Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-07-27

National reputation as a party organize
and leader. His services as Secretary o
State was only about two years, when h
resigned. Then, in succession, Edward
Livingston, of Louisiana, John McLane, o
Delaware, and John Forsyth. of Georgia,
were at the head Of the State Department
under Jackson None of these men are re
membered now by the general reader
although they were prominent figures in
| their time.
| Livingstone was New Yorker by birth,
being conspicuous member of the we'll
known family of that name in that State.
He represented New York district in Con.
gress six or eight years, and was then Mayor
of New York City, after which he removed
| to New Orleans. He was on General
Jackson's staff at the battle with the British
| near that city, and afterward represented
| the Creole State in both branches OF
Congress before going into the Cabinet.
McLane, his successor as Secretary of State,
served in both branches of Congress, as
Minister to England and as Secretary OF the
Treasury under Jackson, before he was
made Premier. Forsyth, who took the post
after McLane's retirement, and who held it
through the remainder of Jackson's service
in the Presidency and through all of Van
Buren's, also served in both branches of
Congress before going to the Cabinet, and
was Minister to Spain.
Webster Was Greater Than Harrison.
Along to this time balance in point of
billty and experience was maintained
pretty fairly between the Presidents and
the Premiers. Comparisons are odious, but
the fact will be patent to anybody who
glances over the roll of Presidents and Sec
retaries of State since Jackson's days that
the latter officials, as a whole, nave sur
2l,of e.
ity and in knowledge of political issues.
Webster, of course, who was at the head
of the State Department under William HI.
Harrison, and who held the post during
about half of Tyler's service in the Presi-
dency, was immeasurably superior to
either in Intellectual power. He also eclipsed
Fillmore, in whose Cabinet he served
subsequently. The contrast between the
first Harrison and his Premier, was especi-
ally striking So far as we are able to
judge from his political record before going
to the Presidency, aud especially from his
utterances and acts during the month in
which he served in that office, Harrison
would have been conspicuous failure as an
executive, yet his chief subordinate, the
head of his official family, was one of the
greatest of all Americas statesmen and the
greatest, without any exception, of all
Americas orators. 1t could be said of
Webster with much more truth than it was
said of Shakspeare's Henry ", that
Turn him to any cause of policy,
The Gordian knot of it he will unloose.
The Secession of the South.
And he outshone Tyler and Fillmore al
most as completely as he had done Harri-
son. Although these three men are ell
rolled on the lists of Presidents their re-
cords have long since been forgotten by the
mass of intelligent readers. They are mere
names, while Webster's service forms an
epoch in this history of the nation, and some
of his acts, notably his reply to Hayne,
which aroused the love of the Union
throughout the North and revealed the ruin
which would come from estates discovered,
discordant, belligerent," and "a land rent
with civil feuds, or drenched in
fraternal blood" stands as a landmark in
the nations annals. That utterance, which
was made in 1880, defeated, in the opin-
ion of prominent Southern authority, the
desire of the South third of century later
to secede.
Sece ssion had previously been talked
about in the North as well as in the South
as probable outcome of sectional disputes
which had previously arisen, but which
threatened to reach more alarming proper
tions in the future. Had this speech of
Webster's never been delivered many of the
statesmen and writers of thirty or
forty years ago believed that no serious at
tempt would have been made in 1861 by
the Government to prevent the Southern
States from going out of the Union.
Secretaries Superior to the Presidents.
Hugh s. Legare, Abel P. Upshur and
order in the post of Secretary of State In
the Tyler administration, and Edward
Everett succeeded him in the Fillmore re-
gime. All of these men, with the excep-
tion perhaps of Upshur, we're the intel |
lectual superiors of the Presidents they |
served under. Legare was highly promi- |
nent man in his day, although mis- name is |
seldom seen now, while Calhoun was the |
greatest of all Southern public men except |
Clay, and formed one of the big triumvi- |
rate of statesmen, the others being Web
ster and Clay, which dominated politics for
nearly a generation before 1850 Everett |
had previously served many years in Con-
gress, and several terms as Governor of
learned of all our statesmen, and one of |
he most brilliant of all our orators
James Buchanan, who was Secretary of
State under Polk; John M. Clayton, who
held the same Office under Taylor, and
William L. Marcy, who was in that post
IN Pierce's administration, were greater
men intellectually than their superiors.
Buchanan at that time was in the height of
lis powers and usefulness. He had been in
public life quarter of a century. serving
n both branches of Congress and as Minis
er to Russia before going to Polk's Cabi-
net, and received votes for President in the
which nominated Polk before
me latter was mentioned or thought of in
.r,,k h. |
vas prominent member of the Senate be-
ore anybody ever dreamed that any con-
1ention would ever put up Taylor for the
Presidency or any other political Office,
While Marcy was conspicuous figure in
he nation at large before Pierce was heard
# outside of New Hampshire
Grants Fame Was Purely Military.
When Buchanan went to the Presidency
lie found himself somewhat overshabowed
y his Secretary of State, Lewis Cass.
Buchanan had before this time lost nearly
II ambition to become President, had ceased
o seek the Office, and had voluntarily re-
ired to private life, with the intention of
eeping out of politics for the rest of his
ays. He was the oldest man, next to w.
]. Harrison, ever elected President, being
6 years of age at the time. Cass was older,
owever, than his official superior, but
ears sat on him more lightly and political
mbition remained with him later Jeremiah
. Black, who succeeded Cass near the end
f the Buchanan administration, was pre-
iously Attorney General in the same Cab
net, and was one of the best known and
lost accomplished jurists in the country
The remaining Secretaries of State, down
, the accession of the present incumbent,
'ere William H. Seward. Elihu B. WASH
urne, Hamilton Fish, William M. Evarts,
ames G. Blaine. Frederick T. Frelinghuy-