^ov^ lO*?:, HO, r * ♦^•v * ^^^^^. ' ;v.^% OK <-^' • ^ ' • ♦ % S2> *<»•** 4*% o* -'o • X * A *- -^ov* •ft .„^, -o ,*';.^^'.'\. oo'/ii^., •'o^. >',. .*' .••• o'- -^ov* :<•_ «^ ^* «'«s^*. >„ c** .>Va\ «% V N? *• «^^V •; <. *' .v#» *0 o « « ^ -<$» %.^" r %"?, v^ '- <»'« v* :^^.- o" "V^^^V V'^^-'.o^ V*^' Cp9 AMERICAN PRESIDENTS AMERICAN PRESIDENTS Their Individualities and Their Contributions to American Progress BY THOMAS FRANCIS l^ORAN, Ph.D. Professor of History and Economics in Purdue University NEW YORK THOMAS Y. CROWELL COMPANY PUBLISHERS E\i(o .1 .h?2 Copyright, 1917 Bt THOMAS Y. CROWELL COMPANY OCl -5 1917 ©Gl. A 4 7 38 48 TO THE PARLOR CLUB OF LAFAYETTE, INDIANA CONTENTS CHAPTER I PAGE From Washington to Jackson 9 Washington — John Adams— nJefferson— Madison^ — Monroe — John Quincy Adams. *" CHAPTER II Fbom Jackson to Lincoln 63 Jackson — Van Buren — William Henry Harrison — / Tyler — Polk — Taylor-^Fillmore-^Pierce — Buchanan.' CHAPTER III From Lincoln to Wilson 99 Lincoln ^— Johnson — Grant ^ — Hayes — Garfield — Arthur ' — Cleveland — Benjamin Harrison — Mc- Kinley — Roosevelt — Taft -^ Wilson. CHAPTER IV The Ethics of the Presidential Campaign . . . .117 FROM WASHINGTON TO JACKSON AMERICAN PRESIDENTS CHAPTER I PEOM WASHINGTON TO JACKSON The bold, determined, and aggressive person- ality of the Progressive candidate for the presi- dency of the United States in 1912 has been much commented upon in recent years both at home and abroad. Whether we agree in our estimates of the ability and real worth of Theodore Roose- velt or not, we will all admit, I think, that he is a man of strong individuality whose positive views on a great variety of topics find free, forceful, and sometimes even copious expres- sion. His vigorous personality has made him the subject of much contention. His acts and utterances have been warmly commended and violently assailed. He has also been frequently compared with his predecessors in the presiden- tial office, sometimes in commendation, but often in disparagement. One writer remarked not long since that Mr. Roosevelt lacked in a marked degree the essential attributes of the typical 11 12 American Presidents President of the United States. I wondered at the time who this typical President might be. Would it be the dignified Washington, the grace- ful Pierce, the sympathetic Lincoln, the stub- bom Johnson, the intellectual Benjamin Harri- son, or the lovable McKinley? Or might it possibly be none of these but only an imaginary composite character who never in reality oc- cupied the presidential chair at all? A quest for the typical President would, in all probabil- ity, prove fruitless, as far as immediate results are concerned, but a study of the personal traits and individual characteristics of the twenty- seven men who have occupied the presidential chair in the last hundred and twenty-eight years ought to be an interesting one. In making such a study one cannot fail to be impressed with the great variety of the personalities and abili- ties of the American Presidents. There is no monotony in the panorama. The first President of the United States has always stood as the personification of dignity, poise, and sound judgment. He was not as elo- quent as Patrick Henry, as scholarly as James Madison, or as brilliant as Alexander Hamilton ; yet as a useful public man he excelled all three. American Presidents 13 His substantial qualities in statesmanship were recognized as early as 1774. He was a member of the First Continental Congress which met in Philadelphia in September of that year. Pat- rick Henry was also a member. Upon his re- turn home Henry was asked whom he consid- ered the greatest man in the assembly. His reply was: *'If you speak of eloquence, Mr. Eutledge, of South Carolina, is by far the great- est orator ; but if you speak of solid information and sound judgment, Col. Washington is un- questionably the greatest man on the floor.'* This statement represents the view of his con- temporaries as well as the judgment of his- torians. By his good sense and rare mental poise he dominated public affairs in a quiet, all- pervasive, and exceedingly effective manner. Washington's unusual physical strength and impressive personal appearance were a valu- able asset to him as surveyor, soldier and states- man. Even while young in years he was ma- ture in both body and mind. The surveyor of seventeen was a sturdy and self-reliant lad. The young frontiersman of twenty-one com- mended himself to G;overnor Dinwiddle, of Vir- ginia, as the proper man to carry the famous 14 American Presidents message of warning to the French after other men had failed. **Here is the very man for you,'^ said Lord Fairfax to the Governor; ^^ young, daring, and adventurous, but yet sober- minded and responsible, who only lacks oppor- tunity to show the stuff that is in him. ' ' Wash- ington met every expectation. He carried the message from Williamsburg, Virginia, to Fort Le Boeuf in northwestern Pennsylvania, and placed it in due time in the hands of General St. Pierre. He then returned to Virginia with the reply of the French commander, having travelled 750 miles in the dead of winter through unbroken forests and over rivers, rough with floating ice. The tact and endurance which he displayed on this journey augured well for his future achievements. **From that moment,'* says Washington Irving, **he was the rising hope of Virginia" — and, he might have added, of the entire country. When, at the age of forty-three, he was chosen commander-in-chief of the Continental army and appeared before Congress, modestly but un- flinchingly, to accept the trust, he must have ** looked the part.'' ** Mankind," said Senator Lodge, **is impressed by externals, and those American Presidents 15 who gazed upon Washington in the streets of Philadelphia felt their courage rise and their hearts grow strong at the sight of his virile, muscular figure as he passed before them on horseback, stately, dignified, and self-contained. The people looked upon him, and were confi- dent that this was a man worthy and able to dare and do all things. '' Nature had been kind to him. She had en- dowed him with great physical strength and a rare personal presence. He was six feet two inches tall and weighed over two hundred pounds. His ordinary shoes were number eleven and his military boots two sizes larger. His hands were so large that he was obliged to have his gloves made to order. He was Egyptian in his massiveness. Houdon, the sculptor, speaks of the ^* majesty and grandeur of Washington's form and features," and ** every one who met him told of the command- ing presence, the noble person, the ineffable dignity, and the calm, simple and stately man- ners. No man ever left Washington's pres- ence without a feeling of reverence and respect amounting almost to awe. " ^ 1 Lodge, George Washington, Volume II, pp. 379-80. 