The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-06-27
PAST PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATIONS.
by JAMES PARTON.

4o be for its ungovernable recklessness We
are within few months of a Presidential cam
paign; every editor in the land has his candi-
date selected; and the topic is one Of such
interest that almost any expression of opinion
with regard to It would attract attention. But
upon what subject is the press so reticent
Twenty years ago every newspaper in the
country blazed with the names of candidates
for the next election, almost as soon as the
last one had been decided, and reams of excel
lent writing paper were spoiled in recon-
mending those candidates to the favor of the
1oeople The press has learned wisdom by
experience, and now, voluntarily, abstains
from prematurely bringing competitors into
the arena to be weakened and manned before
the contest begins
follow the example of our brethren of the
nress. not doubling that the American people
will in the future as they have in the past
select for their Chief Magistrate the individual
who. all things considered, will be the best
man for the time. Alexander Hamilton once
said, that the mode of electing a President
prescribed by the Constitution ''was intended
70 secure to prominent talents and virtues the
first honors Of our country, and forever to dis
grace the barbarous institutions by which
executive power is to be transmitted through
the accident of birth" If this view of the
matter be correct-f the Presidency is to
be regarded as a means of rewarding
services and honoring merit-then it must
be confessed we have failed to carry
out the design of the Constitution
On several occasions, indeed, the people
have bestowed the Presidency upon men
prominent, above all others, for virtue and
talent: but at other times, men have been
selected for their insignifcance rather than
their prominence, and merely as representing
the platform of their party. But under Gov
ernment such as ours, so long as it is honestly
administered if great talents in the Presiden-
dental chair might essentially benefit the
nation, inferior talents cannot materially re-
tard its progress. Under John Tyler, the
United States continued to advance in wealth
and in civilization; under George Washington,
it did no more. 1t is desirable, for many rea-
sons, that the President of the United States
should be an able, honorable, and prudent
man. All we mean to assert is that the desti-
nies Of the country do not depend upon an ,n-
dividual; and, if this had been before doubtful,
recent events have established it.
1t may be interesting at this stage of our
affairs, when parties are about to select men
to represent them in the coming canvass, to
cast glance at previous Presidential elections,
and not the various processes by which, among
the mass of American citizens, "a suitable Chief
magistrate mas D66u lOuIu. iAS Iu6 nOue OF
electing President has always been prescribed
by law, the chief difficulty has been the nomi-
nation of candidates. We have usually had
in the United States two political parties
nearly equal in strength and numbers, but
we have never had two men in the
country so clearly representative of the diver
gent tendencies embodied in those
parties, that the people spontaneously
looked up to them as their standard bearers.
AT the present moment, for example, there is
no man in the Republican party, nor one in
the Democratic party, who stands out con-
spicuously as the best representative of either
So far as we know, but one man has ever
governed a nation who was the spontaneous
and unanimous choice of its inhabitants. That
man was George Washington. In him alone,
among the sons of men, were combined all
the qualities which could influence free and
Virtuous people to elect him as their chief.
In social position he was the first gentleman
of America, and that was far more important
consideration eighty years ago than it lis now.
His private character was spotless. His pru-
6ence had been subjected to every test, and
never found insufficient. His military reputa-
tion, so captivating to the multitude, was
only equalled, among living generals, by that
of Frederick the Great. Possessing the
traits of character which inspire conf
dence an imposing personal presence, and a
splendor of reputation unequalled in America,
he must have been the choice of the American
people, in whatever mode his name had been
presented for their sufrages. Every electoral
vote was cast for him, and he took his place
at the head of the Government with the ap-
proval of every individual voter in every State
of the Union. .....
During General Washington's first term, the
two parties were formed which, under various
names, have ever since contended for the
supremacy. Each of these parties consisted
at first of one man. The first American Demo
crat, in the party sense of the word, was Thomas
Jefferson, Secretary of State; and the first Fede-
ralist was Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of
the Treasury. These men, associated in the
Cabinet of President Washington, soon dis
covered that they differed fundamentally on
almost every point on which it is desirable that
Cabinet ministers should agree. The French
Revolution was the great topic at that time.
- Jefferson, fresh from France, hailed that
mighty revolt with the keenest approval, for
he had witnessed the oppression which iusti-
lied it, Hamilton from the first regarded it
with dread and horror. Hamilton had low
opinion of mankind, and thought that govern
1nent must necessarily be both powerful and
imposing. Jefferson, on the contrary, re-
spected his felloW-citizens, and desired their
Government to be simple, inexpensive, and
- strictly limited. The consequence was that
Sie two Secretaries, as Jefferson remarked,
1rSe "pitted against each other every day in
MmeICabinet like two fighting g-cocks;" and this
Ssn!tSension, communicating itself to their
friends and followers, gradually divided the
nation into parties.
Those who sided with Jefferson were called
Republicans, and those who sympathized will
Hamilton were called Federalsts. The Repub
lican party embraced three descriptions of per
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