In regard to the Presidential question, the keynote is usually sounded by the friends of the administration, who wish to retain its patronage, or by opponents, who seek to overthrow it for the sake of the "spoils." Though candidates for office contend loudly for principles and reform, it is evident that with many of them the public treasury is the centre of attraction. It is true, however, that there are some honorable exceptions,--some men who are influenced by patriotic motives, who love their country and desire to promote its real welfare, and who would rather "do right than be President of the United States." In a government like ours, which is essentially partisan in its character, there exists a manifest want of promptitude in the exercise of its central power. In other words, it takes a republic too long to move and execute in a crisis. It is prevented from doing this by the popular trammels which environ it. And yet it is often as difficult to ascertain what is the popular will as it is to comply with it. For this reason it is often a slavish fear, rather than a sense of right, that controls the administration of the government. Even our best men, when placed in power, become so sensitive to public opinion that their moral courage "oozes out at their fingers' ends." They see lions in their path, and therefore fear to do their duty. So long as a love of office, rather than a love of country, influences the action of the politician and the statesman, there can be neither strength nor stability in the framework of democratic institutions. For an illustration of this, we need only appeal to the histories of Greece and Rome. America has produced, however, many model men, and doubtless will produce many more of a like character. It is men that we want,--men of nerve and pluck, as well as men of wisdom, not only to enact our laws, but to administer them. All conspiracies of one class against the rights of another class, or against the rights of individuals, should by Congressional enactment be declared crimes, and the perpetrators promptly punished, no matter by what name their associations may be known. It is the prompt enforcement of criminal law that gives it moral force and overawes the offender. It is impossible to predict the future, except as we see it from a standpoint of the present. Hence it is, perhaps, that we apprehend dangers when there are none. Yet we know that the elements of dissolution are incorporated into the very material that constitutes the universe. And so it is with the nations of the earth. The law of change is universal. It affects alike both the moral and the physical world. In his desires, man, as an individual, is insatiable; and so are nations. It is a prominent trait of Americans to want territory, and to acquire territory. They must have elbow-room; but the misfortune is, they do not know when they have enough. It seems as if they aspired to grasp the world and to govern the world.