16 American Presidents In his mental as well as in his physical make-up Washington was a symmetrical and well-developed character. He was so well rounded and so nicely balanced that to some he seemed commonplace. No greater mistake could be made. He was not dramatic, spec- tacular or sensational in any sense, but he was far removed from mediocrity. His judgment was rarely at fault. He was usually very slow in coming to a conclusion but when once he had done so he maintained his position with a cour- age as fine and true as that of Sir Galahad of old. He w^as substantial, dependable and cir- cumspect. His appeal was to the intellect rather than to the emotions. As the ^* great silent man" of his time he influenced public opinion by means of his example and his writ- ings rather than through the medium of the spoken word. He was not a speech-maker and yet he swayed and moved men. Too big and broad for State lines, he became the personification of American nationalism. Matthew Arnold and Goldwin Smith have called Washington an Englishman, but to my mind he was a thorough American. He was, in fact, one of the first men in the country to lay aside American Presidents 17 colonialism and to grasp the national spirit. He saw as clearly as any one and more clearly than most men that the salvation of his coun- tiy lay in national unity. In working out this national unity he turned his face away from Europe and towards the New World. He was distinctly an American — a different type from Lincoln but none the less truly American. His spiritual nature was in entire harmony with his mental and physical being. He was confident, not harrassed by doubts and had no tendency towards the sensational in religion. He was a vestryman in the Protestant Episco- pal Church and the dignified service of the An- glican worship with its stately liturgy and beau- tiful forms was to him both appealing and satis- fying. He was practical rather than mystical in his religious conceptions and in this matter, as in everything else, had a way of looking facts squarely and concretely in the face. The reading public has always had a fairly adequate and correct comprehension of the offi- cial side of Washington's character; but his private life and personal traits have, until a comparatively recent time, been more or less veiled in mystery. *'Gen. Washington,'* ro- 18 American Presidents marked Professor McMaster, '4s known to us, and President Washington. But George Wash- ington is an unknown man." Many of the im- pressions, too, which the public had formed of Washington as a man were based upon mistaken notions. Mason Weems, of hatchet and cherry tree fame, represented him as a faultless and insipid prig ; Professor McMaster speaks of his **cold heart;'* to Col. Ingersoll he was **a steel engraving ; ' ' and to Carlyle, * * a Cromwell with the juice squeezed out. ' ' It was his misfortune, as Senator Lodge has remarked, to be * lifted high up into a lonely greatness, and uncon- sciously put outside the range of human sym- pathy.'' By means of recent investigations, however, the life story of Washington has been humanized. The veil which has hitherto con- cealed the private man has been, in part at least, drawn aside, and it is now seen that Washing- ton was **fed by the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer" as other mor- tals were. In some respects he was intensely human. He had a weakness for gold lace, silk stockings, and silver spangles. His liking for American Presidents 19 fine feathers never quite forsook him. He was still dancing at sixty-four; he was fond of the theater; and his wine cellar at Mount Vernon was not usually empty. He liked a good horse race and often entered his own animals, placing a modest bet on the outcome. While a Virginia planter he occasionally went fox hunting on Sun- day, and more than once he complained that while attending church on the Sabbath morn- ing he was compelled to listen to some very *4ame discourses. '^ Neither was he immune from those plebeian diseases which now harrass mankind. He suffered, at different times, from measles, smallpox, malaria, and tooth-ache; and late in life he solemnly put it on record that his false teeth were a misfit. He also did some things which would have given the good Parson Weems a nervous shock. At Kip^s Landing, when the troops were not behaving themselves to his liking, he expressed himself in language about as stormy and vio- lent as the mother tongue is capable of. And again at Monmouth, when he found Lee 's army retreating, General Scott tells us that he ** swore like an angel from heaven,'' — however that may be. 20 American Presidents In affairs of the heart he was likewise human. While still a school boy, for example, he loved to romp with one of the largest girls, and the affair became serious forthwith; at the age of sixteen he wrote in passionate strains of a cer- tain young lady whom he called his * * Low Land Beauty;'' and be it said that this **Low Land Beauty'' might have been Miss Lucy Grimes or Miss Mary Bland or Miss Betsy Fauntleroy, — so impartially did the young lover bestow his attentions. No one of them could claim a monopoly of his favor, and the identity of the young lady in question has never been disclosed. After retiring from one of his campaigns in the Old French War he very readily and willingly capitulated at another ^*Fort Necessity," and the fair charmer in this case is again rather vaguely referred to as **Mrs. Neil." A little later, and at this time he was only twenty-four, he lost his heart to Mary Philipse, only to be rejected in favor of Lieutenant-Colonel Roger Morris. During the Revolution Morris was a Tory and fled from the country for safety. Let us hope, for the sake of poetic justice, that Washington had the pleasure of speeding the parting guest while he was en route, let us say, American Presidents 21 to Halifax. However tliat may be, the wounds which were made by the beauty of Mary Philipse upon the heart of the ardent suitor were only superficial and two years later we find him at the feet of Mrs. Martha Dandridge Custis, widow of a wealthy Virginia planter, whose demise had occurred only seven short moons before. The courtship was, in military language, short, sharp, and decisive, and re- sulted in an engagement in about three weeks. Owing to the stern necessities of the War the marriage was deferred a few months, which seemed an interminable period to the two per- sons most intimately concerned. Washington was now but twenty-six years of age, but was, it would seem, rich in experience in matters per- taining to courtship ; for in addition to the in- stances already mentioned there were several other maidens of the time who received coy glances and side-long looks from this dashing young Virginia Cavalier. Taking it all in all, it must be admitted, I think, that the ** Father of his Country '^ did possess some few traits and personal characteristics not ordinarily ex- hibited by steel engravings or by Cromwells with the juice squeezed out. Washington him- 22 American Presidents self was not deceived in these matters, if the world was. **That I have foibles," he said, **and perhaps many of them, I shall not deny. I should esteem myself, as the world would, vain and empty, were I to arrogate perfection. ' ' And now