E 681 
 • N53 
 Copy 2 
 
 ADDRESS 
 
 New York State Republican Reform League 
 
 <i 
 
 FOLLOWED BY 
 
 THE THIRD-TERM QUESTION 
 
 Hon. MATTHEW HALE 
 
 AND 
 
 THE REPUBLIC AND THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 Honorable A. N. COLE 
 
 Reprinted from the National Quarterly Review 
 
 for April, 1880 
 
 NEW YORK 
 THOMPSON & MOREAU, PRINTERS, 51 & 53 MAIDEN LANE 
 
 1880 
 
 c^Lm 
 
 % 
 

 
ADDRESS. 
 
 New York State Republican Reform League. 
 
 Headquarters, 34 Park Row, New York City, 
 
 May 20th, 1880. 
 
 Recent events, the particulars of which need not be entered 
 upon, having to some degree engendered in the public mind 
 an impression that the organization known as the New York 
 State Republican Reform League has other objects in view, 
 than the upbuilding, strengthening and perpetuation of the 
 Republican party, there would seem to be occasion for a full 
 and free declaration on the part of its more immediate repre- 
 sentatives, covering, so far as may be, the entire case. 
 
 Under these circumstances, the subscribers, constituting the 
 Executive Committee of the League, beg leave to say, that a 
 knowledge of the causes combining to bring the organization 
 into being, the elements composing it, together with the history 
 of its rise, growth and development, are essential to an intelli- 
 gent understanding of its work, aims and ultimate objects. This 
 will necessitate the going back to the period of the inauguration 
 of Ulysses S. Grant as President on the 4th of March, 1869. It 
 is something well known to most people, that large numbers of 
 those earliest engaged in bringing into being the Republican 
 party, doubted the wisdom of making General Grant can- 
 didate for the Presidency at all. To these, the camp, the 
 field and the schools of war were not regarded as the best and 
 most wholesome educators for governors of a free people ; and, 
 while all Republicans and thousands of patriotic Democrats 
 admired, honored and respected General Grant, they looked 
 nevertheless upon Salmon P. Chase, Charles Sumner, William 
 M. Evarts, and scores, not to say hundreds, of others, trained 
 in civil affairs, as better fitted than he for the Chief Magistracy 
 
of the Republic But General Grant was the hero of the 
 hour, and it was impossible at the time to stem the tide in his 
 favor. Ee was accordingly nominated and elected, receiving 
 the united support of all classes of Republicans. 
 
 At the period of his inauguration, the party was united, 
 determined and strong. But divisions soon arose, bitter feuds 
 were engendered, and factious took the place of peace and 
 union. Scarcely had General Grant been six months President 
 when, from causes never explained or understood, there was 
 begun a war upon certain chiefs in the party, having no 
 parallel in the history of American politics. The inaugura- 
 tion of changes in nearly all departments of the custom-, 
 postal and other branches of the service then took place, 
 until scarcely a friend of Greeley, Chase and Fenton was 
 found in office at the close of General Grant's first year 
 as President. That discontent, dissatisfaction and disgust 
 followed on the part of a large portion of the party, was 
 natural. The wise and prudent policies of war, which had 
 enabled the eminent soldier to surround himself with the 
 best military talent of the nation, seemed to have deserted 
 him when placed at the head of civil affairs. His chief 
 counsellors were taken from the ranks of those who had 
 most axes to grind, and. in their grinding, manifestly cared 
 more for their own political fortunes and fame, than for 
 those of their party and country. That such a policy resulted 
 in alienating large numbers from the party, need not be won- 
 dered at. The entire patronage of the Government was 
 bestowed with a view to building up one class of Leaders, and 
 the pulling down of another. So marked was this policy, 
 and to rach an extent was it carried, that one man. Senator 
 Roecoe < lonkling, was made substantially dictator in all thii ge 
 pertaining to the distribution of patronage. 
 
 The Boenes witnessed during the organization of the Legis- 
 lature at Albany, on the incoming of the Presidential year of 
 L872, can hardly be described. Suffice it to Bay, that what was 
 believed t.> he a majority <>f upward.- of twenty, on the part of 
 the Greeley-Fentonians, was, through the pn at the State 
 
 capital, on the first day of the new year, of nearly or quite all 
 
of the principal federal office-holders in the State, transformed 
 into a minority. Tn briefly reviewing the political features 
 of the juncture to which we refer, mention should not fail 
 to be made of the steady encroachment on the part of the 
 office-holding elements of the party, throughout the State. 
 Local and general committees were created by machinery, 
 who arrogated to themselves powers, and assumed authority 
 at variance with popular rights within the party. All there 
 was left of the grand old Republican party of 1856, '60, '64, 
 and '68, and of its millions of voters, had been transformed 
 into a political machine, cunningly devised to advance the 
 fortunes of individuals. 
 
 That the memorable revolt of 1872 — resulting in the nomi- 
 nation of Horace Greeley for President — followed, was not 
 only natural, but inevitable. That upwards of fifty thous- 
 and life-long and earnest Republicans in this State alone 
 joined in that revolt, is a fact well known to those into whose 
 hands came the rosters by counties, towns, school and election 
 districts throughout the State. Five thousand in New York, 
 with an equal number in Kings, two thousand in St. Lawrence, 
 eighteen hundred in Chautauqua, fifteen hundred in Allegany, 
 and so on relatively all over the State made up an aggregate, 
 as already stated, of more than fifty thousand. Despite all, 
 this formidable revolt failed on account of desertion from the 
 ranks of Democratic allies. Greeley was defeated, and, for the 
 time being, his friends were apparently discomfited. This, 
 however, was only seeming. The succeeding year found 
 three or four hundred Liberals assembled in State Convention 
 at Elmira, Republicans still, and yet, barely a majority in 
 favor of making up the eclectic ticket, composed of Republi- 
 cans and Democrats, that year elected. From that time until 
 the close of the campaign of the year 1874, when Samuel 
 J. Tilden was elected Governor, defeating John A. Dix by 
 a majority of fifty thousand, the doors had been shut by the 
 Republican machine in the face of the malcontents, and 
 due notice was given that, as regarded any grace, beyond 
 the privilege of voting the Republican ticket when made 
 by the machine, no liberal need apply. Xor were the en- 
 
gineers of the machine, as a rule, in any measure convinced 
 that it was either desirable or essential to the future of the 
 Republican party, that the alienated and estranged Indepen- 
 dents should further act with it. This was the trial hour for 
 the Republican party in this State. Had the entire Liberal 
 and Independent element then gone over to Tilden, there 
 would have been no hope of recovery. Even as it was, fully 
 two thirds did BO at that one election. This, however, pretty 
 much ended the Liberal and Democratic alliance. During the 
 succeeding year, 1>7">, fully thirty-five thousand of the fifty 
 thousand Liberals took their place again in the ranks of the 
 Republican party. It was during this latter year that work 
 was renewed, ami active] v forwarded, entailing sacrifices of 
 time and money, and resulting in the formation of the New 
 "i ork State Auxiliary of the National Reform League. The 
 national organization was simply inchoate in character in most 
 of the States; however, such was its influence that it made 
 itself felt at the Fifth Avenue Conference, held in the city of 
 New Fork in the early spring of the succeeding Presidential 
 year, as a most important factor in that gathering, influencing 
 action not only at Cincinnati, but also up to the present time. 
 It was during the Presidential campaign of l s 7»'>. that the 
 League, organized on the plan of a State ( lommittee of one hun- 
 dred members, one for each county and forty at large, an Ex- 
 ecutive Committee of twenty-five members, a correspondent 
 in each town of the State, with associates by school district-, 
 and one in each ward of cities with associates by election dis- 
 tricts, and well organized in nearly all of the counties with 
 the exception of about ten, counting those of New York, 
 Kings and Erie, and having imperfect organization there also. 
 did a most important work, by bringing into harmonious 
 action and accord the disaffected or anti-machine elements of 
 the party, and embracing within it> correspondence, associa- 
 tion and membership, tens of thousands of the very best men 
 
 of the State. 
 
 < >n the committee ol this State's Auxiliary were found 
 
 the name- of the following Republicans, not unknown to the 
 
 people of our State: Gen. Alexander S. Diven, Chairman 
 
of State Committee ; Hon. Bradford It. Wood, Hon. Lemon 
 Thompson, and Dr. John Swinburne, of Albany ; Dr. Nathan 
 Y. Hull, of Allegany; Hon. Orlow W. Chapman and Mr. 
 James H. Armstrong, of Broome; Hon. T. M. Pomeroy, 
 of Cayuga; Hon. W. L. Sessions and Hon. Henry C. Lake, 
 of Chautauqua ; Hon. Norman M. Allen, of Cattaraugus ; 
 Hon. Horatio Ballard, of Cortland ; Hon. Norwood Bowne, 
 of Delaware-; Hon. Abiah W. Palmer and Hon. H. G. 
 Eastman, of Dutchess ; Hon. John T. Ilogeboom, of 
 Columbia ; Hon. Monroe Hall, of Essex ; Hon. Wells S. 
 Dickinson, of Franklin ; Mr. C. B. Thomson, of Genesee ; 
 Captain C.W. Godard, A. N. Cole and Dr. S. S. Guy, and others, 
 of Kings ; Hon. William M. White, of Livingston ; Hon. William 
 N. Emerson and Charles E. Fitch, Esq., of Monroe ; Hon. Ezra 
 Graves, of Herkimer ; W. T. Manchester, Esq., of Madison ; 
 Hon. Dan. H. Cole, of Orleans; Chancellor E. O. Haven, 
 Silas Smith and James Geddes, of Onondaga : Hon. George 
 B. Sloane and Hon De Witt C. Littlejohn, of Oswego ; Hon. 
 L. Bradford Prince, of Queens; Hon. Geo. F. Carman, of 
 Suffolk ; Hon. S. T. Hayt, of Steuben ; Hon. Hobart Krum, 
 of Schoharie ; Hon. Robert Loughran, of Ulster ; Charles St. 
 John, Jr., of Orange; Gen. E. A. Merritt and Hon. A. B. 
 James, of St. Lawrence ; Hon. Beman Brockway, of Jeffer- 
 son ; Hon. Amos Y. Smiley, of Lewis ; S. C. Cleveland, Esq., 
 of Yates ; Gerrit Smith, Jr., of Ontario ; Gen. Lloyd Aspin- 
 wall, General John Cochrane, Elwood E. Thome, Hon. 
 Thomas E. Stewart, Hon. Benjamin F. Manierre, Hon. Henry 
 G. Stebbins, Hon. James It. Angel and others, of the City and 
 County of New York; Gen. James W. Existed and Dr. 
 Henry Randall AVaite, of Westchester, and several others, 
 one hundred in all. Its Executive Committee, consisting of 
 twenty-five members, was made up from the above list. 
 
 At the close of the campaign, the books and records of the 
 League were left in possession of the chairman of its Execu- 
 tive Committee, by whom they have been held as cus- 
 todian. In the meantime, at a meeting of the State Com- 
 mittee, held at the St. Nicholas Hotel in the city of New 
 York, in the month of December, 1870, and largely attended, 
 
6 
 
 a resolution was passed empowering the Chairman and 
 - jretary of the Executive Committee to take such action, 
 from time to time, as might be found necessary to continue 
 Tin- work of the League ; and thus it was that, from the close 
 of the campaign of l s 7 ( '' to the opening of the Presidential 
 pear of L 880, the correspondence and work of the organiza- 
 tion were kept up and continued almost wholly by the ('hair- 
 man of its Executive ( Jommittee. 
 
 Elead-quarters again being opened the first week in Janu- 
 ary of the present year, the work of reorganization was begun 
 \>\ dropping the name and form of a national league, and 
 adopting that of the New York State Republican Reform 
 League; a majority of the members of its Executive, and a 
 considerable portion of the State ( lommittee, continuing to act. 
 In response to letters, circulars and documents sent out during 
 the first six wok- of the year, came assurances from all por- 
 tions of the State, that the correspondents of the New York 
 State Auxiliary of tin- National Reform League were generally 
 inclined to art as correspondents of the organization now ex- 
 isting; The organization thus becoming a league of corres 
 pon dents and associates, put on, in its new life, the form of 
 unity, nor has it- Executive Committee taken any action, nor 
 will it do bo, not clearly authorized by the Bentiment and 
 concurrence of Buch correspondents and associates. The fol- 
 lowing platform, or declaration of purposes, is the foundation 
 of the League : 
 
 SUl I R \<'.E. 
 
