3, 1797 March 4, 1797 66 3, 1801 March 4, 1801 66 3, 1809 March 4, 1809 66 3, 1817 CC 3, 1825 66 3, 1829 March 4, 1829 66 3, 1837 March 4, 1837 66 3, 1841 March 4, 1841 3, 1845 66 March 4, 1845 66 3, 1849 March 4, 1849 66 3, 1853 March 4, 1853 6. 3, 1857 George Washington, Virginia. John Adams, Massachusetts. Thomas Jefferson, Virginia. James Madison, Virginia. James Monroe, Virginia. John Q. Adams, Massachusetts. Andrew Jackson, Tennessee. Martin Van Buren, New York. William H. Harrison, Ohio. James K. Polk, Tennessee. Zachary Taylor, Louisiana. Franklin Pierce, New Hampshire. March 4, 1857 66 James Buchanan, Pennsylvania. 3, 1861 At the close of the term for which Mr. Buchanan is elected, it will have been seventy-two years since the organization of the present Government. In that period, there have been eighteen elections for President, the candidates chosen in twelve of them being Southern men and slaveholders, in six of them Northern men and nonslaveholders. No Northern man has ever been re-elected, but five Southern men have been thus honored. Gen. Harrison, of Ohio, died one month after his inauguration, Gen. Taylor, of Louisiana, about four months after his inauguration. In the former case, John Tyler, of Virginia, became acting President, in the latter, Millard Fillmore, of New York. Of the seventy-two years, closing with Mr. Buchanan's term, should he live it out, Southern men and slaveholders have occupied the Presidential chair forty-eight years and three months, or a little more than two-thirds of the time. THE SUPREME COURT. The judicial districts are organized so as to give five judges to the slave States, and four to the free, although the population, wealth, and business of the latter are far in advance of those of the former. The arrangement affords, however, an excuse for constituting the Supreme Court, with a majority of judges from the slaveholding States. SECRETARIES OF STATE. The highest office in the Cabinet is that of Secretary of State, who has under his charge the foreign relations of the country. Since the year 1789, there have been twenty-two appointments to the office-fourteen from slave States, eight from free. Or, counting by years, the post has been filled by Southern men and slaveholders very nearly forty years out of sixty-seven, as follows: Appointed. Sept. 26, 1789, Thomas Jefferson, Virgiria. 66 66 March 6, 1829, Martin Van Buren, New York. March 6, 1844, J. C. Calhoun, South Carolina. PRESIDENTS PRO TEM. OF THE SENATE. Since the year 1809, every President pro tem. of the Senate of the United States has been a Southern man and slaveholder, with the exception of Samuel L. Southard, of New Jersey, who held the office for a very short time, and Mr. Bright, of Indiana, who has held it for one or two sessions, we believe, having been elected, April, 1789 Oct. 24. 1791 Theodore Sedgwick, Mass. Nathaniel Macon, N. Car. J. B. Varnum, Massachusetts. Henry Clay, Kentucky. Langdon Cheves, S. Car. Henry Clay, Kentucky. J. W. Taylor, New-York. P. B. Barbour, Virginia. Henry Clay, Kentucky. J. W. Taylor, New-York. A. Stevenson, Virginia. John Bell, Tennessee. James K. Polk, Tennessee. R. M. T. Hunter, Virginia. John White, Tennessee. Dec. 4, 1843 Nathaniel P. Banks, Mass. POSTMASTER GENERALS. Appointed Sept. 26, 1789, S. Osgood, Massachusetts. Aug. 31, 1852, S. D. Hubbard, Connecticut. March 5, 1853, J. Campbell, Pennsylvania. Sectionalism does not seem to have had much to do with this Department, or with that of the Interior, created in 1848-'49. |