after the lapse of more than a cen- tury, and with the returns all in, thinking and well-informed people are disposed, notwith- standing LowelPs flight in the famous ** Com- memoration Ode," to rank George Washing- ton as the ** first citizen" of the American Re- public. In making the transition from Washington to John Adams, the presidential curve dips sharply downward. Adams was a peculiar man, strongly individualistic both in appear- ance and in character. He has been described as being of *' middle height, vigorous, florid, and somewhat corpulent, quite like the typical John Bull." There was little apparently in his Anglican style of architecture to commend him to the patriots of the Revoluntionary days, but in his talents and disposition there was much. Adams was a native of Massachusetts and was graduated from Harvard College in 1755 at the age of twenty. He was as unlike his pred- American Presidents 23 ecessor in office as a man could well be. There can be little in common in any circumstances be- tween the Puritan of New England and the Cavalier of Virginia. In this case there was practically nothing. The whole background of their lives was different. Their viewpoints also differed in many respects. Washington was a surveyor and farmer, while Adams was a school teacher and lawyer. Washington was a soldier, while Adams came from civil life. Washing- ton's school education was limited and he never went to college at all; Adams had been well educated both in preparatory school and college. In religion Washington was orthodox, while Adams was inclined to free thinking. Socially, Washington was of the aristocracy of the Old Dominion, while the Adams family held a middle rank in Massachusetts. The names of the students of Harvard College at this time were arranged in the catalogue in the order of the social standing of their parents and the young Adams stood fourteenth in a class of twenty- four on this basis. In taste, temperament and tact, also, they were widely separated. Senator Maclay, a contemporary, once remarked of Washington, **The President's amiable deport- 24 American Presidents ment smooths and sweetens everything/' Adams, on the other hand, quarrelled with al- most all of his associates in public life. He uttered petty and spiteful things about Wash- ington, and the Federalist party was not big enough to contain himself and Hamilton at the same time. He looked with contempt upon Jef- ferson and his whole philosophy of government ; he abused Franklin and spoke of his *' extreme indolence and dissipation,'' and he peremptorily dismissed some of the members of his cabinet from office. He was particularly vindictive towards his Secretary of State, Timothy Pick- ering, whom he characterized as ** envious of every superior," * impatient of obscurity," and deceptive *^ under the simple appearance of a bald head and straight hair. ' ' In most of these cases there was, to be sure, provocation enough. Hamilton had intrigued against him more than once in an underhanded and unpardonable way and as for Mr. Pickering he was well-nigh im- possible. John T. Morse refers to him as *Hhe stiff-backed and opinionated old Puritan, full of fight and immutable in the conviction of his o'svn righteousness." John Adams's was a strangely compounded American Presidents 25 character. One of his biographers speaks of him as the '^ blunt and irascible old John Adams." He was all of this and a good deal more. Combined with statesmanship of the highest order and an unsurpassed personal in- tegrity we find the most glaring and even ridicul- ous defects of character. He was vain and con- ceited to a most absurd degree — a fact which he was shrewd enough to recognize and honest enough to admit. ** Vanity, I am sensible/' he said, **is my cardinal vice and cardinal folly.'' Intimately associated with his vanity was his jealousy; and strangely enough he was jealous of Washington most of all. In a recurrent mood of churlishness he exclaimed; ** Would Washington ever have been commander of the Revolutionary Army or President of the United States if he had not married the rich widow of Mr. Custis!" Again in speaking of the battle of Saratoga he said he was truly grateful ^ * that the glory of turning the tide of arms" was *^not immediately due to the Commander-in-Chief. ... If it had, idolatry and adulation would have been unbounded." When Washington was the central figure of interest at the in- auguration of Adams, the latter was consumed 26 American Presidents with jealousy and again let fall some foolish and childish expressions ; and in the early morn- ing of March 4, 1801, he drove quietly out of the city of Washington in order that he might not be compelled to witness the triumph of Jefferson, his successful adversary, and to ex- tend to him the customary greeting. However, in spite of the fact that Adams was at times impetuous, hot-headed, vain, conceited, sensitive, dogmatic, combative, and opinionated, he was at the same time a true patriot and a statesman of high order. The storms of his passion, though sometimes violent, were not of long duration, and never served to obscure his vision for any considerable length of time. His indignation, too, was usually a righteous one. He was energetic, sensible, and practical, and so methodical in his business affairs that Franklin seemed to him to be lazy on account of the latter 's apparent lack of all method. In speech he was direct, frank, and refreshingly outspoken. Never ingenuous, always clear and incisive in his utterances, there was no mistak- ing his attitude. There was no Machiavellian- ism, no trimming, no playing to the galleries, and no attempt at carrying water on both American Presidents 27 shoulders. His writings were equally crisp, pungent, and forceful. There was much truth in his honest commentary upon the religion of his day. *^ Where," said he, **do we find a precept in the gospel requiring ecclesiastical synods, convocations, councils, decrees, creeds, confessions, oaths, subscriptions, and whole cart-loads of other trumpery that we find reli- gion encumbered with in these days?'' In politics he was equally honest and direct, and was moreover usually correct in his atti- tude, as subsequent events have shown. As a foreign minister he was dignified, industrious and effective. As a member of the Continental Congress he was a hard-fisted, rough-and-ready fighter for what seemed to him to be right. As a lawyer he was equally courageous. In 1770 he was asked to defend Captain Preston who had charge of the British soldiers in the so-called Boston Massacre. With a keen sense of equity and a high sense of professional duty he accepted the task because he felt that in an Anglo-Saxon court of justice every man should have a fair and an impartial trial with the benefit of counsel for his defense. He under- took the defense and secured the acquittal of 28 American Presidents Preston, although he well knew the popular clamor which his course would arouse. He never wavered in his view of the moral aspects of this engagement. A few years later he said : ^'It was one of