 1. The persistent use of the best means for securing an honest 
 aim\ free exercise of the right of suffrage, to the end that every 
 lawful vote ma) be east without interference,, discrimination or 
 intimidation, and when cast shall be counted, believing that in 
 the ! guardianship of the ballot box is found the only 
 
 trantees ol a good and permanent government. 
 
 PRIMARIl - \M> ELECTIONS, 
 
 1 1 I he adoption of such measures in the < onduct of primary 
 ele< dons a-> shall free them from improper influences, and shall 
 
 i ure the unprejudiced expression of the popular will, and 
 
the best attainable choice of candidates for office, thereby pre- 
 venting the machinery of party politics from becoming the 
 enginery of corruption, and securing the nomination and election 
 to office of capable, honest and incorruptible men. 
 
 CIVIL SERVICE. 
 
 III. The application to the conduct of the civil service of 
 those business principles which shall secure therein stability, 
 efficiency, honesty and economy ; opposition to any use of official 
 power or patronage for private or party purposes, and the enforce- 
 ment of the reasonable demand that holders, by appointment, of 
 official positions, national, State, or local, shall not to the neglect 
 of their proper official duties hold offices in political party organ- 
 izations or in nominating conventions. 
 
 THE JUDICIARY, THE LEGISLATIVE AND THE 
 COMMON SCHOOLS. 
 
 IV. The adoption of such measures as may be necessary in 
 order to preserve the purity of the Judiciary ; guard against the 
 demoralizing effects of special and class legislation ; and secure 
 the integrity of our common school system. 
 
 FEDERAL AUTHORITY IN THE STATES. 
 
 V. The protection of all citizens in the free exercise of their 
 constitutional rights, by the exercise of Federal power if neces- 
 sary ; sustaining firmly national supremacy in national matters. 
 
 THE NATIONAL CREDIT. 
 
 VI. A firm adherence to the use of such measures as shall 
 secure and maintain the highest public credit at home and abroad, 
 honest money, and an honest dollar for all alike, and the refund- 
 ing of the national debt into bonds bearing the lowest rate of 
 interest attainable. 
 
 HOME INDUSTRIES AND FOREIGN COMMERCE. 
 
 VII. The adoption of such a policy in the Customs Revenue 
 as shall properly protect the home industries whose development 
 is of national importance, while encouraging in other respects 
 unrestricted commerce. 
 
THE PRESIDENTIAL TERM. 
 
 VIII. An amendment to the Federal Constitution providing 
 cither for a longer single Presidential term, or the intermission of 
 at least one term before a President shall be eligible for reelection. 
 
 NATIONAL POLICE IN INTERNAL AFFAIRS. 
 
 IX. The pursuit by the Government of a wise and just inter- 
 nal policy, which shall allay the bitterness of a struggle long 
 since ended in an honorable peace ; respect the privileges of every 
 ( iti/en ; advance the best interests of all the States ; and cement 
 the Union preserved in war, by kindling a spirit of patriotism 
 which shall bind together the people of the whole land without 
 
 ird to (lass, color, or geographical lines. 
 
 A careful study of this platform will make it manifest 
 thai a single and longer term of the Presidency, or two terms, as 
 now provided, of four years each, a term intervening before 
 reelection, is a cardinal doctrine of the League. This provision 
 is suggested from the fact, that the greatest abuses of power 
 thus far exercised by individuals or parties, have come through 
 the use and abuse of patronage on the part of an Executive in 
 office. So alarming have become these encroachments, through 
 the agencies of conclave and committee, as to largely, if not 
 wholly, defy and defeat the will of the people. Though the 
 Republican Reform League then, has not been conducted, 
 and will not be, as an anti-third-term or anti-Grant organiza- 
 tion, its correspondence, nevertheless, coming from every 
 section of the State, indicates a condition of things convincing 
 any one who examines it, that to nominate General Grant, or 
 an\ one else for a third term of the Presidency, would prove 
 a mosl hazardous experiment. That it is impossible to carry 
 New York for a third-term candidate, this correspondence 
 completely demonstrates. The tone of public sentiment, as 
 reflected in the press, and heard all over the land, makes it 
 equally manifest that to renominate Grant would be simply 
 to court defeat. His nomination, in fact, is only possible 
 under the operation of the unit rule, enforced on the part, 
 not oi the State Conventions adopting it, since these have 
 

 
 adjourned, but on the part of the National Convention 
 itself. 
 
 The operation of instructions, and enforcement of the unit 
 rule, is a manifest usurpation of power on the part of conclave, 
 caucus and committee, calculated to incite all free men to rise 
 in revolt against it. Did no other abuse than this exist in 
 the methods of parties, the overthrow and abrogation of this 
 irrational and despotic exercise of political power on the part 
 of sm artificially, if not fraudulently, constructed majority, 
 would call for the organization of the League. Neither in 
 Pennsylvania, where the unit rule was adopted in State Con- 
 vention, nor in New York, where instructions were given to 
 the delegation to vote as a body for Grant, was there found 
 an absence of causes, vitiating such proceedings. A con- 
 siderable number of the delegates to Ilarrisburgh were chosen 
 by local committees, while at Utica, entire delegations, chosen 
 by frauds of the most flagrant character, were admitted, while 
 others entitled to seats were rejected. An honestly constituted 
 convention, either at Ilarrisburg or Utica, would never have 
 voted instructions or adopted the unit rule. Several eminent 
 members of the League hold seats on the delegation to Chicago, 
 and these will gravely offend against its most cardinal doctrine, 
 that of the exercise of personal independence and political obli- 
 gation to respect the will of immediate constituencies, should 
 they fail at the very outset at Chicago, to vote in favor of the 
 principle more elaborately brought out in an article which ap- 
 peared under the head of The Republic and the Presidency, in 
 the April number of the National Quarterly Review. This 
 article, as well as another on The Third-Term Question, by the 
 Hon. Matthew Hale, also found in the Review, in a large degree 
 reflects the sentiments of a majority of the correspondents and 
 associates of the League. Upon one point more especially, we 
 speak in conclusion. No one is, has been, or will be, authorized 
 to speak for the Republican Reform League on the question 
 of candidates. The League has no candidate, or candidates, 
 nor will it have any. It is entirely devoted to the one 
 end, of begetting a system of nominations which will 
 faithfully reflect the popular will. Its correspondence 
 
1" 
 
 developed the fad that there are more liL-piiblieaiifl in New 
 Fork State in favor of the nomination of .lame- (i. Blaine 
 than of any one whoee name has been mentioned in connec- 
 tion with the Presidency. It developes equally tlie fact, that 
 John Sherman is very strong, and General Grant weak 
 in New York, and Leads to the conclusion that this sentiment, 
 divided in its popular, political and business influences, is likely 
 to find itself correspondingly reflected at Chicago. It is the 
 crystallization and faithful reflection of this Bentiment on the 
 part of the Republican masses, that the League would have 
 respected and enforced. It hopes, during the next four years, 
 to see realized a decree of progress, providing for the assem- 
 bling at all polling places in the American Union, early in the 
 Presidential year, on the game day, under provisions and 
 protection of law, all citizens, each tor himself declaring 
 whom he prefers as his candidate for President. Orging the 
 adoption of these principles, and insisting upon their just and 
 equal application, the League has no fellow-hip or toleration 
 tor the vagaries of that order of political doctrinaires, who set 
 themselves up as better judges of the titness and qualification 
 of a candidate for the Presidency, than are forty-nine-fiftieths 
 of the Republican party. 
 
 In the pursuit of it> work, it neither lias done nor will do 
 aufirhl to beget rivalries among the Leaders, or create division or 
 -trite within the party, hut it will insist upon the equal right of 
 all Republicans to recognition and representation in primary, 
 caucus and convention proceedings. The single fact — shame- 
 ful ami mortifying to the extremest degree, — that, of the 
 Bixty thousand Republicans in the citv of NTew York, less 
 
 than ten thousand of their names are found upon the association 
 
 books of the Bo-called Republican party, stamps the impress of 
 
 fraud upon the primary proceedings of a locality determining 
 the recent outcome at Otica, and begetting the rapidly (level- 
 oping revolt impending at Chicago. It i> not surprising that 
 
 a full BCOre of delegates in New York State have, as we are 
 informed, already made up their minds to respect the clearly 
 
 expressed will of their immediate constituencies, and vote for 
 emancipation from the thrall and fetter- of conclave and com- 
 
11 
 
 mittee, begetting unit rules and instructions — sought to arbi- 
 trarily bind the delegate to dishonor his own convictions and 
 defy the will of his immediate constituency. 
 
 The spirit thus cropping out is to bring to the front a 
 class of leaders comparatively unknown to the past of American 
 politics ; and among them all, no one seems more eminent than 
 the great commoner, James Gr. Blaine. In thus concluding, 
 it may not be inappropriate to add, that, while a majority of this 
 committee would prefer Secretary John Sherman for President, 
 they would prove false to their professions of respect for the 
 popular will, were they to attempt to cover up the fact, that 
 Senator Blaine would seem, at the present, to be the choice of 
 the masses of the party. 
 
 That this feeling is the outgrowth of impulse, combined 
 with an intelligent appreciation of services rendered to the 
 people in a lifetime of work for their welfare, is probable. The 
 value of the services of Secretary Sherman, however, more 
 slowly appreciated, cannot fail to place him where, in a 
 little while longer, no living American will have earned 
 a more solid, deserved and permanent popularity. As it 
 looks now, it cannot be long before a realization of the value 
 of Secretary Sherman's services will acquire an universality 
 coming nearer to making him President by the common 
 acclaim of the people, than anything realized during the 
 last half century. This committee gives no opinion as to the 
 relative strength of Blaine or Sherman as candidates for the 
 suffrages of the people ; but it does not hesitate to state, that 
 the correspondence of the League demonstrates the fact that, 
 failure to nominate one or the other of those statesmen 
 at Chicago, would disappoint the hopes and expectations of 
 fully three-fourths of the Republicans of New York. This 
 committee is convinced that either Secretary Sherman or 
 Senator Blaine would poll the entire Republican vote and 
 carry the State. Whether any new man, or "dark horse," 
 so termed, could do this is a matter of doubt, to say the 
 least. In one regard, the League Platform will not be found 
 changing. While it will yield obedience to the exigencies 
 of war, or to any menace to the peace or safety of the 
 
\-> 
 
 nation, and agrees with the sentiment bo aptly illustrated by 
 Lincoln, that it is not a good time or place to swap horses 
 while crossing the stream, — it will equally hold to the one- 
 term principle as a rule which must govern the future of 
 this Republic. That the one term principle will ultimately 
 prevail, and that the Constitution will be correspondingly 
 amended, is bnt a question of time. Until then, antecedent 
 ae well as existing conditions should be made use of, leaving to 
 the intelligence of the people the enforcement of that un- 
 written law, more -acred than statutes, covenants or consti- 
 tutions, which forbids an election for more than two terms, of 
 aiiv one man to the Presidency. What the people would 
 have, the League would have also; applying this principle not 
 merely to the Presidency, but equally to all nominations for 
 
 elective offices. 
 
 Convinced that the time has come for revolt, if need be, 
 against a most despotic and degrading phase of political tyran- 
 ny, that of caucus, conclave and committee, as developed 
 through the machine, the League will know no truce or sus- 
 pension of warfare, until unit rules are everywhere abrogated ; 
 and instructions, other than such as are merely suggestive, 
 ae well as all other forms of tvrannv, begotten by Kins 
 Caucus, shall find burial in the grave of the dead past, 
 nor, as ghosts of the dark ages stalking forth in the day- 
 light of the nineteenth century — survivors of feudalism and 
 relics of barbarism — defy reason in morals, and decency in 
 politic-. 
 
 Nor need any one doubt either the present power, or final 
 triumph of the League. It has served the purposes of certain 
 classes of men to decry, belittle and seem to scorn it, and one 
 of the daily journals of New York City has lent the in- 
 fluence of its columns to this end. The name of the paper 
 need not he given, but suffice it to say that it is not the 
 New York Tribune. It has Beemed cunning also, not to say 
 
 wise, by Bapping, mining, fraud and deceit, to seek to turn 
 
 aside the work of the Leagui — -aiming solely to upbuild, 
 
 strengthen and perpetuate the Republican party, laying deep 
 its foundation- in the heart and conscience of the people — 
 
13 
 
 and to transform it into a new machine, to further the ends 
 and advance the fortunes of individuals. 
 
