new--will have qualified him to carry on the Government during a second
term to the satisfaction of all unselfish men. Mr. Lincoln's honesty is
beyond question, and we need an honest man at the head of the nation now
more than ever. That the Rebels object to him is a recommendation in the
eyes of loyal men. The substitution of a new man would not dispose them
to submission, and they would expect to profit from that inevitable
change of policy which would follow from a change of men. As to "the
one-term principle," we never held it in much regard; and we are less
disposed to approve it now than we should have been, had peace been
maintained. Were the President elected for six or eight years, it might
be wise to amend the Constitution so as to prevent the reelection of any
man; but while the present arrangement shall exist, it would not be wise
to insist upon a complete change of Government every four years. To hold
out the Presidency as a prize to be struggled for by new men at every
national election is to increase the troubles of the country. Among the
causes of the Civil War the ambition to be made President must be
reckoned. Every politician has carried a term at the White House in his
portfolio, as every French conscript carries a marshal's _baton_ in his
knapsack; and the disappointments of so many aspirants swelled the
number of the disaffected to the proportions of an army, counting all
who expected office as the consequence of this man's or that man's
elevation to the Presidency. Were there no other reason for desiring the
reelection of President Lincoln, the fact that it would be the first
step toward a return to the rule that obtained during the first
half-century of our national existence under the existing Constitution
should suffice to make us all advocates of his nomination for a second
term. That the Baltimore Convention will meet next month, and that it
will place Mr. Lincoln once more before the American people as a
candidate for their suffrages, are facts now as fully established as
anything well can be that depends upon the future; and that he will be
reelected admits of no doubt. The popular voice designates him as the
man of the time and the occasion, and the action of the Convention will
be nothing beyond a formal process, that shall give regular expression
to a public sentiment which is too strong to be denied, and which will
be found of irresistible force.

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