In the name of the One-Term principle, once recognized by him, and which needs no other evidence of its necessity than his own Presidency, I protest against his attempt to obtain another lease of power.

Nor can we afford to perpetuate power in a ruler who errs so much from ignorance.

Knowing something of these from careful study and years of practical acquaintance, I am bound to say that never before has their management been so wanting in ability and so absolutely without character.

With so much pretension and so little knowledge, how could it be otherwise?

Here the President touches nothing which he does not muddle.

In every direction is muddle,--muddle with Spain, muddle with Cuba, muddle with the Black Republic, muddle with distant Corea, muddle with Venezuela, muddle with Russia, muddle with England,--on all sides one diversified muddle.

When before in our history have we reached any such bathos as that to which we have been carried in our questions with England?

But here the initial point is the limitation of the President to one term, so that he may be placed above temptation; yet this he opposes.

And again, let the War Department recall the disappearance of important archives bearing on an important event of the war, so that empty boxes remain like a coffin without a corpse.

But instead he has organized discord, operating through a succession of rings, and for laurels we find only weeds and thistles.

Had the President put into the protection of the colored people at the South half the effort and earnest will with which he maintained his San Domingo contrivance, the murderous Ku-Klux would have been driven from the field and peace…

Nor has he ever exhibited to the colored people any true sympathy.

And this meaningless juggle of words, entirely worthy of the days of Slavery, is all that is vouchsafed by a Republican President for the equal rights of his colored fellow-citizens.

I dismiss the apologies with the conclusion, that in the matters to which they invite attention his Presidency is an enormous failure.

Our President governs by offices,--in other words, by the appointing power, being a central force by which he coerces obedience to his personal will.

Let a Senator or Representative hesitate in the support of his autocracy, or doubt if he merits a second term, and forthwith some distant consul or postmaster, appointed by his influence, begins to tremble.

Can such tyranny, where the military spirit of our President finds a congenial field, be permitted to endure?

In adopting him as a candidate for reëlection we undertake to vindicate his Presidency, and adopt in all things the insulting, incapable, aide-de-campish dictatorship which he has inaugurated.

Presenting his name, we vouch for his fitness, not only in original nature, but in experience of civil life, in aptitude for civil duties, in knowledge of republican institutions, and elevation of purpose; and we must be ready to defend…

Let it be said that he is not only the greatest nepotist among Presidents, but greater than all others together, and what Republican can reply?

Let it be said that he has openly violated the Constitution and International Law, in the prosecution of a wretched contrivance against the peace of San Domingo, and what Republican can reply?

Let it be said, that, wielding the power of the Great Republic, he has insulted the Black Republic with a menace of war, involving indignity to the African Race, and what Republican can reply?

Let it be said that he has set up Presidential pretensions without number, constituting an undoubted Cæsarism or personal government, and what Republican can reply?

Anxiously, earnestly, the country asks for reform, and stands tiptoe to greet the coming.

But how expect reform from a President who needs it so much himself?