Southern Historical Society Papers, Volume 1.
Reverend J. William Jones, Ed.

[395] lasted (after a fashion) eighty years. Then a new element of voting power was introduced not known to the framers of the Constitution, and I therefore only estimate the time up to this Radical change. Of these eighty years, fifty-seven were passed under the Presidencies of Southern-born men, and but twenty-three under Northern Presidents. Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe and Jackson, served each eight years, forty years in all, just one-half the life of the nation. Tyler, Polk, Lincoln and Johnson, served each four years, and Taylor one. Of the twenty-three years under Northern Presidents, John and John Quincy Adams, Van Buren, Pierce and Buchanan, served each four years, and Fillmore three. The second Adams was not the choice of the people, and was elected by the House of Representatives. Mr. Fillmore was elevated by the death of President Taylor. So up to the period of the new kind of voting, the people had really never elected but four Northern men to the Presidency. It is remarkable, too, that the people have repudiated the administration of every Northern President, not one of them being reelected, and a different political party always succeeding them in power, save in the case of Mr. Pierce, a Democrat, who was succeeded by Mr. Buchanan, also a Democrat. On the other hand, five Southern Presidents were re-elected, and all of them were succeeded by Presidents of the same political faith, except perhaps Mr. Polk, who was succeeded by General Taylor, running upon a no party platform. The country endorsed Polk's administration and did not repudiate him, as he declined a renomination. Another curious fact is this, that every Northern President had associated with him a Southern man as Vice-President. Thus John Adams had Thomas Jefferson; John Quincy Adams had J. C. Calhoun; Martin Van Buren had R. M. Johnson; Pierce had Wm. R. King; Buchanan had J. C. Breckinridge. On the other hand, Jackson served one term with J. C. Calhoun. Harrison and Tyler, his associates, were both from Virginia, and Lincoln and Johnson were both from the South. Of these same eighty years, the South had a Chief Justice on the Supreme Court Bench for sixty-three years, or more than three-fourths of the time. The purity and wisdom of these Southern Justices made them the pride of the nation.

All the wars, foreign and domestic, have been under the conduct and control of Southern-born Presidents; the war of 1812; the Algerine war; the Black Hawk war; the Seminole war; the Mexican war; the war of the second rebellion.

All the acquisitions of territory have been under Southern Presidents,