AMERICAN PRESIDENTS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9163, 11 August 1908, Page 4

AMERICAN PRESIDENTS.

Remarkable testimony to th« genius for government of the British race is the fact that among the 25 men who have been Presidents of the United States since the Revolution, all but two were of English, Scottish or Scottish-Irish blood. The two exceptions are President Roosevelt and President Van Buren (who held office in the period 1837-41), both being of Dutch origin. Nineteen out of the 25 were lawyers. Four were teachers, and one a tailor, before they became lawyers. Both Presidents Johnscn and Fillmore were tailors in early life; the army contributed three; President Washington was first a surveyor and then a planter; and President Lincoln conr.menced life as a farm hand, afterwards becoming a lawyer. It is a curious fact that although there are nearly eleven million Roman Catholics, and one and three-quarter million Jews in the United States, neither religion has ever been represented at the White House. Although one President lived to the age of 90, and two passed the age of 80, thev are not, on the whole, long-lived men.