Martinsburg statesman-democrat. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1906-1921, 1912-06-28
PARKER SAYS 7. R.
.iSA MODERN CAESAR
Declares In Speech That Republicans
Should Have Been Warned
BY History

Baltimore, Md, June 26.--Former
Judge Alton b. Parker, who was elect
ed temporary chairman OF the Demo
cratic national convention, spoke In
part as follows in sounding the key
note" of the convention:
I'VE meet while the hills yet echo
to wild cries of liar, thief and traitor,
and furious walls Of fraud, bribery,
treachery and corruption; and our ears
are weary with the din OF the artieu-
late shrieking and passionate villifca-
ton Of the most shameful brawl of our
political history.
Our candidates, however, are. with
out exception, men of such lofty mten
that we meet immune from the distem-
per which seized the Chicago conyen-
ton and privileged to discharge a sol
emn public duty calmly, deliberately,
seriously
The cause of government by the
people the world over has been ma
terially checked by the disgraceful
brawl which terminated in the bedlam
OF Chicago Every good citizen has
been put to shame by the brutality
and the abuse which characterized the
wrangle between a president and an
eX-president. Gratitude. friendship,
party loyalty, patriotism and common
decency were forgotten IN the tussle,
THE assault upon the unwritten
prohibition against third term made
in the wild scramble for the Republl-
can nomination warns us OF the vital
necessity Of Incorporating In our con,
stitution a safeguard against repeated
terms
In the very beginning of our con
stitution making it was urged by dele
gates participating that safety requir.
ed a constitutional limitation of the
period of years one man might hole
the Office of president.
History warned them of the com
ing of man whose Unsuitable lust OF
mower would be as consuming as Cae.
sar's, towering high above his love OF
country. The danger seemed, even to
the pessimists, to have passed with the
establishment of a precedent by Wash
ington, Jefferson and their successors,
Indeed where lives the man who has
not either heard or said, that an I'M
written law forbids more than Two
terms and if any one could be so fool
hardy as to seek further, he would be
crushed by the wrath of a patriotic
and intelligent people.
n.rn. NNrop1 Novf
"The man who split his party Al
Chicago once recognized the third
term tradition and acknowledged is
application to his situation. On the
eve of his triumph in 1904 he said:
The wise custom which limits the
president to two terms regards the
substance and not the form, and under
no circumstances will be candidate
for, or accept, another nomination
Wrong in this year Of grace, he was
right in that. PeradVenture he was
honest with his soul and he may have
confessed to it that even a president
may be tempted to resort to sordid
devices and shameless opportunities &c
gain his ambition. If so, he was in
mental condition to realize to the full
the danger to the republic involved in
setting aside custom constituting
the only bulwark against the assaults
of men whose ambition chokes theil
patriotism and whose selfish desire fol
personal victory and power throttles
those moral scruples with which they
Would the man who threw his hat
in the ring and sought to slug his op
ponent over the ropes in his figh
for third term rest satisfied with its
achievement? Clearly his lust OF
power would have brooded no sucl
limitation. A third term would bui
have whetted his desire for more anC
as the terms slipped away each re
ncwal would discover greater injury
to our constitution, to tie form Of gov
eminent established under il and tC
every legal curb on his imp rious will
This is the man who menaCed us
with an increase of federal power by
usurpation OF states tights and with
out authority of constitutional amend
ment; the man who took the Isthmu'
of Panama, and let congress debate
about it afterwards; the man wAu
having enough money to send the fleet
on its famous cruise to the Pacific
sent it without sanction OF congress
leaving it to appropriate money for the
return when congress deemed thai
necessary. This is the man who adyo
Gated federal incorporation for the
increase Of power at Washington anc
the tightening OF legal burdens on the
corporations; the man who authorized
the absorption OF the Tennessee Goa
and Iron company by the steel trust;
the man who, by many such drastic
acts, and by unnumbered words has
sought to batter down our statutor,
and constitutional safeguards.
He who runs may read the danger
that threatens the country ruled by
such a man. 10 we envy Mexico hot
thirty years Of welded life, Oh the val
the divorce from niaz procipitatad, this
,nG Of which no man NAV DrO9hesEi