The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1902-04-01

I am on record in the attestation Of
a belief in the presidents courage,
cleanliness and good intentions; in
deed touching his personality and pri-
vate life. / greatly admire him. il
win Be observed that ] did not directly
call him a broncho-buster. 1 spoke of
the "self-confidence" and the queer
manners Of the bronchO- buster;
though if I had said 'broncho-buster'
direct. il was not necessarily an unfor-
givable Offense-ceTtainly not an af-
1ront-becsuse in. many ways the bron-
chO-buster IS an admirable character.
Now, II I had used the term trick
mule" which I did not use, and which
Dc not intend to use, then. indeed,
the Times might accuse me Of discOur-
tesy.
The long and short of it seems to be
this. That some newspapers. and, nOta-
bly,, the New York Times, know moth
ing they do not want to know, or else
they see nothing unless they stumble
over it and skin their shjns. In a gov
eminent Of right divine. arbitrary
power is OF no consequence, being a
thing absolute and OF accepted quality,
good or evil, according to its exercise.
In a government of public opinion
eternal vigilance is ever the price Of
liberty. Let it be admitted for the sake
Of argument that SIR. Roosevelt no
more proposes to deliberately and con-
sciously Mexicanize the government
than did old John Adams propose to
monarchize it or General Grant to i'm
perialize it. That he does, was not the
kernel Of my thought, but only the
shell OF it. Yet, it remains true to say
that had not the tendencies Of federal
ism been checked by the defeat OF Ad-
ans and the election Of Jefferson, a
Capitalization bordering upon mon
archy, If not leading to it, would have
bsen engrafted upon the early history
OF the country, and if General Grant
had succeeded himself in 1S77-as was
the original third term intention-we
might never have got him out Of the
White House until he was ready to 80
feet forem st. In ike manner if pub
lie opinion is to be held in allegiance
while president in the White House
arrogates to himself powers known
only to sovereignty, and a speaker OF
the house is to exercise over legislation
the power of a high priest, and a par
~ cabal in the senate is to act in con-
ce- tall possible cOntingencies-hoW
long shall it he before some trumpet
up necessity-n some real danger TO
the pubic OTder-shall furnish the pre-
text for still further assumptions of
arbitrary power? Liberty rarely goes
at one fell swoOp. It is Oftenest a vic
tim TO popular Indifference.
g - g
The president may press a button
and the public meeting in Chicago or
San Francisco is instantly dispersed
its speakers arrested and imprisoned
before they can reach their several
homes. He may send in three hours
troops where Napoleon might not have
sent them in three weeks or months.
There IS only wanting the pretext of
the public necessity-an army staff aft
eT the secretary Of wars own heart
the assent of the speaker Of the house
and his committee on rules. with a
nod from the party leaders in the sen
ate, and there you aTe-Diaz and Mex
leo.
That the republic has already sur
Vived war Of sections aimed to dis
rupt it, presidential impeachment laid
in revolutionary party programme,
a reconstruction tending dangerously
upon the humiliation Of all cOnstitu-
tional safeguards, and a disputed count
OF the electoral vote, menacing civil
wei anu oEltitu bltly Dy du extra COu-
stitutiOnal tribunal. is Of good augury
for the future. But these triumphs of
democratic government could never
lhave been achieved if the people had
listened TO voices like that of the
New York Times and of other con-
tuners Of such public men as Trum-
bull and Fessenden, as Greeley, Schurz
and Sumner, as Tnden, Thurman and
BsyaTd. to say nothing about Jefferson
before them. Taking my stand with
them, / am well content to have my
rep oduetioas of their apprehensions,
sentiments and opinions described as
"bOsh" by critics who, to make their
case against me, must belittle me or
misrepresent what I say, when they
do not lapse into senseless ridicule or
coarse abuse. H. W.
Z The New Willard, March &c, 1902.