the most gallant, manly, and disinterested actions of my whole life, and one of the best pieces of service I ever rendered to my country." Charles Francis Adams con- curred in this view when he said that he re- garded the participation in this trial **as con- stituting one of the four great moral trials and triumphs marking his grandfather's career." When the Declaration of Independence was under discussion in Congress Adams was the foremost figure on the floor. Jefferson in grat- itude and admiration called him the *^ Colossus of that debate," and Stockton saw in him the ^* Atlas of Independence." He did strike tell- ing blows and did it, for the most part, uncon- sciously. As John T. Morse has remarked: ^*His intense earnestness, his familiarity with every possible argument, compelled him to be magnificently eloquent. ' ' The principal event of his administration was the trouble with France, popularly known as the X. Y. Z. Affair. In this matter also he proved American Presidents 29 liimself to be a courageous, patriotic, and far- sighted man. He represented the spirit of the nation and of the times when he wrote, after the shameful treatment of the American en- voys in France, *'I will never send another Minister to France without assurance that he will be received, respected, and honored, as the representative of a great, free, independent, and powerful nation.'' Fifteen years later, still convinced that his attitude towards France in this instance was the correct one, he wrote to a friend that he wished no other inscription upon his tombstone than this: **Here lies John Adams who took upon himself the responsibility of peace with France in the year 1800. '' Those best competent to judge now agree that Presi- dent Adams * ^ acted boldly, honestly, a^d wisely, and for the welfare of the country in a very critical period.'' It is both interesting and pleasant to note that in the evening of his life the rancor and asperity of the more active days had been greatly softened. He and Jefferson, both in retirement, were again on the best of terms. At the age of ninety-one, when the mists began to gather and Adams knew that his end was 30 American Presidents near, he remarked in quiet resignation to those about him: *' Thomas Jefferson still lives.'' He did not know that Jefferson had passed away a few hours before. Strangely enough, Adams and Jefferson both died on July 4, 1826 — the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. * ' The two aged men, ' ' says Col. Higginson, *^ floated, like two ships becalmed at nightfall, that drift together into port and cast anchor side by side.'' In Thomas Jefferson a far abler man than his predecessor came to the presidential office. Jefferson must be accounted, I think, one of the six greatest men in the history of the public life of the United States. He was a well de- veloped, well rounded, and symmetrical char- acter. He showed a marked ability, not in one special line, but in several different and widely separated directions. No other American, with the exception of the many-sided Franklin, gave evidence of such versatility. He was a success- ful diplomat, a fairly strong executive, a leader in educational affairs, a close student of science, literature, and religion, an originator and promoter of improved scientific methods in agriculture, and the most adroit and successful American Presidents 31 political leader that the United States has yet produced. In addition to this he was a good mathematician, a ready and forceful writer, and a violinist of no mean order. Thomas Jefferson was descended from a sub- stantial Welsh family which had settled in Vir- ginia before the Mayflower brought the Pilgrim Fathers to New England. He was the third child in a family of ten. His father was Peter Jefferson, a man of superb physique and vigor- ous mentality. The Jeffersons were well-to-do and lived on a farm of 1900 acres tilled by 30 slaves. The young Thomas was graduated in due time from William and Mary College; he then studied law and devoted himself success- fully to farming and to the practice of his pro- fesssion until called into public life. At the age of 29, he married Martha, the daughter of John Wayles, a lawyer who enjoyed an exten- sive and lucrative practice at the Williamsburg bar. A year later Wayles died and left his daughter 4000 acres of land and 135 slaves. The finances of the Jefferson family were now in a very prosperous condition, as the landed estate, even before this inheritance was ob- tained, yielded an income of about $2,000 per 32 American Presidents year. In addition to this, Jefferson's fees from his law practice amounted to about $3,000 — thus making a very comfortable income for a family in Virginia in those days. Although never a very thrifty business manager, Jefferson soon became one of the leading men of the State. His family, however, was not admitted to the exclusive social set of the Old Dominion until after he had arisen to fame. Although we hear a great deal at a later time of the brilliant social life at Mount Vernon, Monticello and Mont- pelier, it is nevertheless true, that neither the Washington, Jefferson, or Madison family was a member of the select social coterie of Vir- ginia families until after their chief represen- tatives had arisen to high office. In temperament Jefferson was a striking con- trast to John Adams. He was more human and normal. He was also more conciliatory and but little inclined to nurse his hatred for other men. He did have at one time a very profound dis- like for **Monocrats," New England clergymen, and Federal judges but was not inclined, as Adams was, to make unseemly exhibitions of his antipathy. Mark Twain once remarked, **If a man is a pessimist before he is forty-eight he American Presidents 83 knows too much. If he is an optimist after he is forty-eight he knows too little.'' Jefferson ran counter to this rule and presented *'the un- usual spectacle of one who grew more optimistic with increasing years. ' ' In personal appearance Jefferson was rather impressive but by no means a handsome man. He was six feet two and one half inches tall and muscular as well. When he entered college at seventeen he was described as **tall, raw-boned, freckled, and sandy-haired, with large feet and hands, thick wrists, and prominent cheek bones and chin. ' ' His comrades described him as * * a fresh, healthy-looking youth, very erect, agile, and strong, with something of rusticity in his air and demeanor.'' In early manhood, and more particularly in later life, he improved very markedly in personal appearance, although, un- like Washington, he was never very fastidious about his clothing. He often shocked European ministers, and apparently took great delight in doing so, by appearing in his tattered dressing gown and with his slippers down at the heel. Although the accounts which have come down to us regarding the so-called '* Jeffersonian sim- plicity" have, no doubt, been somewhat exag- 34 American Presidents gerated, it is true that Jefferson cared little for ceremony, either in public or private life, and