Arizona republican., 1892-03-12
Special Correspondence. l

Special Correspondence.l
 WASHINGTON, Feb. 1S.-What has su- perstition to do with the election of a president of the United States? Noth- ing, perhaps, and yet there are supersti- tious people who will point out to you why one man may and another cannot be elected to the chief magistracy, bas- ing their opinion on tho coincidences of history.
 In no other country under the sun are the people so earnest in their participa- tion in politics, so we'll informed, so quick to adapt themselves to new condi- tions. While on the floor of the senate the other day, just after the letter of Mir, Blaine withdrawing from the presiden- tial race had been made public, Senator Teller said to me: We have dozen candidates here in the senate. You may hear the bees buzzing all round"
 The declination of Mir. Blaine to be considered candidate has brought to the front host of aspirants, many of whom are senators of the United States. This reminds me that the accuracy of a statement which 1 made in letter two or three weeks ago has been questioned by members of congress. said, in com menting on the large number of sena- tors who now aspire to the presidency, that "in the history of this country no man had ever been elected president while sitting in the senate" This state ment is entirely accurate.
 It is true that eleven presidents of the United States had been senators before entering the White House, but not one of them was elected president while a member of the senate. Monroe had been a senator previous to tho year 1900, but he was not inaugurated president until lSl7 John Quincy Adams was a senator from Massachusetts from 1903 to 1909, but it was sixteen years later that he became president. Andrew Jackson represented Tennessee in the senate from 1893 to 1895, then resigned He was elected president in 1S2S Mar tin Van Buren was a senator from 1891 to 1898, when he resigned He was elected president in 1886.
 William Henry Harrison was sen ator from Ohio from 1895 to 1898. He, too, resigned and was elected president twelve years after leaving the senate. John Tyler was twice elected senator from Virginia, serving from 1927 to 1886, when he resigned. He was elected vice president in lS40, and became pres ident on the death of Harrison in lS41. Franklin Pierce was a senator from lS37 to 1S12. He also resigned, and was elected president ten years later James Buchanan was elected senator in 1884 and served till lSij when he followed that which appears to have been GUS tom in the earlier days of the republic and resigned his seat. He was elected president eleven years after leaving the senate.
 Andrew Johnson was a senator from 1857 to March, lS63. In 1861 he was elected vice president, and succeeded to the presidency on the death of Lincoln in 1865. James A. Garfield came nearer than any other president to stepping from the senate to the White House. In January, 1880, he was elected to the senate to succeed Allen G. Thurman in the term beginning March 4, 1881, but he was that year nominated for and elected president, and never became senator at all. Tine latest instance of the sort is tho case of President Harrison He served as senator from 1881 to 1887. A year and half after leaving the sen ate he was elected president
 If the candidates for the presidency who now occupy seats on the floor of the senate were at all superstitious, they would be appalled, by these citations from history. It certainly is remarkable fact that in more than one hundred years of government not one senator has been taken up and elected president of the United States. This may be mere coincidence, or it may be fate brought on by conditions which have not been studied The senate has throughout our history been composed of the great est. most influential men of the country They have been leaders of parties, holders of public opinion, and in posi- ton to reach not only the ears of the masses, but the managing men of parties known as politicians.
 Yet not one senator while sen ator has been elected president, and with memorable pertinacity history shows that the only way there is for senator Co reach tho summit of polit- ical ambition in this republic is to re- sign or suffer another to be elected in his place. Possibly careful examina- ton of conditions might disclose the fact that the senate is always full of men who are ambitious to reach the presidency, that the bee may always be heard buzzing on the senate floor, and that rivalry and jealousy between men who rub against each other every day may work to defeat them all.
 The strange fatality which hangs over senatorial aspirants to the presi- dency is emphasized by consideration of the large number of senators who have sought, but sought in vain the greatest office in the gift of the American people.
 At once the mind goes back to Aaron Burr, the brilliant, restless and ambi- tious; to Webster and Calhoun, the giants who were too great to be presi- dent; to Henry Clay. he of phenomenal public service and extraordinary disap- pointments; to Gallatin and Dallas; to Nathaniel Macon; to Salmon P. Chase and Lewis Cass; to Allen G. Thurman, o. P. Morton, William Allen, Simon Cameron and George F. Edmunds; to NN,I,,, lvarlaa C,,p,nor Zanho-