Show i Some Earlier Presidents Pro Tern Terni BY SAVOYARD So far as I know there has always been een an extra eitra session of the senate convoked simultaneously with the In Inauguration Inauguration inauguration of a new president to cos c 1 firm the new flew and deliberate on other matters it may see fit to con consider on sider eider When the session Is a few days old the vice ice president gives notice that t will not be convenient for him to at end on the morrow and when the sit tint ing tin on the morrow begins the senate chooses a president pro tempore to serve during the life of that congress Until some years ago th president pro tempore was next In after the succession to the presidency vice ice president but that is now changed I so as to make the secretary of state stat president in the case of death resignation resignation resignation nation or removal of both the president and vice president Many Very ery eminent men have been chosen to this great place though it is isa isa Isa a matter of remark that neither Clay nor Calhoun nor Webster nor Benton nor Douglass nor Fessenden nor Conk Conking ing hing ever held It There have been more presidents pro tempore o df f the senate than speakers of the house perhaps twice as many Mr Frye has served five full terms and if he lives until the expiration of the Sixtieth congress he will have completed ted a sixth term the longest tenure of that office in the history of the senate The first president pro tempore was John Langdon then a senator from New Hampshire a man after the order of George Clinton or 01 Isham G Harris He was the Carnot Who organized Starks brilliant victory vict ry of Benning Bennington ton on that made ma e surrender inevitable He was succeeded as pres pros dent ident pro tempore by Richard Henry HenryLee HenryLee HenryLee Lee who as an orator was to Patrick Henry as the silvery stream of a syl syi sylvan sy van brook to the roaring waters of a mountain torrent Lee persuaded Henry commanded Lee was the Cicero of the revolution Henry was vas its De Dc Demosthenes Demosthenes The next was Izard of South Carolina and Tazewell of Vir Virginia Virginia Virginia ginia followed by four names now for forgot forgot forgot got until Theodore Sedgwick came in inin inIn inIn in 1798 for a little while Afterward he was speaker of the house hose of which body ody he was repeatedly a member be i i fore he lie became senator He had been in the continental congress from Mas Massachusetts Massachusetts and was a pillar of the rev revolution revolution in New England And now we have hae a long list of what Disraeli said Lord Liverpool was arch s as they live JIve in the pub public lie lic esteem of our day such as Lau Laurence Laurence Laurence rence of New York Ross of Pennsyl Pennsylvania Pennsylvania Pennsylvania vania Livermore of New Hampshire Tracy of Connecticut Howard of Maryland Hillhouse of Connecticut Baldwin of Georgia Bradley of Ver Vermont Vermont Vermont mont Brown of Kentucky Franklin of North Carolina Anderson of Tennes Tennessee see Smith of Maryland celebrated as the first man who ever served forty years in the national legislature and he be is one of the half dozen men of our history entitled to that distinction Milledge of or Georgia succeeded Smith as president pro tempore and was suc sue succeeded ceded c ded by Gregg of Pennsylvania Next was Gaillard of South Carolina a avery aver avery very ver eminent statesman who was suc sue succeeded succeeded by John Pope of Kentucky William H Crawford of Georgia came next He was waa one of the leading states statesmen statesmen statesmen men of a generation that produced giants It is not at all an unlikely that he would have beet been president had his health continued robust and It Is certain tain tam that his candidature for that office defeated Henry Clay In 1824 He was the of Mr Culber Culberson son Ion the present able and distinguished senator from exas himself 11 tal Ual timber and a presidential possibility I ity a presidential probability Joseph B Varnum of Massachusetts succeed succeeded ed and after serving a single term gave way to that same Gaillard of South Carolina who served two terms and was succeeded by James Barbour of ot Virginia whose brother was speaker of the seventeenth congress One day dayJohn dayJohn dayJohn John Randolph Randoph of Roanoke coming out of the capitol was asked by an ac acquaintance e what was going on inside In that shrill voice v the terror of many manyan an abler debater he answered I r was in ir Ii the senate senat and s Barbour shot at a hair and split it and then I went over to the house where w ere his brother Phil shot at a barn door d or and missed it John Gaillard Gailiard came for a third time and was Vas president pro tempore three terms in succession So It will be discovered that I was mistaken in the assertion that Mr Frye holds the championship for length of tenure Gaillard served six