Evening star., 1927-05-01
The voter man thinks hard he fears
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The, voter man thinks hard; he fears
That most prodiglous smell
Which hung around the second term
Would haunt the third as we'll.
In addition to this, the great fac.
tional warfare between the Half
breed" and "Stalwart" factions, which
was to disrupt the party over Gar
fields slain body and elect Cleveland
President. was raging. and the Half
breeds were solidly against Grant be.
cause he was the candidate Of the
Stalwart leader. COnkling, and sup
posed to be under his thumb. The
Hayes administration forces were
against him, because the Secretary OF
the Treasury. John Sherman. was a
rival candidate. But early in 1880
certain number of Republicans, who
had determined to bolt if Grant were
nominated, Tesurrected "Caesarism'
as an issue. and on May s. 1880. these
men held an anti-third-term conven-
tiOn in ST. Louis, presided over by
former Senator John B. Henderson.
x
Henderson was the leader Of these
prospective boilers, and it was his
personal convention. 1t adopted resO-
lutions denouncing the third-term
idea, but complicated its principle
somewhat by linking it up with fur.
lIlSI I6SpiulLOilS DUAuttHE at the CUT"
ruption question and at COnklin's
bossism. However the Halfbreeds
and the friends of Sherman were glad
10 welcome these recruits. who may
have added somewhat to the strength
of the Blaine and Sherman delegations
in the national convention-and may
not. AS it was. Grant led the ballot
ing and deadlocked the convention for
36 ballots, when it beat him by nam
ing a dark hOrse-Garfield. In the
convention itself the Henderson issue
cut little figure. Conkling, in his
speech nominating Grant. dismissed
IL contemptuously IN a sentence: No
body is actually worried about a third
term except those hopelessly longing
for a first term and the dupes they
have mad"
The whole tradition" thus con.
tinued to rest on the Houses declara-
ton in 1875. Nobody talked about
the third term until 1901, when. in
view of some indiscreet speeches by
friends of his. President Mckinley
issued a statement saying that he
would not accept another nomination.
But he gave no reasons and did not
inform anybody whether he agreed
with Jefferson about the dangers OF
monarchy or with Grant that the peo-
pie could be trusted to kill off any
would-be monarchs, or whether. like
Washington, he only wanted to 60
home.
* y X
But in November. 1904. President
Roosevelt announced that he would
not be a candidate for a third term
and spoke. on insufficient informa-
tion. about 'the wise custom which
limits the President to two terms"
Despite this announcement a third
term boom was started for him and
became so powerful that he was
obliged to repeat his refusal in 1907.
Even after that he had TO take ex-
traordinary precautions against the
conventions being stampeded for him,
and. just as Jackson had put Van
Buren, across in 1886. he forced the
convention of 1908 to nominate Taft.
In 1912 the Progressive party noml-
mated Roosevelt. The Republican
party split between him and Taft.
Roosevelt getting a large majority of
its votes. The united RoOSevelt-Taft
vote was enough to have swept the
Union by landslide. but the division
elected the Democratic candidate
Woodrow Wilson. 1t would be ridicu-
lous to say that the third.term issue
defeated Roosevelt. who could not
have been elected over both Taft and
Wilson. whatever the issue might
have been. and who, even as It was.
carried four large States as against
Taft's two small ones
The country has still to vote upon
the question whether Jefferson or
Grant had the right idea of the danger
of Caesarism. 1t has never had the
chance yet, but some day, as Grant
it will.
Copyright. 1927