The Presidency of the United States.

Manawatu Herald, 31 May 1892, Page 2

The Presidency of the United States.

♦ , News keeps moving as to who are likely to be candidates for the offioe of President of the United States of America. The present holder Was elected in; 1599, .so that) as the tenure is only .. for four years, next year will witness one of those exciting American contests between the Republican and Democrat parties. The mode of electing a President is as follows {— Each State, and there are forty-four in the Union, chooses, by popular vote, " electors " equal in number to the; Senators and representatives sent by that State to Con- | gress. The electors for each State meet at their respective State capitals on a day appointed, and there vote for a President by ballot. The ballots are then sent to "Washington, and opened by the President of the Senate in presence of Congress, and the candidate who has received a Majority of the whole number of electoral votes cast is declared President for the ensuing term. If no one has a majority, then from the three highest dn the list the House of Representatives elects a President. The present President is a Bepublican, and the Mr Blame mentioned as the future candidate for his party, is the Honourable James Gillespie Blame, the holder of the Secretaryship of State. He is a journalist by profession, having been part owner and editor of the Kennebec Journal, and editor of the Port" Daily Advertiser. He was one of the organizers of the 'epublican party in Maine, and served in the State legislature from 1858 to 1862, the last two years being Speaker. Tn 1862 he was elected a Eepresentative in Congress, and was reelec f ed for each successive term until 1876. He was Speaker of the House of Representatives from 1869 to 1874. In 1881 he accepted the same office which he now holds,! from President Garfield, but on the latter's assassination he, with the rest of the Cabinet, resigned. At the Republican National Convention in 1884 he was nominated for the Presidency, but the Democratic party prevailed, and Mr Cleveland was sucoassful. He is sixty-two years of age. The United States Presidency is a prize worth gaining, not so much for, the spoils, as the salary is only £10,000 a year, but the honour of being the head of a country whose growth is so surprising as shown by the facts that in 1776 there were only 2,814,800 people., in 1881 there were 60,152,865, and in 1890 they had increased to 62,480,540 ! The probable candidate on the Democratio side is ex-President Stephen Grover Cleveland, who follows the profession of the law in New York. He is only fifty-five years of age. The fight, if left to these two gentlemen, is likely to be hard, and the younger man, with the prestige of a successful administration, it having been marked by great prosperity to the country at large, should have the best chance of being elected.