terms but they were not continuous Frye FIe has served servet five continuous terms only but should lie h survive he is certain of a sixth ant antall and andall andall all continuous And now we come to the greatest man who ever filled the station of pres president president president ident pro lIro tempore of the American Americ n senate enate for Nathaniel Macon was more than Cato There have been abler and far more brilliant men than he In either house of congress but perhaps in character he was the grandest of them all As a soldier of the revolution he was as brave In the field as he was aft af afterward t erward wise in the council He served thirteen terms in the national house of representatives of which body he was speaker three terms am and then was transferred to the y senate where he lie served thirteen years until he ho resigned in 1828 1823 He was president pro tempore When he died in 18 7 the senate ad adjourned adjourned in respect to his memory and andin andIn andin in recognition of his lofty and spotless character the only instance in the en entire entire entire tire history of the senate where that body adjourned in tribute to one of its and as an only In the lobby lo by of the house are portraits of ot all the speakers save Macon who never sat for a picture The late Matt Ransom long a senator from Macons state of North sought to nave have havea navea a portrait of him hini painted by making a composite picture Of or two old men of ol his acquaintance each of whom had hae features some of which bore marked resemblance to Jo Macons one cne supplying the upper face the other the lower J I Ido do not know that tha the project was car carried red ried Into effect It is a great pity that we have havo no n counterfeit Image of Ma Macon Macon Macon con North Carolina could not but send his statue to the national valhalla In Inthe inthe inthe the hall of the old house of representatives tives Take down he the geography and see how this grand old man Is la hon lion honored honored ored in its political nomenclature Ma Macon con counties Macon cities Macon towns and Macon villages His life il 11 illustrates ILlustrates the value of character His monument is like the man It Is a huge pile of stones thrown on his grave by every pilgrim who visits Is Its the spot to todo todo todo do reverence to the great man who lies buried burled there th re What a blessing it would be to this generation to have a statesman cast castin castIn castIn in the mold of Nathaniel Macon to leati heat this people out of the political labyrinth In the windings of oJ even our wisest and best are raff n i r be bewildered and apparently app such as ever results when wh n the blind lead the ther r I blind and the foolish 10 are preferred over the wise That same Samuel Smith who had been chosen president pro tempore temporo of the th senate more than twenty years earlier now succeeded Macon and served two terms and upon his retire retirement retirement retirement ment L W Tazewell of Virginia came in a relative for aught I know a son of f the Henry Tazewell who had been chosen president pro tempore nearly near two score years ears earlier And An 1 now we ve come to the name nam of another very great man one who could if reincarnate r lead us out of the wil wilderness wilderness wilderness In which we are wandering years after his departure from the scenes of men L LWhite 1 LWhite White preeminently the wise man He succeeded Andrew Jackson in the senate and served with distinguished ability and unblemished honor In 1836 he refused to be dictated to by Old Hickory even ran for president aga 1st the heir apparent Martin Van VanBuren VanBuren Buren Buron and carried his and Jacksons own state of Tennessee as well as Georgia In that seme year of 1836 he was again elected senator from Ten Tennessee Tennessee Tennessee but resigned in 1840 George Gerge Poindexter then theli a senator from Mississippi came after Hugh L LWhite LWhite White as president pro tempore He was a native of Virginia and went to the then territory of f Mississippi pl In 1802 So and was Its Us delegate In congress for three terms He s served In the war of 1812 and was a a district judge He ne Was vas as a representative from the new nev newstate newstate state In the Fifteenth congress and governor of Mississippi from 1819 to 1821 1821 He Hf was senator In congress from 1830 to 1835 when he moved to Ken tacky lUcky and practiced law awat at Lexington but jut later hater returned to Mississippi where he died in 1853 Poindexter lives largely In tradition more than he ho does in actual history He was a very brilliant man a fine orator after the order of Henry A Wise and but for some somo faults of f a temper all too violent he might have ha filled a great place in our parliament parliamentary ary history hl tory This subject will be continued in our next Washington Nov 25 1907 1307 Copyright 1907 1901 by E W V Newman |