Year: 1873

sne Unase9 STATES Btese9 ao9 the


Rule o. Cssssss iiafs q g-saj 3'ai


The machinery for carrying on the govern
ment Of the United States is peculiarly adapted
to the sway of Cmsarism. The powers of the
Presidential Office would need no enlargement
to mike them absolute il the tenure were pro-
longed. The Cabinet is not responsible
Ministry, directly answerable to the country
and likely to be turned out of Office at any
moment by an adverse vote Of Congress, but
the mere puppet Of the Presidents will. MI.
Fish is Grants chief clerk for foreign affairs.
General Belknap is his principal war clerk.
Mr.. Robeson keeps an account of his ships
and record Of their movements Mr. Rich
ardson is the leading subordinate of the Treas
ury. selling gold and buying bonds and doing
such other things as he is ordered to do by
the Executive The other Cabinet officers
hold similar relations to the President, and
there is no difference except in degree between
the heads of departments and the heads of bu-
reaus. In every administration, and especially
in times of great political excitement even
the Attorney General is apt to construe the
law in obedience to the Presidential whim, and
if the President had power to keep him in Office
during his life every enactment of Congress
would be found to fit the Executive purpose
great manufacturer, with mills and machine
shops, and banks and stores and lines of
transportation, does not control his vast enter
prises more absolutely than the President con-
trolls the machinery of the government Of the
United States Every Custom House officer
in the country, every assessor and collector Of
internal revenue, every postmaster, every
petty feeder on public patronage, can be
reached by the President as readily and
directly as Governor Sprague reaches his
cotton spinners and madden mixers. Even
the Supreme Court is not beyond the impress
Office of our Chief Magistrate were for life
that august body would soon feel the whole
weight Of the Presidential hand. No violent
changes in the Constitution are required for
the reign of Cesar Not even Congress
would need to be abolished by an absolute
tyrant; for, with chief law clerk to construe
Congress enactments and Q Supreme Court to
endorse his constructions, it would not be
necessary to incur the danger of destroying q
body that could exist without hurt. All these
considerations are of the most startling charac-
ter and add to our fears of the spirit of Cesar
ism which seems to be growing silently but
surely. ot'1 m oars fgA H2 lAA n2


We are apt to speak in raptures Of the
wisdom Of the fathers and their states
manlike foresight in framing the Consti-
tuition. But we stand aghast at their work
when we find how thoroughly fitted it is for the
designs of an ambitious President. Either
they believed that An American President
must always be free from such ambition as
distinguished Caesar and Cromwell and Napo-
leon, or that the short term of Office allotted
to our Chief Magistrates would be sufficient
safeguard against such ambition. 1t is idle to
trust in the former of these hypothesis, for the
three names we have 30 often cited show how
hard it is when absolute power is within ones
grasp to put it away and say


III not betray the glory Of my name;


'Tis not for me, who have preserved State,


To buy an Empire at 80 dear rate.


The fact that time-servers and politicians
speak of according q third term to General
Grant proves that the latter hypothesis is
equally untrustworthy. There was no danger
in the past, because it was always taken for
granted that no one would aspire to more than
two terms of the Presidential Office. But
because no politician in the past was
base enough to propose q third term
for Jefferson or jackson it has not
prevented bad men from suggesting it for
Grant The magnanimity of the President
and the patriotism of the people, we believe,
will prevent any such contamination now;
but in tho suggestion itself is the proof Of
possible danger in the future. II is not every
President who can follow Washingtons ex-
ample or faithfully preserve the traditions Of
the Republic The man who can Justly claim
to have preserved generally desires to rule the
Stale. History is full Of instances where the
patiiot Of one day became the tyrant of the
ne4. Marc Antony, according to the Doet, ct
lead, proved that Cesar was not ambitious,
andyet every ruler that Rome had after him
was Cesar In our own day an Emperor
write life Of Cesar to justify his own and
thf more brilliant Cmsarism of his uncle.
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Y& neither Cesar nor Napoleon had such
mans at his hand for making and perpetual
int his power as has every American Presi-
dat. Successive reflections through the
patronage of the government, the corruptions
of he politicians and the indifferentism of the
peple seem all that is necessary to make our
Chef Magistrate first an absolute then an
heeditary ruler.


work called the Congressional Directory,


polished every year for the delectation of
Chgressmen and other persons, whose names


itontains, has list of the principal officials


1.-THE departments at Washington. Like the
Amy Register, it includes only the line and
syf-the heads of departments and bureaus
ah their chief clerks-the rank and
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