 All this has signally failed. The League goes on with its 
 work, aiming to secure to the people a government of the 
 people, by the people, for the people. And so shall the 
 harvest be. 
 
 JOHN SWINBURNE, Albany. 
 
 LEMON THOMPSON, Albany. 
 A. N. COLE, Allegany. 
 T. L. MINIER, Chemung. 
 C. W. GODARD, Kings. 
 E. P. CONE, Kings. 
 JOSEPH REEVE, Kings. 
 W. M. WHITE, Livingston. 
 APPLETON MORGAN, New York. 
 J. II. TUCKER, New York. 
 WM. LINDSAY, New York. 
 NAPOLEON THOMPSON, New York. 
 ROMYN HITCHCOCK, New York. 
 GEO. F. CARMAN, Suffolk. 
 ROBERT LOUGHRAN, Ulster. 
 
 A. N. Cole, Chairman. 
 E. P. Cone, Secretary. 
 
Bepriated ht»n the NATIONAL QUARTERLY REVIEW, 
 for \pril. 1880. — Copyright. 
 
 THE THIRD-TERM QUESTION, 
 
 The Constitution of the LTnited States was ratified by the 
 State of New York at a convention held at Ponghkeepsie, the 
 26th day of July, 17^ s . Thar convention was presided over 
 by George Clinton, the first governor of the State. Among 
 it- most distinguished members were Alexander Hamilton, 
 John Jay, Robert R. Livingston, James Clinton and Melanc- 
 thon Smith. 
 
 There had been a sharp conflict in that convention as to 
 whether the ratification should he absolute or conditional A 
 large majority of the delegates were, at first, in favor of onlya 
 conditional ratification, dependent upon the adoption of certain 
 amendments proposed. Finally, however, news having come 
 of th sassentof New Hampshire, and only one State more being 
 nec2ssary to the a loption of the Constitution, it was decided 
 to make the ratification unqualified ; but the resolution adopted 
 stated that the Constitution was ratified by New York, in full 
 confidence that the proposed amendment- would be adopted. 
 Among the amendments proposed by the State of New York 
 was the following: " That no person shall /« eligibli to tht 
 offid of President of th United States a third time " * 
 
 < Opposition to a third term, then, is not a new thing in the 
 State of New ^ ork. This amendment was never formally 
 incorporated into the Constitution, but the principle embodied 
 in it has ever since been acted upon. Up to this time, no 
 person has been elected or voted for, for a third term, as 
 President of the Tinted States. 
 
 A brief statement will present the historical tacts bearing 
 1 1 1 > - > t i this subject : 
 
 W ashington was twice elected, but peremptorily refused 
 
 * t Vol. 1. p. 365. 
 
2 
 
 the use of his name as a candidate for a third terra. It has 
 been argued, by the recent advocates of third-termism, that 
 his declension was not from any conviction of duty or regard 
 to public interest, but was the result of purely selfish consid- 
 erations, viz. : his desire for the peace and tranquillity of re- 
 tirement. It must be conceded that the pomp and power of 
 high station had little attraction for the Father of his Country. 
 Personally, he doubtless preferred quiet and retirement, but 
 he was always ready to sacrifice his own private interests 
 to the public good ; and there is ample evidence that in this 
 act of his life, by which he renounced the greatness and })ower 
 of his high position, his ideas of public duty entirely coincided 
 with his private inclinations. He desired to retire at the end 
 of his first term, and in anticipation of this event he wrote a 
 letter to James Madison, dated May 20th, 1792, in which he 
 expressed this wish and asked him to assist in the preparation 
 of a suitable farewell address. The following is his language : 
 
 " I desire that you would turn your thoughts to a valedictory 
 address from me to the public, expressing, in plain and modest 
 terms, that having been honored with the presidential chair, and 
 to the best of my abilities contributed to the organization and 
 administration of the government ; that having arrived at a period 
 of life when the proper close of it in the shades of retirement 
 becomes necessary and will be more pleasing to me ( and as the 
 spirit of the government may render a rotation in the elective offices 
 of it more congenial to the ideas the people have of liberty and 
 safety), that I take my leave of them as a public man," etc.* 
 
 In answer to this, Madison sent to Washington a draft of 
 the proposed address, in which he endeavored to put the ideas 
 of AVashington, as conveyed to him orally as well as by the 
 letter above referred to, in a clear and suitable form. In this 
 draft we find the following language : 
 
 " May I be allowed further to add, as a consideration far more 
 important, that an early example of rotation in an office of so high 
 and delicate a nature, may equally concur with the republican 
 spirit of our Constitution, and the ideas of liberty and safety en- 
 tertained by the people. 
 
 Under these circumstances a return to my private station, 
 
 * Vide the entire letter in Sparks' Life and Writings of George Washington, 
 Vol. XII, p. 382. 
 
according to the purpose with which I quitted it, is the part which 
 duty as well a-. in< linatioa assigns me.'"* 
 
 It lb true that this draft was never used, for the reason that 
 Washington was prevailed upon to Berve a second term. But 
 it was retained by Washington. It concurs in spirit with the 
 Language used in his own letter t<> Madison, There is every 
 reason to believe that it was fully approved by Washington. 
 
 Near the close of his second term, when his farewell address 
 
 was actually given to the public, this draft by Madison was 
 sent liv the president to Hamilton, that it might be recast and 
 adapted to the changed circumstances then existing. It 
 appear.-, therefore, that Washington was opposed to prolonging 
 the presidential office beyond two terms. Be thought that 
 rotation in that office was in accordance with the spirit of the 
 government and with popular ideas of liberty and safety. 
 
 As John Adams was only elected for one term, the question 
 of a third term, of course, did not and could not arise with 
 him. The next incumbent of the presidential office was 
 Thomas Jefferson. Be had originally been opposed to making 
 a president reeligible at all. His views on this question, how- 
 
 r, changed. In a letter to John Taylor, dated January 6th, 
 
 L 804, after his second election but before the expiration of his 
 
 first term, he Bays : 
 
 " My opinion originally was that the president of the United 
 States should have been elected for seven years, and forever inel- 
 igible afterwards. 1 have since become sensible that seven years 
 long to become irremovable, and that there should be a 
 possible way of withdrawing a man in midway who is doing 
 wrong. The service for eight years, with the power to remove at 
 the end of the 6rst four, comes nearly to my principle, as corrected 
 by experience, and it is in adherence to that that I determine to 
 withdraw at the end of my second term. The danger is that the 
 indulgent e and the attachments of the people will keep a man in 
 the < hair after he be< omes a dotard ; that reelection through life, 
 shall bet <iine habitual, and election for life follow that. General 
 Washington set the example of voluntary retirement after eight 
 /ears. I shall follow it, and a few more precedents will oppose 
 the obsta< le of habit to any one, after a while, who shall endeavor 
 to extend his term. Perhaps it may beget a disposition to establish 
 n by an amendment to the Constitution. I believe I am doing 
 right, therefore, in pursuing my principle. I had determined 
 
 f e and Writings of George Washin, ton, Vol. XII, p. 338. 
 
to declare my intention, but I have consented to be silent 
 on the opinion of friends, who think it best not to put a continu- 
 ance out of my power, in defiance of all circumstances. There 
 is, however, but one circumstance which could engage my acqui- 
 escence in another election,/, e., such a division about a successor 
 as might bring in a monarchist. But that circumstance is im- 
 possible. While, therefore, I shall make no formal declaration to the 
 public of my purpose, I have freely let it be understood in private 
 conversation. In this I am persuaded, yourself and my friends 
 generally will approve of my views." * 
 
 A g ain j upon the expiration of his second term, Jefferson 
 was solicited to consent to a continuance in office. This was 
 asked for by the legislatures of various States. His answer 
 was as follows : 
 
 " That I should lay down my charge at the proper period is as 
 much a duty as to have borne it faithfully. If some termination 
 to the services of the chief magistrate be not fixed by the Con- 
 stitution, or supplied by practice, his office, nominally for four 
 years, will, in fact, become for life ; and history shows how easily 
 that degenerates into an inheritance. Believing that a representa- 
 tive government, responsible at short periods by election, is that 
 which produces the greatest sum of happiness to mankind, I feel 
 it a duty to do no act which shall essentially impair that principle; 
 and I should unwillingly be the person, who, disregarding sound 
 precedent, set by an illustrious predecessor, should furnish the 
 first example of prolongation beyond the second term of office." 
 
 Jefferson's second term expired with the year 1808. In 
 1812, after a retirement of four years, he was again solicited 
 to permit himself to be elected president. But he did not 
 consider the four years' interregnum as affecting in any way 
 the anti-third term principle which he had avowed, and he again 
 peremptorily declined ; and although his party continued in 
 power up to the time of his death, no further attempt was 
 made to restore him to the great position which duty had led 
 him finally to resign eighteen years before he died. His suc- 
 cessors — Madison and Monroe — each served for two terms, and 
 each retired when the second term ended, not asking nor per- 
 mitting their friends to ask for another nomination, during the 
 many years of their subsequent retirement. 
 
 In 1828 Andrew Jackson was elected, as the nominee of the 
 
 * Vide Randall's Life of Jefferson, Vol. Ill, p. 132. 
 
modem democratic party, and was reelected in 1 v ">l\ He 
 was the i * 1 * »1 of his party — a great military leader and popular 
 favorite. But at the ending of his eight years' Bervice, he volun- 
 tarily retired to the peaceful shades of the Hermitage, where 
 he remained an interested observer of the history and progress 
 of his country, but not a candidate, active or passive, for a re- 
 election, neither asking nor Buffering his friends to ask the 
 people again to ]»ut him in the foremost place of power and 
 honor, until hia death in 184-5. Since his administration, 
 Gen. Grant is the only president who has served two entire 
 terms. 
 
 From 1S12 to 1875 there was no suggestion that any presi- 
 dent should be reelected after his second term. 
 
 In 1*75 it was apparent that some of the friends of Gen. 
 Grant desired to secure his election for a third term. AVhen 
 this disposition became manifest, it is not surprising, in view 
 of the historical facts above detailed, that there was a very 
 general uprising against such an attempt. The attention of 
 republican State conventions in that year was called to this 
 question, and almost without exception they adopted resolutions 
 expressing their disapproval of the movement. As early as 
 May, the Pennsylvania republican convention announced as 
 the sentiment of the republicans of that State: 
 
 " That we declare and affirm unqualified adherence to the un- 
 written law of the republic, which wisely, and under the sanction 
 of the most venerable of examples, limits the presidential sen-ice 
 of any citizen to two terms ; and we, the republicans of Penn- 
 sylvania, in recognition of this law, are unalterably opposed to 
 the election to the presidency of any person for a third term." 
 
 The republican convention ( .f the State of New York 
 embled in September, 1^7.".. Among its resolutions, 
 ipted by an overwhelming vote, was the following: 
 
 " Recognizing as conclusive the president's public declaration 
 that he is not a < andidate lor renomination, ami with the sincerest 
 gratitude for his patriotic services, we declare our unalterable 
 opposition to the election of any president for a third term." 
 
 State after State followed these examples ; and on the L5th 
 lay of December, L875, on motion of Mr. Springer, of llli- 
 aois, the rule- were suspended and the following resolution 
 
6 
 
 was passed, by the House of Representatives, by a vote of 
 233 to 18 : 
 
 " Resolved, That in the opinion of this House the precedent 
 established by Washington and other presidents of the United 
 States, in retiring from the presidential office after their second 
 term, has become by universal concurrence, a part of our republi- 
 can system of government, and that any departure from this 
 time-honored custom would be unwise and fraught with peril to 
 our free institutions." 
 
 The third-term movement subsided, and Gen. Grant's 
 name was not presented to the republican National Conven- 
 tion in 1876. But the scheme was not given up. Its pro- 
 moters were persevering and cunning. They resolved that, 
 although they could not carry out their plan in 1876, they 
 would only defer and not abandon it. Taking advantage of 
 Gen. Grant's voyage around the world, of the cordial manner 
 in which he was welcomed and entertained by kings and rulers 
 in Europe and Asia, and of the enthusiasm which was 
 naturally aroused by his return home early in the present 
 year, they started what, in the slang language of the day, is 
 termed a third-term " boom," fancying that all the circum- 
 stances which have been mentioned, and others which tended 
 to favor it, would make it irresistible and successful, notwith- 
 standing the general public sentiment on the subject. 
 
