Jasper County Democrat, Volume 17, Number 86, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 February 1915 — FACTS ABOUT CHIEF EXECUTIVES [ARTICLE]

FACTS ABOUT CHIEF EXECUTIVES

Interesting Incidents Relating .to Presidents and Vice-Presidents. Possibly you have forgotten some of these incidents relating to presidents and vice-presidents of the United States: Washington was the* one president to be elected unanimously.' The only president or vice-presi-dent to resign was John C. Calhoun, Who gave up the vice-presidency to become a United States senator. J. Q.. Adams refused to ride to the capitoi with Andrew Jackson and left town when “Old Hickory” took the oath of-office. Jefferson and the second Adams were the only presidents who were

(elected by_-tho house of representatives, neither having had a majority of electoral votes. William Henry Harrison served the shortest time as president, having caught a fatal cold the day he was inaugurated and died exactly one month later. Impeachment was tried against but one president or vice-president and failed by one vote even in the case of Andrew Johnson. Johnson was a tailor and could not read until his wife taught him how.

“Are you not President Harrison?” inquired a gushing woman some time after this son of Indiana had left the White House. “No, madame, I'm Benjamin Harrison, of Indianapolis. Grover Cleveland is the only president of the United States." The senate elected only one vicepresident, Richard M. Johnson in 1537 having failed’to receive a majority of electoral votes. Five vice presidents became president by the death of the president Tyler, Fillmore, Johnson, Arthur ano Roosevelt. No physician, preacher or journal Ist has become president. Grant and Roosevelt are the only two who sought three terms. Cleveland was the only president to have some one else sandwiched between his two terms, Benjamin Harrison being the sandwich. John Adams was not only the oldest of ex-presidents when he died, being’more than 90, but he lived the longest after leaving office, about2s years.

Relatively, Washington was the richest president, but his private income was hardly equal to that of Roosevelt. < Colonel Roosevelt was the only vice president to attain the presidency by another’s death and then be honored by a re-election. ! There have been four ex-presidents living at one time—Adams, Jefferson, Madison ap’d Monroe. After Washington’s death, during Adams’ term, the country had no ex-presi-dent. JNow we have two, but they don’t speak to each other. Buchanan went through his term a bachelor. Woodrow Wilson and James A. Garfield were college presidents and Jefferson founded the University of Virginia after he retired from the White House. * Washington, Monroe, Jackson, the two Harrisons, Taylor, Lincoln, Grant, Garfield, Hayes, McKinley and Roosevelt were soldiers. Lincoln’s Gettysburg speech and Washington’s farewell address are quoted far more frequently than any other presidential utterances. Cleveland’s “Public office is a public trust,” Grant’s “Let us have peace,” Jackson’s “By the Eternal,” and Roosevelt’s “Malefactors of great wealth” became universal catchwords.

Of cabinet officers, the luckiest in a presidential way were secretaries of state. Grant and Taft were secretary of war, but there has been no secretary o-f the navy in the White House. Washington and Lincoln were the tallest presidents, Cleveland and Taft the heaviest. When Buchanan was a young man in Lancaster county, some one told him if he should change his politics he might become president. He did both. Grant had always been a democrat until after the war, when the repub licans elected him president. The only president to turn his coat after election was Tyler. Elected by the Whigs on the “Tippecanoe and Tyler/too” slogan, he went over to the democrats when he had climbed into the presidency over the coffin of Harrison.

When the chancellor of New York administered the oath to Washington he ended with this: “Long live George Washington, president of the United States." That form was never repeated. One president was Inaugurated in New York, two in Philadelphia, and all the others in Washington. At first the salary of the president was $25‘,000, and that of the vicepresident $5,000. Now, the president receives $75,000. Alexander Hamilton proposed that a president should be elected for life. Others in the constitutional convention favored two or three presidents instead of one. The official salute for the president is 21 guns. I heard a salute of 101 guns fired for King Edward when the proclamation was read. When the body of Napoleon was brought back from St. Helena and arrived in the river Seine, a salute of 1,000 guns was fired. —Philadelphia Ledger.