this fact commended him strongly to the masses of the people. John Fiske has told us that * * the American people took Jefferson into their hearts as they have never taken any other statesman until Lincoln in these latter days.'' While Andrew Jackson might well be classed with Jefferson and Lincoln as a popular idol, it is undoubtedly true that Jefferson had a hold upon the affections of the people never excelled by any other public man in the United States. When he was elected President the bells rang and the cannons boomed and pandemonium reigned supreme. There w^as jubilation in every part of the United States except in some sections of New England; and even there his praises were not entirely unsung, as the news- papers of the time tell us that the denizens of the Hartford frog ponds croaked in unison for *'the man of the people, the man of the peo- ple." Jefferson's sway was a gentle one. He wielded no big stick. He was a leader, not a driver of men. When President, if he wished an Act passed by Congress, he would perhaps American Presidents 35 express himself to that effect in casual conversa- tion with some member of that body. There might be no request, no argument, and no agree- ment ; but in all probability the legislator would hurry off to Congress and quietly make kno\\ai the wishes of the chief executive, and forthwith the thing was done. The principles and the character of Jeffer- son have been the subject of violent and, in some cases, of needless controversy. It seems to me to be regrettable that so many of the biograph- ers of Hamilton and Jefferson should think it necessary to pull down the one in order to exalt the other. It should be accounted a very for- tunate circumstance that two such men as Hamilton and Jefferson lived in the formative period of the Republic. They represented, it is true, opposite poles of political thought, al- ways opposing and never pulling in the same direction. While members of Washington's cabinet, they faced each other, as Jefferson said, **like two fighting cocks in a pit.'' Each, how- ever, was a valuable corrective upon the other ; and each supplemented the labors of his adver- sary. Hamilton was Anglican, and Jefferson Latin in his sympathies. Hamilton was an 36 American Presidents aristocrat and exalted the so-called '* upper classes ; ' ' Jefferson was a democrat and had an abiding faith in the masses. Hamilton was a liberal constructionist and a centralizer of power, while Jefferson was a decentralizer and a strict constructionist. Hamilton was a na- tionalist and Jefferson an ardent advocate of ** states rights." In the course of events neither had his way to the exclusion of the other, but the line of development of the govern- ment has been, in a general way, the resultant between these two powerful forces. Jefferson's public service was unselfish and free from any mercenary tinge. When he en- tered public life as a young man he made a resolution ** never to engage, while in public office, in any kind of enterprise, nor to wear any other character than that of a farmer." He kept the faith. In fact he neglected his prudential affairs to such an extent that when he retired from the presidency on the 4th of March, 1809, after an almost continuous public service of forty-four years, he feared that his creditors might not permit him to leave the Capital without arrest. Unlike Washington, he was not thrifty in business affairs. He was American Presidents 37 also generous and accommodating to a fault. Even late in life, after he had weathered many- financial storms, he indorsed a $20,000 note for a friend and was compelled to pay it ; yet with all of his embarrassments the *^Sage of Mon- ticello" wielded, from his rustic retreat, a mildly despotic sway over the Kepublican party in particular and the whole people in general. There he lies buried, and the shaft over his grave bears an inscription written by Jefferson himself: **Here was buried Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of American Inde- pendence, of the Statute of Virginia for Ee- ligious Freedom, and Father of the University of Virginia.'' Although Jefferson retired from public life in 1809, he and his principles dominated the government for sixteen years longer. Madison and Monroe, whom the newspapers of the time facetiously called James the First and James the Second, were his loyal personal and political friends and when in need of advice, they in- variably consulted the ** Oracle of Monticello. ' ' James Madison, another member of a sub- stantial Virginia family and an intimate per- sonal and political friend of Thomas Jefferson, 38 American Presidents succeeded the latter in the presidential office in 1809. Frail in body but powerful in mind, he had served his State and Nation well before becoming Secretary of State in the Jefferson administration. He was graduated at 21 from Princeton University — then the College of New Jersey — in 1772 and had returned to his Alma Mater for an additional year of work in He- brew. He was at this time of a distinctly re- ligious and philosophical turn of mind and it is probable that he seriously considered the minis- try as his life work. If so, he was soon di- verted and applied himself industriously to the study of law. He never wholly lost his inter- est in religious matters, however, and always set his face firmly against that bigotry and in- tolerance in religion which were all too preval- ent in Virginia in his time. After having had at least one unsuccessful love affair, this prim little man who always ap- peared prematurely old, was married at the age of 43 to Mrs. Dolly Payne Todd, a beautiful and vivacious widow of 26. The name of '* Dolly Madison'* is well known in the social annals of the White House. She was apparently a woman of ability, grace and rare charm. She American Presidents 39 exercised a tactful social leadership in Wash- ington and her ** extraordinary beauty '^ and **rare accomplishments'' are frequently re- ferred to by the writers of the time. About the time of his marriage, Madison established his beautiful country home, * * Montpelier, " and there and in Washington, the home life of the Madisons was an ideal one for more than 40 years. Madison, like Jefferson, was destined to give his best efforts to the public service rather than to the practice of law. This service was sound and substantial rather than brilliant or pic- turesque. It was an eminently constructive service. As a matter of fact, we may look upon Washington, Madison, Hamilton, Jefferson, Franklin and John Marshall as the six vital men in the formative period of the Republic. They were the founders of the American Union. In this group, Madison was *Hhe modest scholar and the profound thinker." ** Unlike his friend Jefferson, who could hardly speak in public, Madison was one of the most formidable parliamentary debaters that ever lived. With- out a particle of eloquence or what is called per- sonal magnetism, with a dry style and a mild. 40 American Presidents unimpassioned delivery, he would nevertheless have been a fair match for Charles Fox or the younger Pitt. His vast knowledge was always at command, his ideas were always clear and his grasp of the situation perfect and al- though he was so modest that the color came and went upon his cheeks as upon a young girPs, he was never flurried or thrown off his guard. He represented pure intelligence, which is doubtless one reason why his popular fame has not been equal to his merit. There is noth- ing especially picturesque about pure intel- ligence, but it is a great power nevertheless.'' ^ Madison will be remembered as a scholar rather than as an executive. No man of his time prepared himself so thoroughly and so consci- entiously for a public career. While a student at Princeton, although frail in body, he gave himself unreservedly to his task, and one of his biographers tells us that he succeeded in carry- ing the studies of the junior and senior classes in a single year. In his knowledge of history, political science, and constitutional law, he was without a peer among the men of his day; and no one of them, with the single exception of 1 John Fiake, Essays, Volume I, pp. 204-5. America^ Presidents 41 Hamilton, deserves to be mentioned with him in this respect. As a thinker he was both pro- found and constructive, and is seen at his best in the Constitutional Convention. He was the most useful man in that illustrious body, and has been deservedly called the ** Father of the Constitution.'' In addition to taking a leading part in the con- structive work of the Constitutional Convention, Madison became the historiographer of that body. He felt that the convention was a nota- ble body of men and was destined to do a work of unusual importance. He had also encoun- tered great difficulty in ascertaining the funda- mental facts about federal government, ancient and modern. He accordingly made up his mind to take copious notes on the proceedings and de- bates of the Convention and thus preserve for posterity a faithful record of the acts and senti- ments of that great body. He preempted a front seat in the convention hall and according to his own testimony was present every day and almost every hour while the Convention was in session. He took rapid notes, making use of a system of shorthand of his own invention, and often sat up far into the 42 Anierican Presidents night making a clean copy of his manuscript. These papers, usually called Madison's Journal, are the most important and the only complete source of information in regard to the making of the Constitution of the United States. In- asmuch as certain parts of the contents of this Journal were not particularly complimentary to individual members of the Convention, Madison decided that it should not be published while any of the members of that body were living. Strangely enough, Madison, himself, though not the youngest, was the last of that memorable body of men to pass away. He died at Mont- pelier in 1836 at the age of 85 and the Journal was published soon after by the government of the United States. In political information and in ethical ideals his standards were equally high. On one occa- sion, when a candidate for the Virginia legis- lature, he came to the conclusion, as he said, that more chaste methods of electioneering should be resorted to. He therefore refused to make a personal canvass or to purchase drink- ables to assuage the election thirst. This start- ling and intolerable innovation was promptly rebuked by his decisive defeat. American Presidents 43 In debate Madison was quiet and conciliatory bnt yet effective. He never addressed any audi- ence, large or small, friendly or unfriendly, without fear and trembling. He was described as ^^ modest, quiet, and reserved in manner, small in stature, neat and refined, courteous and amiable.'^ In temperament he was quite un- like Gouverneur Morris, who said that he never experienced the slightest nervousness or con- cern when facing any audience whatever. He also differed from his old companion in arms, James Wilson of Pennsylvania, who appar- ently took a rare delight in smashing down the defenses of his adversary in debate with his sledge-hannner blows. He also differed from Hamilton, whose arguments were of the over- mastering, dominating, and compelling kind. And yet in some instances he was more effect- ive than any of his three great colleagues. There is an old adage which says : * ' Mediocrity which forbears will accomplish more than a genius which irritates.'' Madison was far above mediocrity and knew how and when to forbear. As an executive, however, Madison does not shine so brilliantly. The hand that wields the 44 American Presidents pen with effect is not always the best fitted to grasp the hehn. The temperament of the clois- ter recoils at sight of the rough-and-tumble methods of party strife. Madison was too sen- sitive and deferential, not positive and decisive enough, to make an efficient executive. As a result, he was pushed aside by men more de- termined than himself. The one great event of his administration was the War of 1812, and Madison, as a man of peace, held out against this contest as long as he could. He was finally compelled to yield, much against his better judg- ment, by Clay, Calhoun, and the other **War Hawks" of the time. Great Britain richly de- served a declaration of war — and France, too, for that matter — ^but the wise and conservative opinion in the United States in 1812 was in favor of a pacific policy with further attempts at arbitration. If James Madison had had the disposition of a Grover Cleveland the War of 1812 would probably never have taken place. James Monroe, a member of another substan- tial Virginia family, succeeded to the presidency in 1817. He was a native of Westmoreland county and was descended from a Scotch Cav- alier family which came to Virginia about 1650. American Presidents 45 His particular locality was rich in famous men and came to be known as **The Athens of Vir- ginia." It was the home of Washington and Madison as well as of Richard Henry Lee and of his famous cousin, ** Light Horse Harry'' Lee, the father of Robert E. Lee, Confederate commander in the Civil War. The old home of the Marshall family was also in the same lo- cality. As a stripling, James Monroe entered William and Mary College, said to have been at that time the richest institution of learning in North America. It had an annual income of $20,000. He could not have remained in college very long, however, as at the outbreak of the Revo- lution **two tall and gallant youths'' cast their books aside and fought valiantly for the inde- pendence of the colonies. One of these youths was James Monroe and the other, his classmate, John Marshall. Monroe was 18 years of age when he entered the service and Marshall about 20. Monroe was always an intimate personal friend of Thomas Jefferson and this fact was a great assistance to him in his political advance- ment. He was a lawyer but did not seem to 46 American Presidents have any great interest in his profession. Pub- lic life attracted him. In fact he gave so much time to the public service that he had little