The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1905-03-20
MANY PRESIDENTS TO Be
MEN WHO WILL OCCUPY ExEcU.
TIVE MANSION FOR NEXT
FIFTY YEARS.
Political Prophets Can Guess, Though
They Are Unable to Peer Into
the Future.

are now living. What and who are
they? Where do they live? What are
their names? What are they doing
now? Some political prophets may
think they can peer into the future for
an administration or two, but even
these confident guesses are more than
likely to be wrong, and not one of them
would pretend to predict beyond a
decade.
Mark Twain once made the rather
startling suggestion at banquet given
to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant that the flu
ture commander Of the victorious
armies of the Union was at that very
moment sucking his toes in a cradle
somewhere within the limits of the
United States. Theodore Roosevelt,
president Of the United States and
commander in chief Of all her armies,
was quite possibly engaged in that in
teresting infantile experiment in 1853
SO, when he was but few months old
and the Titanic struggle between Abra-
ham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas,
for senator from Illinois, was in
progress. At that time the command
ing figures in national politics, as
presidential possibilities, were Will
liam H. Seward, Stephen A. Douglas
and John c. Breckenridge, then vice.
president. r go,
Presidents Who Followed Lincoln.
But at that time what sage could
have foreto1d any one Of the men who
have followed Lincoln to the White
House? Even if he had guessed cor
rectly as to the success of Lincoln, he
never would nave dreamed that the
rail-splitter would be succeeded by
Andrew Johnson, then a democratic
senator of the extreme southern brand,
and an ardent supporter of the seces-
sion democracy of breckenridge and
Lane. Ulysses S. Grant was at the
time a minor partner with his father
and brother in the leather business at
Galena, was locally regadred as more
or less of a ne'er- do WELL and had
come far from making the most of the
ly neglected West Point education.
Rutherford B. Hayes was city So
licitor of Cincinnati, and there were
many solicitors of many cities who
gave more signs of future Importance.
James A. Garfield had left off preach
ing and was serving a term in the Ohio
senate Chester A. Arthur was taking
a small part in New York City politics.
Grover Cleveland had just been ad-
mitted to the Buffalo bar, but he had
no practice of his own and was getting
his living and supporting his aged
mother by his scanty earnings as law
clerk. Benjamin Harrison was a
young lawyer at Indianapolis, and was
was 2 years old, for the position of re-
porter of the supreme court, in the con-
genial duties of which he probably
thought of passing many years. Will
liam Mckinley was youth work.
ing on his fathers farm.
When Rebellion Closed.
When the great rebellion was over
and Andrew Johnson succeeded the
martyred Lincoln, destiny pointed
plainly to the whilom tanner of Galena
as the next president. In four short
| years he had risen from a humble posi-
ton to be the most commanding figure
of his time, was lieutenant general and
secretary Of war. Rutherford B. Hayes
James A. Garfield and Benjamin Harri-
son had all won their stars in the civil
war, but brigadiers were many and
presidencies few, and not one Of them
was suggested for the exalted office
they subsequently held. Chester A
Arthur had rendered good service as
! inspector general and quartermaster
general of New York, and mad begun
to secure a hold on republican manage
ment in New York City. Grover
| Cleveland had reached the dizzy height
| of assistant district attorney Of Erie
| county and William Mckinley had
| come out of the war boy major. But
all of them seemed far beyond the
presidential horizon. Hayes was only
presidential possibility from the time
he defeated Rise Up" William Allen
| for governor of Ohio in 1875; Garfield
not at all until his speech for Sherman
in the convention which nominated
him; Cleveland not until his election
by phenomenal majority as governor
| in 1882, and Harrison only after he had
wrested the Indiana senatorship from
| the democrats in 1880. William Nc
Kinley, however, was in the limelight
of possibility for about twelve years.
and his nomination very probably
could have been achieved at Minneap-
/