Arizona weekly journal-miner., 1892-06-15
"REMINISCENCES 5

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 table instance of Abraham Lincoln;
 and at the time of his nomination,
 he was not regarded by the majority
 of the people as the equal in states
 manship of some others of his party
 But he had not long been seated in
 bis office, before the people, espe- cislly in the north, had cause to re- joice that they had at last found the right man for the emergency, and without knowing it had select the man, of all others, capable of steering the ship of state through the shoals and breakers thrown in its course, by the rebels of the South, and the Copperhcads of the North.
 The rebels, and Copperheads, also soon discovered that they had no baboon or pigmy with whom to contend. They found all their we'll laid plans thwarted by this man, whom they charged with being all that was mean,-an imbecile, with out brains, a baboon without the the babbon instincts or sense, ty- rant without the force of character to enforce his edicts. The selection of MT. Lincoln for the presidency, in 1860, seems, at this distance of time from that event, to have been al most the direct intervention of higher power than that of human skill or intelligence.
 John Quincy Adams was the last of first class statesmen to occupy the executive office of the United States, until Lincoln was inaugura- ted on the 4th of March, 1861. Gen. eral Jackson, who succeeded Mir. Adams, was a man of military in- stincts only; he was brave in danger, strategic in war, cruel to foe, and uurelenting to an opponent in civil life.
 Van Buren was distinguished only for his cunning in manipulating party cliques and conventions. It was never claimed of him that he was statesman in the true sense of that term.
 Gen. W. H. Harrison was never rated as . statesman above medioc- raey. His death, just one month after his inauguration, gave no in- sight as to what his administration might have been. John Tyler, the first accidental president, was en- tirely below his predecessors in in- tellectual ability, and tactical states manship.
 The next choice of the people for president was James Knox Polk. of Tennessee, a very good kind of a man, but entirely deficient in cali bre for the position he was selected to occupy. The election of MT. Polk was a glaring instance of me diocrity over one-Henry Clay who was the peer intellectually of any man in the two hemispheres.
 General Taylor, who succeeded MT. Polk, was another instance where the first statesman of the age was set aside. General Taylor, like General Jackson, was a military man, and was not profound in civil law, or in the acts of one trained in the councils of the forum. He was the second Whig president who died in office, but he was succeeded by MT. Fillmore, a much more tal- ented man than John Tyler. At the termination of Mir. Fillmore's ad- ministration, he was succeeded by Franklin Pierce, democrat of New Hampshire. The election of MT. Pierce was the final blow that killed the Whig party. President Pierce's administration was charac- terized by no particular act that made it famous; in fact, he was very fair man, but not the equal in- tellectually of many even in his own party. The particular fault chargeable to MT. Pierce was his subserviency to the demands of the oligarchs of the South. His was rather quiet administration-the embers of the great rebellion were only smouldering, and broke out in open defiance during the closing days of the succeeding administra- tion of James Buchanan.
 Among all the presidents of the republic since the close of J.Q. Adams administration, James Buchanan is the least entitled to the gratitude of the American people. To say he was ignorant of his dnties is an excuse of his friends, rather than that he was a rebel at heart. Instead of using the great power of | his office to quell the rebellions ef- forts of the leaders of his party, he | tacitly gave his consent to their hellesh purposes. In other words, he gave aid and comfort to the ene- mics of his country, and thus he was guilty of treason.
 Thus, our proposition in the com mencement of this article is, so far, proven, namely, that generally our ablest men intellectually, rarely reach the presidential chair,
 General Grant, the successor of Andrew Johnson, by the death of Lincoln, although the greatest captain of the century, and inferior to none in ancient or modern times, was not a success as civilian. It is true he made no radical mistake in his civil administration, yet, it was tame, when compared to the bril- fancy of his military achievements. Hayes was another choice of the people for president, over many