THE PRESIDENCY BY THEODORE ROOSEVELT NOW PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES HE President of the United States THE occupies a position of peculiar im portance. In the whole world there is no other ruler, certainly no other ruler under free institutions, whose power compares with his. Of course a despotic king has even more, but no constitutional NOTE. The article, of which this chapter is a part, was written expressly for The Youth's Companion by Mr. Roosevelt in 1900, while he was Governor of New York, and previous to the Republican National Convention, which nominated him for Vice-President. It will be clear to all readers that the writer of the article could not have foreseen the place he was destined to occupy, and the views expressed are not to be regarded as those of an incumbent of the office. monarch has as much. In England the sovereign has much less control in shaping the policy of the nation, the prime minister occupying a position more nearly analogous to that of our President. The prime minister, however, can at any time be thrown out of office by an adverse vote, while the President can only be removed before his term is out for some extraordinary crime or misdemeanor against the nation. Of course, in the case of each there is the enormous personal factor of the incumbent himself tô be considered entirely apart from the power of the office itself. The power wielded by Andrew Jackson was out of all proportion to that wielded by Buchanan, although in theory each was alike. So a strong President may exert infinitely more influence than a weak prime minister, or vice versa. But this is merely another way of stating that in any office the personal equation is always of vital consequence. |