The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1904-07-05
Tuesday July S, 1904.
OUR CANDIDATE FOR VICE PRES.
IDENT.

- 80 ~ AAOA
Gratis shall nominate for vice President
seems to be completely overshadowed
by the contest for the first place on
the ticket. No attention whatever is
being paid to this matter and it is a
very important one, too. Five times in
the last sixty-four years has the per-
son elected to the office of vice presl-
dent succeeded to that Of president
by the death during his term of office
of the president. The Charlotte OBJ
server in commenting upon this mat
ter makes the significant remark that
"Mr. Cleveland is now 81 years
Of age, older, it is stated, than any
>man excepting William Henry Harri-
son, who has ever been elected presi-
dent-and he has a short neck, besides"
Mr.. Harrison, too, was the first of the
five presidents whose term of office was
cut short by death.
The idea has become too prevalent
that the vice president Il. nothing more
han the presiding officer of the senate
and that as such he is by no means a
necessity, for the senate always
elects one of it's members president pro
tenn, to preside in case of the absence
or death of the vice president. During
the greater part of Mr.. Cleveland's first
term and ever since Mr.. Roosevelt uc-
eeded to the presidency the senate had
one of it's members for it's presiding
officer, there being no vice president.
This office a become to be looked
upon as an empty honor, and the same
time it generally means political death
to that man who fills it. Only three
men in the entire record of our country
have been elected president after serv-
ing as vice president-John Adams
Jefferson and VanBuren. Not since
1886 has a vice president succeeded his
chief as president by election.
These facts AVE caused the people
in the contests for nomination of a
presidential ticket to lose sight almost
entirely of the Importance that should
pertain to the filling of the second
place on the ticket. In making this
nomination too much thought-in fact,
about the only thought regarding it is
the selection of a man from some state
OF section of the country where the
n OF having its man on the ticket
will increase the chances of securing
enough electoral votes to insure the
election of the president.
AT the St. Louis convention the dem
ecrats should choose for vice President
a man who in case of the presidents
death would be able to fill the office
with ability and acceptability to the
people, a man who can AXE the stump
and by his eloquence and magnetism
win h people to him and his cause.
While the people do not relish the idea
of the president entering personally in
to the campaign there is no public SEN
timent against the nominee for vice
president doing so. There is man
in the democratic party who can fill
all these requirements to perfection,
and that is John Sharp Williams. With
Parker or Cleveland at the head of the
ticket, supported by Mr.. Williams, the
democrats would stand a better chance
of success than with any ticket they
could nominate. Some people say
Cleveland could not carry all the south
ern states. We are not one of them.
But if there is any doubt about it, put
Williams on the ticket with him n
there will not be the least shadow of a
doubt about it. sEIIsi