The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-04-25
LAWYERS AS PRESIDENTS.

LAWYERS AS PRESIDENTS.
 We have no wish to deliver a eulogy on lawyers as a class. though much could be said in favor of study that, accord ing to Burke. does more than all other studies put together to strengthen the mind The fitness of Q lawyer to be President, 1t seems likely, will be passed upon at the November election. If Parker should be nominated he will be pitted against a candidate who studied law as a youth for short while, but who never practiced. the profession. Roosevelt has engaged in very nearly every other business except the prac- flee of law He was a legislator in New York; he tried to be a mayor. He went West to farm, raise stock. hunt and trap. He wrote books and maga- zine articles. He became a civil ser vice commissioner and then a police commissioner. Lodge made him an as- the Spanish war came on. he made him self lieutenant-colonel of volunteer troop of cavalry: He squeezed consid- erable reputation out of that little con- test and then squeezed in as Governor of New York. He was squeezed out of that place into the Vice-Presidency and from that office he was fired like a bull let into the Presidency. In the meantime he had followed the business of exhort- ing, sometimes from pulpit, sometimes from a stump. He wrote more books and more magazine articles. He is still a comparatively young man.
 The power of the law as a discipline Roosevelt himself had occasion to learn when he was brought into close contact with Elihu Root as Secretary of War. Here was a man that so far as the pub lie knew, was less qualified to reorganize q great department of the government than hc was to write paper on the Greek digamma. He took hold with such intelligence and vigor that 1t be- came common saying in Washington that he was not the root simply but the whole tree. Until Roots time. Jeffer- son Davis had been considered the ablest Secretary of War we have had. Root doubtless left deeper impression upon the army, than Davis even. Where did he get his peculiar sense? We believe he owed it to a large, varied and suc- cessful law practice. He had acquired at the bar, starting of course with good natural abilities, a quickness of percep- Qnidity of reasoning, power in initiative that gave his opinion a preponderant weight in the councils of the Cabinet. Roose- welt declares Root to be the greatest or living Americans. This is nothing more than a tribute from an untrained mind to one widely and thoroughly disciplined. In the same way Olney stepped from the office of Attorney General to that of Secretary of State and demonstrated that ali, able and practfced lawyer was admirably equipped for the management and conduct of foreign affairs. In the matter of the Presidency itself, we be- ueye. 1t can be fairly said that every | great President. except Washington. ha: been a lawyer. and in the case of Wash | ineton we have a man who had beer | tried in the furnace of a prolonged ant much-vexing war. Lincoln was mani
 festly a product of the practice of th' law; as was Cleveland. In the case O Jackson. who is so likely to be deemed
 an exception, we are bound to remember
 he had been a prosecuting officer anC later a justice of the Supreme Court O
 Tennessee. If Justice Parker should b. | nominated his training as lawyer ant
 his experience as a judge will bring hin
 into sharp contrast with the mental rest
 lessness and fidgetiness of his opponent
 Fremont was doubtless as restless an' | fidgety as Roosevelt. but Fremont apart
 no great party has ever before dared t.
 submit as a candidate for the Presidenc,
 so cratic and daredevil a character. a the present incumbent. If the Democ | racy were seeking the antipode of Roose
 welt they would almost certainly fin
 him a member of the bar cool, reflect
 Ins, intelligent and courageous. In shor
 like Judge Parker.