U.S. PRESIDENCY

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 44, 16 November 1920, Page 7

U.S. PRESIDENCY

AN HISTORICAL SURVEY CANDIDATES AND ISSUES The past history of the Presidency of thte United States may be said to have three broad divisions, says an exchange. It began with the unanimous election of General Washington in April, 1789. There was evon then popular political division, of course, one party being tha Democratic Republicans and another, tho Federalists. But Washington was abovo party, and his re-election in 1792 was almost unanimous. When, his second term was drawing to a close he intimated his determination not to be again a candidate, and thus established tho custom since observed of regarding eight years as tho maximum period during which the samo individual may properly hold tho chief magistracy of the country. John Adams, a Federalist, and the former Vice-President, succeeded his chief, it being somewhat the practice at that time to regard the VicePresident as the natural -heir to the nrincipal chair. Adams had a formidable opponent in Thomas Jefferson, who succeeded to the ■ Vice-Prestdencv. and in turn became the next President. From then onwards Hl' 182fi tho office was filled by- men who had been conspicuous in revolutionary war or politics, nnd in the framing and adoption of tho Constitution. , , . In 1828 General Andrew Jackson's triumph began the second great chapter in Presidential history, he being the first President presented by the Democratic Party as it is-known to-day. He-was chosen, we are iold, "in the name of reform, and as th« standard-bearer of the people, rising in their midst to overtlrrow an extravagant, currupt, aristocratic Federalist Administration, which had encroached on the liberties of the people, and had aimed to corrupt elections by an abuse of Morn] patroiin"e." As a matter of historical fact, the Administration of James Qimicy Adams, Jackson's predecessor, was probably ono of the most high-minded and non-partisan in tho history of the Stales, while to Jackson belongs tho doubtful honour of initiating the system of the B poils to the victor," which has grown into the vicious thing -it has since become. Hitherto the choice of tho I iesidential candidates. and the election were more, or less irregular, accoiding to lntter-day notions. Members of tongresapparently- selected the candidates nnd constituted sonic of colleges. In 1832, when Jackson was. elected for a second terni, the system rf popular conventions, for. the choice of candidates was originated, tho credit for this being due. however not to the Democrats, but to wb. pre— .seven electoral college rote. Jackson so compacted, the new Democratic party that f°'»*•»«*,* ™ Mnrtin van Bureu, his deputy, i a; ens ily able to win the presidential ofhec, but meanwhile two events of greal «v nificance had occurred. The Abolit on tst party had arisen, and the electoia who were not within the Democratic fold for the most part oganised themselves' together under tho name of tno Whigs. Van Buren's successor was lippecanoe" Harrison, a Whig, but that distinguished general did not live Ins term out,"and for the first timo.the Vice-Pre-sident automatically moved into the White House as President, lots was John Tyler, who was really a Democrat, end who featured his administration by falling out with the party which had elected him. Then came Polk, a Democrat; Zaehary Taylor, a AV.hig (who died during his term, -and was replaced by Fillmore tlie Vice-President: Franklin Pierce, Democrat; and Buchanan. Democrat. The campaign, in whieli the lastnamed was elected is notable in that for the first time the Republican Party, as we know it now, was represented bv a candidate. This was Fremont, afterwards a dashing Northern war general, who did not measure up to expectations. The Presidential election of 1860 was undoubtedly the most momentous in tho history of the country, and :it'.may be said to mark the beginning of the third historical division. The Republican Party had been formed in 1851, and its organic germ is credited'to a meeting of newspaper editors held in Illinois, where it certainly had its early home. "Us members, differing on other matters, united'upon the one' doctrine, which they accepted us a'test; opposition to tlie es- I tension of slavery." Tlie. Republicans were'not- necessarily abolitionists, although they included in their number most of' the abolitionists, no doubt; but the strength which the cause of abolition had then attained was undeniable. Slavery, either as regards its confinement to tho States in which it already legally existed, or its elimination from thi> Union altogether, became the one great issuo in national politics. The Demoprats, split, upon it, and while the' Southern section of the party, pro-slavow to the full, nominated Breckenridge for the Presidency, the Northern section, which desired to temporise, nominnted Stephen at the moment regarded as the. greatest individual political force in the United States. The Eepublicnn convention, held in Chicago, renlied with .the nomination of Abraham Lincoln, the homely railsplitter turned ♦iwyer, who whs the butt not merely of his opponents but of tho "smart" section of his own party, but who lived to reveal himself as incomparably tlie greatest ' political figure in the histor" of his country, and. as; Mr. T. P. O'Connor recently put it, probably the peer of any. man who has ever lived in grasping the fundamentals of politicnl truth.. Lincoln won on tlie split vote, and inaugurated that aeries of _ Eepublicnn Presidents which was continued unbroken until Grovcr Cleveland wns elected in 188-t. Cleveland served one term, and' was (defeated in his next essay by Benjamin Harrison, a Eepiiblioan, who got a majority of votes in the electoral college, although he was in a nlural minority. Cleveland succeeded again in 1692. and *hen twentv more years were to elapse beforo another Democrat could win the -right to'occupy the .White House. Thic was President Wilson, "the first Soutbernar since Lincoln," It will be within the recollection of many of our readers that the Republicans had inMiiiwhito snlit on the Progressive rock, and that Theodore Roosevelt, who had served the. balance of M'Kinlcy's second, term, and one of his ow/iiis President -in rlie interests of the Republicans, helped toward a Democratic victory, by preseTTring him-. self to the electorate as a Progressive. Although Dr, Wilson had not a plural majority, he got an ovai whelming mn- . jority in the.electoral'tollegc. '-.