op- portunity for the serious or consecutive practice of law. Monroe was seven years younger than Madi- son and unlike him in almost every respect. He was six feet tall, broad, square-shouldered and impressive in personal appearance. He was a man of rugged physique, raw-boned and by no means handsome. He was, however, a man of great physical strength and superb endurance. At one time during the War of 1812, Monroe had charge for a short period of three cabinet de- partments — State, Treasury and War — and for a period of ten days and nights he did not go to bed or remove his clothing and ' * was in the sad- dle the greater part of the time.'' Although there was a quiet dignity about his bearing, Monroe did not impress his contempo- raries as a particularly cultured man. He was awkward and diffident and without grace either in manner or appearance. In his old age he was especially modest and sensitive and was scrupulously careful to conduct himself in a manner befitting the dignity of an ex-President American Presidents 47 of the United States. He thought it unseemly, for example, for a man who had held this high office to connect himself in any way with party politics. Although modest and sensitive, how- ever, he was free from that vanity and envy which constituted the besetting sin of John Adams. Like Jefferson, Monroe was never particu- larly effective as a public speaker. He was also a labored writer and his state papers are much inferior to those of Madison. Aside from the matter of expression, Monroe was not as logical or level-headed as his predecessor and these characteristics were, of course, reflected in his writings. He was fond of history and although he wrote with difficulty he aspired to authorship. He wrote a small book which he called A Com- pariso7i of the American Republic with the Re- publics of Greece and Rome. When the man- uscript was completed he submitted it to Judge Hay and asked for his estimate of it. The esti- mate came in the laconic sentence, * ^ I think your time could have been better employed.'^ Monroe was nearly 59 years of age when he became President and had been prominent in public life for many years prior to that time. 48 American Presidents He was not a member of the Constitutional Con- vention of 1787 but was chosen in the following year, at the age of 30, to sit in the convention of his own State which ratified the Constitution after a memorable struggle. Monroe opposed the ratification very strenuously. He was a States-rights man and opposed on principle to centralization in government. He, with George Mason and Patrick Henry contended in the Con- vention with Madison, John Marshall and Ed- mund Kandolph. He was also at a later time a United States Senator, an Envoy to France, and Governor of his native State, as well as a prominent member of President Madison's cab- inet. In 1803, he had assisted Robert R. Living- ston in the purchase of Louisiana and prior to that time had served as minister to France. His mission was a failure and he wrote a book of five hundred pages in a futile effort to justify his conduct. It was clearly a case of protest- ing too much. Monroe lived in retirement in Virginia and New York for six years after leaving the presi- dential office and died on the 4th of July, 1831. On April 28, 1858, the one hundredth anniver- sary of his birth, his ashes were carried under American Presidents 49 escort to Richmond, Virginia, and there re- interred in Hollywood Cemetery. The estimate of Dr. Daniel C. Oilman, the first President of Johns Hopkins University and also one of the biographers of Monroe, is interesting in this connection. ^'On reviewing all that I have been able to read in print and in manu- script, and all I have been able to gather from the writings of others,'' he remarks, *'the con- clusion is forced on me that Monroe is not ade- quately appreciated by his countrymen. He has certainly been insufficiently known, because no collection has been made of his numerous memoirs, letters, dispatches, and messages. He has suffered also by comparison with four or fLVQ illustrious men, his seniors in years and his superiors in genius, who were chiefly instru- mental in establishing this government on its firm basis. He was not the equal of Washing- ton in prudence, of Marshall in wisdom, of Ham- ilton in constructive power, of Jefferson in genius for politics, of Madison in persistent ability to think out an idea and to per- suade others of its importance. He was in early life enthusiastic to rashness, he was a devoted adherent of partisan views, he was 50 American Presidents sometimes despondent and sometimes iras- cible; but as he grew older his judgment was disciplined, his self-control became secure, his patriotism overbalanced the considerations of party. Political opponents rarely assailed the purity of his motives or the honesty of his con- duct. He was a very good civil service re- former, firmly set against appointments to office for any unworthy reason. He was never exposed to the charge of nepotism, and in the choice of officers to be appointed he carefully avoided the recognition of family and friendly ties. His hands were never stained with pelf. He grew poor in the public service, because he neglected his private affairs and incurred large outlays in the discharge of official duties under circumstances which demanded liberal expen- diture. He was extremely reticent as to his religious sentiments, at least in all that he wrote. Allusions to his belief are rarely if ever to be met with in his correspondence. He was a faithful husband, father, master, neighbor, friend. He was industrious, serious, temperate, domestic, affectionate. He carried with him to the end of his life the good- will and respect both of his seniors and juniors. Many of those who American Presidents 51 worked with him, besides those already quoted, have left on record their appreciation of his abilities and their esteem for his character.''^ Monroe, then, although a man of somewhat less magnitude than his predecessor, was, nev- ertheless, a useful and successful President. While Minister to France he had been recalled by President Washington on account of an os- tentatious and silly display of affection for that country ; and he has always been given too much credit for his modest part in the so-called ** Mon- roe Doctrine ' ' ; yet no man did so much as he to bring about that period commonly known as '^The Era of Good Feeling." Monroe was a man of impressive appearance and soldierly bearing, and when he made his two extended trips, the one through the North and the other through the South, delivering cordial and sen- sible addresses wherever he went, he did a great deal towards breaking down that spirit of sec- tionalism and party strife which was then grow- ing strong in the United States. Monroe's successor is one of the lofty peaks in the presidential range. John Quincy Ad- ams was probably the greatest man in the presi- ^ James Monroe, pp 213-15. 