The Columbus journal. (Columbus, Neb.) 1874-1911, 1908-11-18

to petition and be heard.
Adams fell dead Of heart disease ON
the floor ofthe House, where his voice
30 often had rung. A bronze tablet
marks the spot where he died.
Andrew Jackson took a decidedly
active part in politics after his last
term elapsed. His letters on public
questions we're famous and one of them
ruined his friend and partisan Martin
Van Buren,, losing the control of the
Democracy to the slavery wing. But
jackson, even 80, lived to see his enc
mics humbled.
Martin Van Buren, was one Of the
two Presidents who sought Office un.
successfully after their defeat for Sc
cond terms. Some years after his re-
tirement Van Buren, became the Pre-.
sidential candidate of the Free Soil
party, but received no electoral votes.
He later came to the front Tin 1843)
with clear.cut views in favor of the
tariff for revenue only" idea of which
he has been called the father. Van
Buren, was the first President to 90
abroad after his retirement from Office,
establishing precendent followed BY
Polk, Fillmore, Pierce and Grant and
about to be followed by Roosevelt.
William Henry Harrison was the
first President to die in office. He
was succeeded by John Tyler, who af.
ter retirement, took feverishly active
interest in the affairs leading up to the
Civil war and was elected q member of
the permanent Congress, but died in
1862 just before it was convened by
Lincoln. Had he lived he would have
been another holder Of lower office.
Zachary Taylor was the second Presi-
dent to die in Office. Willard Fillmore,
his successor, was the only President
besides Van Buren, to become an unsuc-
cessfal candidate after his original re-
tirement. He tried to succeed him
self, but could not command the ne
ceesary twenty votes from the Free
states. Later he became the nominee
of the short.lived America party and
obtained the vote of Maryland, but
that was all. He went abroad later.
Franklin Pierce Travelled abroad for
three years and then retired to his
home.
james Buchanan, one of the least |
active of the Presidents, retired to his |
home in Pennsylvania in 1861 and
lived there until his death in 1868. He
was lost in the stress of the great Civil
war and forgotten until his death stir
red the recollection of his disafected |
and ungratefal countrymen.
The passing of Buchanan brings the
narrative to Lincoln and the Presidents
of the new era, whose careers are too
widely remembered to need much dis
cussion. Lincoln, dying by the hand
of an assassin, left the Office to Andrew
johnson. After all the calumnies he
endured in Office and his narrow es-
cape from impeachment, johnson was
sent to the Senate from Tennessee in
1875. Two weeks after he took his
seat he committed the final indiscretion
of his life when he delivered a most
bitter and ill-timed attack on President
Grant. Disheartened by the effect it
produced, johnson retired to his home
in Tennessee and lived only few mon
tbs. Thus the only man except the
younger Adams who ever held a second
federal Office, died q crushed and brok-
man, to an extent at least,
The victim of the time and its spirit.
General Grant made his widely
known trip; returned to the ruins of his
tOppled fortune and wrote his memoirs
while he lay patiently awaiting death.