Pour years ago narty lines worn much obscured, lint it will lie remembered that fn' some tlmn after election day it was b»lieved that President Wilson had bciin defeated 'by the candidale of the reunited Republican partv. Jtuko Hughes. Our files of that yenr show that an lata ns November ff, seven clnys after polling dav. Judge Hugliea wa? still beinj nc claimed as the President-elect, vand that the New. York Press, typical of the Press of. the whole country. Democratic nrpojis included, had credited the Judge with a "swinging 'victory." Then belated Western a/d Middle Western returns began to coine in, and ultimately it was found that President, Wilson tvas reelected by a record plurality and a eiibstf>"tial majority in the Hcctore! cnllfe. 'Hie recent contest will', no doubt, be regarded in tho. future as marking the beginning of another new era in Presicampaigns. It is not ilint the Republicans, more or less reunited in 1!)1C; have complete!! tho lightening n» of their ranks, but that for tho first time the women of the country have voted in an cleotion of the kind, and that tho electors generally have had to decide great issues, who™ roots crVuid far beyond United States territory. The people may seem to have turned down the League of Nations.-but almost as enrelv as the sun will reappear this morning the force of international evenls will compel tho administration which will succeed that of President Wilson to take a part In guiding the destinies, of the world not less onerous or far-reaching than would have been the obligation of the administration which Senator Cox would have established had he been elected.

On five occasions the Vice-President, of- the United States has benn cnlled linon to lake up the duties of President. The first, as we have mentioned, was .T0!,,, Tvlert Millard Fillmore went lo the While Hoiii=e when General Zacharv

Taylor died within about sixteen months of being,inaugurated; Andrerv. Johnson

succeeded Lincoln when the latter was assassinated in 18G5; and Chester A. Arthur and Theodore. Roosevelt stepped into the shoes of General Garfield and Moior M'ls'inloy respectively when Ihcir careers had also been closed by assassination. . . Once only has « charge of lmpeticliment boon mado ngninst a President. This happened to Andrew Johnson the Tennessee tailor, who completed the Iralnnce of Lincoln's second term. Johnpon. had '.quarrelled with Stanton,/his War Minister (the groat War Minister of the Lincoln.Administration), and had suspended him. Tho Senate refused to approve of the suspension, and Johnson then dismissed Stanton altogether, as ho would have been right in doing in the first instance. The incident shows tluit nominally, fit all events, the President is not, ns is .sometimes supposed, a law unto himsolf-that if he transgrasses the written laws of his country he may be pulled up ver.v sharply.