Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-02-24
The Vice Presidents Office
ny [OHN r BOTFEIJILLET

| running mate, has the distinction of being
| the only man since 1925, period of nearly
a century, who was vice president for
! eight years The renowned John c. Cal
| houn served as vice president within less
than three months of eight years, when he
! resigned, in December, 1882, to become
United States senator from South Carolina,
in order to take part in the great discus
sion of notification. Calhoun was the
only man who ever resigned the vice pres
idency.
The office of vice president has been,
and is, the target of journalistic and in
dividual jeers. Many political orators have
delivered themselves of jests regarding the
position. 1 do not know whether it was
because the aristocratic and lordly John
Adams was occupying the place at the
time that the renowned Benjamin Franklin
was prompted to express the opinion that
the title of vice president should be "his
superfluous highness."
Death Has Promoted Five
1t was not so very long ago that the New
York Herald inquired: why a vice pres
ident?" The office is really one of high
dignity and responsibility. No one should
be nominated or elected to it carelessly,
particularly when it is remembered that
five vice presidents-John Tyler, Willard
Fillmore, Andrew Johnson, Chester A. Ar
thur and Theodore Roosevelt-succeeded to
presidents. The fact also, that the vice
president is the presiding officer of the
greatest deliberative body ever fashioned by
the ingenuity of man, clothes the office
with added dignity, and his frequent vote
in breaking a tie ballot in the senate has
been of deep significance and power. He
does not have the power to vote, except in
the case of a tie vote, when he may give the
deciding vote. He cannot participate in
in IF re
Senators Became Vice Presidents
Andrew Johnson possessed the unique
| distinction of having served in the senate
both before and after he was both vice
president and president.
The following, Aaron Burr, Martin Van
Buren,, John Tyler, George M. Dallas, Will
liam H. King, Henry Wilson, Thomas A.
Hendrick and Charles Warren Fairbanks,
had been United States senators prior to
their becoming vice presidents
John c. Calhoun and John C. Brecken-
ridge were vice presidents before they were
senators. I have heard it said that Brock
enridge, Of Kentucky, was perhaps the most
admired presiding officer the senate ever
had. The presidency of the senate is
usually serene, but it is doubtful if any
occupant of the office experienced as stormy
sailing as Calhoun.
In 1852, William Rufus King, of Ala
to i'll health he went to Cuba in January,
1858, seeking improvement, and by special
act of congress the oath of office as vice
president was administered to him by the
American consul general in Havana In
April he returned home, and died on the
18th of that month without having dis
charged any Of the duties of the vice pres
idency.
By the Assassination Route
how
of the office of vice president. Perhaps
the instance of most lofdly arrogance in
this regard was when the naughty Roscoe
Conkling cast the nomination at Chester
A. Arthur in 1880, after Conkling had lost
his wonderful fight in behalf of Grant for
third term, and the jubilant followers of
the triumphant Garfield desiring to con-
ciliate the faithful 306 convention sup
porters of Grant, offered the vice presiden-
tai nomination as sop to the defeated.
Did Theodore Roosevelt desire the vice
presidential nomination in 1900, when he
was selected as McKinleys running mate?
He always maintained that he did not, and
sundry politicians and journalists have de-
clared that those political bosses and ma
n1pulators, Plat, Quay and Hanna wished
to shelve Roosevelt and threw the nomi-
nation for vice president upon his unwilling
mead \ Yet there were multitudes of think
Ing individuals who believed that Roose-
welt wore his military cooked hat to the
national convention, and made his spectac-
ular entrance into the great and thronged
auditorium with no other intent than to
1ocus attention upon him for the vice presi-
dency, with the ultimate end and purpose
OF being given the republican nomination
Tor the presidency four years later
rate ordained that Vice President Roose-
Velt should reach the presidency by the
hand of the assassin and by the irony of
this same destiny, Vice President Arthur
travelled the assassination route to the
white House. Death placed the glittering
prize OF the chief magistracy in their hands
Sunny JIM Winner
There have been men who aspired TO
and won, and others who sought and lost.
the vice presidency. In the former class
was James Schoolcraft Sherman, the stand
pat Republican of New York, peculiarly
known to Democrats and Republicans alike
as Sunny Jim When the Progressives
In his party nominated Taft for president
IN 1908, they condescendingly permitted the
stand-pat faction to suggest the nominee
Tor vice president, and they selected Sher-
man, who had long been a leader in the
mouse of representatives of congress.
Never In the annals of this nation has the
OFFICES OF president and vice president been
occupied at the same time by a more de-
hghtful genial smiling couple than Will
liam Howard Taft and James Schoolcraft
Sherman.
Did Not Deserve Sobriquct
While 1 had official relations with the
senate, was often in the presence of
Vice President Charles w Fairbanks unon
whom certain newspaper CORRESPONDENTS
had bestowed the sobriquet of the "human
1cebox," a nickname most improperly and
1nappropriately applied. I ALWAYS found
the pressure of his hand warm. his voice