Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1940-10-19

ington and Jefferson, Madison and
Monroe, and jackson, and all the
remaining galaxy of the great, safe
guarding our precious liberties?
We're the last country on earth to
possess these.
Shall one of our own jeopardize
them, or shall one Of our own be
permitted to violate the sacred ira
dition built up by these great men
of the past for the preservation and
for the perpetuity of our institu-
tionS?
1t must not be done.
Upon you and me rest the solemn
obligation of protecting those who
come after us, as our great found
ing fathers sought to preserve for
us our liberties unsullied and I'M
touched. to permit the ambition of
no man, however great he may be,
or however appealing he may be
to the people, to violate the custom
or tradition.
Recalls Washington's
Words Against Third Term.
We are asked to permit him to
make the first break in the pro-
tecting dixie. This country belongs
to you and me and to every other
inarticulate citizen. Theirs Is the
right. theirs alone to alter our
fundamental law and abandon this
custom and tradition. We are asked
now to submit it to one man alone
with the warnings of $50 years ring
ing in our ears. We are asked to
gamble now with the most precious
Of human possessions-liberty. We
must not do it.
Both Washington and Jefferson
refused even to contemplate any
American so far forgetful as to want
third election. Washington said:
There cannot in my judgment be
the least danger that the President
will by any practicable intrigue ever
be able to continue himself one
moment in Office, much less per-
petuate himself in it. but in the
last stage of corrupted morals and
political depravity."
And Jefferson in like fashion was
unable to conceive President &C
tually consenting to a continuous
term in Office and remarked:
Should he consent to be a can
didate for a third election I trust
he would be rejected on this DEM
onstration of ambitious views"
Consider for the moment the
power that the President now has.
He has arrogated to himself the
right to the purse of the Nation.
A celebrated Englishman once said,
Give me the purse and I will gov
ern." BY his innumerable boards
and commissions he deals with
nearly all of the problems of life
and enforces his will alone concern
ing them. To the minds of the
great and pure men who have gov
erned this Nation it is unthinkable
that any man would seek to violate
the sacred agreement and tradition
that all had vigorously obeyed. But
they overlook one trait of human
nature, one dominant factor, the
love of place and prominence, of
adulation and power. I say this in
no invidious sense, but as the COM
mon fault of human nature Some
love it so much that power is never
gladly or voluntarily surrendered
The appetite growing by what it
feeds on becomes the master pas
sion of their lives. Such men find
while they realize that some day
their power must be laid down, can
always find a reason why the fatal
day may be postponed. In their
minds there is always a crisis in
which their services are indis-
pensable; always some great work
in hand which they, and they alone,
can do. Outwardly they pretend
that they groan under the burden
and would be glad to lay it down,
but in their secret souls they cling
to their places. History Is full of
just such instances. The friends
and sycophants of the incumbent,
whose lives are linked with his, con-
stantly assure their chief that the
public good demands that he should
not desert the ship. It is this sort
of sweet music that is the curse of
kings.
LET No More Be Said
OF Confidence in Man"
0Ty, n,,ocfiopc NJ v,ovuar lat w
more be said of confidence in man,
but bind him down from mischief
by the chains of the Constitution. %
Neither Jefferson nor his con-
temporaries could foresee the i'm
mense power that a President avid
for it could acquire. In recent years
we have seen billions of dollars that
he could disperse at will, with places
by the hundreds of thousands for
him to fill, with scores of discre-
tionary statutes ready at his word,
,1-i<I, thu A r,,ax, and Noux, ,,v1AAp hts