The National tribune., 1907-04-11
OUR COMBATIVE
PRESIDENTS.
CONTINUED from page one.)

Objectionable traits which descended
even to absolute meanness. He was
positively hungry for distinction, fame
and advancement, and rancorous to the
last degree of anyone who denied him
this or stood in his way. He kept those
around him continually embroiled, and
there was almost as much rancor
among his immediate supporters as
among his enemies. The record of his
fierce quarrels and his unsparing ami
mosities Is quite as long, to say the
least, as that of his good works. The
worst part of 1t was that he kept around
him a clique of professional defamers,
like Freneau, whose main business 1t
was to publish calumnies against all
with whom Jefferson differed. Jeffer-
son and Alexander Hamilton were at
swords points from the very first, and
it was hard for Washington to keep
them both in his Cabinet. Jefferson
had to go at last, and he revenged him.
self on Washington and Hamilton by
the meanest assaults upon their integ-
rity, particularly in connection with the
selection of Washington as the National
Capital and the assumption of the Rev.
dictionary debts of the States. There
was another man whom Jefferson hated
worse than he did Hamilton. This was
because he belonged to his own party,
and was for years his strongest rival.
In the Presidential election of 1900
Aaron Burr was the candidate for Vice
President, while Jefferson headed the
ticket. Both received the same number
of votes. The system then in vogue
was that the man who received the
highest number of votes should be
President and the next Vice President.
This threw the election into the House
of Representatives, where a bitter fight
followed, resulting In the election, on
the 36th ballot, of Jefferson as Presi-
dent and Burr as Vice President. JEFF
ferson never forgave Burr, even tho the
latter killed Hamilton, and Jefferson
was severely disappointed that he was
unable to hang Burr for treason.
James Madison.
While there was a great deal of firm
ness and determination in James Madi-
son, he was a very amiable sonl, and
despite the bitterness of the times,
when the people were enraged to the
last degree by the injuries and insults
of both France and Great Britain, there
are few traditions as to any of his own
personal animosities. The Federalists
were striving for a war with France.
while the Republicans, who had elected
Madison, wanted war with Great
Britain. in which they succeeded. At
with intrigues and bitter contentious
from which Madison could not escape,
but there Is little memory left of his
participation in them. He was sue
ceeded by James Monroe, a man of fine
but not striking abilities and of much
force of character. He had been a
good soldier, rising to the rank of Cap
tain, had received wounds in his coun-
try's service, and was enough of self
seeker to quarrel with Jefferson for pre-
ferring Madison to him as his success
sOr. Most of the bitterness of the con-
test was due, however, to the vitriOiic
John Randolph, who was always hunt
ing for fight, and took up vigorously
the cause Of Monroe against Madison.
So far as Monroe was concerned the
rancor diminished in a most marvellous
way toward the close of his second Adj
and he went out of office
wit tut any particular enmities and
without the special friendship of any
powerful clique or influence. The best
that he could obtain afterward was the
office Of Justice of the Peace in Vir-
ginia, which he held when he died.
John Quincy Adams.
John Quincy Adams. who came into
Office in 1924 as result of the disinteg-
ration of all the parties under Monroe,
was overfiowing with pugnacity, but not
of the kind which leads to physical en-
counters. 1t is not known that Adams
ever had a personal collision in his life,
being entirely different in this respect
from the truculent Southern politicians
with whom the pistol and the bowie
knife were too often to speak the last
word in a dispute. If John Adams, his
father, was the embodiment of the old
Puritan belligerency that carried Crom-
well and his Ironsides on to victory,
John Quincy Adams was an illustration
of the old theologic contentiousness of
the days Of the Reformation. He had
a superior mind. and had given 1t a
training unequaled by any other man in
the country at that time. He had had
the most unusual experience in State
craft, beginning with his intimate asso-
citation with his father in the councils
of the country. Consequently he really
knew more about public business, po-
litical principles, foreign countries and
other things invaluable to a publicist
than any man in the country. but, what
is worse, he knew his superiority and
could not help constantly asserting it.
This naturally made the men he over
rode, in pride of opinion, his enemies,
and he delighted in them. He liked
to have enemies that he could use as
bags to show his own proves
and skill. He was by turns in all par
ties and associated with all sorts of
men, none of whom he made his
friends. He never let them lose sight
for a moment that he was very much
smarter than any of them; knew the
subject under discussion better and was
better qualified to deal with it. When
they resented his playing the school
master. then he proceeded to put the
spear into them. Consequently there
were few hours of his life when he was
not seeking to trip up somebody and
there were host of men with old
scores to pay off, seeking to overthrow
him. He spent the last years of his
life in congenial employment as a mem.
Der of the House Of Representatives,
trying to get even for the filings and
scorns of a long life by sticking pins
into everything and everybody that
came in sight. He took up the matter
Of petitions for the abolition of slavery,
not because he believed particularly in
the sacred right Of petition, but be-
cause it was a red rag that would bring
the bulls of the House out into the
arena where he could give them effec-
tive thrusts with his keen matador
blade.
Andrew Jackson.
Adams was succeeded by as genuine
4 fighting man as the world ever saw. |
Andrew Jackson was a specimen of that |
Intensely pugnacious Scotch-Irish breed |
which seems to actually love fighting |
At least 1t is always ready to do battle |