The Campaign of 1896 157 



have the Vice-President and President represented 

 by principles so far apart that the succession of one 

 to the place of the other means a change as radical 

 as any possible party overturn. The straining and 

 dislocation of our governmental institutions was 

 very great when Tyler succeeded Harrison and 

 Johnson succeeded Lincoln. In each case the ma- 

 jority of the party that had won the victory felt that 

 it had been treated with scandalous treachery, for 

 Tyler grew to be as repulsive to the Whigs as Polk 

 himself, and the Republicans could scarcely have 

 hated Seymour more than they hated Johnson. The 

 Vice-President has a three-fold relation. First to 

 the Administration; next as presiding officer in the 

 Senate, where he should be a man of dignity and 

 force; and third in his social position, for socially 

 he ranks second to the President alone. Mr. Mor- 

 ton was in every way an admirable Vice-President 

 under General Harrison, and had he succeeded to 

 the Presidential chair therewould have been no break 

 in the great policies which were being pushed for- 

 ward by the Administration. But during Mr. Cleve- 

 land's two incumbencies Messrs. Hendricks and 

 Stevenson have represented, not merely hostile fac- 

 tions, but principles and interests from which he 

 was sundered by a gulf quite as great as that which 

 divided him from his normal party foes. Mr. 

 Sewall would make a col6rless Vice-President, and 

 were he at any time to succeed Mr. Bryan in the 

 White House would travel Mr. Bryan's path only 

 with extreme reluctance and under duress. Mr. 



