Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1878-06-08
OUR PRESIDENTS IN HISTORY.

Henry Clay is credited with the trite re-
mark, II had rather be right than President"
If he were alive to-day and could look back
over the intervening space, viewing the lives
and deeds of the Presidents of the United
States in the light of history, we are conf
dent he would shrink from occupying the
Office, right or wrong. How many of the
Presidents of the United States will live in
history, for the good they have done-how
many of them have made the history of their
country? By far the greater number will be
remembered by future generations simply by
name, or for the abuses of government
which are 80 intimately connected with
them.
Washington's fame will live as long as
history shall last. A great general in war, a
pure, unsullied character, an upright and
astute statesman, he will ever be spoken of
as first in war, first in peace, first in the
hearts of his countrymen.'' Jefferson's
fame will rest upon the immortal Declare
ton of Independence, of which he was the
author. jackson, as President, will be CRATE
| fully remembered for his frmness in squelch-
ing the serpent of notification; Lincoln as
| the kind -hearted, faithful, patriotic savior OF
| his country. Aside from these four, the
Presidents of the United States will have q
| blank space in history. The Adamses were
scholarly men, honest administrators of the
public trust, but cold and unsympathetic
and even to-day are almost for
gotten. Monroe is remembered
only because he formulated and gave to the
world the Monroe doctrine, which had, how
ever, been the unwritten law long before his
| elevation to Office. Tyler is forgotten save
| as the symbol of treason to party-a Judas
| in the Presidential chair. Madison, Var
Buren,, Polk, Harrison. Taylor, Fillmore
! Pierce, Buchanan, Johnson, are all in theil
graves, and history will pass them by OF
mention them only for the evil they have
! wrought. If the spirit of Clay could speak
| to-day would he exchange his honored
shroud for that which wraps the crumbline
dust of these? The encouragement given
by Pierce to the slaveocracy will forever rem.
der his name odious; Buchanan's reputation
will ever be clouded by the suspicion of his
! loyalty at the outbreak of our civil war
Johnson, personally upright. will ever labor
under the imputation that he tried to subor.
dinate the good of the country to his owr
ideas of right. History may grant him the
honor of being honest in his convictions
but it must also state that his Judgment was
often mistaken. Grant will hold place il
modern times, but his reputation as soldier
will be sadly dimmed by his reputation as
President. The originator of the odious
and unrepublican bayonet rule, he canno
escape the verdict of posterity that he EN-
ployed the agencies of despots with which t.
rule a free republic. Although Hayes il
scarcely warm in his seat, it is not Difficult
to foretell the place he will occupy in his
tory. A President through fraud, his mem
DRY will be execrated to all time by all WIZ
loathe bribery and corruption.
How much better than to be President i
is to die leaving behind a heritage of goot
deeds, All unsullied name as a patriot and
statesman. Randolph, Jay, Marshall, Ben
ton, Clay, Webster, Everett, Corwin, Greeley
Gushing, Chase, Douglass, and their illustri
GUS compeers, who never attained to tn
Presidency, have made the history of thi
country what it is-resplendent with nobl
deeds and effort-with high patriotic pun
pose. 1t is but an empty honor to be Presi
dent, and one might far rather pray to b
associated in history with the illustriou
throng of those who did not than with thos
who did attain to the Summit of their an
bition.