Los Angeles herald., 1910-02-18
The Presidents Speeches
By Frederic j. HaSkin

directly. The president may see as
many as a hundred of these. But
copies of all correspondence are pre-
served and card index kept, so that
the man who comes to publish the
correspondence of IL Taft or a Roose-
velt will find abundant material from
which to Gull.
Mckinley was not SO much q man of
letters as many of the other presidents.
His published speeches constitute
about his only effort in the field of lit
erature. Few presidents have had more
written about them, however, than
Mckinley. His tragic death resulted in
a veritable flood of -ll-prepared biogra-
phies, most of them published by the
time his body was laid in the tomb at
Canton. They we're got out merely
to catch the subscription book trade
and with little view to their permanent
value.
Grover Cleveland paid little attention
to letters until after his second term
as president, but from the end of his
career in the White House to the date
of his death he found ready sale for
the articles and books written by him.
The royalties from his published books
are said to afford his family COM
Portable income. Benjamin Harrison
wrote two excellent books after leav-
ll4S liiG w nllS IlOuSGs 1LtSlcI a. AL
thur was little given to literary en-
deavor and in the big card index of
the Library of Congress there is not a
single card showing a printed docu-
ment from his hand. Aside from his
messages and routine papers he has left
nothing to literature. In James A.
Garfield the presidency had its only
minister of the gospel He was also a
college president. While his utterances
in congress are a comprehensive resume
of reconstruction times he left little
else to the abiding literature of the
country.
For profitable endeavor in literary
work first place will have to be accord
ed Gen. Grant. Ground down to sheer
poverty by the Grant & Ward failure
he was forced to write his memoirs in
order to provide for his family. He
had written but little before, but it
developed that the fighter was also a
writer, and his autobiography has had
q sale far above the half-million mark.
Mrs. Grant received one check for $780,
900, to say nothing of many smaller
ones. 1t is said that the royalties on
the memoirs of Gen. Grant represent
the highest reward that has ever come
to the authorship of a single work.
Lincoln enjoyed few educational ad-
vantages, yet all the world recognizes
his Gettysburg address as one of the
classics of American literature. His
writings have been collected into eight
good sized volumes, and reveal the
many sides of this wonderful man.
Aside from Washington he is perhaps
the most written about of all the pres
idents.
James Buchanan wrote a review and
defense of his administration before he
died. George Bancroft. the historian
collected the letters and diaries of
James X Polk, and intended to publish
them. They are now bound in twenty
two quarto volumes and are in the
possession of the Lenox library, New
York. William Henry Harrison once
wrote pamphlet on the aborignes of
the Ohio valley, and Martin Van Bu-
rem published an inquiry into the
origin and causes of political parties
John Quincy Adams was a literary
man and some of his poems and essays
have survived in the popular mind. His
poem on MAN wants but little here
below, nor wants that little long," has
found an abiding place in American
literature.
Monroe, who lives in the popular
mind as the author of the Monroe doc
trine, wrote an extended essay on the
conduct of the executive and another
on q tour of observation he made. His
SltttS ptbpCIS arc ttiiIOhS ItlO lilOSN III
teresting written by any president
Madisons notes on the constitution
and those on the confederation are
documents referred to by constitution
al writer's to this day. Jefferson's
Declaration of Independence, his man
ual of parliamentary practice, which
still remains a general code Of rules
for the senate and house, and his notes
on Virginia are among the most in
teresting productions from the pen of
any presidential man of letters. John
Adams wrote a number Of essays.
Washingtons maxims and his tran
scripts of revolutionary correspondence
constitute his literary production, but
his farewell address takes front rank
as a state paper.
Taking the whole sweep of Amer
lean history up to the time of Cleve-
land, 1t is probable that the most no.
table documents that have come from
occupants of the White House are
Washingtons farewell address, Jeffer-
sons Declaration of Independence,
Monroes Monroe doctrine, Lincoln's
Gettysburg address and Grants me-
moirs.
Tomorrow--Making of Violins.