Perth Amboy evening news., 1920-04-16
Fiue Minutes A Day
With Our Presidents

by JAMES MORGAN.

Greatness and the Presidency
found John Tyler down on one knee,
playing "knucks" with his boys In a
pathway of his dooryard in Williams
burg. that stately old vice regal VIII
lage of colonial Virginia. lie had not
even heard that Harrison was III. I'M
til destiny. without steam, wire or
rail- to carry 1t. sped to him from
Washington by boa mi buggy with
the new that the President had been
dead a day and that the empty Pres
idential chair was awaiting he Vice
President.
Rising from his game Of marbles,
the first problem that confronted this
President by succession, was to get
money enough to take him to the
capital He promptly received the
offer of q loan from a money lender
Of the n~eighborhood. But since that
thrifty man had coldly refused to
take a similar chance on him a few
months before, the favor was de-
Piled the needed amount to convey
to tho White House this port of for
tune.
1t was the first time that a Vice
President had been called upon to
discharge h one duty which gives
that Office It's only excuse for exist
ence-to fill a vacancy in the Presi-
QtHty. ttODlc 0du all Dul lOIbOtlcH
h purpose for which the place was
created. If those who had nominated
Tyler had given a thought to the pos
sibility of his succeeding to the Chief
Magistracy, he would have been
about the last man they would have
chosen for the emergency.
Tyler belongs among the third or
fourth rate Presidents. Although a
clean-handed, kindly man of good
nraaanOn I'D AaIirhnI nannnnr0 he
was a mediocre country lawyer and
a narrow-minded politician, with n
gift for getting offices that he had no
gift for filling. Graduating at 10
from William and Mary, the only
college besides Harvard to be the
alma mater of three Presidents he
was elected to the Virginia Legis-
lature at 81, while his father was
serving as Governor. At &c he went
to Congress, at 35 he was chosen to
the Governorship and at 81 he en-
tered the Senate. to which he was
reelected for q second term.
His record Of craftsmanship In
those various posts need not detain
the reader q moment. 1t Is a blank
page. as with so many OF u facile
vote getters and place hunters. But
for the accident of another's death.
Tyler's name would have been buried
with his dust In the oblivion of h
grave.
A Jacksonian Democrat at first
Tyler followed John c. Calhoun Off
into notification and to extremes
on the dogma of States rights and
the protection of slavery. Rather
than obey the instructions OF the
Virginia Legislature that he should
vote to expunge the censure which
the Senate had passed upon Jackson,
he broke with the Democrats. re-
signed the Senatorship and re-
appeared in the State Legislature as
a Whig member. He was also a dole
gate to the Wing National conven-
ton. which nominated him for Vice
President.
Nevertheless he agreed with the
Wings only in opposing Jackson and
Van Buren,. In the North. they were
for protection and internal improve
ments: In the South. they were for
the Union above all else and Tyler
was dead set against each of those
policies.
Thurlow Weed and the Whig poll
ticians understood his perfectly. To
distract the North from the slavery
question. they nominated the log
cabin hero and to attract the slave
holding South they nominated with
him a disciple of Calhoun. With q
ticket facing both ways. they adopted
no platform and stood for nothing
except vote catching.
The scheme worked to perfection
at the polls. But IN the hour of Its
triumph the Wing President died and
his Democratic running mate was In
the White House.
That unforeseen even served the
Wings right. They had set out to
fool the people and in the end they
themselves were worse fooled. AL
they wanted was Tippecanoe, but
they got Tyler, too.