Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-03-04
FUTURE PRESIDENTS
Men Who Will Occupy the
Executive Mansion.
WHERE ARE THEY NOW
WHO WILL OCCUPY THE EXECU,
TIVE MANSION.
Political Prophets Unable to Peer Into
the Future-Some Inter
esting Matters.
WHERE ARE THEY NOW

The men who will occupy the presidential
chair for the next fifty years are now living.
Who and what 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 guossers are more than likely TO
be wrong. and not one of them would pre-
tend to predict beyond a decade
Mark Twain once made the rather startling
suggestion at banquet given to Gen. Ulys-
SEES S Grant that the future commander of
the victorious armies Of the Union was at
that very moment sucking his toes in u
cradle somewhere within the limits of the
United States. Theodore Roosevelt Presi-
dent of the United States and commander
iL-ciief of all her armies. was quite possibly
engaged in that interesting infantile expert
ment in 1S5S-J9. when he was but a few
months old and the Titanic struggle be-
tween Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A.
Douglas for senator from Illinois was in
progress. At that time the commanding fig
ures in national politics, as presidential pos
sibilites, We're William II. Seward Stephen
A. Douglas and John c. Breckenridge then
Vice President.
Presidents Who Followed Lincoln.
But at that time what sage could have
foretoId any one of the men who have fol-
lowed Lincoln to the White House Even
cess of Lincoln, he never would have
dreamed that the rail-sIlitter would be sue
ceeded by Andrew Johnson. then a demo-
cratic senator OF the extreme southern
brand, and an ardent supporter OF the Sc
ceSSloH 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 To-
cally regarded as more or less of a ne'er-
do well, and had come far from making the
most Of the opportunities afforded by his
apparently neglected West Point cduca-
ton. Rutherford &. Hayes was city So
licitoE of Cincinnati, and there We're many
solicitors of many cities vino gave more
signs of future Importance James \. Gar
field had left off preaching and was serving
a term in the Ohio senate. Chester A. Ar
thur was taking small part in New York
city politics. Grover Cleveland had lust
been admitted to the Buffalo bar but he
had no practice of his own and was getting
his living and supporting his aged mother
by his scantf earnings as a law clerk
Benjamin Harrison young lawyer at
Indianapolis, and was nominated, when
Theodore Roosevelt was two years old. for
the position of reporter of the suprema
court, in the congenial duties of which hs
probably thought of passing many years
William Mckinley was a youth working 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 Presi-
dent. In four short years he had risen from
a humble position to be the most com
manding figure of his time. was lieutenant
general and Secretary of War. Rutherford
b. Hayes, James a. Garfield and Benjamin
Harrison had all won their stars in the
civil war, but brigadieTs were many and
Presidencies fews and not one of them was
suggested for the exalted office they sub
Sequently held. Chester A. Arthur had rem
iQSDpCtOT
quartermaster general of New York and
had begun to secure hold on republican
management 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-Cp'' 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 ma
jority governor in 1852. and Harrison
only after he had wrested the Indiana SEN
atorShip from the democrats, in 1880. Will
lam Mckinley, however, was in the lime
light of possibility for about twelve years.
and his nomination very probably could
have been achieved at Minneapolis four
years earlier than it was.
Names of Soldiers
Ii is well to think of the soldiers in con-
nection with the next presidency. OF our
twenty-five Presidents, while only three
washington, Monroe and Jackson) were
revolutionary soldiers, three others
adams jefferson and Madison) were
eminently identified with independence. An
drew Jackson, William Henry Harrison, John
Tyler, Zachary taylor and James Buchan-
an served with varying rank in the war or
1872 In our earlier Indian wars three
Presidents gained immortal renown. Will
lam Henry Harrison won the battle of TIP
pecanoe, Andrew Jackson crushed the
Creeks and Zachary Taylor destroyed the
Seminole power at Okeechobee. Abraham
Lincoln rendered honorable service against
Black Hawk. The war with Mexico was
participated in by Taylor, Pierce and
Grant, and Grant, Johnson, Hayes. Gar
field, Arthur, Harrison and Mckinley were
ali in the civil war. The present Presi-
dents service in the Spanish war is too re-
cent and too renowned to be forgotten.
There have been but eight of our Presidents
who did not seek Soldierly service. The
last revolutionary President retired from
office ffty-six years after that war closed.
According to that precedent, veteran or
the civil war may be President as late as
1920, and a veteran of the Spanish war as
late as 1854. If President Roosevelt were
to live to be old as President John
Adams, who was writing about the Tor
midable approach of his ninetieth year
shortly before his sons inauguration in
1928, he will be with US although most OF
us will not be with HIM until the middle
of the present century
rive fG6QSCSSSOIS.
At the time of Lincoln's inauguration in
1861 there were living five of his predeces-
sors wan Buren,, Tyler Fillmore, Pierce
and Buchanan) all of his successors to the
present time, and more than likely several
of those yet to come. Now there is but
one. Grover Cleveland. But many of the
successors of Theodore Roosevelt are on
the planet at this moment. Some OF our
future Presidents infants yet in their
sWaddIing clothes; some of them are hardy
farmers sons following the fresh lines made
by the plowshare; some may be hiking IN
khaki i'm the Philippines; some of them
beardless cadets undergoing hazing at
West Point; some of them young members
of legislatures; one or two of them al this
time sitting in the American Congress; one
of them possibly in the Cabinet; one or
them perhaps just being sworn in as Vice
President, and one of them may be en-
gagged in the simple life of reorganizing
parties. But nearly all persons who VIII
be in the presidential succession of the next
half a century are at this moment absolute
~ unknown outside of the communities
where they were born or have been reared.