IGHTY

EIGHTY YEARS

OF

REPUBLICAN GOVERNMENT.

CHAPTER I.

THE THEORY OF THE GOVERNMENT.

THE political system of the United States is based upon the theory that the people have an indefeasible right to choose their own form of government, and to modify or change it whenever a sufficiently large proportion agree that change is necessary. They endured all the hardships and losses incidental to a revolution in order to rid themselves of monarchical government and a hereditary ruler; any rule claiming to bear prescriptive rights they were determined never to have again. They resolved to govern for themselves. A qualified share of political power is committed to the people in constitutional Europe avowedly as a trust; in the American Republic the supreme power is exercised by the people as a right. The original Constitution was an instrument prepared with the object of carrying into effect the wishes and

B

opinions of a community of thirteen States, and it remains in force only during the pleasure of the nation which has since risen up. The Constitution itself recommitted the power which it assumed back to the people, its original depositaries, when it prescribed the means by which amendments could in after times be made. The voice of the people is the supreme law. They elect their agents and representatives; and while each of these agents may be held to a strict account for his actions, while the most solemn proceedings of the Legislative may be annulled by the Judiciary, and the Executive be controlled by the Legislative, the acts of the people alone are above all judgment or review. They are not restrained by precedents; in a government depending upon popular will there can be no law of precedent. The people create a precedent or destroy one as circumstances seem to require. "No man,” said Mr. Webster, "makes a question that the people are the source of all political power. Government is constituted for their good, and its members are their ministers and servants. He who would argue against this must argue without an adversary. The aggregate community, the collected will of the people, is sovereign."2 Be the faults or errors of the government what they may, the people alone are

1 This is the theory of the Constitution. Whether the Judiciary could sustain its decision or not, is another question.

Argument in the Rhode Island case, 27th Jan. 1848. Webster's Works, vol. vi., p. 221.

CHAP. I.

THE CLAIMS OF AMERICANS.

3

responsible for their existence. The idle, the improvident, the unsuccessful cannot, as is too readily done in other countries, cast the blame of their misfortunes or sufferings upon the government. Everett, who represented New England opinion more accurately than any other one man, congratulated his countrymen upon the perfection of their government as exhibited in the fact that "no measure of policy, public or private, domestic or foreign, could long be pursued against the will of a majority of the people." The system is one which professes to guard with more than paternal care the welfare and interests of every class of the community. It lays claim to the credit of giving more liberty and diffusing greater happiness than any other form of government, and the mass of the people fully believe that it claims no more than it is entitled to.. A contemporary American writer boasts that in the United States the best hopes of man may find their accomplishment; that there is neither failure nor disappointment in the government; that under it a perfect commonwealth might become a reality. If there had not been a large majority who felt this to be the truth, the Union would have perished long ago. What, then, are the principles of this "perfect commonwealth?" Is it true that owing to its superior wisdom the masses of the people are better represented and protected than they are anywhere else in the world? Is it indeed

3North American Review,' Oct. 1865, art. VIII.

a government fit to stand as an everlasting model for the guidance of mankind? If it be this, it is of vital consequence to the whole human race that its merits should be rightly understood; and if there be defects in it, great and mischievous defects, the same consideration demands that they should be openly stated and discussed.

The government of the United States is divided into three departments-the Executive, the Legislative, and the Judiciary. The appointment of the Federal Judicial Officers rests with the President, subject to the approval of the Senate; the Senate is chosen by the local Legislature of each State, which in its turn is elected by the people; and thus, although the people are the primary source of power, they have only a broken and indirect influence in the selection of the Judiciary. In most of the States the judges are elected by universal suffrage, but this pernicious custom has not yet extended to the organization of the highest legal tribunal of the Republic.

For the Executive the people vote through the agency of electors whom they choose at the polls. For members of the House of Representatives they vote without the intervention of other agents. In the government of each State the inhabitants exercise control which is not broken by artificial checks, or conducted through side channels, as is the case with respect to the higher Federal offices. The laws of the State are settled by the local Legisla

CHAP. I.

DIRECT POWER OF THE PEOPLE.

5

ture, which as a rule meets once a year, and the members of which are regularly elected by popular vote. Once in a certain term, which varies in ifferent States, the people have the opportunity of calling a Convention to revise the State laws, and to this Convention they can send representatives who will carry out the desired reform. The frequency of elections, which De Tocqueville considers so great an evil, is nevertheless a material part of the mechanism of government in America, and it was greatly relied upon by the framers of the Constitution as one great source of stability in the new system. By this means the wishes and wants of the people are continually being made known. There can be no hidden grievances, no discontents to ferment unseen and imperil the Republic. Once in every two years the people may completely change the popular branch of the Legislature. If Congress opposes itself to their desires and opinions, its action may be checked by the judgment of the people before its term has expired. The President holds office for four years, but he is not beyond the reach of the people during that period. They may return a House of Representatives which is adverse to him, and gradually pursue the same course with the Senate, through their local. Legislatures, until he can no longer use his veto.

4 Each Congress sits for three sessions (formerly two), which extend over two years. The elections for the ensuing Congress take place, in the majority of States, five or six months before the one actually sitting has fulfilled its term.