CHAP. III.

CURTAILMENT OF PREROGATIVES.

51

writer to explain the opinions of his countrymen upon this subject. "The Government rarely

6

finds itself able to secure the best men for its civil

service. So that we witness at this moment the extraordinary fact, that to be the servant of what is fondly called 'the best government the world ever saw,' not only does not, as in other countries, raise a man in the social scale, but actually reflects something very like discredit on him." And the writer goes on to say that "waste, corruption, inefficiency, and want of discipline," are the consequences of this system.

It cannot be doubted, then, that there was great need for the reform pressed by the Republican party in 1866. They proposed it for purposes of party; they were naturally unwilling to see the whole patronage of the government taken away from them and conferred upon the opposition, while they were all-powerful and the opposition was but an insignificant minority; but still their recommendation had so much intrinsic justice in it that it was willingly accepted by the people. It could not be alleged that it was a novel attack upon the prerogatives assumed by the Executive. In the Congress of 1789 there had been a long discussion upon the appointing power of the President, and it was contended that it might "render the Chief Magistrate arbitrary, and, in some measure, absolute." That Congress, as I

have stated, left the question undecided, and it does. not appear to have been revived in the Legislature until 1826, when on the 4th of May Colonel Benton presented a report from a Committee of the House of Representatives, to the effect that the amount of patronage exercised by the President ought to be reduced by law, and presenting six Bills for that purpose. No action was taken upon them, and the subject was again neglected until the session of 1834-35, when a Committee of the Senate was appointed to inquire into the expediency of reducing the Executive patronage. A long report was subsequently presented by this committee, of which Mr. Calhoun was chairman, and a Bill was brought in which required the President to assign his reasons to Congress for the removal of any officer. In the debate upon this measure Mr. Webster delivered one of his great speeches, in which he contended that the framers of the Constitution never intended to give the President the power of removing public servants from office." The Bill was passed, but the system of corruption it was intended to destroy continued to grow, and to inflict year after year greater evils upon the country. At last, in the early part of 1867, a Bill passed both Houses which ren

7 Works of Daniel Webster' (Boston, 1866), vol. iv. p. 179. 8 Known as the Tenure of Office Bill.' It seems impossible that this law can stand. During the recess of Congress a man proved to be guilty of theft or forgery may be in a public office, and the President be powerless to remove him until the Senate meet. Moreover, it is manifestly contrary to the interests of the public service that the President should not be free to choose his own Cabinet.

CHAP. III. SUBORDINATION OF THE PRESIDENT TO CONGRESS. 53

dered the President incompetent either to remove or appoint public officers of the higher grades, or even his Cabinet Ministers, without the consent and approval of the Senate. It was vetoed by Mr. Johnson, but re-passed instantly and became the law of the

land.

Every event in the course of this long struggle proved that a President of the United States cannot be strong unless he consents to obey the behests of a powerful party. Mr. Johnson had separated himself from the party which caused his election, and the other side were too doubtful about his principles to adopt him as their representative. Besides, he came to them with an injured reputation, and they had already more than enough odium to bear in consequence of their opposition to the war. It is doubtful whether when all the States are fully represented any future President can be as weak as Mr. