Perth Amboy evening news., 1920-04-17
Five Minutes A Day
With Our Presidents

By JAMES MORGAN,

and his figure remains among tn,
pale shadows in the procession o.
presidents across the pages of history.
HIS personal biography being hardly
more than a catalogue of the Offices
Through which he passed tho leav-
I ing a mark behind him, this must be
mostly a story of the remarkable cir
Icumstances whose creature he was.
The Pollocks. whose name, from be-
ling pronounced 'Poll'k," came finally
TO be spelled Polk, were among those
; immigrants from Ireland-like the
IJacksons-who took up in America the
resistance of British rule which they
had carried on unsuccessfully in their
native island. The Presidents grand
parents, both the Folks and the Knoxes
we're Irish born and prominent in
the revolutionary struggle in North
carolina.
When he was yet q boy, the family
of James X. moved to Tennessee,
where he was too frail for frontier
farming and was put to work behind
the counter of a crossroads store.
After a time in that excellent prepara-
tory school life he returned to his
native state to enter college. and he
graduated from the University of
North Carolina.
Becoming "a country lawyer. he was
sent to the Tennessee Legislature;
married Sarah Childress, daughter of
n Well-to-do man of business, and
went to Congress for fourteen years.
In the course of which he became first
the Jackson leader of the House and
nnally Speaker. Next he took his seat
Jas Governor of Tennessee for a term.
AFTER having been twice defeated In his
eitort to obtain a second election to
the Governorship, those defeats were
immediately crowned with the Demo-
cratic nomination for President and
with the highest prize in the lottery
of politics.
Polk. himself, had no more than
modestly suggested that he would like
to be Vice-President. So far as known.
no m ever had breathed his name
in relation 10 tho Presidency until
within twenty-four hours of his nomi-
nation.
Martin Van Buren,, seeking vindica-
lion for his defeat in 1910 was again
the candidate. On the OPEN
ing ballot he received a clear majority
and he remained the only majority
candidate who failed of nomination
until three-quarters of a century af-
terward, when Champ Clark lost to
woodrow Wilson In another Balti-
more convention.
After seven ballots had been cast
the Southern plotters against Van
Buren obtained an adjournment for
the purpose of Matching their plot In
the night. In those days when the
States were called In their geograph-
ical order, New Hampshire was sec
ond on the roll and the delegation
from that New England State was
tcraftily chosen to spring the name of
Polk. Then came that n~ow-familiar
convention maneuver which Is called
a Stampede, with delegates wildly
chasing the band wagon.
1t was in the first year of the tele-
graph, and when the name of Clay
was licked off as the nominee of the
Wing convention at Baltimore those
wise-acres of Washington who still
Regarded Morse as an imposter said
that the trick was easy, since any
one could have guessed who the
Wing nominee would be. Three
weeks afterward, when the inventor
at the capital spelled out the name
of Polk as the Democratic nominee,
the doubling Thomases were convinc-
ed that he was a fraud. They scoffed
at such an absurdity n were not
persuaded of the truth until the ar
rival of "a train from Baltimore.
The new telegraph also served to
carry back from Washington Silas
Wrisht's declination of the second
place, to which that New York sena-
tor had been nominated as a conso-
lation for the Van Buren, men, and
lho tonNSHtlon ndu 10 choose another
nominee for Vice President.
h Wings everywhere greeted the
Democratic nominee with the derisive
inquiry, who is Polk?" 1t stumped
even loyal Democrats. like the steam
boat captain who faithfully shouted,
when told the news: "Hurrah for
iWhat'd'ye' say his name is?"
The obscurity of Jim Polk,
which that SNUG. unsmiling, unin-
spired little man of respectable abil.
tiles had preserved even on the emf
nence of the speakers chair, was
%deepened by the shining fame of Var
Buren,, whom he had displaced at the
convention, and of Clay. against
whom he was matched before the
people. These two statesmen haC
taken 1t for granted that they were
to be the champions of their respec.
tive parties. History suspects that
, they concocted in a friendly visit two
letters which appeared suspiciously
close together and which were suspi'
ciously alike in discouraging the an.
nexation of Texas at risk of war with
Mexico.
Van Buren, stood by his guns
against annexation, going down in the
Democratic convention under the dis
pleasure of the southern slave hold.
Tvs s@Ait I'm oAA ~ "a iAtl Jug
faces. Clay faltered in the campaign
i, Quibbling. qualifying and taking g
. back track. he went down at the
election under the Indignation of the
abolitionists, who polled enough votes
for their third ticket to cause his de-
feat.
: Polk lost Tennessee at the polls
| n Is the only sman, with the sole
} exception of Wilson in 1916, who has
been elected without his w state
: For several days the national cleo.
ton was in doubt, with the result
hanging on a complete count in New
York. At last it was found that Poll
had carried the state by 5000
thanks to the Liberty party, which
had drawn away more than tina
number of votes from the grea'
!, COMPROMISED" Henry Clay had com
promised his last chance for the
presidency.