 The arguments used to promote this scheme and to over- 
 come the popular feeling against a third term, were various 
 and not altogether consistent. The friends of the Grant 
 movement claim : 1. That the sentiment against a third term is 
 unfounded in reason or principle ; 2. That if it has any foun- 
 dation it applies only to the continuance of a president in office 
 for more than two terms, and has no application as an objection 
 to the reelection of a president after an interregnum of four 
 years; 3. That, even assuming the soundness of the objection 
 to three terms as a general rule, and conceding its applica- 
 bility to any election to the presidency of a person who has 
 served two terms, there is a special emergency at this time 
 outweighing these objections and requiring the nomination 
 and election of Gen. Grant. In support of these views, three 
 articles have appeared in the pages of the North American 
 
/,'. view which it is perhaps fair to consider as presenting the 
 various grounds upon which Gen. Grant's reelection is 
 advocated. These articles appeared, one in February written 
 by Bon. Tim >thy 0. Howe, of Wisconsin, one in March, by 
 Bon. E. W, Stoughton, of New York, and one in the April 
 Dumber, l>v Hon. Geo. S. BoutwelL of Massachusetts. Let 
 n- take them np in their order : 
 
 Mr. Bowe's article deserves little comment or attention. 
 Palpable falsification of history, foolish vituperation and 
 fulsome flatten, garnished with choice hits of Scripture, are 
 mingled in about equal proportions in this most discreditable 
 
 ;\. The settled convictions of the people are called by 
 him " Benseless clamor."' The almost unanimous views of the 
 House of Representatives are termed "a champion piece of 
 charlatanry." The general apprehension of danger to free 
 institutions from a long continuance of the presidential office, 
 is spoken of as a ''soft spook," — whatever that may mean. 
 Those who are opposed to a third term are said to be ''seduced 
 from the worship of God to that of mere metallic, calves." 
 Mr. Howe states that the only criticism upon eligibility 
 made in the convention of New York, which ratified the United 
 States Constitution, was made by Mr. Melancthon Smith, and 
 that he found no one to second his idea in that bodv ; in the face 
 of the fact that that convention unanimously proposed an 
 amendment, that no person should be eligible for a third 
 presidential term. He states that not even in North 
 Carolina was a man to be found to object to the ineligibility 
 of the president, although in fact one of the amendments 
 proposed by that State was. " That no person should be capa- 
 ble of serving as president more than eight in any term of 
 sixteen years." Be, by implication, charges Washington with 
 cowardice, and gives as a reason for his retirement at the end 
 of his Becond term, thai he could not bear the gibes of his 
 enemies, before which Grant never quailed. But his most 
 atrocious calumny relates to Jefferson, [gnoring the fact that 
 his views upon the Bubject of a third term were well known 
 before his second term commenced, Mr. Eowe directly charges 
 that Jefferson's only reason for declining a third term was that he 
 
8 
 
 could not get it ; and accuses him of duplicity and deceit in 
 giving expression to his views, as he did, in reply to the legislat- 
 ures of Vermont and other States, which had desired him to 
 become a candidate. He asserts in the face of the evidence of 
 history that the republican States of Ohio, Tennessee, Kentucky, 
 Georgia, South Carolina and Virginia had "positively refused 
 to join in the Jefferson boom,'' before his declension was 
 announced. The only evidence which he gives of this as- 
 sertion is the fact that the legislatures of these States, at that 
 time, more than a year before the expiration of Jefferson's 
 second term, had not acted upon the subject. But in fact, not one 
 of them had expressed itself as against Jefferson. The " positive 
 refusal *' is a pure invention of Mr. Howe. Madison was 
 Jefferson's secretary of State, and intimate political and 
 jjersonal friend. There was never any rivalry or hostility be- 
 tween them. Jefferson was the founder and the leader and 
 idol of the republican party. At his second election he had 
 received one hundred and sixty-two of the one hundred and 
 seventy-six votes cast — the only States voting against him being 
 Connecticut and Delaware. The other States all voted unani- 
 mously for Jefferson, except Maryland which gave him nine of 
 her eleven votes. At the close of his second term he was equally 
 popular with his party ; and no student of history, except Mr. 
 Howe, has ever pretended that he could not have received a 
 third nomination if he had sought to obtain it, or would have 
 accepted it. 
 
 Finding it necessary, in order to carry out the line of 
 argument which he had adopted, Mr. Howe does not scruple to 
 make Washington a coward and Jefferson a liar. lie calls Gen. 
 Grant " the foremost man of his age standing upon the mountain- 
 top, upon whom the eager world has set the seal of primacy." 
 He says "the w r orld will make a mistake, if it shall turn 
 from Jesus of Nazareth to follow Mr. Springer of Illinois," 
 closing his remarkable diatribe with the following peroration : 
 "Paul taught the Hebrews that without sacrifice there was 
 no remission of sins. Americans are taught that not even 
 sacrifice will save a president from rebuke after eight years 
 service, although he has been sinless." Precisely what is 
 
meant by this last language it is quite difficult to judge. We 
 doubt it" even Gen. Grant himself would claim to be 
 ''sinless;" although Mr. Howe found an apt disciple in an 
 enthusiastic member of the late Utica Convention, who pro- 
 claimed this "sinless" man " standing on the mountain top," 
 Be the ■• God of battles!" 
 
 It i- evident that Mr. Howe in his Scripture researches had 
 overlooked the warning given by Paul to his sainted name- 
 sakc: "O, Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy 
 trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings." Charity might 
 lead us to account for this astonishing exhibition by the 
 BWini.-e that he had made too personal an application of that 
 other passage, in which Timothy is enjoined by Paul to 
 ''drink no longer water." For it would be humiliating to 
 believe that a man capable of writing such stuff in his sober 
 moments, ever occupied the high position of Senator of the 
 United States, and confidential adviser of the president. No 
 opponent of a third term could desire any more effective 
 mean- of cultivating the anti-third-term sentiment, than the 
 general circulation of Mr. Howe's extraordinary article. 
 
 Mr. Stoughton's article is in a different spirit. It is not 
 chargeable with the folly or the falsity of Mr. Howe's pro- 
 duction. 
 
 Mr. Stoughtpn admits that there are doubtless worthy 
 republicans who are opposed to the third term, and kindly says 
 that he shall not Bneer at nor ridicule such superstition, for the 
 reason that he lias known few men of strength of character or 
 capacity, who did not nurse one of some kind. And he compares 
 the opposition to a third term to the superstitions which 
 influence some men to expect bad luck from seeing the new 
 moon over the left shoulder, or to refuse to start a new 
 enterprise on Friday. 
 
 All opponents of the third-term movement must feel 
 exceedingly grateful to Sir. Stoughton for his great amiability 
 in letting them off BO easily. When we come, however, to 
 
 look at hie arguments, we are not impressed with their 
 Btrength. In alluding to the example of Washington, he says 
 that his declension was upon purely personal grounds, and 
 
10 
 
 not from motives of public policy. AVe have already shown 
 in this article that this is a mistake, and that AYashington 
 retired at the end of his second term because, in his view, 
 public policy, as well as his own personal inclinations, required 
 the step. Mr. Stoughton thinks that the only substantial 
 objection to the enjoyment of consecutive presidential terms 
 by the same person, is that a president desiring a renomination 
 might corruptly and wickedly use the power and influence of 
 his great office to obtain it ; and finally perpetuate his rule by 
 methods hostile to the Constitution and destructive of his 
 country's liberties. 
 
 If that is the only objection to a third term, then it must 
 be conceded that there is some force in his argument. But Mr. 
 Stoughton is mistaken in saying that the only valid objection 
 to a third term consists in the assumption that by his influence 
 as president he may perpetuate his rule by renominations, 
 as will be shown as we proceed. Perhaps it is not strange 
 that the ex-minister to St. Petersburgh, said to be an ardent 
 admirer of that " paternal government" which has produced 
 such happy results in Russia, should on his return become dis- 
 tinguished as an advocate of third-termism for America. 
 
 Mr. Boutwell puts his argument upon a somewhat different 
 basis from either Mr. Howe or Mr. Stoughton. He concedes 
 that the examples of AA r ashington and Jefferson and the tra- 
 ditions of the fathers are against a third term. But, he says, 
 the opinions of AArashington and Jefferson are entitled to the 
 highest consideration as opinions, and nothing more. He 
 insists that there is a question now demanding attention of 
 greater importance than the ancient tradition against a third 
 term, viz. : " Shall this government be destroyed or subverted 
 permanently by the usurpation of the minority ?" And he 
 argues that the only sure way of answering this question in 
 the negative is by the nomination and election of Gen. 
 Grant. If Mr. Boutwell is right in his premises, we must con- 
 cede that he is right in his conclusion. If the destruction and 
 subversion of our government can only be prevented by the 
 election of Gen. Grant, we should all yield our objections to a 
 third term, and unite in his support. But we must remember 
 
11 
 
 thai Mr. Bontwell, as he is good enough to remind as in his 
 article, occupied a place in Gen. Grant's cabinet. He, no 
 doubt, estimates the Grant administration quite as highly as 
 it- merits permit Bis opinion is valuable simply as Mr. Bout- 
 well's opinion, and people must judge for themselves whether 
 there ifl any such emergency as Mr. Bontwell says ; and if 
 there is, whether the best way to meet it is by Grant's renomi- 
 nation. By most sensible men the emergency will be believed 
 to exist only in the imaginations of Mr. Bontwell and other 
 office-holders under Gen. Grant; and the remedy proposed by 
 him will be considered quite inappropriate for the imagined 
 peril. 
 
 To one assertion of Mr. Bontwell we desire to interpose 
 an emphatic denial He says: " The republicans of the 
 State of New York, appreciating the solemnity of the crisis 
 and the importance of their position, have declared their 
 purpose to support Gen. Grant for the presidency." The 
 republicans of the State of New York have done no such thing. 
 For the purpose of forestalling public opinion, the State con- 
 vention was called in that State, as in Pennsylvania, in Feb- 
 ruary, to elect delegates to the National Convention to beheld 
 in June. There could have been but one object for such an 
 unseasonable call, and that object was not to secure a deliber- 
 ate expression of the will of the republicans of New York, 
 but to prevent and defeat such expression. The very fact that 
 the convention was called in February deprives it of all 
 authority as indicating the "sober second thought"' of New 
 York republicans. What honest reason can be given for call- 
 im: a State conventioo in February to select delegates to 
 attend a National Convention in June ? Are arguments and 
 discussions of any value '. If so, why not let such arguments 
 and discussions be continued until the necessary time for 
 decisioo arrives \ But the New York convention was not 
 only called with fraudulent intent — it was fraudulently 
 constituted. Granl delegates to this convention from Albany 
 were elected 1 . \ a fraud so gross and palpable, that 110 
 
 respectable republican newspaper in the State could be found 
 to defend it. Delegates of the same character from I'tica, 
 
12 
 
 who -were declared elected in violation of every rule of 
 parliamentary law, were admitted to the floor of the convention. 
 The same is said to be true of delegates from Brooklyn 
 and from Buffalo. And in a convention so called and so 
 packed, a resolution was passed by a bare majority <>f thirty- 
 seven, favoring the nomination of Gen. Grant ! Not the re- 
 publicans of New York, Mr. Boutwell, but the wire-pullers 
 and the machine-managers of New York, have declared their 
 purpose to support Gen. Grant for the presidency ! The rank 
 and file of the party, as you call them, in New York, have never 
 expressed themselves in favor of Gen. Grant. Nor, if we 
 may believe the evidence already obtained and constantly 
 accumulating, it is true of the republicans of Pennsylvania. 
 No fair expression favorable to Grant's nomination has yet 
 been had from any State in the Union. 
 
 Having thus reviewed briefly the arguments of these three 
 champions of a third term, let us consider the subject some- 
 what upon its merits. 
 
