=The Man and the Office.=—Forty years ago, an eminent English writer on American government spoke of the presidency as the greatest secular office in the world “to which anyone can rise by his own merits”.[122] In view of this fact, he asked, how does it come that the position is not more frequently filled by great and striking men? There have been twenty-nine presidents since the constitution went into force in 1788. Of these at least three, Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln have won an assured place in world history. Five or six (including Adams, Jackson, Grant, Cleveland, and Roosevelt) displayed during their respective terms of office some qualities which marked them as men of uncommon force or ability. Three others are still living and their achievements cannot yet be fairly estimated. But taking all these together, and even adding a few more for good measure, would it not still be a fair statement to say that at least half the presidents have been men whose names would be entirely forgotten nowadays were it not for the fact that they occupied the presidential chair? Alexander Hamilton, Daniel Webster, John Marshall, Henry Clay, and John C. Calhoun are great and striking figures in American history although they never reached the presidency; on the other hand the nation has, at various times, bestowed its highest honor upon men of commonplace qualities. This, of course, was not what the Fathers of the Republic expected. It was their anticipation that the presidential office would always be filled by men of “pre-eminent ability and virtue”. Why has this expectation been in part disappointed? That is a question which can only be answered by a study of the methods by which presidents are chosen, the relations between the office and the party system, and the duties that presidents are required to perform. [Sidenote: Why the plan of indirect election was adopted.]