New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1874-05-31
THE PRESIDENCY.
Roll Call of the Candidates.

Warm hearted Colonel w. H. Polk, of
Tennessee, brother Of President Polk, a
| rare good fellow, as the phrase goes, of in
finite wit and good nature. said on one Oc.
casiOn when a certain gentleman was acct
dentally nominated Tor the first office in the
| nation, Il n.ust take care or the lightning
| may strike me; nobody is safe after that"
He was IN Congress from 1851 to 1853, and
there was not q day he did not brighten
with a joke. If he were living nOw-he
died at Nashville, defiant enemy of the
rebellion, December l6, l562-he would find
a source of great amusement in the list of
possible or probable candidates for the
presidency in 1876 and without wGunding
any sensibilities he would score each of
them and make every social circle ring
with his happy hits. Let me try to enume-
rate the catalogue. excluding General
Grant, who, whether an aspirant for third
term or not, has been so often described
that it would be lost time to reproduce his
familiar picture.
Oliver Perry Morton, of Indiana, born in
Wayne county, Indiana, August 4, 1923. A
face of singular force and mobility, very
pale set off by sparkling black eyes; slight,
ly bald, with broad. expansive brow, and
the manners of the West, chastened by so.
ciety and study; fine speaking powers; in
stinctive executive tastes; an admirable Or
ganizer, and the magnetism not always
found in ambitious men. He is Republi-
can of advanced views, and enters the race
with the Western sentiment at his back, a
splendid war record, and pledged to lib
eral increase of the circulating medium AT
tiicted by numbness of his lower limbs,
and often confined to his bed. he is. never
theless, a great traveller and his stump
speeches are models of logic and good tenn
per. He is never coarse, though always
oold and often severe. He is now in the
Senate: his term expires March 3, 1875, and
he lives at the Ebbit House.
Morton's political and personal antipodes
is Thomas A. Hendricks, Democrat, pres
ent Governor Of Indiana, born IN Washing
ton county Ohio, September I. 1919. Stud
led law and completed his studies at Cham
bersburg, Pennsylvania, in 1913, after
which ne settled in Indiana, and soon rose
in succession to most OF the offices in the
gift of the people-Legislature Congress,
United States Senator, and now Governor.
President Pierce made him commissioner
of the General Land Otfic. An excellent
man every way. Cool, sagacious, persua-
sive, his gentle manners and pleasant cOun.
tenance add to his influence l know no
aspirant for the Democratic nomination
that would make q better President. He
and Mr.. Morton agree on the currency, but
differ about everything else. Hendricks in
complexion is light, and in this is the exact
opposite of his dark-skinned Republican
James Gillespie Blaine, of Maine, Speaker
of the present house, born in Washington
county, Pennsylvania, in 1880, graduated at
Washington College, same cOsnty, in 1917,
then moved to and married in Maine, be- |
came editor of the kennebec Journal and |
the Portland Adcertiser, four years in the |
Maine Legislature, two of them Speaker of |
the House, in 1862 chosen to Congress from !
the third or Augusta district. and has been |
reelected to every succeeding term. Is |
now Speaker of the House; first elected in |
1871, and again IN 1873 There is solid |
metal here. A fine physique, excellent |
habits, varied studies, great energy, ready |
orator, with ringing voice; prompt and de-
oers and delegates in check with firm
and strong hand. And this is no
light task. When Henry Clay was Speaker,
le made great fame by his manner in fact,
Utmost as much as when he got to the SEN
tie after ward. And yet the House over
which he lOrded and ruled, which he rode.
eined in, and for ten years spurred, had
'nly eighty four members in 1911, which
,radually became in his last Speakershp
Il 1925, one hundred and eighty-three.
They were fiery and untamed, but he was
quail to them. When they threatened he
threatened; when they said severe things
e retorted bitterly, and more than once he
anne down from the chair to lash some |
ude adversary into silence. 1t was word |
nd challenge with him always.
There is as much difference between the |
peaker of the House and President of the
enate of the United States as there is be-
ween the master of a school of halEgrown
oys and the professor of class of sober ,
tudents. The Speaker has an occasional
est, but there is hardly day that all his
overs of mind and body are not severely
ested. The President of The Senate is
early always at his ease. Decorum is the {
ule of the Senate-decorum of speech, of !
ress, of manner; and hence lie sits for r
ours and days in statue-like stiffness, only :
roken by his taking or stating question. +
ne Speaker of the House is like the cap r
lin of an ocean steamer. He must be on :
le pui vive all the time. !;
Unlike Henry Clay. Mr.. Blaine was not
peaker of the House preceding great !;
ar. Perhaps the most brilliant period of :,
n. Clay's early lite was that between 1911 q
I'D 1914, before he was appointed one of
le commissioners to negotiate the treaty o
Client. He was frequently on the floor n
ivocating offensive measures against e
real Britain, and in his magnificent elo- .
fence thrilled the country and prepared =
for the conflict. He resigned in 1915 to =
fulfill this mission, and was succeeded j
: Langdon Cheves, of South Carolina:
me back and was reelected Speaker in
Is, remaining in the chair until 1920,
len he resigned. The two succeeding A