Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1912-10-31
THE OLD FOOLIsHNEss.


which they have for each other is
mild and tame by the side of that
they bear to the progressive party
and to Theodore Roosevelt How
ever they may disagree upon other
subjects, they unite their voices in
one sad, sweet strain of depreciation
against what they call the third
term" principles and candidate. Mr..
Taft, the republican candidate,
warns the people against man who,
he says, intends to hold that office
for the rest of his life, while the
democratic platform goes even fur
ther and favors a single presidential
term and an amendment to the con-
stitution making the president in
eligible for reelection.
Now, the constitutional convention
over which Washington presided,
and which contained among its men,
bers perhaps the greatest construc-
ii !e statesmen in the world, consid-
cred this question carefully when
they prepared our federal constitu-
tion. Jeffer. on thought originally
that the holding of the presidential
office should be limited to a single
term. Washington thought other
wise, and in letter to La Fayette
on April 28, 1888, he said: Il con-
fess l differ widely myself from Mr..
jefferson and you as to the necessity
or expediency of rotation in that Of
flee. l can see no propriety in pre-
Guiding ourselves from the services
of any man who, in some great emer-
gency, shall be deemed universally
most capable of serving the public"
The matter was considered and de-
bated and the convention finally
came to the conclusion that there
ought to be no limit whatever fixed
as to the number of terms during
which a man should be eligible for
the presidency, and in which, if his
1 fellow citizens desired 1T, he might
serve the public. Washington him
self did not stop at the end of his
| first term. He and Jefferson both
served for eight years, and the
reason Washington declined a third
reelection was not because it would
have been wrong or injurious to the
public for him to take another term
but just because he was personally
weary of continuous service. He was
growing old, the tongue of calumny
had assailed him and he longed fol
the quiet of, private life. He be
lieved that he had served the state
as long as his fellow citizens had {
right to ask and that he was entitled
, to seek the repose of Mt. Vernon.
There is no more reason why tina
/ example should be binding upon al
n his successors than any other per
[ sonal preference.
Why is it that both republican
I and democrats, who profess sue
g reverence for constitutional gov
II ernment," and reproach us with tn
lack of it, why do they suffer thei
h love of that great instrument to sto
e at the exact point where it permit
# the election of the one man the
e fear?
r. 1t is further objected that, sine
v Roosevelt said, when he was electe
is eight years ago, that he would nc
IS accept another term, therefore b
g should not accept it now, after h
q has been out of office four year,
r. The thing then under considerable
d was the question of successive term
X of office. But even if it had apple
for all time, man has no right t
bind himself to abstain from futur
service by such a declaration. Whe
Washington laid down his comman
of the army at the end of the revolt
# ton he stated emphatically lin h
o circular letter to the governors of a
n the states his determination of ne
+ taking any share in public bushes
= hereafter" (Sparks VIII, 422), bI
he did. He changed his mind. Dut
q called him and he obeyed. And ever
: criticism of Roosevelt for becomin
= a candidate after his declaration al
IT. plies equally well to the Father {
q his Country"
r. The plank in the democratic pla
n form favoring the limitation of ii
Is presidential office to a single ter
&c would be in accordance with the il
terests of every trust and every erin
N inal corporation in the United State
r. A president elected for one ter
IN without hope of reelection wou
have no need of considering the pc
p pie, for he cannot be punished
70 the people, he cannot be reward'
IN by the people. 1t removes him fro
10 the control of the people and pu
h. him more than ever in the contr
of the privileged interests.