The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1912-03-14
SHALL WE EXALT THIS DEMA.
GOGUE.

nave served three and nall years,
and this three and half years con-
stitutes my first term. The wise
custom which limits the President to
two terms regards the substance and
not the form, and under no circum-
stances will be again candidate
for or accept another nomination for
President Theodore Roosevelt,
Nov. 8, 1904.
No one asked Mr.. Roosevelt to
make that declaration No one had
accused him of seeking to play the
part Of a South American dictator.
No one then even suspected Mr..
Roosevelt of such a Hypocrisy
He had no need to defend himself
against any such charge. His declar-
alton was, in fact, regarded as rather
superfluous--as being almost on a
par with the recurrent efforts of
some legislators to enact the Ten
Commandments as a part of the stat
ute law The Third Term question
was supposed to have been answered
forever in 1880
How did the whole world UNDER
stand Mr.. Roosevelt? AS it had I'M
derstood Thomas Jefferson just 100
example of Washington, he said: Il
shall follow it, There was no other
understanding; there could be none
other in the public mind. Only Mr..
Roosevelt himself could have given
a different meaning to his words by
using different words. Yet Mr..
Roosevelt now says:
Il said that l would not accept
nomination for Third Term under
any circumstances, meaning, of
course, Third Consecutive Term"
We may note in passing that Mr..
Roosevelt misquotes himself. In
1904 he said nothing of Third
Term, consecutive or inconsecutive.
He spoke of the wise custom which
limits the President to TWO terms"
He affirmed that he was to have TWO
terms, and no more. He clinched it
by precisely defining what would be
his first and his second terms.
By his present Interpretation of
his pledge of 1904 Mr. Roosevelt
confesses himself trickster who de-
ceived the people. He says he meant
third consecutive term, of course
He thus sets up the wish, the ambi-
ton, to obtain what Washington re-
nounced and what was denied to
Grant was then in his mind, but that
he concealed a design whose revela-
ton would have put the people on
thir guard.
He confesses that he stopped to a
conceit. This was not our interpre-
taton of Mr. Roosevelt's words then.
1t was nobody's Interpretation then.
1t is an Interpretation which, for the
honor of the presidential office, we
would even now refuse to accept.
were it not forced upon us by Mr..
Roosevelt himself. And to justify
his deceit Mr.. Roosevelt proceeds to
fabricate some history, thus:
ut must be clear to any reasona-
BILE man, that the precedent which
! forbids the third term So grew
out of the fact that a president, un-
der the present convention system,
can, if he knows how to use the
machinery at his disposal, renominate
himself, even though the majority of
his party is against him."
The two-term precedent was set by
| Washington in 1895, and followed
by Jefferson in 1904, fully fifty years
before anything like 1.-The present con-
vention system" was established. No
effort to break that precedent was
made until another quarter-century
had passed. These are historic facts
which Mr.. Roosevelts plausible men,
dacity cannot alter.
We have given so much space to
comment on this passage of Mr..
Roosevelt's Boston deliverance be-
cause it is characteristic of his
whole issue of suppressed truth
i and suggested falsehood. And
as illustrating how a demagogue will
impute to others his own vices we
call attention to this utterance:
do not in speech claim to trust
the people, and then underhandedly
endeavor so to frame the Constitu-
| ton and the laws that you shall trick
them out of their right Of self-gov-
eminent"
What does this plainly mean?
Why, that the authors of every state
constitution before that of Arizona,
when they preferred representative
to direct. government, were trick
sters. 1t means that Washington,
Jefferson, Madison and all the rest
of the makers of the Constitution of
, the United States merely claimed"
to trust the people," but under
handedly endeavored SO to frame il
as to trick them out OF their right of
self-government"
And so Mr. Roosevelt bubbles
along, insulting the memory of the
Fathers and Founders of the Repub-
lie, making revolutionary proclama
tons in large type and conservative
reservations and qualifications in
footnotes.
Well, the issue has at last been
made plain. Are we to exalt this
specjous demagogue again to the
chief magistracy of this nation? That
is the question, and when the Amer
lean people fully understand it, as
they certainly will, there can be no
doubt of the answer.
To believe otherwise would be to
despair of the Republic.-Chicago
Inter Ocean.