The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1897-02-24
Career After Retirement
From Office.
Buchanan and Arthur Be-
came Political RecluSeS.
Others Returned to Politics. Presi-
dent Cleveland's Plans.

| uiACi OctOHnlnk Vi III
United States, saws the Philadelphia Press
He will be year older, than the onl,
other living ex- President-3enjamin Har
rison- was when he left the White House
i've years older than was Grant when b,
retired to private life; ten years younge
than either Buchanan or Jackson, snS
i've years younger than was Washington
When MIR. Cleveland's first term came
to close he was absolutely free from
| certain embarrassment that he must fee
at this timo and that must have been felt
by nearly every one of his predecessors
He has now to decide what his futur,
occupation shall be, how he shall util
ize his energies during the years that re
main TO him. In 1859, although he had
been defeated of reelection the year bs.
fore be believed ne had a chance Of win
| ming next time, aud the event showed
that he was right. But in 1897 be cannot
well be looking forward to yet another
term as President. Both his age and GER
| tain evolutionary changes In the nature
the questions in which the people seem
most vitslly interested are against this,
not to speak OF the fact that no man has
ever yet beon thrice electes Chief Magis-
trate OF the Republic.
According tn his private secretary, one
of Mr.. Cleveland's chief desires is that he
may be granted an interval, at least, OF
longedfor relief from publicity. lie pur-
poses spending some time at Princeton,
the NewJersey university town, where he
has recently purchased home. and then
up any business whstever fc soue mont ms
at least. But there is no probability, say
his friends, that he will follow the ex-
ample of certain other ex-Presidents,
and shut himself entirely out of political
life. lie isa lawyer by profession, and
can command large paying practice, and
he has excellent precedent for stepping
back into such active political life as
bis inclinations shall dictate and bis
strength shall permit.
OF the eighteen men who nave become
ex-Presidents, tive-John Adams, Frank
lin Pierce, James Buchanan, Rutherford
b. Hayes and Chester A. Arthur became
political recluses before their death.
Mr.. Arthur, indeed. lived only a short
time after ne retired from the Presidency,
and might have again taken his place in
the world as a man of affairs, had he not
been so soon removed, and no doubt he
could have re-entered ths profession of
the law, as Mr.. Cleveland can now, with
profit to himself and benefit to his con-
temporaries. But he seemed to wish only
to withdraw himself as much as possi-
BILE from public notice; and the end of his
life came before the arrival OF the reac-
tion his friends hoped for.
Although Mr.. Hayes, who was year
Older than Mr.. Cleveland when he retired
from the Presidency, ana had an even
dozen OF years of life before him, eschewed
politics ever sfterward, he did not SO en-
tirely shrink from appearing in public as
did Mr.. Arthur. In fact, In certain lines
he was publicly active whenever the
presented itself, being inter-
ested in many educational problems and
especially in prison reform, serving for
some time as the president of tho
Prison Reform Association, and
~ trustee OF q big educational fund. But,
although a lawyer by profession, and rrs-
sumably good one, he never re-enterec
the legal lists.
|. Buchsnan's life after the Presidency
was that Of a recluse in almost every way.
Rig billy or wrongly, ne was charged with
being largely to blame for the great pro-
cress made by the founders of the Con-
during tho last months of his
term, ana. as his home vas in the North,
be was Stunned almost as systemat ically
rs he Stunned others. 1t should be re-
mem bered. however, that his neig bors
Of Lancaster, Pa, near which city his
estate, " hich he called "Wbeatlsnd," was
located, professed confidence 10 him to
the last, and turnei out enthusiastically,
IN great numbers, to greet him when he
returned from wsshi ugton. Mr.. Buchanan
lived seven years after the close of his
ierm, and 1t was quite posi- ble that his
sge-he was seventy-seven when
be died had something TO do with bis
'eclusion.
Frsnxlin Pierce lived eighteen wears
'fterIhe became an ex-President in 1857,
lying in 1889 in Nav Hampshire, four
'ears after the actual close of the civil
vsr. IL was, perhaps, becsuse of his
'srisuce from his neig hbors on the slav-
,ry question that he Travelled much abroad
turing his last yoars--st ell events, he
sept out OF the country good deal OF the
ime.
Before Pierce there was no ex- Presiqept.
excepting John adams, who s;rove In
my wny to withdraw into ssclusion. 1he
lder Adams, however, who lived twenty
I've years after leaving Washington, wss
10 incensed at his iefeat In the House OF
by Jefferson, that he
would not even remsip at the nstionsi
jspitol one day after the expiration Of
,is term TO see his. successor insugurated. |
AL his late years were spent in Quincy
set OF from Brsintree, Mass. where, how
'ver, he worked hard at the self-imposed
ask OF coilstlng records and writing upon
be hfsforv ~ The R.,ahffc. tbanch