The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-12-22
Presidents Pro Tempore
BY SAVOYARD.

ison was again chosen president pro
tempore serving from 1852 to 1854. 1t
is the history of the chimney corner
that Atchison was the president of a
day." March 4, 1s49, falling on a Sun
day; but that is a story for the ma
rines and other credulous. Atchison
was Missouri Democrat, born at
Frogtown, KY, and intensely southern
in his views. Kansas gave US three
remarkable men, all adaptive sons
John Brown, Jim Lane and John j. In
gals. Lane was q very great orator,
and had the self-sacrificing audacity of
the fanatic. He offered to settle the
slavery question by a wager of battle
after the order of the Horatii and the
Curiatii of the then infant Rome-that
is. he was to pick 100 Jayhawkers from
| Kansas and Dave AtcEison was to
choose 100 ruffiaas from Missouri, and
they were to meet on the prairie and
| fight it out till there was 10 survivor
on one side. It was to be battle royal,
| the victor to take Kansas, that was the
stake. The beauty of the proposition
was that Lane was in earnest, and
would have stood the hazard of the die
or rather the crack of the rife.
Jesse D. Bright came next, a man
who was expelled from the senate for
4 "
and a contemplate piece of petty
tyranny. A certain eminent magistrate
declined to hold communication with
Jefferson Davis when that iliustTious
man was yet among the living, even
though the objective of the correspon-
dence was the vindication of manifest
truth; yet that same great parsonage
lived to eulogize that same JEFF Davis
in a public address. And thus doth
time make all, things even, and so
forth, and so forth.
James NJ. Mason was the next presi-
dent pro tempOre. He was a man out
of Plutarch- He was of that set who
set on Curule chains when the profane
and barbarian Gaul invaded the Ro-
man forum. OF all the southern SEN
ators, he was most the Roman in dig
nifty and that sternness of character
that stands for virtue. He gave way
to Benjamin Fitzpatrick of Alabama.
who was president pro tempore when
the southern senators Withdrew.
Solomon Foot of Vermont was the
first Republican to be chosen president
pro tempore. He was q very great
EXPERIMENTATION. There is much to dis
tinguish the parliamentarian from the
presiding officer. In rare cases the
two qualities are united i'm one individ-
ual. Blaine was thus doubly gifted. As
presiding officers, Aaron Burr, John c.
Calhoun and John c. Breckenridge were
the greatest the senate ever knew; but
as a parliamentarian, Capitol Hill new
er knew greater than Solomon Foot.
with the single exception of John G.
Carlisle, the greatest parliamentarian
who ever presided over a body that
conducted debate in the English
tongue. Carlisle was also a magniff-
cent presiding officer, calm, resolute.
prompt, commanding. Randall was ex-
cellent in the chair and Reed was ire
mendous. This young man Kinds. who
coaches Uncle Joe, knows parliament
tary procedure by note. Carlisle knew
1t by instinct.
Daniel Clark came next after Foot |
serving year, when he was succeed |
ed by Lafayette S. Foster. who served
TWO years. Then came Ben Wade the |
bulldog of the Western Reserve. He !
was a man of great force of charac- |
ter, full of prejudice and obstinacy and |
Ignorance. He shoul6ered his way to |
the front, beat Chase. a far greater
man, for the presidency i'm 1S60-that |
IS made the nomination of Chase i'm !
possible. Later Chase, presiding over !
the impeachment trial of Andy John |
son, was instrumental in keeping Wade |
out of the White House.
one day James. Duke of York. after |
ward James II, king of England. wait
ed on his brother, then King Charles |
II, and laid before his majesty some /
tnlng about plot to kill the king
charles heard the story with incredu
lous ear and replied: James. nobody
Is going to kill me to make you king.
AND that is what saved Andy Johnson'si
bacon. The senate refused to impeach
Andy because it would have made
Waue president. Had Henry Wilson,
or even Oliver P. Morton. been presi-
dent pro tempore i'm 1865. ANDY wouId /
nave been statesman out of a lob for
gong a thing that every other presi-
dent could have done without question
10 be continued in our next.)
Copyright. 1907, by E. w Newman,