Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-10-13
SINCE THE CIVIL WAR
Blaine and Sherman Were Notable
Examples.
DIFFERENT IN THE EARLY DAYS
A Number Of Secretaries of State Who
Afterward Became President
Considered Geographically.

Considered Geographically.
Those cabinet officials who are Just now
lending willing ears to the buzzng of the
little presidential bee will find scant COM
Tort In looking over the political records Of
their predecessors. With the single excep-
ton Of Gen. Grant, no cabinet member since
the civil war has found the position any
thing other than graveyard to their pres
idential ambitions. A number of them tried,
as several are today trying, to land pres
idential nomination, notably James G.
Blaine and John Sherman, but disappoint-
ment was theirs
In the earlier days of the republic the
Secretary of State was a favorite stepping
stone to the presidency. Thomas Jefferson
was the first Secretary of State, and be-
came the third President. He served five
of the eight years Of the two Washington
administrations. James Madison was the
fifth Secretary Of State and the fourth
PRESIDENT. James Monroe was the seventh
secretary Of State and the fifth President,
and John Quincy Adams was the eighth
Secretary of State and the sixth President
OF State and the eighth President. James
buchanan was the eighteenth Secretary Of
State and the fifteenth President.
Record Stops There.
But there the record of those who stepped
from the State portfolio into the White
House stops. Since then none have done
SO. though the list contains the names of
James G. Blaine and John Sherman Sec
rotary Root will not be able to extract
much satisfaction from the record of the
Secretar1es OF State who have served before
him since the civil war. But Of even less
encouragement to Secretary Shaw will be
study of what happened to whatever pres
ident1al aspirations any of our great min
listers of finance might have entertained
Beginning with the first Secretary of the
Treasury and coming down to the present
day not one of them became President and
with the exception of one or two before, the
civil war. not even a nomination has gone
to man An who has held the Treasury port
folio. The list Of forty-three, with Alexan-
der Hamilton to head 1t, contains the names
or some OF the foremost men of our national
history, among them Albert Gallatin, who
thirteen years in all; William H. Crawford,
richard Rush Roger B. fancy. Tom Cor
win. John A. Dix, Salmon p Chase, William
Pitt Fessenden and John Sherman.
Two Secretaries of War.
Ihere have been two Secretaries of War
who have afterward become President One
OF these was James Monroe, who left that
position to become Secretary of State, and
then succeeded to the presidency, and the
other was Z. S. Grant, who was the only
cabinet officer since the civil war who after
ward became President. Therefore Secre-
tary Taft can well feel little CHESTER than
the rest over his prospects, for he can feel
that he Will not have to break all preccdents
to become President.
The Navy portfolio has never given the
country single President; neither has the
interior Department. The same is true Of
the postmaster generalship, and If Mr.. Cor
telyou should get the nomination for the
presidency he will have succeeded in doing
what no other Postmaster General ever did
None Of the other cabinet places have ever
furnished candidate for the presidency.
Some Cabinet Statistics.
While writing about cabinet members it is
to note some striking facts about
the various departments. There have been
thirty-nine Secretaries Of State since the
foundation Of the government. AS the pres
ent administration constitutes the thirtieth
administration Of four years, 1t will be seen
that there have been eight more Secretaries
of State than there have been presidential
terms. John Quincy Adams and William H.
Seward are the only two secretaries who
have held the place for eight years. Wash
ington had Thomas Jefferson, Edmund Ran
dolph and Timothy Pickering as his secre-
taries Thomas Jefferson had John Mar
shall and James Madison. James Madison
had James Monroe and James Monroe had
John Quincy Adams. John Quincy Adams
had Henry Clay for his Secretary of State,
and Andrew Jackson had Martin Van Buren,
at first, but they fell out and a change was
made. William Henry Harrison called
Daniel Webster to be his chief counselor.
Secretaries Of State and all cabinet officers,
for that matter He started out with Daniel
Webster, then called Hugh Legare to his
side then Abel P. Upshu and then John c.
of the Treasury, five Secretaries of War, five
Secretaries of the Navy, two Postmaster
Generals and three Attorneys General.
Albert Gallatin held a cabinet place longer
than any other man in the history of the
government. For twelve years eight months
and twenty-five days he was at the head of
the Treasury Department, having served
through the greater portion of the two JEFF
fersOn administrations and through a part
Of the eight years that Madison was Pres-
dent Gideon Granger lacked but little
over one month of sharing that distinction
with Gallatin. Granger was appointed
Postmaster General November %, 1901, by
Thomas Jefferson, and served until March
II, 1914. when James Madison appointed
in return Jonathan Meigs, jr., to succeed
him.
nine Secretaries OF State, including Secre-
tary Root. There have been forty-three
Secretaries of the Treasury, forty-seven
Secretaries of War, forty-one Postmaster
eral.
In Days Gone By.
Some idea of the supremacy of the south
In the affairs Of the nation prior to the
civil war may be CLEANED from the fact
that twelve out of twentythree Secretaries
of State who were appointed prior to that
period came from he region south Of Ma
son and Dixon's line and east of the Mis-
sissipp river. Thirteen out Of the twenty
six Secretaries of War came from the same
territory. About the same proportion pre-
vailed with respect to the Attorneys Cen
eral.
The dominant traits Of the people Of the
north and the south show up even in the
cabinet appointments before the civil war,
for while the south was the stronger sec
ton in men versed in statecraft. war and
law, as shown by the fact that the major
ity of the officials in these departments
came from the south. yet when it came
to managing the great fiscal policies of
the government nearly every President from
Washington to Lincoln chose northern men
to fill the Treasury portfolio. Washington
had Alexander Hamilton and Oliver VOL
colt, jr. to fill the Treasury berth, from
New York and Connecticut, respectively.
Then came Samuel Dexter of Massachu-