Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 May 1875 — THE PRECEDENT WOULD BE A DANGEROUS ONE. [ARTICLE]

THE PRECEDENT WOULD BE A DANGEROUS ONE.

Almost everybody that knows anything* about the Indianapolis Journal will concede that in politics it is orthodox Republican, up to the highest standard known in this State. Indeed it is universally recognized as, and takes, pride in being considered, the central and leading organ, or official mouthpiece from which the lesser papers of that party which have only a circumscribed influence take their cue lOr action. It is the chief bugler of the Republican forces in Indiana who sounds the key-note which is to direct the smaller brass pieces and barrel organs in swelling out the chorus of a campaign. Besides this, the impression prevails with the people that the Journal is in a measure controlled by Senator Morton, who is by far the most influential Republican iu the State, and that it presents at least, a semi-offi-cial reflex of his political views, designs, policy, aspirations, and suspicions, knowledge or judgment of the aims and intentions of other men in public life. All these conditions taken together make the hints and statements of the Journal concerning public matters worthy of more than a casual glance. The Journal has taken more than one occasion to affirm that President Grant was scheming to be elected to the Chief Magistracy for a third term, but it has never made the statement with such positiveness, such unqualified vehemence, and frith a tone of such impatient disgust as in the issue of May 12th.

The Journal says: In regard to the question whether be real!v desires a third term and is working for it, there Is, in our judgment, not a shadow of doubt. \Yc do not say this as imputing any improper or unpatriotic motives to General Grant-, for however.wo may occasionally diiter with him in matters of policy', taste or judgment, we do not believe him capable of harboring an unpatriotic motive. General Grant is every inch a true American and true patriot, but that does not prevent him from desiring a third term cf the Presidency. He looks at the matter from his standpoint, and the people from theirs, and looking at it from his standpoint lie sees nothing improper, unpatriotic, or dangerous in his stoking a renomination. One easily believes what one wishes to believe, and as the Presidency is a very desirable office, and as General Grant undoubtedly desires it, he easily believes that there is nothing improper in his so doing. Those who surround -him are mostly courtiers, and, as ho comes very little in contact with the people, lie knows but little of their real feelings on this subject. Having been elected twice by large majorities, he probably thinks it not only possible but easy to be elected for a third ferm, and so long as he entertains this feeling, and is encouraged iu it; by the courtiers who are near him, he I is not at all likely to make a public j renunciation in deference to a strength j ho entirely underrates, ami which, in 1 ail probability, is studiously misrep-j resented bv those who have his ear. However this may be, there exists not Ihe shadow of a doubt that General Grant does desire a third term. This opinion is shared by a very large number of the abler newspapers and men of the country who minds to comprehend human nature and trace out the motives j that prompt particular actions, to-j gethcr with the results in which j they are likely to culminate. The Republican leaders in New Hampshire saw the unmistakable signs oi General Gram's ambition, feared

the effects of it, and promptlv disavowed sympathy with it; General Hawley recognizes the signs and deprecates the folly; Hon. Benjamin Wade confesses the situation aad recommends Ohio Republicans to denounce it by resolution in their State platform. Among the prominent Republican newspapers which share the wide-spread alarm may be named the Evening Post and Times of New York citv, the Monitor of Auburn, the Advertiser ofj Concord, the American of Baltimore, i the Herald of Cleveland, and (until its recent change of management) the filobe of St. Louis, b asides very many of less prominence, east and west. “Suppose General Grant does “want a third term in office— he is “a good executive officer, he is a “patriotic citizen, was a successful “soldier, and is a popular iaan—why “not nominate him a third time as “our candidate fbr President, if he ‘‘wants to run?” was recently asked by a friend and ex-6oldier. Tboj Journal answers, in-effect, Because U wHI iujuje the-Republican party.

BuMhere is a deeper andfar more important .reason why he. should not be a candidate, or rather why he should not be elected again. It has been the history of all re|mblicß that long terms of officeholding, either by parties or individcals, prove dangerous to popular liberty and the perpetuity of that form of government. We need not look into the pages of ancient history for confirmation of this fact, because nearly every reader of the events which have transpired in France since ISIS has a vivid picture before bis mind in illustration. Napoleon 111., as be was fond of being called, was first elected President of the Republic of France for four years, then for ten years, then for life, and then the republic ceased, a throne was erected where the chair stood, and tlie President became an Emperor. With the Journal we prefer to believe that General Grant is a true American and a true patriot; that he is to-day incapable of harboring an unpatriotic motive; that in his guileless simplicity of character and childlike innocence he does not even dream of an \ possible impropriety attaching to a desire for a third term, in the Presidential office, if ft pleases any one to have us believe so, but—but that word “courtiers’’ sounds ghastly to the ears of a republican when coupled with the schemes of an ambitious man for another lease of tremendous power, when such an event would scatterto the winds a tradition having for its origin the example of the Father of liis Country, and which has long been pointed to as an incident illustrating patriotic virtue. Suppose however that these courtiers have no influence to flatter him into making a still larger grasp for power; suppose at the end of a third term General Grant surrenders tip the peacably to his successor, with the rights of the. people unimpaired; yet a dangerous precedent Will have been made, and an unpatriotic successor will have had his pathway to kingly prerogatives rendered just that much clearer of obstacles. It is ill . this stealthy manner that Imperialism must advance, if at all, in a nation where

education is so prevalent among the masses as it is in the United States. First trample upon the traditions which are as cherished as constitutional provisions, then attack the Constitution itself, and create necessities for appealing to the arbitrament of arms. This is the stream. We enter anJ glide will* the current almost imperceptifly at first and not a ripple disturbs its surface or indicates the almost irresistible force in operation beneath; soon, before we are scarcely aware of it, the shore we have left recedes and old familiar landmarks disappear in the distance; a feeling of dread creeps into our hearts and we cast about for oars, chart and compass with which to guide- our voyage and effect return only to find that they have been seized and destroyed by a demon who mans our vessel and is rapidly driving it into the maelstrom. of destruction. When it is too late we perceive that we have foolishly permitted history to repeat itself at otir expense. Beware of the schemes cf ambitions men who permit courtiers to fatter them into trampling down customs that have Leen sanctioned by long and honorable observance.