St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1885-01-22
The United States Senate.

mon sense, may not be walked away.
The United States Senate.
Next to the presidency, and perhaps
position on the bench of the United
States supreme court, the sfice of
United States senator is the most dig
nified and important under cur brm of
government. Membership in the cabi-
net of the president may be considered
another exception to this; but of late
years cabinet positions are regarded
by public men as less desirable than
they were in the earlier days of the
government. Senators often refuse to
accept them, or do it at sacrifice of
their own desires. A senator is really
an ambassador to attend an assem-
blage of states. He represents the SOW
ereignty of the state in the national
councils. He holds his position by a
longer term of authority than any 9TH
er official of the government save those
in life Offices. He has a part in the
formation of treaties with foreign ma
tons, and the power to pass upon the
presidents nominations to Office is
with him. The members of the cabi-
net hold ministerial or advisory posi-
tiOns only 4; the power of the house of
representatives is confined to legisla-
ton. 1t is obvious that in the func-
tions the senator combines his impOr-
lance exceeds that of either of these
bodies.
None of the great presidents of the
early days of the republic ever held
the office of senator. But seven of the
presidents have held it at any time.
They were Monroe, John Quincy
Adams, jackson, Harrison, Pierce, Ty-
Ter and Buchanan. The list is remark
able for it's smailness, as we'll as from
the fact that not more than one of the
more eminent men intellectually who
have been in the presidency is repre-
scented in it, This hardly need be eX-
planned in the case of Washington. 1t
arose later from the call of John Adams
to the vice presidency, the need of Mr..
jefferson i'll the cabinet, and the defeat
of Mr.. Madison through the influence
of Patrick Henry. In the next period
there we're severel senators ambitious
to obtain the presidency, notably Mr..
Calhoun, Mr.. Clay, Mr.. Webster and
Mr.. Cass of one generation, and Mr..
Seward and Mr.. Chase Of another. But
it was unfortunate for the aspirations
of most all these statesmen that the
fashion came in to select men to fiji
the Office who were less known to the
country. Gen. Harrison was the first
instance of this kind. Mr.. Folks nom
inatiOn followed; later came Gen.
Pierce's and these were all SO sue
cessful that eminence before the nation
was almost esteemed a disadvantage.
Gen. Cass, senator, had been defeat
ed in the meantime. Mr. Buchanan
was taken in 1856 largely because he
had been out of the country. Mr.. Lin
coin defeated Senator Seward for the
republican, nomination four years later.
The rule was for the first time broken
in the election of President Garfield,
who had been elected to the senate,
though he never took his seat in that
body.
Mr.. Edmunds of Vermont is said to
have declared his indifference to the
presidency itself while his seat in the
Senate was assured to him. There
have been several instances where
men have professed TO prefer sena-
torship to the vice presidency, though
we believe there is only one case on
record of a declining a nomination to
that office-that of Silas Wright in
1S44. Mr.. Wright had been in the
Senate, but left it to accept a nomina-
ton for the New York governorship.
Beginning with the time of the cleo |
ton of senators to the presidency, a |
list of names of those who remained in |
the Senate might be made out which
more than match the list of Presidents |
1t would include such statesmen as |
Webster, Clay, Calhoun, Benton, |
Wright, Seward, Chase and Sumner. |
No one would claim that more than |
two of the Presidents elected during
that period-Adams and Lincoln-I
We're the peers of these senators, the
most of whom aspired to the higher
office and failed of it's attachments.
The Senate has undoubtedly dete-
in ability from what it was a
half-century ago. At that time and in
the ten years that followed, Massa-
chusetts had in the Senate Webster
and Choate, Maine had George Evans,
New Hampshire had Levi Woodbury.,
New York had SiIas Wright, Della
ware had the elder Bayard, Virginia
had William c. Rives, South Carolina
Calhoun, McDuffie, Hayne and William
:. Preston Georgia had John NJ. Ber-