The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-03-06
OUR EX-VCE PRESIDENTS
By Frederic J. Haskin.

As if it were not enough that a |7globe trotter should come into the
 Presidency as another one goes out,
 0r. Fairbanks has added to the situa-
 ton by his decision to become a trav-
 eler. Altogether tr constitutes such a
 travel record os the nation never saw
 before. and may not see again in a
 hundred years. Mir. Fairbanks can well
 afford to take his trip. Born a poor
 boy he has kept everlastinsly at 1t in
 the way that brings success. and he
 finds himself comparatively rich
 man. His children are all grown and
 married. and he has seen them safely
 established before he has come within
 hailing distance of sixty. MT. Fair
 banks will probably return to Indian
 apolis after his trip abroad. and there
 settle down to the management of his
 lawyer. Whether he will return to
 politics is not known. but many of his
 friends believe that he will.
 There is perhaps no other man in
 the United States as different from the
 popular conception as Fairbanks. Rep-
 resented as being the great human
 icicle. he Is in truth one of the most kindly and warm-hearted of men. Even
 to the person he meets casually he re-
 turns as warm a greeting as anyone could wish. His devotion to duty Is
 not known to the country at large as 1t is to those who know him well. Last
 spring when the campaign for the Presidential nomination was on, MT. Fairbanks might naturally have desir- cd to 70 into the field and promote his candidacy for the Presidential nomina- ton. If he had gone on one could have suffered thereby. as there is always president pro tempore of the Senate, but he felt that presiding over that body was more his duty than drum ming up delegates for himself. So he stayed at his post from start to finish. He did not win the nomination for President. but he proved his faithful ness to his constitutional task.
 There are now four living ex-Vice Presidents Charles W. Fairbanks. Theodore Roosevelt, Adlai Stevenson and Levi P. Morton. The story of how a half dozen men deliberately turned down the nomination for Vice Presi. dent on the Mckinley ticket in 1900. and thereby lost the Presidency that fell to Theodore Roosevelt. Is still fa- sS : .snr ': Is ts. sSs ;sGry psee ot torsed upon him in an effort to get him out of the New York political situation. MT. Roosevelt is the only Vice President ever elected President. if we except few in the early days of the republic.
 Perhaps no other American citizen who has reached the Vice Presidency has had more remarkable career than Adlai Stevenson, recent candidate for Governor of Illinois Since the civil war he has been the only Vice President who was later nominated for the same position. Thomas A. Hendricks. was nominated for the place In 1876. and again ip 1884. He was defeated along with Til- den in the former year, but was elect sd in the latter campaign. In this he reverses the experience of Stevenson Stevenson was first elected, then retired to private life. and after four years was again called out as the party candidate, this time to lose
 Stevenson Is still strong factor in the Democracy, one who has kept out of factional entanglements to such Q degree as to make 1t not entirely inn | probable that other things may come l his way before his eventful life is at | an end. As the axe man of the second | administration he made a l lasting record as an official decapita- l .or. To him Is due largely the start | which landed Cortelyou in the second | place in the Presidents cabinet-Cor- | .elyou was hts stenographer while he | was Assistant Postmaster General. I
 The Vice Presidency has been vacant | much of the time since the civil war. 1 The assassination of Lincoln brought | Vice President Johnson into the Presi- | lential chair, and left a vacancy in the | ower position. The assassination of | Garfield called Mir. Arthur to the | iigher station. and the second place | vas again vacant through nearly the whole term for which Garfield was 'iected. It was again filled when first Vice President, Thon- .s A. Hendricks. qualified. But he was oon stricken and died at the very out et of his term. Thua except for two ,rtef intervals, the second office of the and was vacant for eight years to- sether. It was the first time in the History of the Vice Presidency that uch a thing had happened, but 1t was rot to be the last.
 With conditions but slightly re- 'ersed. the same thing occurred later. Jarrett A. Hobart. Vice President un- Ter the first Mckinley administration. lied before half the term had passed, eaving a vacancy during the remain ng years of that administration. The econd Mckinley administration was .lso doomed to lose its Vice President. The assa ssination of the President at Buffalo elevated MT. Roosevelt to the office, and again there was
 vacancy for nearly four years. From his 1t will be seen that for thirteen ears out of the twenty eight since sadfield's administration began. the lation has been without a Vice Presi- lent.
 There was still sixth time that the ice-presidency has been vacant since he civil war Henry Wilson. Vice. President on the second Grant ticket. vas a sh hoemaker in his early days. and yas known as the "Natick Cobbler." Ie died after having served one-half of is term, in the VIce-President's room 1t the Capitol. John Quincy Adams, a ormer President. died in the office of he Clerk of the House, while serving .s a member of that body. Thus, a President and Vice-President have lied in that historic building. William \. wheeler and Schuyler Colfax re- fred to private life after their terms ,olfax became Vice-Presldent of a arge Indiana manufacturing concern.
 The honor of serving two terms as yice-President has fallen to but few nen. John Adams was the first of h ese, having served through both erved but one term, as did Aaron 3urr. Burr tried to cheat Jefferson out f the presidency, but failed. after the House had cast thirty-six ballots. In SO4 he became the Democratic candi- ate for Governor of New York and in he same year mortally wounded Alex nder Hamilton in a duel on the New ersey heights across the river from lew York city. He attempted to stir
 revolution in the Mississippi Valley, nd was tried for treason therefor, of which charge he was acquitted He hen fed to Europe to escape prosecu- | NA