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Show ' ' ' (Released by Western Newspaper Union.! A Near-President AFTER years of neglect, tardy honors at last have been paid to a great American a man who served his country as United States senator, minister to France, secretary secre-tary of war and secretary of the treasury, a statesman who just missed being President! From Atlanta, At-lanta, Ga., recently came word that i the restoration of the burial place " of William Harris Crawford had been completed. Crawford was a native of Amherst Am-herst county, Va., where he was born February 24, 1772. His parents par-ents moved to Georgia and there the father died in 1788, leaving his 16-year-old son to become the principal prin-cipal support of the family by teaching teach-ing school. Meanwhile he was studying law and in 1798 he was admitted to the bar. From the law to politics was a logical step and in 1803 Crawford was elected to the state legislature where he served until 1807. Elected to the United States senate in 1809, he made an even more brilliant record as a legislator there and from March, 1812, to 1813 he was president pro tem of the upper house. At the end of Crawford's term in the senate, President Madison offered of-fered him the post of secretary of war,, but he declined. However, he did accept an appointment as minister min-ister to France and in Paris he received re-ceived a warm reception. When Napoleon was overthrown in 1815, Crawford returned to the United States- where Madison again offered him the post of secretary of war. This time he accepted and held the position until 1816 when he became secretary of the treasury. During that period in our history Presidents were nominated by con- pip gressional caucus and as Madison'9 term drew to a close his secretary of the treasury was the favorite to succeed him. However, when the vote was finally taken, James Monroe Mon-roe received 65 votes to Crawford's 54. The new President asked his rival to continue as secretary of the treasury and Crawford consented. He served until 1825. When it came time to select a presidential nominee in 1824, Crawford's Craw-ford's name was again prominently mentioned. In fact, he was the congressional con-gressional caucus nominee, although there were only 66 out of 216 members mem-bers of his party present when the vote was taken. By this time the caucus method of choosing a President Presi-dent had fallen into disrepute and three other candidates entered the contest. They were John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson and Henry Clay. When the electoral votes were counted it was found that Jackson had received 91 votes, Adams 84, Crawford 41 and Clay 37. Since none of the candidates had a majority ma-jority of all the votes cast, the election elec-tion was thrown into the house of representatives, which was to ballot on the three high men. There Henry Hen-ry Clay threw his strength to Adams Ad-ams and the New Englander was elected President. After Adams was inaugurated, he asked Crawford to continue as secretary sec-retary of the treasury, but the Georgian Geor-gian pleading ill health he had suffered suf-fered a stroke of paralysis in 1824 declined the honor and returned to his home in Georgia. However, by 1827 is health was good enough so that he was able to take on the duties of a circuit judge and he continued in this office until he died at Elberton, Ga., on September 15, 1834. His death was a fitting conclusion to his active life for he literally "died in the harness." har-ness." He was away from home on the circuit, fulfilling his judicial duties, du-ties, when the end came. Few men have ever filled the post of secretary of treasury more capably than Crawford. As a member mem-ber of the senate he had done much to bring about the reincorporation of the Bank of the United States and because of this Madison first offered him the treasury portfolio. This proved to be a wise choice, for Crawford, taking over the tangled financial affairs of the nation at the close of the War of 1812, handled the situation with extraordinary skill-and skill-and was able to turn the treasury over to his successor with its finances finan-ces on a sound basis. |