 The example of the fathers and the traditions of our history 
 are all opposed to a third term. Are these examples and tra- 
 ditions entirely without foundation in reason ? It is assumed by 
 those who insist that the anti-third -term doctrine has no appli- 
 cation to the present attempt to renominate Gen. Grant, that 
 the only ground upon which indefinite reeligibility has been 
 opposed, is that it enables a president, by the use of his 
 patronage and power, to secure his own reelection. But it will 
 be seen by reference to the expressions of Jefferson, already 
 quoted, that that is not the only objection made by him to such 
 indefinite reeligibility. lie says the danger is from the 
 indulgence and attachments of the people, as well as from the 
 undue influence of the president. It is not pretended that 
 there is any special magic in the period of eight years. It was 
 a favorite doctrine of the Henry Clay whigs, that no person 
 should be elected president for more than one term. But the 
 great point is, that there should be some limit to prevent it 
 from becoming a life office ; and example and republican tra- 
 dition have fixed that limit at two terms. It is essential to 
 republican government that there should be no distinctively 
 
13 
 
 reigning class. When ;i person has Berved eight years as 
 President of the CTnited States, his retirement into private life 
 ;in<l becoming a private citizen and nothing more is the highest 
 testimonial t<> the solidity of republican institutions. 
 
 An ex-president is, and should be, nothing more than any 
 other citizen ; nay, in one sense he should be less, for it should 
 be understood that, having possessed that high honor for a term 
 of eight years, he is qo longer an aspirant for the position. A 
 president who has had for eight years the patronage and power 
 of that great office, especially when he has been Lieutenant- 
 General and had intimate relations with the entire army, 
 as well as the great corps of office-holders, is not, in the 
 course of four years, so entirely divested of this advantage 
 that he cannot avail himself of the influence and power thus 
 acquired to pr his reflection. Especially is this the case 
 
 with (Jen. Grant. ILe has not, in the ordinary sense of the 
 term, become a private citizen since the expiration of his eight 
 years. During all this tim • he lias been conspicuously before 
 the public eye. as the honored guest of the various nations of 
 the world. All the influence of the general Government has 
 been exerted to give him public prominence. A Grant 
 newspaper organ has said that he is now "fresh from 
 the people." But from what people is he fresh? He has 
 certainly had little to do with Americans since his term 
 expired. Is it believed that his association with the Chinese, 
 Japanese and Siamese, or with the rulers of Europe, has im- 
 pressed upon him the habits and duties of an American citizen? 
 And while lie ha.i been travelling about the world, the men 
 whom he placed in office have, as a rule, remained in office. 
 The peculiar civil servic i theories of the present administration 
 have led to the retention in office of the great body of the 
 office-holders appointed by him — the men who ran the political 
 machinery in most of the States. The party organization is 
 .-till mainly in the hands of those who controlled it during 
 
 bis second term. Practically nearly all the objections to 
 a third term exist now, which existed in L876. 
 
 W bal is the supposed emergency urged as a reason 
 for departing from established usages? and, if it exists, 
 
14 
 
 how will Gen. Grant's reelection meet it ? Some say that 
 Gen. Grant is the only republican who can be elected. 
 On the contrary, it seems evident that no republican can 
 be nominated, against whom such strong objections can be 
 made, and who is so certain to fail of the support of a large 
 portion of the party, as he. It is said that no other man, if 
 elected, can be inaugurated. If this is true, then it is useless to 
 try to nominate and elect Gen. Grant. If this is so, we may as 
 well abandon the republican form of government at once and ac- 
 cept the least objectionable despotism that can be obtained. But 
 it is not so. The will of the people, expressed by constitutional 
 methods, will be enforced. And it matters not who is the 
 standard-bearer. For whoever is declared elected through the 
 mode known to the Constitution and the laws of the land, will 
 certainly be inaugurated as president on the fourth day of 
 March, 1881. If this argument in favor of Gen. Grant means 
 anything, it means that he will not allow himself to be declared 
 defeated ; that he will decide in favor of his own election, and 
 no other decision shall prevail. Are the third-term advocates 
 prepared to sanction this construction of their favorite as- 
 sertion ? 
 
 There are very grave reasons why vast numbers of republi- 
 cans believe that Gen. Grant should not be nominated. In doing 
 this, they do not " rebuke " him, nor do they in any way dero- 
 gate from his claims upon the gratitude of his country. That 
 he sacriticed any more for his country than did many others, 
 cannot be maintained. His fortunes were at a low ebb when the 
 war commenced. During the war he did his duty like hundreds 
 of thousands of others. To vast numbers of these, this dis- 
 charge of duty brought death, or wounds, loss of fortune and 
 loss of health. To Gen. Grant it brought glory, riches and 
 power. For his efforts, his skill, his perseverance, his ability 
 as a general, he has received rewards such as have never been 
 conferred by this country upon any other citizen. The American 
 people are not to be charged with ingratitude, because they with- 
 hold from him an honor which was not conferred upon Washing- 
 ton or Jefferson ; an honor the bestowal of which the majority 
 of the American jjeople have ever believed to be incompatible 
 
15 
 
 with the safety of five institutions. And it must be re- 
 membered also that while the American people honor Gen. Grant 
 for his military services, there is by no means thes aine una- 
 nimity with reference to his merit- as President of the United 
 States. Criticism of his administration is not confined, as Mr. 
 Stoughton in hi> article implies, to rebels and democrats; nor 
 will opposition to his election, if nominated for a third term, 
 be so confined. To the scandals of his second administration 
 it is unnecessary to do more than to allude. The mention of 
 the names of Leet and Stocking, Belknap and Babcock will 
 Bnffice. It is not accessary, nor would it be jnst, to charge 
 Gen. Grant with complicity with the corruptions that prevailed 
 from 1872 to 1876. Bnt they did prevail. They pervaded 
 the men who were nearest to him. A peculiarity of Gen. 
 Grant's character is, that he can see nothing wrong in those 
 whom he deems his friends. It cannot be forgotten that Gen. 
 ( irant signed the law, which not only allowed members of Con- 
 gress their notorious "salary grab," but also doubled his own 
 Balary. Nor can it be forgotten that when Gen. Babcock was 
 on trial in St. Louis, Gen, Grant, by an act the most arbitrary 
 and anjustifiable that was ever performed by the elected ruler 
 of a free people, peremptorily removed, during the trial, the 
 counsel who was conducting the case for the Government with 
 marked skill and vigor, for the alleged reason that he had made a 
 remark which was construed as derogatory to Gen. Grant, per- 
 sonally. For this constructive disrespect, denied by Mr. Hender- 
 Bon, he was thu- removed. The act pi ittal of Gen. Babcock fol- 
 lowed, and followed, as many believe, as the result of this most 
 unwarrantable interference by the president. This is mentioned 
 - only one instance showingGen. Grant's frequent utter disre- 
 gard of republican principles, lie was never trained in civil 
 life, lie was never taught to respect constitutional rights. 
 His ideas of government are purely military. He did, and if 
 reelected will again, administer the government of this countrv 
 just as he would govern an army. 
 
 The same corrupt men who formerly gathered about him 
 will again surround him, if he shall be reelected. This is 
 shown by the accounts given by his friend. John Russell 
 
16 
 
 Young, of his conversations during his voyage around the 
 world. There was in Gen. Grant's cabinet certainly one man 
 who was earnest and vigorous in the prosecution of offenders. 
 That was Benjamin H. Bristow. By such earnestness and 
 vigor he won the approval and applause of great numbers of 
 his countrymen. His candidacy for the presidency was favored 
 by many good and patriotic republicans. But we are told 
 that Gen. Grant said in one of his later conversations (and 
 these conversations have been published with his approval), 
 that he would have supported for the presidency any candidate 
 who might have been nominated by the Cincinnati convention 
 except Mr. Bristow, whom he would never have supported.* 
 Why was it that Gen. Grant resolved that he would not sup- 
 port Gen. Bristow, if nominated I Can any reason be given, 
 except that Gen. Bristow was an independent and efficient 
 officer, and that in the vigor with which he prosecuted offend- 
 ers against the law, he did not spare those who were connected 
 with the president's military household, thereby incurring the 
 president's displeasure \ Gen. Bristow was a republican. Gen. 
 Bristow's whole offence was that he had impartially and 
 vigorously done his duty. 
 
 Argument in favor of Gen. Grant for a third term, based 
 upon the idea that a " strong man " is needed, is dangerous 
 and antagonistic to the whole spirit of our institutions. We 
 want no strong man, if by that is meant one stronger than the 
 Constitution and the laws. We want no man strong enough 
 to disregard constitutional obligations ! And we have in this 
 country and in the republican party no lack of men who are 
 strong enough to enforce the Constitution and the laws. The 
 idea that Gen. Grant is the only man who can execute the 
 laws of this country is a slavish and an anti-republican idea : 
 
 " When went there by an age, since the great flood, 
 But it was famed with more than with one man ? 
 When could they say till now, that talked of Rome, 
 That her wide walls encompassed but one man ? " 
 
 The arguments in favor of a third term and against the 
 examples and instructions of the fathers on the subject, are all 
 
 * Vide A ro und the World 'with Gen. Grant, p 273. 
 
based upon distrust of popular institutions. The aim of true 
 patriots should be to cultivate the opposite sentiment — faith in 
 republicanism, faith in the Constitution, faith in the intelligence 
 and patriotism of the American people. This can be best 
 
 e in the present emergency by discarding the one-man, 
 third-term idea, and adhering to the teachings of our fore- 
 father.-; heeding the warnings of history, and preserving our 
 liberties and our republican form of government by discouraging 
 the theory that any one man is necessary to the prosperity 
 and permanency of the republic. 
 
 It is with reluctance that the believers in the doctrine of 
 Washington and Jefferson which holds a third presidential 
 term to be of evil tendency, have felt themselves constrained to 
 -peak disparagingly of Gen. Grant's civil administration. They 
 have no disposition to detract in any respect from his fame. 
 They are as ready as any to express their admiration for all 
 that is admirable in his character and distinguished in his 
 achievements. But when thinking men are asked to depart 
 from the usages of the republic and disregard the example 
 of the wise and good men who secured our independence, 
 they are compelled to examine carefully the claim presented; 
 and if they see reasons against such departure, to declare 
 them frankly and boldly. On the one side they see the example 
 ami the teaching of Washington and Jefferson, Madison. Monroe 
 and Jackson, the declared conviction of the Xew York con- 
 vention which ratified the Federal Constitution, the expressions 
 of the republican State conventions of L875, and the almost 
 unanimous resolution of the House of Representatives of 
 that year. < >n the other they find the opinions of Siese - 
 
 StOUghton, Boutwell and Howe, Senators Cameron and 
 Conkling, the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, the premature and 
 packed conventions of Pennsylvania and New Fork of Feb- 
 ruary, L8S 
 
 1 f the latter authorities are clearly right, let as follow them, 
 
 a where the reverend gentleman would lend, to fourth. 
 
 ifth and an indefinite number of terms. But if the reason and 
 
 the principle of the matter are with the dead presidents ; if the 
 
 : the founder- of the republic tend- more surely to 
 
18 
 
 the preservation of the republic, let ns adhere to it, even though 
 the new lights he disregarded. The maxim via antiyna, via 
 tuta, may not he of universal application, but it is worthy 
 of some respect. There are douhtless inconveniences resulting 
 from the frequent changes incident to a " government of 
 the people by the people and for the people/' But unless 
 we are prepared to admit that such a government "must perish 
 forever from the earth," let us hold fast to the traditions of a 
 free people, and bear the ills we have, rather than rlv to others 
 that we know not of. 
 
 Matthew Hale. 
 
K. printed from the NATIONAL QUARTERLY REVIEW, 
 for April, 1hs(>. — Copyright, 
 
 The Republic and the Presidency, 
 
 To tlic student of political ethics, numerous and what 
 WOllld appeal- radical delects will he found to exist in the 
 Constitution of the American LTnion — defects which, failing 
 of remedy through amendment, as provided by the instrument 
 itself, can scarcely fail in time to heget revolution. In the 
 original cast of the instrument, no feature stands out more 
 prominently than the one of manifest jealousy among; the 
 State- associated in the original compact. 
 
 At the time of its formation much disparity existed in the 
 status of the -I'veral States. Virginia and Massachusetts led the 
 van in the struggle for independence. Both were powerful and 
 populous, yet yielded to a remarkable degree their preponder 
 ance in the councils of the Union in deference to the demands 
 of States like South Carolina, thus early nurturing the seeds 
 of nullification. The only genuine democrat representing the 
 section dominated over by the " cavaliers," and having an active 
 voice in the formation of the Constitution, was Thomas Jeffer- 
 son, always considered the father of American democracy. As 
 regards territory embraced within the limits of the original 
 thirteen State- lying south of what has since been known as 
 Mason and 1 Uxon'fl line, the >hadow of feudal despotism was early 
 Beeil and increasingly developed, growing with the growth 
 and strengthening with the strength of its slave basis, till the 
 " Mother of Presidents " had become the nurserv of feudalism 
 and the hot-lied of despotism. It was left to the tory State 
 of South Carolina to become the parent of disunion, and to 
 the grand old commonwealth of Virginia so far to degenerate, 
 
 to develop at the outbreak of the rebellion a single case 
 oiil\ ot adhesion to Jeffersonian democracv, namelv, that of 
 John M. Botts, living a whig, and dying a true democrat. 
 
