nized under the Administration of John Adams. It saw
also the germ of the Democratic and Whig parties planted. It was a
prosperous Administration, and under it the nation flourished like a
green bay-tree. He was the last of the Presidents who had actively
participated in the war of the Revolution. To other virtues and
different merits, those who now aspire to the high distinction of the
Presidency must owe their success. There must always be a cause for
distinction. However great the abilities of a man or exalted his
virtues, he must in some manner make a display of them before the
public eye, or he must of necessity remain in obscurity. War developes
more rapidly and more conspicuously the abilities of men than any other
public employment. Gallantry and successful conflict presents the
commander and subalterns at once prominently before the country;
besides military fame addresses itself to every capacity, and strange
as it may seem, there is no quality so popular with man and woman, too,
as the art of successfully killing our fellow-man, and devastating his
country. It is ever a successful claim to public honors and political
preferments. No fame is so lasting as a military fame. Caesar and
Hannibal are names, though they lived two thousand years ago, familiar
in the mouths of every one, and grow brighter as time progresses.
Philip and his more warlike son, Alexander, are names familiar to the
learned and illiterate, alike; while those who adorned the walks of
civil life with virtues, and godlike abilities, are only known to those
who burrow in musty old books, and search out the root of civilization
enjoyed by modern nations. They who fought at Cannae and Marathon, at
Troy and at Carthage, are household names; while those who invented the
plough and the spade, and first taught the cultivation of the earth,
the very base of civilization, are unknown--never thought of. Such is
human nature.

The war of 1812 had developed one or two men only of high military
genius, and the furor for military men had not then become a mania.
Abilities for civil government were considered essential in him who was
to be elevated to the Presidency. Indeed, it was not so much a
warrior's fame which had controlled in the election of the previous
Presidents, as their high intellectual reputations. Washington had
rendered such services to the country, both as a military man and a
civilian, that his name was the nation. He had been everywhere