George Washington in his last, pastoral years at Mount Vernon, Thomas Jefferson at Monticello, founded a U. S. tradition: that public men, having held the highest offices, continued to serve afterward as Elder Statesmen. Presumably but some times not actually remote from politics, they were supposed to possess a degree and kind of wisdom not given to their partisan juniors.
Last man to hold and deserve this emeritus distinction was Elihu Root, who was Secretary of War under McKinley and Roosevelt I, then the latter's Secretary of State and died (aged 91) in 1937....
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