, 1905-05-03
Presidential Succession Safe.
guarded

When James A. Garfield was strick-
Ell down on July 2, 1881, he fingered
until 8 30 P. NJ, September 10 of that
year. During all his illness the Presi-
dency was in commission. Mr.. Blaine
was Secretary of state, and he and all
the other Cabinet officers attended to
the business of their departments.
General Arthur, the Vice President,
was ~scrupulously careful to abstain
from any exercise of authority what
ever, and commended himself to the
confidence and consideration of the
people by that fact. The period was
the longest the Presidency has ever
been in allegiance.
1t is in allegiance now, but for no
such tragic cause. President Roose-
welt is hunting amid mountainous
woods, and while he is in reach by a
days journey of his secretaries and
stenographers, he is doing as little
executive business as possible. The
people are satisfied that he should give
to himself that form of rest which
comes to him from a change of direc-
ton to his unquenchable energy, and
feel confident that no disturbance to
natl nal interests and no halt to
national duties will be caused in or by
his absence from the Federal capitol.
The situation is different from what it
has been in previous presidential alb
sences or disabilities.
The head of the Cabinet, in the order
# the institution of the office, is the
Secretary OF State. He is in Italy seek
ing r~ecuperation of strength by rest
and by travel, and the nation is glad
that he is finding it. The Secretary of
War, Judge Taft, has oversight of the
State Department, not through any
commission from the President or by
any provision of the Constitution or of
the law, but by the wish of the Presi-
dent and with the concurrence of the
other members of the Cabinet. The
Assistant secretaries of State are not
meu to whom the Department would
be committed with public confidence.
Their fidelity is not questioned, but
their capacity, or the confidence of the
people in their capacity, is not regard
ed to be such as to justify the full
commitment of the conduct of the
office to their hands. The acquies-
cence of the people in placing not only
the State Department, but the Admin
istration itself, in provisional charge of
the Secretary of War, during the alb
sence of the President, and of the
Secretary of State is instructive and
suggestive.
When Grover Cleveland first was
President, the sudden death of Vice
President Hendricks, ON Thanksgiving
Day, startled the country with the
realization that any disability of the
Executive would devolve the Presi-
dency upon a representative of the
Republican party. 1t would then by
law have been devolved on the tenn
porary President of the Senate or on
the Speaker of the House of Repre-
sentatives Both were Republicans.
Failing them, it would have then de-
volved the executive office on the
Chief Justice of the United States, and
failing him, on the senior Associate
Justice of the United States Supreme
Court. All these were Republicans.
Those conditions made possible 8
change of political balance in the Presi-
dency, without and against the voted
decision of The people for the DemOc'
racy. In the circumstances, President
Cleveland did not take the possible
risk of attending the funeral of Vice
President Hendricks, and was censur-
ed for his omission to attend it by those
who did not know or appreciate the
reasons why he stayed away. When
those reasons became known, Con
gress passed the present Presidential
Succession Law. By it the Presi.
dency, on the disability of the Presi,
dent and of the Vice President, de
wolves on the members of the Cabinet
in the order of the date of the creation
of their office. The Presidency is thus
practically insured from politica
change for the four years elective term
of the Office.
We state these facts, because they
are suggested by the absence of the
President from the capitol, and by the
reduction of executive duties, in hi.