The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-07-10
AMERICAN vICE.PRESIDENTS.
An Ili.FOunded Prejudice Against an
Office Which Has Been Held by

From the New York Sun.
The routine duties Of the Office of
Vice President are unimportant and the
influence of Vice-President in the ad-
ministration Of which he is member is
insignificant. He has less to do with the
course Of legislation than any Of the
members of the senate over which he
legally presides. In executive matters
and In consideration Of appointments a
President consults with his cabinet
never with the Vice-President. The
Presidents private secretary. indeed,
outranks usually in point Of influence
and authority the Vice. President, and
the latter parsonage has come to be re-
garded as an amiable figurhead whose
only real importance arises from the
possibility Of the Presidential Office be-
coming vacant.
Yet some of the most important men
in American history. especially in the
early days of the republic. have held the
Office Of Vice. President, and have
brought to the discharge of its duties
qualities of the very first Importance.
The first Vice President of the United
States. John Adams, was afterward
President. and certainly no New Eng
land man was more prominent than Mr..
Adams in support of the Revolution. A
signer of the Declaration Of Indepen-
dence. he was accredited as Minister to
France in 1777 and as Minister to Eng
land in 1855. two of the most important
offices which an American at that time
could fill. and outranked only by the
Office held by George Washington, Mr..
Adams's predecessor as President, who
was ommander-in-chief Of the Ameri-
can army. The second Vice-President
of the United States was the illustrious
Democratic statesman, Thomas Jeffer-
son. whose participation In the events
leading up to the Revolution was GER
tainly more active and important than
that of any Of the members of the sen.
ate over which he presided. George
Clinton who enjoyed the remarkable
distinction of being governor of New
York for eighteen years consecutively
(and the first Governor of New York,
tool. was the fourth Vice. President Of
the United States, and Daniel p. Tomp-
kins. who was Governor of New York
for ten years, was the sixth.
1t has been said often by critics Of
American political history that the
most distinguished statesmen. Henry
Clay, Daniel Webster, and others Of
lifc prominence. have by some political
fatality fallen short of the presidency
and the name Of John c. Calhoun, Of
South Carolina. has generally been in
cluded in the list. But Mr.. Calhoun did
not fall short Of the ice-presidency,
for he succeeded In Office Governor
Tompkins, Of New York, and was for
eight years the vice. president, having
as his distinguished successor Martin
Van Buren,. of New York. Mr.. Van
Buren, was certainly the most promin-
ent Democratic statesman in the period
in which he lived, and after serving as
vice-president he was elected president
in 1896 defeating William H. Harrison,
grandfather ocrMr. Cleveland's predec-
essor. A careful and satisfactory per-
formance of the duties Of the vice-presi-
dent was, in the case of Mr.. Van Buren,,
no bar to his subsequent promotion to
the presidency, and later Millard Fill
more, elected vice-president in 1S4S, be-
came president. and in the presidential
contest of 1856, though running on an