The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-08-14

England to take the presidency.
Abraham Lincoln might have been had
he chosen to play the politics necessary TO
secure the prize elected senator in place OF
LYMAN TrnmbuIi, but he seems to have
realized that the Senate was a deadly
place for presidential ambition to flourish
in, and he, therefore, remained in private
life. Grant never held elective office until
chosen president. Hayes went from the
governorship of Ohio TO the White House.
Garfield was member Of the House when
elected president. Cleveland was governor
of New York and Harrison had been out
of the Senate year when he was nomi.
mated for the presidency.
Up to the year 1924, with the exception
of the election Of 1850, the presidential
succession was pretty well indicated for
months before the election. Thus every
one knew that Madison would succeed
Jefferson, and that Monroe would follow
Madison. In 1924 the situation was such
that it was free field, and the Senate
offered candidates. William Henry Craw-
ford, one of the ablest and purest men
ever sent from the South to q seat in
the Senate, was a most prominent cam
didate, and had been formally placed in
nomination. Henry Clay, also member
of the Senate had been made candi-
date, and so had Andrew Jackson. Here,
then, were three senators standing before
the people az candidates. while John
-
and believed by politicians of that day to
be the weakest of candidates. and the one
least likely to receive the election, secured
the prize, although the people made no
choice; the House OF Representative was
compelled to elect. He who was SEEM
ingly the weakest candidate beat the sen-
ators in the end.
In 1882 the Senate again furnished can
didates. There were Hugh L. White. of
Tennessee, a man of splendid intellect and
of such repute IN his day that it seems
now strange that his name should be for
gotten, and there was Willie p. Mangum.
of North Carolina, and Henry Clay, but
the senators were again beaten, although
no surprise was expressed at the result,
since General Jackson's popularity was SO
great that his election was discounted even
before the ballots were cast.
In 1910 the indications pointed TO VIC
tory for the Wing party at the national
election. Therefore most earnest effort
was made to secure the nomination of his
party for Henry Clay, then member of
the Senate, yet in spite of his popularity
and the mighty enthusiasm into which the
mention of his name threw a great body OF
voters, he was passed by. The convention
refused to take senator, but they took in
his place the clerk of petty court in
Ohio, General Harrison, and made him
president.
In IS41 Mr.. Clay became candidate, but
the country then went to the private citi-
zen, Polk, permitting Clay to remain until
death called him, IN the Senate chamber.
In 1s4S, when his party won, he was still
left in the Senate.
No Democrat of his generation had
greater influence in the Senate than Lewis
Cass, and when his party nominated him
for the presidency in 1S4S il seemed to
many of the shrewdest politicians in the
land as though his election was already as
sured. Yet Mr.. Cass was passed by. The
country would not take president from
the Senate.
In 1852 and again in 1858 and 1850
Stephen A. Douglass. who was the idol of
the Northern Democracy, was a candidate
for the presidential nomination. Had he
obtained it either in 1852 Or 1856 then for
the first time q senator would have been
chosen president. In 1860 he did secure
such nomination, but this mystic rule
seems still to apply, for he was defeated in
the race by humble lawyer of prairie
town.
Mr.. Blaine was a member of the Senate
IN 1880, when he failed to secure the nomi-
nation, and when such nomination meant
victory. He was out of the Senate in 1884
when he became candidate. and was de-
feated by an accident of ALTERATION. 4
change OF 800 votes in New York state was
all that stood betweed him and victory.
Mr.. Bayard was q candidate from the
Senate against Cleveland, and John Sher-
man, perhaps the most conspicuous man
of his party in the United States Senate.
has furnished in the past four national
conventions strange illustration OF this
secret force which stands between sena-
tor and the presidency.
Garfeld's case seems to point all the
more strongly to this fact, because al
though he had been elected to the Senate
when he was nominated for the presidency
and was senator-elect when he was elected
president yet he was never a member of
the body. He had not been sworn in
He went from his seat IN the House of
Representatives into the presidential Of
ice, or would have done SO had he not re-
signed that place.
to his friends about the conditions which
caused the Senate to breed unhealthy cam
didates for the presidency to say that
there was nothing strange that this should
be so, neither was there any superstitiOus
Or ominous association between a seat in
the Senate and defeated ambition for the
presidency. The senator, Conkling used
to say, who aspired to the presidency, was
sure TO betray that ambition and at once
TO become an object of jealousy to those
who had similar aspirations. Is has, there
fore, happened number of times that
senators who were themselves ambitious
have combined to defeat the aspirations of
more prominence and who possessed more
apparent strength than they. Having thus
killed him off, they turned their attention
TO one another with an unbroken record of
successes III this respect. 1.-The pathway
said Conkling, that leads from the Senate
TO the White House is strewn with political
corpses. Ambitions assassinated by asso-
ciates in the Senate chamber"
Senator ingalls, was of the opinion that
another influence operated 20 injure a
candidate who WAS senator. The very
conspicuousness Of the Office. Ingalls, used
to say, made him who held il a target.
and moreover the record OF the senate is a
dangerous thing. A vote given on ques-
ton which at the time seemed trivial has
cost more than one senator the nomfna-
fion for the presidency, and sentence.
uttered in speech or letter written OIL
hand has served 10 defeat these ambitions.
On the other hand, the man who is living
IN comparative retirement, who has been
for some time out of public life so that
1ealousies aud enmities are not concerned!
with him, is likely to be accepted as the
party's choice. That happened in the cases
OF Harrison, Cleveland. Hayes, Lincoln,
Buchanan, Pierce, Taylor, Polk and Will
lam Henry Harrison.
At the time the Republican party was
organized Lyman Trumbuli, VINO is
still living, was one of the great
lights of the party In the West.
Abraham Lincoln, who was without no.
iitical experience of the maneuvering sort.
had developed much prominence and
great popularity in Central Illinois. A
senator was TO be chosen. Vrumhuu was OF
the widest repQte, Lincoln OF the greater
popularity, and it appeared almost mex
piicable 10 Lincoln s friends shat he should