Foreword<br >Perhaps the most insignificant thing that can be said about<br >Hubert Humphrey s life is that he never became president of the<br >United States.<br > It is also， perhaps， his greatest tribute.<br > Hubert Humphrey is one of our nation s immortals. And<br >that can be said of a very few men， indeed. In the early days of<br >the republic， we had many such men: Benjamin Franklin， Sam-<br >uel Adams and John Marshall were never elected president， but<br >they nevertheless continue to have a profound effect on the<br >course of the nation they helped create. George Washington，<br >John Adams and Thomas Jefferson acceded to the presidency，<br >but they had already established firm footholds on national<br >immortality long before taking the oath of office.<br > Abraham Lincoln is considered perhaps the greatest of<br >American presidents. But for what would he have been remem-<br >bered had he not become president? Certainly not for being a<br >mediocre but honest lawyer in Springfield， Illinois.<br > Woodrow Wilson is regarded as another great president， as<br >is Franklin D. Roosevelt. But would either of them be remem-<br >bered today had they not risen beyond the governorships of<br >their respective states? That is highly doubtful.<br > But not Hubert Humphrey. Over the last thirty years， he<br >accomplished more as a senator from Minnesota than most<br >presidents accomplish with the full weight of that exalted office<br >