The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1912-02-24

PuA PooS. ihc lhCh
| rejoice that the state of your con-
Germs, external as well as internal, no
longer renders the pursuit of inclination
incompatible with the sentiment of duty
or propriety, and am persuaded what
ever Partially may be retained for my
services, that, In the present circum-
stances of our country, you will not dis
approve my determination to retire.
1t appears clearly from Washngtons
words that he wished and intended to re-
Use a second term from precisely the
same motives which led him to actually
refuse a third term-namely his distaste
for office and longing for private life,
and it is a fair inference from these
words, that if the country had seemed to
him to need his services at the end Of
his second term, as it seemed to need
them at the end of his first, he would
have accepted third term, impelled by
the same sense of duty which led him to
accept second.
Ii is obvious that no President could
establish any precedent on this question
unless he both wished second re-elec-
tion and could certainly or very probably
obtain it; and, whatever may have been
the case wit hrespect to the first Of
these conditions, no President could have
felt assured or reasonably confident of
getting third term, If he asked for 1t,
after Washington and before Jackson.
The progidious popularity Of Old Hick
ory' caused some serious suggestion OF
l Third term for him; and it was gem
- 11v pOnrahp6 hu h., inf
politics that, If he would take one, he
could get one. MY opinion vrote Mr.
Writ, lis that he may be President fof
life if he chooses" Whatever may have
been President Jacksons personal views
| on the subject, the failure of his health
obliged hi INTO abandon all thought Gf he
really ever had any thoughD of third
candidacy. He retired at 70 to the Her
mitage, as Washington retired at 81 to
Mount Vernon, feeling with somewhat
better reason than Washington, that his
work as public servant was done.
There has been just one President who
established an unequivocal well-con-
sidered precedent on this subject; that
President is Theodore Roosevelt him
self. He alone amops our Presidents has
refused third term when it was as near
ly certain as any future event can be
that, if he consented, he would be nomi-
mated, he would be elected, and persist
ed in this refusal although in the prime
of life, full of bodily and mental vigor,
profoundly interested IN the problems Of
government he had sought earnestly to
solve and undisguisedly attracted by the
incidents of power and public life. Tn
questionably President Roosevelt's ac-
tion involved a recognition on his part,
recognition made with all due deliber-
alton, of what he called the wise GUS
ON which limi,s the President to two
terms" and, whatever may be the legi-
innate weight of mere precedent on
question which has been determined by
the Constitution itself in express words,
such weight must be given to the prece-
dent thus established.
But beyond all reasonable doubt this
precedent applies only to a third conse
cutive term; no ex-President has ever
refused a nomination after an interval.
Ii is true that in OF ~ one case has the
question arisen; but this fact is of very
slight relevancy, for very few eX-Presi
dents have been young enough or strong
enough physically to make their resump-
ton of so arduous an Office possible, and
nnearly all of those few cases, the
course of our politics, after their retire
ment from office, las been such as to
render their denomination altogether i'm
possible, quite independently of any
question of eligibility. In 1880 General
Grant sought a denomination but failed
to obtain it, although he made very
formidable showing in the Republican
convention. This incident has, perhaps,
| no great Significance either way; but the
question involved would seem to be al
| most too clear for argument as a matter
| of common sense. All that can be said
against a third term is embodied in Ar
| t!cle "a of our Maryland Declaration of
| Rights, which asserts:
That a long continuance in the execu-
tive departments of power or trust is
dangerous to liberty; a rotation, there
! fore, nthose departments is one Of the
! best securities of permanent freedom"
| Whether this doctrine Is or is not
sound We need not now discuss: 1t is, at
least, an ineligible doctrine. Obviously