Our Secretaries of State,
with rare exceptions, have been among the very ablest public
men of the country. Among them have been Timothy Pickering,
John Marshall, James Madison, James Monroe, John Quincy Adams,
Henry Clay, Martin Van Buren, Edward Livingston, Louis McLane,
John Forsyth, Daniel Webster, John C. Calhoun, James Buchanan,
John M. Clayton, Edward Everett, Elihu B. Washburne, Hamilton
Fish, William M. Evarts, James G. Blaine, Thomas F. Bayard,
John Sherman, and John Hay. These men, with scarcely an exception,
have been among the very foremost statesmen of their time.
Several of them have been Presidents of the United States,
and a good many more of them have been prominent candidates
for the Presidency. On the other hand, the list of Presidents
of the Senate contains few names of any considerable distinction.
Another objection to the arrangement was the fact that the
President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House might
be changed at the will of the body that elected them. So
the acting President might be displaced at the will of a political
body.
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