Omaha daily bee., 1912-09-08

who have betrayed me- | am the most unfortunate
man in the history of parties. Always run by my
friends when sure to be defeated, and now betrayed
for nomination when |, or any one, would be sure
OF an election"
The War of 1872 also contributed largely to the
nomination of General Lewis Cass thirty-six years
later, his principal military achievement having been
to break his sword on hearing that General Hull had
surrendered As the Wings had nominated Zachary
Taylor, hero of Buena Vista, the Democrats were
in sore need of hero and being short of the article
did their best to make Of Cass. Taylor, OF
course, went to the White House; but General Cass
would have been elected had not Martin Van Buren
bolted and run as the Free Soil candidate because,
he claimed, Cass had been instrumental in beating
him out of the nomination in 1874. Van Buren's
performance so outraged the Missouri Democrats
that they peremptorIy changed the name Of Van
Rnren County to Cass and that Of Undertook to
Benton.
Speaking of Van Buren, an illustration of the
far-reaching consequences that small things some
times have even in the winning and losing of Presi
denotes, was the Quixoic attempt of President Jack
son to force Peggy ONeal into exclusive Washington
society an attempt that disrupted the Jackson
Cabinet and made much politics. The Cabinet
ladies would have none of Mistress Peggy, and Old
Hickory would have none of their husbands. But
sly Martin Van Buren, being widower and having
a very clear idea on which side his political bread
was buttered, wisely sided with Jackson and paid
court most assduously to pretty Peg-a bit of
diplomacy that completely won the General, and
caused him to create the Sage of Undertook his
heir apparent Thus, it is written that when Martin
Van Buren, rang the O'Neal doortell to make his
first call, the history of the United States was
changed for twenty years. Mistress Peggy cut nearly
as many high nks and caused the powers OF politics
and government nearly as much trouble as did Helen
in Trojan days.
James Parton says of Jackson that when the latter
came into the Presidency, Presidential program
was arranged for twenty-four years, as follows:
Andrew Jackson, eight years; Martin Van Buren,
eight years; Thomas Fl. Benton, eight years; but
unfortunately for that scheme Old Tippecanoe inn
pnged on the scene in the coonskin, hardcder, log
cabin hysteria of American politics and broke the
program exactly in the middle.
CaLhoun's Boomerang
1t will be remembered that Jackson appointed
Van Buren, Minister to England during recess of
the Congress, and he served in that capacity several
months. When his nomination was sent to the
Senate 1t was rejected his rival for the Presidency,
John C. Calhoun, then Wce-President casting the
deciding vote. few moments later, Senator Benton
remarked to the truculent South Carolinian: "Mr.
Vice. President, you have broken Minister to Eng
land, but made President" and so he had. The
day on which Chief Justice Taney, who had been
rejected by the Senate as Associate Justice admin
istered the Presidential oath to Martin Van Buren,,
who had been rejected as Minister to the Court Of
st. James, was one of the happiest in the stormy
life of jackson. .-,t
James X. Polk is the only man to have been both
Speaker of the House of Representatives and Presi
dent, though several other Speakers strove man
fully for the supreme honor of the Republic. Polk,
however, did not reach the Presidency until long
after he had ceased to be Speaker He and Thomas
Bracket Reed are the only Speakers who have been
thanked by the House on strict party vote, for
ability and fairness in the Chair, He also is the
only man elected to the Presidency thus far who
failed to carry his own State. In the Convention
that nominated Polk the vote on the first ballot stood
oe follovu. Martin Won Ruron of Now Vorly