Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 August 1877 — Oh! Were I the President! [ARTICLE]

Oh! Were I the President!

The Tribune has found a grear deal to admire in President Hayes and it lias not hesitated to express itself accordingly. It would be too much to expect perfection of him, of course, or of any one human, but we believe that a true friend will not only praise judiciously’, when occasion offers, he will al-o criticise candidly, when he sees faults that should be corrected. Tbo faults of the president, we are happy to believe, are nut of a serious or glaring character. They consist mainly in a too great fondness for tbe adulation of the multitude, and a willingness to accept costly favors from railroad corporations for which in itis official capacity, ho cun make no proper return, and ought therefor to refuse. With respect to this last we hold decided views. No man in a public office, be he judge, legislator, or president, should accept railroad passes under any conditions laying him in any manner under special obligations to railroad corporations. Tho result of the acceptance may be wholly innocent, but such is not the tendency. Railroads yio not give passes for nothing, that everybody knows, and when not bestowed on employees os perquisite, to newspapers in return for advertising, or to the officials ofother roads as an exchange of courtesies, when, instead, they are given to the judiciary and the legislative ana executive members of the government, their bequests is still for cause, none tbe less certain because indirect. A railroad pass in the bands of one of these is a gentle reminder that if any case conies up for trial in court, or any legislation arises affecting the interests of the corporation, the holder is expected to regard such interests with a friendly eye. We do not suppose that anything further than this is meant, or that anything further results. But a bias, however slight, for or against any question of moment, is something that both judge aud legislator should avoid, and for this reason they should refuse a railroad pass os resolutely at they would the greenbacks of which the pose is a representative. Now ■for the president to journey hither and thither in especial palace carat the expense of Tom Scott, or any other railroad president, seems to us to be setting a demoralizing example to the country. From an administration that pays such strict rogard to political virtue in other respects, better things were to have been expected. The junketing about tho country are leer harmful, but they are undignified and vain-' glorious. When Andrew Johnson “swung around tbeoircle" to work up publioenthnsiasm for himself, he was justly subjected to ridicule. We do not see that the peregrinations of President Hayes and party an entitled to be regarded with especially greater leniency, although friend and foe thus far deal with the matter in a spirit cf gingerllvj toleration. If President Hayes has any useful purpose to subserve by visiting the various points of the eountry, it could be attained, no doubt, much more effectively if his traveling was done quietly and without ostentation. Dorn Pedro showed the magnate* of the world how beet

to travel find find out whiit was worth knowing, and it would be belter if all would heed the lesson. He abhorred receptions end nomby-powby speech-making, paid his own bills in spite of nil efforts to dead-head him, and carefully avoided nil heralding of his alert, and straight-to-ihe-tnark movements. Imperious ruler over a powerful kingdom though ho was, he sot nn example of republican simplicity, directness and independence such as would vainly be looked for where it might most naturally bo expected nail ought most surely to be found, .in tlie United Slates of Ameriaa.—South Bend Tribune. - -■■ ■ ■ ♦ ■■■ -