The San Francisco call., 1897-02-27
OUR vICE.PRESIDENTS.

Much is said about the coming inaugura-
tion of President Mckinley, but very little
about the Inauguration OF his associate on the
presidential ticket Garret A. Hobart writes
Major Handy in the Chicago Times Herald.
That is the luck of Vice-Presidents. 1t takes a
man or real force and ability TO maintain him
self in the Vice-Presidency, and man of Mr..
Hobarps modesty is very apt 10 be lost in the
shuttle even before the deal begins.
Garret A. Hobart will be the twenty-fourth
Vice-President of the United States. The list
of his predecessors embraces more men of dis
unction than the man who does not carry his
American history in his head is apt to think.
John c. Calhoun, Martin Van Buren,,
John c. Breckenridge, Chester A. Arthur
and Levi P. Morton were among the
best Eight, or one-third of the whole
number, hailed from New York. Msssachu-
sets has contributed three, Ada ms, Gerry and
wilson; Virginia two, Jefferson and Tyler;
Kentucky two, Johnson and Breckenridge; In
diana two, and South Carolina, Pennsylvania,
Alabama, Maine, Tennessee and Illinois one
each. The New Workers besides Burr, Van
Buren, Arthur and Morton, were Clinton, Fill
more, 1hompkins and Wheeler. There have
been sixty-three presidents pro tempore of the
Senate, and ii is a remarkable fact that the
grade OF men who have filed this position in
the last quarter of century is even higher
than IT was in the earlier years of the Repub
lie. Wade, Carpenter, Thurman, Bayard
Davis Edmunds, Sherman and Ingalls, take
rank in ability higher than almost any of their
predecessors.
In many respects the most capable and YER
satile of Vice e-Presdents was one who after
ward fell from his high estate and is known to
the public OF the present day chiefly as a
traitor. mean, of course, Aaron Burr. When
he last took the vice presidential chair be
had but recently incurred opprobrium and
was fugitive from justice as the slayer of
Alexander Hamilton. The few months imme-
diately before he took his seat were passed in
hiding, dodging trial for murder. But he
presided with so much grace, dignity aud i'm
partiality that he commanded the admiration
OF the Senate. When he took his leave
hs made speech which will ever live
as model. He moved his hearers
resolution of thanks, which was anything
but perfunctory. II was said of him that he
presided with the impartiaiity of an angel
and the rigor of devil. Perhaps he might
have regained his popularity before the peo-
pie if he had after his retirement not entered
into the Blennerhassett conspiracy, which
was believed and psrtly proved 10 have in
volved plan for disunfon and certainly
meant foreign conquest at the expense OF the
peace and good name OF the United States.
Thenceforward he was man without coun-
try, and there is no story N ore pathetic than
that of his wanderings in Europe, making
occasional social conquests, but oitener cool
ing his heels in the ante-chambers of royalty,
dogged by the police. and suDsisting on food
that in other days he would have been
ashamed 10 give his negro servants, TO whom
he was q model muster
CalnOun was anOtker great Nlce-treSluent,
bnt by no means the equal of Burr in fitness
for that particular position. He resigned the
Office to take a senatorship. He never mag
nifed the Yice-Presidential office, and with all
his pride and mien seemed 10 consider the
Vice-President as the representative of the
Federal authority OF less Importance than the
individual Senator who was the accredited
representative of a sovereign State When on
the floor as Senator he never addressed the
presiding officer, but the Senators themselves
His form of address was Senators" instead of
the customary "Mr. President; his manner
in the chair was perfect combination OF dig
nifty and Difference.
John c. Breckinridge was an interesting
ton, of courtesy. Chester A. Arthur was man
of very much the same pattern, and his TOO
short occupancy of the chair prepared the
country for the courtly dignity which char
acterized him in The White House. The best
parliameniarian ever in the Vice-Presidential
CHAIR was Schuyler Colfax.
Most of the V.cePresidents have been
troubled throughout their terms by the buz-
zing of the Presidential bee, and there is
always a disposition among opponents of the
administration TO fatter a Vice President by
ministering to his ambition. The Presidents
have too often yielded to the weakness of
very existence is an unwelcome reminder OF
the possibilities of succession. There was
none of this feeling between Harrison and
Morton, but there has been good deal be-
tween Cleveland and hendricks ana Cleveland
and Stevenson. One two Presidents have
invited the Vice-President TO sit with them in
Cabinet council, but, exceptin the case OF Van
Buren, the practice was not attended with any
pleasant or beneficial results.