File:The magazine of American history with notes and queries (1877) (14598063480).jpg

Identifier: magazineofamericv11stev (find matches)
Title: The magazine of American history with notes and queries
Year: 1877 (1870s)
Authors: Stevens, John Austin, 1827-1910. ed. cn DeCosta, B. F. (Benjamin Franklin), 1831-1904. ed. cn Johnston, Henry Phelps, 1842-1923, ed. cn Lamb, Martha J. (Martha Joanna), 1829-1893. ed. cn Pond, Nathan Gillett, 1832-1894 ed Abbatt, William, 1851-1935, comp
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Publisher: New York : A.S. Barnes
Contributing Library: Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive

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exceptions of Lincoln and Grant —no President has beennominated by his party to be his own successor. But to return to the first ten Presidents, with whom only we are atpresent concerned. The tone of the country, if we may so say, its opinions,aspirations, and purposes are reflected in their characters and politicalattitudes, as distinctly as its history is traced in the record of their officialacts. At the outset, the country was content to make Washington President,not so much for what he represented as for what he was. His career hadnot been of a kind to bring his convictions upon questions of politics andstatesmanship into prominence, except in that general way which arousesno antagonism. The people knew him to be a patriot above everything,and their confidence in his soundness of judgment and his calm discretion,was unbounded. There were no distinct party lines, and Washington be-longed to no party. The country was at the beginning of an experiment OUR TWENTY-ONE PRESIDENTS 93
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llllili^^ (From a portrait executed in London in 1783.J1797-1801. which was attended by many difficulties and viewed by many persons withdoubt and fear. There could be no question then, and there is none now,that George Washington was the man best fitted to direct the early courseof the young Republic, and he was chosen for this eminent fitness—to which 94 OUR TWENTY-ONE PRESIDENTS his mind, his character, and the circumstances of his previous life contributed—and not because he represented any particular political creed or policy. When Washington declined to be elected for a third time, a somewhatsimilar impulse prompted the people to look for his successor among themen who had rendered services only less eminent than his, during theRevolution. But while Washington stood alone in his preeminence, theclass next below him in the popular regard included several men of thelargest capacity and most exalted patriotism. The choice was certain inany case to fall upon one of that revoluti

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