The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1896-10-04
How the Time of Ex-Presidents
Has Been Employed.
sIxOFTHEM WERE FARMERS
Some Made Extended Tours to
Other Counties.
GRANTS TRIP AROUND WoRL0
Washington Was Good Manager and
Made Money on His Farm
After Declining Third
Tern1.

The announcement that extPresl-
dent Harrison is not to play consplc-
uous part in the great battle to be
waged this fall between free silver and
the present gold standard, is being
commented on here by men familiar
with the records of earlier occupants
of the White House, says Washington
correspondent of the Brooklyn Eagle.
The conditions, however, which exist
to-day, are vastly different from those
which confronted our former retired
Presidents. and the fight between
sound money and free silver is looked
upon by leading politicians as sutti-
GENTLY grave TO demand the active CO.
operation of the eX-President with the
sound money party. But why should
not Mr. Harrison buckle on the armor
of Republicanism and essay to the
front in behalf of those principles for
which he has labored and represented
in past years? He stands to-day the
most conspicuous Republican in Hoo
sierdom. And his influence is not con-
fined TO the limitations of his own
State. for throughout the entire great
Northwest he is honored by the people,
and in many sections almost idolized.
With such conditions existing, is it
strange that he should not only come
forward at this critical moment and
set an illustrious example to the fu-
ture occupant of the White House?
Doubtless the prevalent sentimental
notion that retired Presidents should
spend their latter days in elegant leis-
ure, free frcm the turmoil and discom-
forting features of the political arena,
is due to the example set by some of
the earliest Presidents, like Washing
ton, jefferson and Adams. Yet a glance
at their post-presidetial careers shows
that even those yenerated worthless still
continued, TO certain extent, in the
public eye, after they had laid aside the
official cares of state.
WILL BRYAN BE LIKE HIM?
1t may be interesting in this connec-
ton, to note that the only ex-President
who ever refused a nomination at the
close of his administration was Pres
ident Washington. Hayes and Cleve-
land declared, or intimated before their
election, that they would not accept a.
second nomination. Grant yearned
for a third term, and all the others
who survived their terms may truth
fully be pictured as having cast
longing, lingering look behind" on
leaving the precincts of the cheerful
day. But only five of all Washington
successors stroye openly to get back
in the White House after their de-
parture from it. These five were Van
Buren,, Taylor, Fillmore, Grant and
Cleveland, but all of them failed in the
endeavor save Cleveland. He is the
only ex-President who ever became
president-elect, and in this regard he
has broken the record of our entire
history and furnishd an astounding
exception to the time honored rule that
''water never runs back over the same
wheel"
Six of our Presidents, Washington,
Jefferson, Madison, Jackson, johnson
and Hayes, became planters or farmers
after their retirement, as some of them
had been before their elevation to the
Chief Magistracy. Washington spent
the last two years of his life, as every
body knows, in the sylvan shades of his
superb estate at Mount Vernon, down
the Potomac, looking after his agricul-
tUral interests there, entertaining his
friends and distinguished guests roy
ally, and keenly enjoying the freedom
and relaxation from the responsible
ties of government which he had so
richly earned. He was a remarkably
shrewd manager, and extracted the
largest possible returns from every de-
partment of his farm-his grain, his
-. n II
died in the last month of the past CEN
fury, only two years and nine months
after the Inauguration of his successor,
leaving property valued in that day
at half a million dollars.
JEFFERSON A FARMER.
Jefferson passed seventeen peaceful
wears on his plantation at Monticello,
after leaving the National capital. He
was not a glittering success as a 1ar-
mer, however, and the profuse hospl-
tally that he dispensed under his roo1
increased the debts that encumbered
him when he left Washington. Con
gress purchased his library, and his
transaction helped to tide him over
Beside supervising the conduct of his
plantation, he busted himself with lit
erary matters, and carried ON an ex-
tensive correspondence with the lead
ing men of his time at home and
abroad, and in addition found time to
establish the University of Virginia
and serve as its first provost. He took
lively interest in politics up to the
day of his death, which, by a patriotic
coincidence, occurred with Adams on
July 4, 1926.
Madison lived nineteen years on his
Virginia property in Orange county
after bidding farewell to the White
House. Although quite rich, he looked
10 the soil, like Washington and JEFF
ferson, as the primal source of prosper
ity. He was, to a greater extent per
Saps than any other of the ex-Presi
4ents, a recluse, secluding himself il
his study and delegating the care of hi
A~.re tn members of his family. IL