The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1904-06-18
Vice Presidents Who Became
Presidents.

OF the twenty-fOur men who held
the office of vice president before
Roosevelt, the presidency came to Ad-
ans, Jefferson, Van Buren,, Tyler,
Fillmore, Johnson and Arthur the last
two succeeding to the presidency as
Roosevelt himself did, thru the dead
ly work of assassins.
John Adams was the natural sue
cessor of Washington when the latter
retired to private life. Jefferson, who
was vice president with Adams, sue
ceeded Adams on account of the
growth of the party of which Jeffer-
son was the promoter and head, thru
the declining influence of the federals,
who had stood by Washington in his
patriotic neutrality policy, as between
England and France, and because
Washington and Adams utilized the
constitutional powers of the govern
ment to maintain public order.
1t was 1886 before another vice
president was elected to the presi-
dency. This was Martin Van Buren,,
who, as foxy politician as ever lived,
was greatly assisted into the White
House by his potential predecessor,
Andrew Jackson, but Jackson was I'M
able to help him to succeed himself.
The wings, with their log cabin and
coon, swept the country in 1910, but
the death of Harrison shortly after
taking office, gave another vice presi-
dent, John Tyler, a chance. Elected
as wing, he repudiated that party
after signing the bill repeating the in
dependent treasury law, and fought
steadily against his late associates and
led the democratic movement to an
mex Texas.
Willard Fillmore, vice president on
the Taylor ticket, and an eminently
respectable statesman, filled the presi-
Dental office on Taylor's sudden
death with excellent ability, while
Andy Johnson, Lincoln's second vice
president, who took the presidential
office after the assassination of the
great Illinoisan, fought his own party
thru his entire administration, over
the southern restoration policy, and
came near being impeached by con-
gress. Arthur, a professional poll
tician and man of small statesman
ship, succeeded Garfield thru the
bloody way Of Guiteau's bullet.
Take the whole group Of vice presi-
dents since Adams, who have succeed
ed to the presidency, and Adams, JEFF
ferson and Fillmore only rise to the
dignity Of notable statesmen with
Roosevelt, who has less of downright
partisanship than any Of the others.
Roosevelt gives US to understand pre-
cisely what he means when he writes
or says anything. He does not talk
in enigmas and he never uses words to
conceal thought. He lives and acts
In an epoch-making period as inpor-
tant as that in which Jefferson and
Adams lived in the younger day Of the
republic, when the rulings Of the great
Marshall established the Hamiltonian
doctrine of implied powers" which is
the recognized principle in constitu-
tional interpretation to-day. giving
fexibility to that instrument, which
enables the government to meet all
crises incurred by domestic or foreign
countries.
Roosevelt indeed, believes in the
rational, predestined, Irresistible pro-
gress of this country as a world-power.
not progress as a wanton, brutal con-
quering power. From the vice-presi-
dency he stepped to the higher Office
and has been. in every phase Of his
administration, a real president of the
whole country, discriminating against
no loyal citizens and seeking to inn
part to all equality under the law.
This patriotic disposition has not been
appreciated by some, as when he in
vited an eminently respectable and ac-
complished colored educator to lunch
with him at the White House.
Our strenuous president has, in
strong contrast with some Of his per-
decessors, regarded the national stat
utes as mandates to be executed and
not as empty pronouncements to be
sneered at by trangressors. with
strong convictions Of duty, he keeps 4
cool head, and does not weaken his