It was in rock-hound and rugged New England, that the 
 spirit of commonalty, unfettered by feudal influences, took 
 deep and firm rooting ; and we owe it to New England today 
 that an enlightened federalism has developed into an intelligent 
 democracy. 
 
 To govern States as individuals are governed was the early 
 ambition of the statesmen of the South. To combine states- 
 men and States in the government of the Union, came to be 
 the perfection of southern state-craft. That statesmanship 
 such as this should have culminated in nullification, need not 
 be wondered at. The local despot or petty tyrant in American 
 democracy, or so-called republicanism, the mere schemer, not 
 to say conspirator, seeking personal advantage at any sacrifice 
 of political integrity, is, so far from being worthy of popular 
 support, the man most to be shunned as an enemy to the 
 republic. The republic, indeed, has existed hitherto only in 
 name. That it survived sedition and civil war is a marvel, 
 but not so much a marvel as would be its triumph over the 
 influences now seeking to control it. 
 
 The result of feudalism within the Constitution, as well 
 as of its development in political methods, produced a very 
 great strain upon our political structure in 1ST6, when a 
 disputed title to the presidency turned on a single electoral 
 vote, and upon an adjudication outside of, and unknown 
 to, the Constitution. It is a question by no means easy 
 to answer, if the republic could endure another such ex- 
 perience. Feudalism, so far from disappearing, was never 
 more powerful than it is today in the south. Even in Xew 
 York, Pennsylvania and Illinois it has strong hold, and seems 
 preparing for a death grapple with forces resolved on realizing 
 a true republic Everywhere the people are demanding free, 
 honest and peaceful elections, an honest count, and an honest' 
 declaration of results. 
 
 So powerful are the influences at work in this direction, 
 that the politicians are yielding to the inevitable, and generally 
 agree that such realizations art- as desirable as necessary. But 
 the feudal chiefs of States and territories are giving evidence 
 of having fallen back into their intrenchrnents, when they 
 

 
 •I 
 
 grapple with the Bonrce of political power. Caucus and con. 
 mention methods, the machinery of conclave and committee, 
 
 ii.. r to say the machinations of conspirators, are the most power- 
 ful agencies of both the democratic and republican parties. 
 So recklessof consequences have some of these chiefs and their 
 clansmen become, that they seem to care little for the repute 
 of their parties, and .-till less for the interest and good name 
 of their country. 
 
 It is no part of the purpose of this article to point out 
 or call by name the men determined to maintain personal 
 domination, or take their chances in the ruins of the republic 
 That some of these believe they are not made of common 
 clay or cast in the common mould, but were born to rule, and 
 that the ordinary citizen should leave to them and their po- 
 litical subjects and dependents the nomination of all candidates 
 fur otliee. it is charitable at least to presume. That they are, 
 however, Bowing the wind only to reap the whirlwind is certain- 
 ly true. Included within their folds of political brigandage 
 are hundreds and thousands, bound to them by ties of interest, 
 who are loyal to their masters and chiefs so long as the commis- 
 sary i- well supplied. To feed an hundred thousand re- 
 tainer.- in a country as great as this is comparatively an easy 
 matter. Should the commissary become exhausted, however, 
 or the consumers multiply, they might become troublesome 
 to those to whom they look for sustenance. 
 
 In the midst of all, the American people arc rapidly rinding 
 out that the game as played by parties and politicians is 
 one of method ami madness combined, as devoid of patriotism 
 and conscience as was ever one of cards or faro ; and that when 
 it come- to individuals aspiring in certain instance- to the most 
 eminent positions in the so-called republic, the one who can 
 command the largest resources of men and money i- the one 
 most likely, as a rule, to -ucceed in his designs. 
 
 This unprecedented condition of things, applicable 
 to both the republican and democratic parties, makes it difficult 
 to calculate, with any degree of assurance, what is likely to be 
 the result at Chicago and Cincinnati. The National Con 
 mention of the republicans will be held in the former city on 
 
the 2d of June next. Seventeen days later, on the 19th of 
 the same month, the democratic convention will assemble at 
 Cincinnati. That either the one or the other of these con- 
 ventions will be able to meet, deliberate and make nominations 
 without sessions of unprecedented length, would scarcely seem 
 possible. 
 
 Much is heard about instructions by State conventions and 
 the enforcement of unit rules. It is fundamental that, in all 
 delegated conventions, each delegate shall have the right to 
 cast his vote on all questions which may be considered, 
 untrammelled by any instructions outside of the convention. 
 He will, of course, be held morally accountable to his constitu- 
 ency, should he misrepresent them on the main question which 
 he was chosen to represent. lie has the right to have his 
 name called in open convention, and his vote recorded. In 
 this way only can he be held accountable, and the record be 
 made. 
 
 In the approaching National Republican Convention, the 
 question whether the vote shall be cast by States or by indi- 
 viduals will probably be decided at the outset , as also whether 
 delegates chosen by district conventions shall be admitted, 
 instead of delegates chosen by State conventions. The true 
 position should, therefore, be understood in advance. A 
 congressional district is the unit of representation for so much 
 of the convention as corresponds with the organization of the 
 House of Representatives, and the State as compared with the 
 United States Senate. Even these delegates, when more than 
 one represents a State or district, are not bound to act together. 
 Where two or four are chosen, one cannot act without the 
 authority of the convention nor cast the votes of absentees. 
 
 The calling of two separate conventions by the democracy 
 in Kew York, and the probable choice of two complete sets of 
 delegates to Cincinnati, will only be supplemental to republican 
 proceedings already under way in Pennsylvania, where, repudi- 
 ating the action of the Cameron convention of February, the 
 ides of March are barely passed before the incensed masses of 
 the party proceed by districts to make choice of new sets of 
 delegates, doing so on what is termed the Crawford county 
 
plan. It is. thrn more than probable that two full sets of 
 
 delegates from Pennsylvania will present themselves for 
 admission to seats in the Chicago convention. Nor is contest 
 probably to end here. New York is also likely, as regards 
 
 • -nil. it' not all. of her districts, to make choice of new sets of 
 delegati -. 
 
 By the admission of the Smyth delegation from Albany, 
 the rejection of the Reeve delegation from Brooklyn, and the 
 admission of persons having no claim at all to Beats at Qtica — 
 to Bay QOthing of the thou-and and one other reasons for com- 
 plaint touching the conducl of committees, caucuses, local and 
 general convention.-, causing the selection of a delegation, 
 not as representatives of the party, but of individual 
 Leader — the Utica delegation is left without support, other 
 than the empty one of regularity. Should a contesting dele- 
 gation, representing the majority of the party, and chosen by 
 districts, presenl itself claiming seats at Chicago, the chances 
 of each I'd admission would seem to be equal What is true 
 of Pennsylvania and New York may, and not unlikely will, 
 occur in other States; and thus, at both Chicago and Cincin- 
 nati, contests without number, giving rise to delay and bad 
 feeling, would mvhi to be inevitable. 
 
 This condition of thing- cannot fail to place each of the 
 candidates most prominently mentioned in such a position 
 
 BS to make the nomination of either on lirst ballot altogether 
 
 ■ 
 
 improbable. 
 
 < >t ex-Presidenl Grant — up to the present, as regards the 
 press, invariably firsl mentioned — this must prove impressively 
 true. America's mosl widely famed hero has, despite all 
 predictions to the contrary, allowed his friends to so forward 
 and make him a candidate for a third term of the presidency. 
 
 rhere arc. probably, a full million of republicans, who, when 
 he landed at San Francisco on return from his iournev around 
 the world, would have denied him no honor short of a crown, 
 that sit soberly today questioning whether he is worthy of any 
 honor at all. These are the men who disbelieved, at the outset, 
 the statement that Gen. Grant was to come again before the 
 peo] i a presidential candidate. They believed that his 
 
G 
 
 fame as a soldier would make him unwilling to take the risk 
 of entering the field as a candidate for a third term. From 
 the distant Orient came the intelligence that Gen. Grant had 
 said in substance that under no circumstances Mould he again 
 accept the presidency. Landing at San Francisco, and 
 continuing his triumphal journey across his native land, amid 
 salvos of artillery and the shouts of the multitude, his lips 
 remained sealed, nor did he say a word or give a sign indica- 
 ting aught than a fixed determination to adhere to this wise 
 and patriotic resolution. Up to the time he reached Philadel- 
 phia everybody seemed his friend, nobody his enemy. Here 
 it was, however, that he manifestly encouraged his favorites 
 and friends to proceed with their work of once more making 
 him President. Then it was, also, that the masses of honest, 
 thoughtful and far-seeing republicans felt compelled to unite 
 in an unyielding opposition to the establishment of a prece- 
 dent so dangerous. 
 
 Meantime, the wise, peaceful, and successful adminis- 
 tration of President Hayes, coupled with numberless acts of 
 folly on the part of a democratic Congress, had not merely 
 encouraged republicans to believe that they would easily 
 succeed in the coming presidential contest, but had caused the 
 friends of various prominent Americans to array themselves 
 on the side of this or that -aspirant for presidential honors. 
 
 John Sherman of Ohio, has, in the brief period of three 
 years, as Secretary of the Treasury, clone for American finan- 
 ces what has never before been accomplished in the history 
 of his country. He has not only brought about resuinption,but 
 succeeded in funding a large proportion of a vast national 
 debt, saving millions annually in interest, and greatly light- 
 ening the burdens of taxation. He has caused the revenues of 
 the Government to be honestly and economically collected ; 
 nor has a defaulter been found or a scandal prevailed any- 
 where in his administration of the finances. It is said of 
 him that he is cold, calculating, methodical, measured in all 
 things and lacking in personal magnetism : and that, while 
 nearly everybody wants him for Secretary of the Treasury, 
 next to nobody desires to see him made President. 
 
This, however, is a great mistake. While the masses 
 
 men are aroused by magnetism, there are large numb - 
 of others, kings among men, born with the instinct.- and 
 elements of success, who feel that the man who makes the 
 most money, or, above all, enables themselves t<> make 
 it. La the greatest of heroes. From the beginning of the 
 \v<»rld to the present, among princes and people alike, the 
 measure of success has been counted in the accumulation of 
 dollars and cents. It will not be 6o when the time comes that the 
 republic is other than a myth, — developing itself as a fact, 
 rather than a mere theory. Royalty in all ages has, as a rule, 
 brought riches also. Empires, kingdoms, and republics as 
 well, have had golden foundations. 
 
 So far from having reached the point where money-making 
 has begun to surfeit, there has never been a period in the world's 
 history when the love of gain more widely prevailed than 
 at the present. It infects all classes, and the richest men of 
 the world are the ones most eager and anxious to accumulate 
 wealth. More riches have been added to the coffers of the 
 people in America, since John Sherman became head of the 
 Treasury, than in the same period of time, since the republic 
 had a beginning. As regards his candidacy, his recent decla- 
 ration to hi> neighbors in Ohio, that, unless the republicans 
 of his own State prefer him, and make that preference mani- 
 fest by Btanding by him in substantial unanimity, he will 
 not Buffer his name to be used, is evidence of the temper 
 of the man. Conscious of his own merits, and enabled, as he 
 is, to point back to a period of nearly thirty years of public life 
 without spot or blemish, coupled with recent achievements 
 wherein no man living or dead has been enabled to more com- 
 pletely demonstrate that the victories of peace are greater than 
 those of war. In- does only justice to himself, and honors man- 
 hood, by tlii> last declaration. 
 
