Summary:
In a time of high-priced presidential primary campaigns, it´s useful to recall a statement by former Vice-President Thomas Riley Marshall. This 332-word blog recalls that Marshall said that the office of president is too important to be determined on the basis of highest campaign expenditures.

Details or Sample:
Thomas Riley Marshall, the amiable Hoosier who served as vice-president under Woodrow Wilson (1913 - 1921), is best remembered for his wry comment during a senator´s windy speech, "What this country needs is a really good five-cent cigar". But Marshall, a former Governor of Indiana (1909 - 1913), could reach beyond humor to provoke serious thought. One of his observations might, with a little imagination on our part, have been based on this year´s presidential primary campaign: "I belong to that school which believes that the presidency is too exalted an office to be put up, through the primary, for sale to the biggest money bag. Be not deceived in human nature. What a man buys, he owns and will use for himself."

That Marshall had no wish to use the presidency for himself is illustrated by his response to word that Wilson had suffered a serious stroke, and was largely incapacitated. In those days, the Constitution was less than clear on how the title and duties of president would "devolve" on the vice president in the incapacity of the president. At the time of his stroke, Wilson was involved in the ticklish -- and ultimately futile -- effort to persuade the Congress to ratify the charter of the League of nations. Wilson´s refusal to compromise virtually doomed the effort. Had Marshall stepped forward and taken on the office of president...

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Written by: Chuckwc
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Words: 332