Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1904-08-04
FAIRBANKS FORMALLY NOTIFIED
CONTINUED from Page ~

CONTINUED from Page J.
and sympathy. Too often it has hap
pened after excited contests for the
presidential nomination the candidate
for vice-president has been selected
from the defeated faction for the pur-
pose OF appeasing their resentment and
that after election he has remained
antagonistic in spirit, and a stranger
to the counsels Of the president whom
he may be called upon to succeed
Happily we are now in no such case.
The people would fain see again such
relations of sympathy and loyal help
fulness for the public good, as existel
between President Mckinley and Vice
President Hobart; and the personal
relations between President Roosevelt
and yourself. your mutual esteem and
good understanding assure us that
these happy conditions will come
again after March 4 next. We count
upon your wisdom and experience and
loyal aid as an clement of ever pres
ent strength in the coming administra-
ton.
Vice Presidents Responsibility.
"As to the supreme responsibility of
the vice-presidency in case of success
sion to the presidency, we shall all
pray. and no one more earnestly than
yourself, that it may not come to you.
But we are not at liberty to ignore the
possibility that it may come. Sad and
bitter experience admonishes us that
provision for succession to the presi-
dency is no idle form. Of the last
twelve presidents elected by the peo-
pie Of the United States five-nearly
one-half-have died in Office and have
been succeed by vice-presidents. A
serious obligation rests upon the polit-
ical parties which select the cand-
dates between whom the people must
choose, to see to it that they nominate
men for this possible succession who
have the strength of body and mind
and character which shall enable them,
If occasion comes, to take up the bur-
dens Of the great presidential office, to
endure its trying and exhausting de-
mands, to meet its great responsible
ties, and with firm hand and clear vi
sion to guide the government of the
country until the people can express
their choice again.
The Democratic Candidate.
Our opponents of the democratic
party have signally failed to perform
this duty. They have nominated as
their candidate for the e-presidency
an excellent gentleman, who was born
during the presidency of James Mum
roe and who before the 18th of March
next will be in the eighty year
of his age Before the next admins
tration is ended, he will be approach
ing his eighty-sixth birthday 1t is no
disparagement of this gentleman, for
whom believe we all have the high
est respect, to say that he shares the
common lot of mortals, and that the
election Of any man of such great age
would furnish no safeguard to the
American people against the disaster
which would ensue upon the death of
a president with a successor not COM
petent to perform the duties of the
presidential office. 1t is common ex-
perience that very aged men, however
bright and active they may appear for
brief periods, cannot sustain long con-
tinued severe exertion. The demands
OF the presidential office upon the
mental and physical vitality are so
great, SO continuous and so exhaust
ing, as to be wholly beyond the capac-
ity of any man of eighty-f1ve.
"The attempt by such a man to per
form the duties of the office would with
practical certainty be speedily followed
by complete breakdown both of body
and of mind. In contemplating the re
mote possibility of the election of the
democratic candidate for vice presi
dent, the people of the country are
bound to contemplate also as neces
sary result of such an election in case
of the presidents death, that others
not chosen by the people, and we know
not who, would govern in the name OIL
a nominal successor unable himself tt
perform the constitutional duties of his
Office; or worse still, that serious doubt
whether the vice president had MOI
reached condition of inability" with
in the meaning of the constitution
would throw the title to the Office O.
president into dispute.
The serious effect of such an even
upon the government and upon thu
business interests and general welfar;