Norwich bulletin. [volume] (Norwich, Conn.) 1895-2011, 1919-03-04

lent opportunity to see hear and size
him up. In visage and voice he was
the meanest creature I have either
in life or in dreams, ENCOUNTERED. He
had the face and intonations of a de-
mon. Everything about him was
lOathsome. 1 cannot doubt that his
criminal colleagues of history were
of the same category and kidney.
Il have never taken much account
of Joan Of Arc except as an inspired
lunatic. Charlotte Corday was only a
trif1e less. Wilkes Booth 1 knew.
He was drunk-had been drunk all
that winter-completely muddled and
perverted by brandy-the inheritant
of mad and bad blood. Czolgosz, the
slayer of Mckinley, and the assassin
of the Empress Elizabeth and Felix
Faure, were clearly insane. I dare
say it will be found that the poor
wretch who has made the attempt on
the life of Clemenceau is little better
than an idiot. All the same, he should
be Carted to the Place de la Concorde
as better men have been before him."
Tomorrow is tn 22d of February"
the reported put in "Washington's
Birthday-our second Declaration of
independence day. The Herald would
like you to say something about it,
and about the political situation, with
especial reference to the doings of
congress, the foreign journey and COM
ing return of President Wilson
4 cannot help thinking Mr.. Wat
terson replied, that the Great Jeho-
vah,' who. old Ethan Allen intimated,
stood behind the continental con-
gress, stands likewise behind the con-
gress of the United States, since the
sixty fifth congress is about to adj
journ and the sixty sixth, which will
presently assemble, is republican.
The autocratic character will
not say designs, for l do not know
of the Wilson administration appear
to me to be in need not merely of re-
buke, but of check. Either the presi-
dent has quite lost his bearings, or
else he is visionary-agaih l will not
say vain-enough to believe he can
Compass what was denied to Grant
and Cleveland: a third term in the
| White House. In my opinion, nothing
else, or less, could have prompted
-impelled-tile foreign exploitation.
AS fond as he seems of breaking prec-
| edents, I do not believe he can sue
| cessfully violate the precedent set by
| Washington. Unless the people are
wholly degenerate. ripe and ready to
be buncoed out Of their liberties, they
will forbid this first step toward life
| tenure, which a third term would
| foreshadoW.
Theodore Roosevelt and I had
once a plain talk about this third
term business he frankly admitting
| that he desired a reelection in 1908
and ingeniously defending It. They
all do. l am inclined to think that
Jackson did. We know that Grant
did, and I am sure Cleveland did. We
owe a great debt to Washington, for
| if a third term, why not a fourth term
And then for life after the manner
| of the Caesars and CromweIls Of his
| tory, and especially the Latin Ameri-
cans Bolivar, Rosas and Diaz
Away back in 1873, alter a dinner
Mr.. Blaine took me into his den anC
told me that it was no longer a sur
mise, but a fact that the group abour
! General Grant who had just been re-
elected by an Overwhelming majority
| was maneuVering for a third term
1t was startling Incredible. Return.
ing to my hotel, l saw a light still
| burning in the room of Senator Nor.
ton of Indiana and rapping at thu
door I was hidden to enter Withou
mentioning how it reached me.
put the proposition to him. Certain
ly,' he said, it is true
THE next day, in d letter TO tn,
Courier Journal, reduced what I ha(
heard to writing. Reading this over
it seemed SO sensational tkat I added
a closing paragraph meant to qualif,
what I had written and to imply tina
I had not gone crazy. These things
wrote, may sound queer to the ca
of the country-they may have visitet
me in my dreams-they may in
, deed have come to me betwiXt tn
sherry and the champagne-but new
ertheless do not aver that they ar
buzzing about here in the minds O
many very serious, and not unimpor
tant persons
Never was a poor, well-intentionet
scribe so berated and ridiculed as
never a simple news gatherer so dis
credited! democratic and republican
newspapers wing with one anothe
which could say crossest things an
laugh loudest. One sentence espe
cially caught the newspaper risibili
ties of the time, and it was many
year before the phrase 'betwee,
the sherry and the champagne cease
to pursue me. That any patriot
American, twice elevated to the presi
dency, could want a third term, coul
have the hardihood to seek one, wa
inconceivable. My letter was an in
suit to General Grant and proof o
my own lack of intelligence and re
straint. They damned me, laughed a
me. good and strong.
q protest that in ascribing third
term ambitions and aims to Woodrow
: Wilson, I write in no personally hos
! tile spirit; but I confess myself, as
plain. old fashioned democrat-a
American citizen-a patriotic ma
from way back-as affronted-in
censed-by the presidential 'goings
| on in foreign lands.
. mo sovereign could carry it with
higher hand. No absolute monarc
! could be more royalty puffed up an
feted. II was bound to he So Franc
'bled white England all in'-Amer
lea arrived at the rescue in the mic
Of time-was ascribed to Wilson an
) only to Wilson.
Truth to say, we should neve
have waited SO long. Instant afte
| the Lusitania we should have run u
the flag and rushed to the colors.
earnestly urged this. I suspect tina
Mr.. Wilson and most of our publ
: men were looking for the presidentia
l election ahead secretly afraid of tn
German American vote. We fnal
went in because the politician
thought they could no longer affor
Ito stay out-becsuse it were polite