 Next in order i- James (i. Blaine, in whose very perso/niHty 
 is a something akin to magic. That he is loved bv tens of 
 thousands and admired by millions of his countrymen, cannot be 
 
 denied. It is impossible for political opponents to dislike, 
 
 while it is equally impossible for his party friends to do other- 
 
s 
 
 wise than cleave to him. Xo man probably lives, who knows 
 so many men personally. His face is one of ever-beaming sun- 
 shine, and the grasp of his hand, when extended to a friend or 
 an acquaintance, can never be forgotten. The writer's personal 
 acquaintance with Mr. Blaine has fully convinced him that 
 the senator has not only as great a mind, but as large a heart, 
 as any man in America, — and teaches him to unite heartily 
 with his countrvmen in an etfort to see the gallant senator 
 from the Pine Tree State made chief magistrate of the nation. 
 Whether it be during the year 1880, or four, or even 
 eight years hence, it surely ought to be done as a something 
 due to the instincts of the people, decreeing it as an event in 
 rhe fitness of things. 
 
 It has been urged that Mr. Blaine, as a politician, has 
 remarkable powers ; and yet some assert that he does not 
 possess statesmanship of the highest order. In reviewing Mr. 
 Blaine's history, one point at least stands out in bold relief, 
 evidencing his great power in controlling men, and managing 
 delicate and complicated questions of State. The peaceful 
 and just issue of the recent contest in Maine against one of 
 the most audacious attempts ever made upon constitutional 
 liberty, is certainly due largely to the wise, firm and skilful 
 manner in which Mr. Blaine conducted the affair on behalf 
 of the people. 
 
 As member of the popular branch of Congress, having 
 devolved upon him committee responsibilities of the weightiest 
 character, as a leader in parliamentary law, as Speaker of the 
 House of Representatives, — the most prominent of his prede- 
 cessors failed to exhibit more varied and successful qualities. 
 Since taking seat in the Senate, all agree that the leadership lies 
 between him and Senator Conkling ; nor is the question yet 
 determined to which of them that honor belongs. 
 
 In conclusion, if Mr. Blaine has not developed the highest 
 order of statesmanship in every field of politics in which he has 
 been called to act, it would be difficult to say who has done so. 
 The aggregate conscience and intelligence of the American 
 people can safely be trusted to determine the fitness 
 of a man for the presidency. Taking this as a test, Mr. 
 
Blaine's popularity would seem to give him an eqnal chance, in 
 the present campaign, with Secretary Sherman, 
 
 There, too, are Messrs, Washburne, Edmunds, Evarts, 
 Garfield, and Bayes, who wonld be candidates of eminent 
 fitness, especially the latter. In a recent conversation with a 
 newspaper reporter, President Bayes i- represented as pointing 
 to a dark horse somewhere, not unlikely to carry off the prize 
 at Chicago : at the same time counting himself ont as among 
 possible candidates, and declaring his determination to adhere 
 to the decision in his letter of acceptance, under no circum- 
 stances to he a candidate for reelection. In view of one of 
 those manifest defects in the Constitution, hinted at in the 
 opening of this article — the absence of an express provision, 
 providing for one term only, and making the incumbent in- 
 eligible to reelection — the position taken by President Hayes 
 will, we are quite sure, do much to give him a name and fame 
 in. the future of our country. Barely one thing, in the 
 estimation of the writer of this article, in event of a dark horse 
 being necessary, would be found in the way of Mr. Bayes 9 
 renomination at Chicago. His declination of a second term 
 would go for nothing. lie has not been too conciliatory or 
 generous toward the south. His southern policy, so called, 
 has proved a success. The calling of General Key to his 
 cabinet, more bitterly complained of by the class of republi- 
 cans denominated "Stalwarts" than any other act of his 
 administration, has come«to be regarded on all hands as 
 one of eminent wisdom and foresight. The postmaster- 
 general has developed into one of the most honored members 
 of as able a cabinet as any since the foundation of the govern- 
 ment. Not toward the south, then, or any portion of her 
 people, has the president been too generous. It is toward 
 the rancorous, bitter and malignant enemies of hi> adminis- 
 tration in his own party at the north, notably in New Fork, 
 that he ha- carried conciliation t" a point where his real 
 friends, who are, in fact, a majority in the State, have become 
 
 disheartened, feeling that battling against machine methods is 
 hopeless, and only to be paid tor by political penalties too 
 
 grievous to be borne. With all this, the possibilities BUT- 
 
10 
 
 rounding the necessities of ;i dark horse may even yet force 
 President Haves into the list of candidates to be voted for at 
 Chicago. 
 
 Washbnrne and Edmunds arc, equally with Conkling, 
 Cameron and Logan, reckoned as friends of Gen. Grant ; bnt 
 whether this calculation is true as regards Senator Edmunds, 
 would seem doubtful in view of the fact that he is strongly 
 pressed by reform elements in the party. In any event, no 
 recognized partisan or friend of the ex-president is nearly as 
 strong as Gen. Grant himself; and if he cannot himself be 
 nominated, surely none of his friends will be suffered by the 
 anti-Grant element in the party to receive the nomination. 
 No mention has been made of Hamilton Fish, whose name 
 has perhaps more generally been mentioned than that of any 
 other, in event of the nomination falling by accident to New- 
 York, for the reason that, to do so, would be to obscure 
 mention of the names of others, quite as eminent and equally as 
 liable to be nominated. William M. Evarts, Edwin D. 
 Morgan, Reuben E. Fenton and William A. Wheeler have, 
 eqiiaby with Governor Fish, their friends and admirers. A.8 
 friends of the dead Seward, and as representatives of the princi- 
 ples governing American politics during the decade antedating 
 the slave-holder's ' rebellion, Messrs. Morgan, Evarts and 
 W heeler hold rank quite as eminent as does Governor Fish; 
 while Governor Fenton in turn represents the dead Greeley, 
 and — though hesitating somewhat to speak and act out boldly 
 his convictions, more eminently than any one else represents 
 the advance guard of republicanism in its war upon feudal 
 authority ; in other words, the republicanism of the present, and 
 the republicof the future. Governor Morgan could and would 
 have been nominated at Cincinnati in L876, had not the present 
 executive of New York State, as the representative of Mr. 
 Conkling, held out to the last against it, and, through influence 
 with a majority of his associate delegates, prevented Mr. 
 Morgan's nomination. Historical truth requires the statement 
 that several of the delegates from New England, largely 
 representing that section, outside of Maine, are understood 
 to have waited on Mr. Cornell and persistently urged the 
 
11 
 
 dropping of Mr. Conkling' s name on the part of the New 
 York delegation, and the agreement upon that of Got. Morgan, 
 coupled with the strongest assurance that, if this were done, 
 nearly or <piite all of the Bristow element, alike from Kentucky 
 and Ma>sachusetts — and the sections of the Union represented 
 by the radicalism of the one, and the conservatism of the 
 other, forming the golden mean of republicanism — would 
 unite and make Gov. Morgan's nomination inevitable. 
 
 At the time of this dictation on the part of a self -consti- 
 tuted political satrap, holding seat in the National Convention 
 not from authority on the part of the people, but through 
 frauds as monstrous as those which gave the Smyth delegation 
 from Albany seats in the recent convention at Utica — there 
 is not a shadow of doubt that, could the question have been sub- 
 mitted to a vote of the republicans of the Empire State, 
 whether the great war governor, Edwin D. Morgan, or the 
 brilliant senator and feudal chief, Roscoe Conkling, should be 
 made their standard-bearer, the verdict would have proven 
 fully three for Morgan to one for Conkling. A net-work of 
 correspondence, at that time existing, and more fully developed 
 since in the organization of the " Republican Reform League," 
 covering the entire State and reaching every school district. 
 clearly demonstrates these assertions to be true. It is no 
 disrespect to President I f ay es to say, that had Gov. Morgan's 
 name been thus agreed upon, in the election which followed he 
 would doubtless have carried New York, and probably Indiana 
 and New Jersey, and thus the question of the presidency would 
 have been settled without the necessity of the Electoral Com- 
 mission. 
 
 A regards Secretary Evarts, — such is the profundity of his 
 legal abilities, the enlightenment of his views, his radicalism 
 in all that pertains to the rights of man. his conservatism 
 in all things political, that it is too much to hope or expect 
 that he would be made the presidential choice of the 
 elements mainly t<» appear at Chicago. As the American 
 people have but the crudest conceptions of what is re- 
 quired to make a republic, so it is impressively true that 
 delegations chosen as have been not only those of New York 
 
12 
 
 and Pennsylvania, bnt of most of the other States thus 
 far, are not the ones to bring forward such a man as Mr. 
 Evarts for the presidency. The American premier, in short, 
 represents rather the republic which is to be, than the one 
 that is presumed to exist. With all this, the ways of Providence 
 are past finding out, and nobody at this distance can foresee 
 what may occur at Chicago. The American people, at least 
 the reading and thinking portion of them, are just discovering 
 that they are really represented nowhere, — the place-seekers, 
 place-holders and schemers, everywhere. 
 
 The revolution manifestly begun and well under way in 
 Pennsylvania, is liable to continue to spread, until the people, 
 through their demands for a real republic, become the 
 conquerors, and the politicians the vanquished. A call has 
 been put in circulation, inviting anti-third-term republicans to 
 a conference at Albany, on April 21st, at which time such 
 action will be taken as may very probably beget a new 
 republican State committee, provide for the holding of a 
 new State convention, and the issuance of a call for con- 
 gressional district conventions, to choose new delegates 
 representing the masses rather than the " machine." The 
 pressure of such a delegation at Chicago, rinding itself per- 
 chance unable to agree on any of the candidates outside 
 the State, and urging the nomination of Secretary Evarts, 
 Governor Morgan, Governor Fenton, Governor Fish, Vice- 
 President Wheeler, or some other eminent Kew Yorker, could 
 scarcely fail of producing a sensation hitherto unknown in 
 American politics — convincing the feudal chiefs, at least, that 
 the day of their political dictation has passed away forever. 
 
 This brings us to the list of prominent candidates in the 
 ranks of the democracy. First on such list stands the name 
 of Samuel J. Tilden, one of the most remarkable men ever 
 known to American history, — a man possessing the arts and 
 devices of an Aaron Burr, the legal ability of an Evarts, 
 the fertility in resource of Jay Gould, and, above all, those 
 qualities so admired by Talleyrand, whose hero was the man 
 who could make the best use of language to conceal his ideas. 
 Perhaps no man ever lived who knew better how to make 
 
13 
 
 the greed and ambitions of his fellow men to serve his purposes. 
 
 The writer of this article has been studying Mr. Tilden's 
 character since the memorable epoch of L848, nor has 
 been able to make up judgment touching the im- 
 pulses which have actuated, and the motives which have 
 controlled his career. That Mr. Tilden not merely be- 
 lieves in democracy, but fancies himself its most eminent 
 representative, charity, at least, would lead us to conclude. In 
 fact, men have lived in all ages, not depraved or bad ;.t heart, 
 whose pliilosophy has nevertheless been that of the end 
 justifying the means. There have been times when it would 
 seem that Mr. Tilden, more eminently than any other 
 American, represents this phase of political philosophy. That 
 his ends have been laudable is not improbable : but that the 
 means to which he has, as a rule, been in the habit of 
 resorting, could scarcely have been worse, a large portion of 
 the American people have come to believe. With all his 
 great powers — those indeed of the magician in politics — 
 his nomination at Cincinnati will be found barely among 
 the possibilities. Upon this theory of possibilities, largely if 
 not equally applying to Gen. Grant, should the result at 
 Chicago and Cincinnati be such as to find the one pitted 
 against the other, human discernment is incapable of an 
 intelligent judgment as regards the result in November. 
 Already, in nearly every State, the elements of both of the 
 hitherto existing parties are combining — crystallizing rather — 
 into tonus likely to result in new conventions of the 
 people, the outgrowth of which can hardly fail of complete 
 revolution. Democracy and republicanism, indeed, would be 
 most likely to disappear as hitherto existing, and the vox populij 
 vox D< i, heretofore bo frequently quoted, would find realization 
 in the inauguration — possibly before its day — of that republic 
 which time is destined to bring to the American people. 
 
 Of other candidates spoken of by the democrats, Messrs. 
 Seymour, Thurman, Bayard, Hancock. Hendricks. David 
 Davis and others, so remote is the possibility of either being 
 nominated, that nothing more than the mere mention of their 
 
 names need be made. 
 
