Year: 1873

PRESIDENTIAL TERMS.


The One-Term Humbug The Third.


Term NOnsense-The People are not


Fools, and President Grant is not q


Dangerous Man, but an Honest Ex.


ecutive.


[From the Brooklyn Eagle, DemocraticI


4 A desire even for a second


term has been the catastrophe of every


Executive who indulgedi it since Jackson,


save Lincoln and Grant. Both were re.


elected because of exceptional services


and circumstances. Their reelection


was clear success of the popular will.


In zach cdse the mel, made tine running,


and the two-terin principle was Simply
form adopted by the people, who could


to their own satisfaction honor the men


they had resolved to honor in no other


way. On the whole, the rarity of re-
elections confirms the assertion that one


termism is the general habit and prefer
ence of our country. We depart from
that habit in few cases, but Just often
enough to show that we can do what we
please with our own. We have never
shared the apprehensions of the one-
term school. We would be willing to
see the Constitution amended rs That
school wants. But we are not very earn-
est about it. The people of this country
always have been able to take pretty
good care of themselves. We reckon
they always will be able to d6 so. One
thing Seems certaiii there have been
times when one-term amendment
would have been suspended. The peo-
pie could not have been kept out of re-
electing jackson and Lincoln by any
thing printed on paier. Another thing
is certain: Unwritten custom has always
been sufficient to insure the dispen-
sation with the most popular Presidents
at the end of their second term. That
custom is absolutely. sure always to pre-
vail. The people can be filled on very
quickly to dispose of any who propose
to discard it.


This people are sovereign in sense
which panicky papers are too apt to for
get. They don't intend to tie them
selves up from having man whom they
want second time. Neither do they
intend to allow any precedent to be
made Which will continue an Executive
longer than that. The men most alarm
ed about two-terism have principally
been statesmen who coveted but never
reached "just one term" All policies
which proceed on the assumption that
the time will be when this people cannot
control their own affairs, are illusory.
The one-term theory and the specter Of
a third term. or perpetual President,
have never taken hold of tile public i'm
agination. They cannot be made TO take
hold of it, simply because the first occa-
becomes crossed by the steady
wish OF the people,. and because the
Of the career of the fathers which iS
more potential than anything else they
furnished to posterity--their example.
Abstractly, the "alarin" is bugbear
that has never exerted any influence ex-
cept on sensationalists and visionaries.
The people "feel it in their bones" that
it is nonsense, and you can't work the
out of them.


Nor do we believe that Grant is the
sort of man to trouble himself with that
phantom OF third term. There is no
evidence that he desires it. Men Ia this
latitude want no better assurance that
it won't snow in July, than the fact that
it is July. Nor do sensible folk want
any better assurance that Grant is not
imbued with the third-term nonsense
than the consideration af what Kind
of a man he ir, and the consid
Grafton Of what sort of "souces
those are whence have iss,ied this
madness. 1t does vio-
lence to common sense and universal
knowledge of him to paint him as a cons
pound of Guy Fawkcs ahd Julius
Caesar. Frank p. Rleie, Jr., made some
about Grant, which five
years of his occupancy of the most pub
lis of our offices have not confirmed. 1t
was the calm conclusion of that retired
prophet that if Grant ever got to be
President the people would never get
rid of him. The people of Missouri
had no such difficulty with Frank. The
people of the United States will have
no such difficulty with Franks miscon.
strued President, when the time comes.
There is no single act of administrai
ton, there is no known habit or associ-
alton of the President which tends tow
ard third term. We dissent from
the tentative policy, we disagree with
most of the appointments, we do not
relish the domestic or foreign tone of
the Administration, But we find in
none of these things the slightest pre-
text on which to see the shadow of
shade of apprehension about absolut-
ism or Casarism. On the contrary, the
reverse is what we find.


The habits of the President are prim-
itively democratic. He goes where he
wants to and leaves when it pleases him.
He travels invariably with his consort
and children, like the good family man
that he is. He has q properly low value
of the force of unjustitiable denunciation
and snap criticism. He is lamentsbiy
lacking in appreciation of the self-pro-
claimed illimitable power of the press.
In short, he does what he pleases, unless
he pleases to do something else. Hpal-
pably pleases him to keep his mind and
body as snug Uncomfortable as possible,
in hot weather. We wish he
was less indifferent. But for the life of
us we cannot esteem him dangerous.
We wish he was less phlegmatic and
more dignified but that in his mind he
harbors coup d. etat is asking too
much for a people to believe who recog-
nize i'll their Chief Magistrate matter
,f-fact person, devoid of "airs +"
of proved patriotism.