The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1908-05-12

The vice president of the United States
has two functions to perform-he pre-
sides over the senate and succeeds to the
presidents office should it be vacated
by death or disability, by Impeachment
or by resignation. AS heir to the prest-
dency, he must possess the same quail
hcations as the president. He must be
| a native born citizen of the United
States. 30 years of age, and have been
tor fourteen years resident within the
United States. He is chosen at the same
time in the same manner and by the
| same electors as the president In view
of the fact that five of the twenty-five
men who have been elected president
have died during their term of office,
thus permitting five of the men who had
been elected to the second place to reach
the first. it would seem that much care
would be given to the selection OF the
vice presidential candidate. In practice
this has not been so. Two of the vice
presidents elevated to the chief magis-
tracy through the death of presidents
have signally discounted the party to
which they owed their Office by opposing
its policies,
Of the five each cherished the natural
ambition to succeed himself in the regu-
lar manner. But of them only one, TheO-
dOre Roosevelt, has realized the anlbi-
ton.
John Tyler of Virginia, and Andrew
johnson, of Tennessee had too flag
them vice presidents to hope for nomi-
nation to the higher office. Chester A.
Arthur, nominated with James A. Gar
field to soOthe Roscoe Conkling's disap-
pointment in not securing third nomi-
nation for General Grant, hoped for
cOmmendation, but failed to win it, Mil
lard Fillmore and Theodore Roosevelt
received the presidential nomination
through the regular channels, but Fill
more failed of election. But one man,
first made president through the death
of his predecessor has later been elected
to the office. Other presidents have,
however, served as vice presidents be-
fore reaching the higher office. John
Adams, Vice president while George
Washington presided as chief executive,
succeeded Washington TO the high office.
He was in turn succeeded by his vice
president, Thomas Jefferson. Andrew
Jackson, who called the first Democratic
might nominate Martin Van Buren as
vice president on the Democratic ticket
with him, practically named Van Buren,
as his successor. These three, with the
five who succeeded through the accident
of death, make total of eight vice
presidents who have ascended to the
presidency.
When William Henry Harrison, of
Ohio. was named as the Whig candi-
date in 1910 John Tyler, who had al
ways displayed Democratic sympathies,
though he had been of the Calhoun fac
ton and so opposed to Jackson and Van
was the favorite Whig candidate, had
been kept from his own. After several
unavailing efforts to get some one to take
the nomination for vice president. Tyler
was named for ii in the hope that he
would win the votes of those Democrats
opposed to Van Buren. Thurlow Weed
had asked Daniel Webster If he would
consent to be the nominee for vice pres
idsnt on the ticket with Harrison. but
Webster refused as he did eight years
later when Zachary Taylor was the pres
identidl candidate. Had he accepted the
nomination either time he would have
realized his lifelong desire of being
president. far both Harrison and FAVOR
died before the expiration of their term
OF office.
John Tyler succeeded President Har-
rison in less than a month after the in
auguration. He was the first vice pres
tdent to attain the presidency through
the death of his predecessor.
General Harrison cabinet had decided
that Tylers official title should be "vice
president" But he decided otherwise
and declared himself, as he was, pres!-
dent by right of the constitution. All
the cabinet excepting Daniel Webster
resigned. Tyler aroused the fury of the