14 
 
 Two names, and only two, have been mentioned, posses 
 sing in our judgment much weight as regards probabilities 
 of nomination. Mr. Groesbeck of Ohio is perhaps the best 
 specimen of Jeffersonian democracy among democrats of the 
 present generation. In a recent interview, reported in the 
 newspapers, it is stated that Mr. Groesbeck, when asked 
 whether he would consent to accept the nomination, if tendered 
 to him at Cincinnati, replied by saving that, while he was qo! 
 a candidate for any office, if the representatives of the demo- 
 cratic party were to make' him their choice, lie certainly should 
 not incline to that sort of disagreement which would forbid 
 their doing so. And yet he would say or do nothing to 
 seek the nomination. Mr. Groesbeck is confessedly a man 
 of great abilities, eminently patriotic and conservative, and 
 perhaps no man in the country would hold a more even hand 
 than he as chief magistrate of the nation. 
 
 The other name is that of a gentleman possessing all the 
 excellent qualities of Mr. Groesbeck, coupled with others 
 giving him rank among the iirst men in the business and politics 
 of the country. This is Hugh J. Jewett, President of the New 
 York, Lake Erie and Western Eailroad Company, in no sense 
 a dark horse — as has sometimes been suggested — but one 
 whose name, growing steadily, extends today into all parts 
 of the civilized world. His achievements in taking hold of 
 the affairs of what seemed the most rotten and hopeless 
 railroad corporation on this continent, and bringing it into 
 complete solvency, have fixed upon him the eyes of the 
 money-kings of the old and the new worlds. Nor is John 
 Sherman, chief of financial successes, as Secretary of the 
 Treasury, better known to the world's financiers than is 
 Hugh J. Jewett. A solitary objection has been urged against 
 Mr. Jewett as a presidential candidate, viz. : that of his iden- 
 tification with one of the greatest railway- of the world, and 
 his consequent supposed removal from sympathy with the 
 laboring classes. It only needs, however, a look beneath 
 the surface, to discover that to flugh J. Jewett arc the 
 employee and operatives connected with our vasi system 
 of railways more indebted than to any other, for those 
 
15 
 
 enlightened and progressive methods of management which are 
 lifting them to the highest plane, as regards the dignities and 
 profits of labor so ennobling every class of workingmen 
 
 Let no one presume that Mr. Jewett's name is other than 
 that of the most formidable candidate yet mentioned in con- 
 nection with the democratic nomination for the presidency. 
 This it is, and thus is it regarded by the closest observers 
 and most impartial judges of political probabilities, irrespective 
 of party, throughout the country. Should he be nominati 1. 
 which seems more than probable, and he found pitted against 
 the ex-president, the friends of the latter, within a few week-. 
 at farthest, after the opening of the campaign, will be 
 very likely to find themselvo buried with their candidate 
 heneath a political avalanche not yet so much as dreamed of 
 bv one in a thousand of even the more intelligent of Ameri- 
 can politicians. As opposed to John Sherman or James G. 
 Blaine, who are now universally recognized as dividing be- 
 tween them the chances of receiving the nomination of the 
 republican party, Mr. Jewett would alone, apparently, fail of 
 success through want of confidence in the party behind 
 him, rather than through distrust of its nominee. Under 
 any and all circumstances, the States of New York. New 
 Jersey, Indiana, and perhaps one or two others of the north, 
 may be set down as in doubt, should Mr. Jewett be made the 
 democratic candidate. His record is such, as regards loyalty 
 to the Union, the Constitution as it was, and the Constitution 
 a- it is, coupled with his acknowledged abilities as one of the 
 very ablest men of the country, and possessing statesmanship 
 of the highest order, as to render him in every respect unas- 
 sailable. 
 
 What manner of man. in fact, is the Hon. Hugh .1. Jewett, 
 may he learned from the following statements of Judge 
 (ieorire V. (omstockof Svracuse : 
 
 " 1 know Hugh J. Jewett well, and the movement to nominate 
 him for President at Cincinnati seems to be gaining considerable 
 prominence and it is not unlikely that it may succeed. The 
 delegates from Ohio will, of course, give Mr. Thurman a compli 
 mentary vote, and if it can be shown that Mr. Jewett can carry 
 Ohio, they will then go for him and that will nominate him. 
 
16 
 
 " Mr. Jewett is as honest a man as there is in the United States. 
 He is a strong business man, and understands the wants and needs 
 of the business men of the country thoroughly. He is safe on all 
 subjects of finance and currency, and should he be nominated, I 
 think no living man would get a stronger vote in the city of New- 
 York. Mr. Jewett has wonderful executive ability, and would 
 call around him a cabinet composed of the very best men of the 
 country. The resuscitation of the Erie Railway under the manage- 
 ment of Mr. Jewett, was the greatest financial achievement this 
 country has ever known. The business men of the country would 
 have the utmost confidence in Mr. Jewett's administration, and 
 the country would be perfectly safe under it. The character of 
 the man is shown from the following anecdote : In 1861 he was 
 nominated by the democrats for Governor of Ohio. He was 
 a war democrat and would not accept the nomination on the 
 platform laid down by the State convention, for the reason that it 
 did not support the war. He wrote two letters to the State com- 
 mittee, one declining the nomination for Governor on the platform 
 of the convention, and the other accepting it on a platform of his 
 own, which he enclosed, and which gave a vigorous support to the 
 war. He informed the State committee that it might do as it 
 pleased with the letters. The committee accepted Mr. Jewett's 
 and he ran largely ahead of his ticket. The democrats in my 
 opinion could not nominate for President a better or a safer 
 candidate or a more available one." 
 
 In conclusion, the presidential campaign of 1880 is destined, 
 in any event, to prove a memorable one in the annals of 
 American history. It will doubtless be the last involving the 
 question whether the politicians or the people shall rule. The 
 new census will bring not only a new south, but equally a new- 
 north, east and west, not to say a new Union, and, in due 
 time, unless broken in the struggles and strifes of the present 
 year, a new and permanent republic ; which shall witness 
 honest primaries, peaceful and honest elections, and at length, 
 such amendments to the ('(institution as the advancement and 
 necessities of the nation require. 
 
 A. N. < Sole. 
 
The First Series of the NATIONAL QUARTERLY REVIEW, comprising 6S numbers, can \ 
 had on application, at the office of publication. Price : in Paper, $1.00 per number, or $3.1 
 per volume hound in half-turkey. 
 
 The following list comprises The Essays of the First Six Volumes of the Second Series: 
 
 1 
 
 11 
 111 
 
 11. 
 
 in. 
 
 1. 
 11. 
 
 in. 
 
 IV. 
 
 I. 
 
 11. 
 
 111. 
 
 IV. 
 
 I. 
 
 II. 
 
 Ill 
 
 IV. 
 V, 
 
 I. 
 
 II. 
 III. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Second Series, Vol. I, No. I. 
 The See nf Rome and Civil Allegiance. 
 Natural and Supernatural. 
 German Novels and Novelists. Part I. 
 
 July, /. V77. 
 IV. The Sclavi nic Races of Europe. 
 V. Past and Pr«sent of Life-insurance. 
 VI. The Travail uf Den. 
 
 . Vol. I, No. II. — October, 
 
 The Civil and Military Administration of General 
 mt. 
 
 The Influence of C":i-t 1 Western Europe. 
 
 German Novels and Novelis.ts. Part II. 
 
 IV. < Iriental ( '! ristianity. 
 V. Harriet Martineau. 
 VI. Odd Customs in Old Families. 
 
 Second Series, V i 
 The National Interest and the Labor Question. 
 The Maecenas ol < rern any. 
 Philology and the < >ri ^in of Speech. 
 The Pr igress of Modern Astronomy. 
 
 Second Series, Vol. 
 
 The Pr igress of Self-G ivernment. 
 Pre-historic Man In America. 
 
 Art and Religion in Works "f Fiction. Part I. 
 The Alexandrian Museum. 
 
 Second Series, Vol. 
 China and the Chinese. 
 The Ethics of Marriage and Divorce. 
 Art and Religion in Works of Fiction. Part II. 
 Russia's Pre ' ■ P sitii >n in Eur pe. 
 The Lunar Th< 
 
 I, No. III.— January, 1S7S. 
 
 V. The Supernatural. 
 VI. The Sheridans — a Rare Literary Family. 
 VII. Rationale of the Death-Rate. 
 VIII. John L< thr.'p Motley. 
 
 II. N 1. IV.— April, 
 
 V. ( lareer of \1. Thiers. 
 VI. Divine and Human Agency. 
 VII. 1 'M Irish Bo ks and Manuscripts. 
 
 VIII. Money and Currency 
 
 III, No. V.— July, /S}$. 
 
 VI. The Papacy of Pius IX. 
 
 VII. Evoluti 01 and V' liti, n. 
 
 VIII. The Knights Templars. 
 
 IX. The Development uf Art. Part I. 
 
 ■ :> Series, Vol. Ill, No. VI.— October, t9j8. 
 
 Ethics <.f Civil G 'vernment. Part II. 
 The Relati 'ii "f Science to Scholastic Philosophy. 
 Madame Dudevant. 
 
 Condition and Prospects of the Southern States. 
 Part I. 
 
 V. Education and the Religious Sentiment. 
 VI. Present Aspects of Socialism. 
 
 VII. Libraries, Ancient and Modern. 
 VIII. William Cullen Bryant. 
 IX. Triple \ iew of Divine and Human Agency. 
 
 I. [deal Commonwealths. 
 II. The Battle-field of England and Russia. 
 
 III. Matter, Life and Mind. 
 
 IV. War Indebtment : Its Limitations and Dangers. 
 V. Voltaire and the French Revolution. 
 
 Second Series, Vol. IV, No. VII. — January, iSyo. 
 
 VI. The Ecclesiastical Question in Italy. 
 VII. Condition and Prospects of the Southern Stat 
 Part II. 
 VIII. The Development of Art. Part II. 
 IX. Alzog's Church History. 
 
 I, 
 
 II. 
 
 Ill 
 
 I. 
 
 II. 
 
 III. 
 IV. 
 
 Second Series, Vol. IV, No. VII I.— April, iS^q. 
 Problems Physical and Metaphysical. 
 Jonathan Swift and His Times. 
 Temperance as a National Question. 
 
 IV. The Poetry of Atheism. 
 V. France: tier Ninety Years of Probation. 
 VI. The Elements of National Finance. 
 
 id Series, Vol. V, No. IX. — July, i&jq. 
 
 The Relation ,,f Physical States to Mental De- 
 rangement. 
 Prince Bisma-ck and German Unity. 
 The Nature-Sentiment in Poetry. 
 
 The Present Phase of the Morm u Problem. 
 
 V. The Ratio 1 t Capital to C nsiimption. 
 VI. The Devel pment ol Art. 
 VII. lYnihi us Juvenile Literature. 
 V 1 1 1 . ["he Doctrine of Perception. 
 I \. The SutTO Tunnel. 
 
 -1 ribs, Vol. V, No. X. 
 
 1. The 
 
 Republic of Athens from Alcibiades to De- 
 
 -thencs. 
 
 II. The Chinese Immigration Question. 
 III. The Rationale ol Panics. 
 IV. 
 
 William Mai epi ai e I hai keray. 
 
 . V 1 
 I. Ri e and Fall il the Bonapartes. 
 II! zemeni 1 t 1 he Indians. 
 
 III. 1 1 
 
 1 V. The 1 1 1 Water. 
 
 V. The Wot ; Europe. 
 
 VI, 
 
 V. 
 
 VI. 
 
 VII. 
 
 V 1 1 1 . 
 
 No. XI 
 
 VI. 
 
 VII. 
 
 \ III. 
 
 IX. 
 
 11 , Vol. VI, N \ I 
 V. 
 
 \ I 
 \ II. 
 
 I. The Clerii Q >n in Fran 
 
 11. ns on the Physics and Metaphysics 
 
 zht. 
 III. Russia an, I Germany in the Event of a War. 
 
 I\ . I I..- Si tti h P 
 
 ress 
 
 \ 111. 
 
 IV 
 
 The Grain-Fii Ids t Russia and America. 
 ! thics 1 I Utilitarianism. 
 
 I ment I t 
 Ji lies' History ol New Vork. 
 
 — January, ri 
 
 The Nebular Hyp thesis. 
 Interstate I xti adii i u. 
 ["he New 1 luestion. 
 
 A S uthi mer's Estimate of the Life and Chara 
 ter of Stephen A. Douglas. 
 
 ! 
 
 Aiiieri, an Mines and Mining Interests. 
 The Third-! erm Questii n. 
 The Railway IV blem, 
 Politico-Railway Pr blems and The 'lists. 
 
 I I ■ Republic and the Preside 
 
 THE NATIONAL QUARTERLY RETIEW, 
 
 13 & 15 Park Row, New Vork. 
 
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