story as it comes to me from the presidents official household MT. Cleveland believes he can be re- elected. He believes if he had been run ming last Tuesday the democratic party would have carried every one of the states which 1t lost on that occasion New York, New Jersey, Maryland and Kentucky. MT. Cleveland is not certain that he would not have carried Ohio.
 What Cleveland Believes.
 The president believes the people re- buked the democrat tic party last week by such tremendous adverse ma ajoritieS not because 1t was dissatisfied with the na- tional administration at Washington, not because of the Hawaiian or the general foreign policy, not because of the atti- tude of the administration on the silver and revenue questions, not because of the two bond issues, but wholly and solely because of the popular disgust with dem ocratic bosses who have stood out against the president, and because of the per verse manner in which certain democrats have insisted upon running after the false god of silver, against the presidents wishes and requests.
 In other words, still continuing the statement of the third term case as get 1t from the Wn1Ie mousse clfCle, the people smote democracy as a vindication of the president and for the purpose of teaching lesson to those elements of democracy which have refused to acknowledge MT. Cleveland as their leader.
 These premises laid down, the expound- CTS of the third term doctrine proceed to declare that 1t is obvious Mr. Cleveland is the only man in the democratic party who possesses the confidence of the peo- pie to a degree sufficient to induce the people to put that party back into power Therefore there is nothing to do but nom- inate MT Cleveland.
 At this juncture comes from the same sources the explanation that MT. Cleve- land personally does not want a third term. He is tired of work and wants to rest. Mrs. Cleveland is tired of the White House and wants to retire to private life It will be tremendous sacrifice for the president and his family to consent to mansion. But MT. Cleveland, from the beginning of his public career, has placed duty before everything else. He has al- ways sacrificed his personal comfort and desires to the demands of the people. So now, if the great democratic party again calls upon him to lead 1t in the cam paign, if the nation again calls upon him to administer the affairs of the govern ment, he cannot, will not refuse. To de- sert his party and his country in this emergency would be unpatriotic and un- grateful, and MT. Cleveland is capable of neither ingratitude nor lack of pa- triotism.
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