52 American Presidents dential office from Washington to Lincoln with the single exception of Thomas Jefferson. He was not the most influential man of the period — Andrew Jackson was that ; neither was he the most capable and successful President; but, all things considered, John Quincy Adams must be accounted, I think, the greatest man to occupy the President's chair for half a century. John Quincy Adams was a son of the *^ blunt and irascible old John Adams, '* the second President of the United States. It would be difficult to find a family in American history which has rendered a more effective or a more disinterested service to the country than the Adams family of Massachusetts — and the great- est of this family was John Quincy. He was born in the year following the repeal of the Stamp Act — in the midst of the Eevolutionary agitation; and at the age of seven, in company with his mother, he climbed a high hill near his home to listen to the guns at Bunker Hill and to gaze in awe upon the flames of Charlestown. At nine he upbraided himself in a letter because he had just entered the third volume of Smol- lett, when, according to his schedule he should have been half through the book. *^My American Presidents 53 thoughts/' he said, in a deprecatory way, **have apparently been running after birds ' eggs, play and trifles. ' ' Adams had the best of opportunities for cul- ture and intellectual development. He trav- eled with his father in Europe, studied at the University of Leyden and was later graduated from Harvard College. He soon became dis- tinguished as a lawyer and statesman and at one time or another he filled with distinction almost all of the great offices of the United States. While Secretary of State under Mon- roe he became the principal author and most ardent advocate of what later became known as the *^ Monroe Doctrine.'* He was an excellent writer in both prose and verse and held a pro- fessorship in Harvard College for three years. He was a ^^ knight without fear and without reproach, ' ' and it is safe to say that no man in America, in 1825, possessed in an equal degree the characteristics of an ideal President; and yet his administration was, in some respects, a disappointment, and, for reasons which we can- not now analyze, he was denied the indorsement of a second term. In discussing the passing of Adams from the 54 American Presidents presidency, Dr. Von Hoist remarks rather gloomily: **In the person of Adams, the last statesman who was to occupy it for a long time left the White House. ' * He was 61 years of age at the time and was what John T. Morse calls * * that melancholy product of the American gov- ernmental system — an ex-President.'* Adams, however, declined to be a ^ ^melancholy product*' and continued to serve his country for a score of years. Soon after retiring from the presi- dency, Adams was elected a member of the House of Eepresentatives from Massachusetts. He held this position until the time of his death, seventeen years later, and became known as *^The Old Man Eloquent," and as an able and fearless champion of the ** right of petition." He was stricken at his post of duty while at- tending a session of the House on February 21, 1848. A bronze star embedded in the floor of the Capitol building marks the exact spot. There, as his biographer in the American Statesmen Series has remarked, *^the stern old fighter lay dying almost on the very field of so many battles and in the very tracks in which he had so often stood erect and unconquerable, taking and dealing so many mighty blows." American Presidents 55 Two days later he passed away, one of the most cruelly maligned men in American history. During these seventeen years in the House of Eepresentatives Adams exhibited a remarkable fidelity to duty. He was usually present at his post, he was tireless in committee work and always voted in an intelligent and well-informed manner. It was his marvelous power of public speaking, however, that was his distinguishing trait in those years. *' Living in the age of ora- tory, '^ says John T. Morse, ''he earned the name of *the old man eloquent.' Yet he was not an orator in the sense in which Webster, Clay, and Calhoun were orators. He w^as not a rhetor- ician ; he had neither grace of manner nor a fine presence, neither an imposing delivery, nor even pleasing tones. On the contrary, he was excep- tionally lacking in all these qualities. He was short, rotund, and bald ; about the time when he entered Congress, complaints became frequent in his Diary of weak and inflamed eyes, and soon these organs became so rheumy that the water would trickle down his cheeks ; a shaking of the hand grew upon him to such an extent that in time he had to use artificial assistance to steady it for writing; his voice was high, 56 American Presidents shrill, liable to break, piercing enough to make itself heard, but not agreeable. This hardly seems the picture of an orator; nor was it to any charm of elocution that he owed his influ- ence, but rather to the fact that men soon learned that what he said was always well worth hear- ing. . . . When invective fell around him in showers, he screamed back his retaliation with untiring rapidity and marvellous dexterity of aim. No odds could appal him. With his back set firm against a solid moral principle, it was his joy to strike out at a multitude of foes. They lost their heads as well as their tempers, but in the extremest moments of excitement and anger Mr. Adams's brain seemed to work with machine-like coolness and accuracy. With flushed face, streaming eyes, animated gesticu- lation, and cracking voice, he always retained perfect mastery of all his intellectual faculties. He thus became a terrible antagonist, whom all feared, yet fearing could not refrain from at- tacking, so bitterly and incessantly did he choose to exert his wonderful power of exasperation. Few men could throw an opponent into wild blind fury with such speed and certainty as he could; and he does not conceal the malicious American Presidents 57 gratification which such feats brought to him. A leader of such fighting capacity, so courage- ous, with such a magazine of experience and in- formation, and with a character so irreproach- able, could have won brilliant victories in pub- lic life at the head of even a small band of de- voted followers. But Mr. Adams never had and apparently never wanted followers. Other prominent public men were brought not only into collision but into comparison with their contem- poraries. But Mx. Adams's individuality was so strong that he can be compared with no one. It was not an individuality of genius nor to any remarkable extent of mental qualities; but rather an individuality of character. To this fact is probably to be attributed his peculiar solitariness.'*^ John Fiske also refers to Adams's skill and power in debate and to the vituperative char- acter of his vocabulary. **As a parliamentary debater," says Fiske, **he has had few if any superiors; in knowledge and dexterity there was no one in the house who could be compared with him ; he was always master of himself, even at the white heat of anger to which he often i^ -^rf. K' .^^ %^ -y ;♦ ^^ "^^ .<^