The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1863-10-29
lFrom the New York Evening Post.1
The Folly % Wishing 70 be Pres.
ha0mt.

iasnt.
An Intelligent gentleman, who has re-
Gently visited Washington. says that ne
found the question "who is tobe the usxt
President mipgling itself nors or less
with nearly An olher public questions.--
.Its ahadex, 2 said he, 'is esstyS hsse.'p =
A few considerations relating to this sub
ject have occurred to US, which We would
like to lay before our readers, and espe-
chilly before those, If they ever look 1t
our daily sheet, who cherish the hope
that they may hereafter be elected to the
Presidency Of the United States. The
number Of persons comprised in this class
is by no means small. 1t includes proba-
bly, several hupdred men in every State,
not only in civil life, but in the army
You can hardly send man to the United
States Senate but he thinks of being one
day President. Make q soldier Gene
raj, and the tempter whispers in his ear
he may yet be Commander-in- Chief Of the
armies Of the Republic. The class Of
suitors for that high Office is so large that
it includes even Horatio Seymour and
Fernando Wood, to say nothing of less
notorious but scarcely less worthy names.
Some of these persons are past all ben
eft from any admonition of ours. But
there are others, not yet wholly spoiled
by political life, who may perhaps be
made to see that to be always thinking
about being, at some time or other, can
didate for the Presidency, and always
shaping their public conduct with view
10 attain that object, is very certain to
make them less useful and less respected
in public life than they otherwise would
be, and almost as certain to bring upon
them in the end the bitterest disappoint-
ment. There is scarce any chapter in those
ample records which illustrate the vanity
of human wishes, abouuding more in sig
nalinstances, and more instructive, ifread
Alright, than that which relates the fail
ures of distinguished men who have as
PRED to the P.csidency of the United
States.
Among the number of those who have
made it the ambition of their lives to fill
that office, and have died in old age with
out having reached it, are some of our
very ablest men. Calhoun was always
looking forward to the Presidency, and
always ready to listea to those who ap-
preached him with plans for bringing his
name before the people as candidate
Old age crept upon him in the midst Of
his aspirations, and he died with the
strongest wishes Of his heart unful6lled
Clay. as the great champion of the Amer
can system, and the leader of party
among whom were many who bore to him
an almost fanatieal attachment, naturally
thought himself destined to the Presiden-
ey. His system triumphed in Congress,
but he, for one dreary term of the Presi-
Dental Office after another, to the end of
his life, looked in vain for an election BY
the people. Webster deemed the office
of Chief Magistrate due to his splendid
talents and his long course of public SER
vice, and after his support of what were
called the Compromise measures of 1850,
imagined that he had secured a nomina-
ton to the Presidency, with fair chance
of success by the vote of the South bu.
the Southern politicians set his claims
aside with SO little ceremony that the
modification he endured is thought to
have FASTENED his death. One of the
most remarkable examples of Intellectual
intrigue for the Presidency was that OF
Joan Tyler, who, having been elected
Vice President, became by the death of
President Harrison the actual Executive
of the Federal Government. and for three
years employed, with great diligence,
all the influence his station gave him with
the avowed purpose of securing his el.c.
ton to the Presidency for the succeeding
term. The result was a most ridiculous
failure, and shows how little power Pres
ldent has to influence the politics of the
country after his official term has expired
There were scarce five hundred men in
the country who really desired that Mr..
Tyler should hold his Office for another
term.
There are other distinguished citizens
yet alive whose eyes have been fixed in
vain, on the great political prize of the
Presidency. Mr.. Cass is one of these-a
man of amiabls character and acknowl-
edged talent, whose public course was
most injuriously and lamentably affected
by his hope to reach the Presidency
Now that he has withdrawn from public
life, and expects no longer nomination
from any party, his political judgments
are freer and sounder, and their express
sion more frank and decided. Mr.. Fill.
more Is another example. From the time
that the death of President Taylor cast
upon him the frnctions of Chief Magis-
trate, aud he Consented to support the
Compromise measures of 1856, he has
been hankeriug for the Presidency. He
could not, however, with all the patron
age his station gave him, procure for
himself respectable vote in the election
of the next President. We fear that Mr..
Fillmore is not yet recovered from the idle
fancy that he may again be brought for
ward by his friends with some chance of
success, and that he has not attained that
state OF unbiased and uuclouded judg
ment of political affairs which his venera-
bic rival Mr. Cass now enjoys.