John Harrison Wilson, The life of Charles Henry Dana

The suggestion of a third term of the presidency for General Grant was heard, for the first time, before his second term was fully under way. It came from officeholders and politicians, and was kept constantly before the country, not only to the end of the term, but till it was finally put to rest four years later at the Chicago convention by the nomination of General Garfield, of Ohio. As the suggestion was at variance with the considerate course of General Washington, when he was offered a third nomination, and with what has since then generally been regarded as the unwritten law of the land, the Sun made haste to oppose it, and in doing so brought every argument that it could frame to bear against it. It would be impossible to summarize the discussion, which extended over a period of seven or eight years, but in spite of this the third-term proposition received the support of a large number of the leading Republicans, many of whom Dana had formerly classed as his closest friends. Many other influential newspapers, in the conviction that the precedent would be a bad one, did what they could to defeat it, but Dana led in the fight, and it now seems probable that but for the part he took in it the movement would have been successful. Every possible criticism was brought to bear on the conduct of the public business, whether it related to the use of the army in the work of reconstruction, to the collection of the revenues, to the inflation of the currency, to the current legislation, or to the management of the different executive departments. The summation of every argument was in substance that there was but one vital issue, and that was, “Turn the rascals out,” and thus free the country at the same time from chronic corruption and the dangers of a virtual dictatorship.

In returning his thanks to his brethren of the press, through the Sun, April 24, 1875, for the support they had given to the principle it had been his fortune to represent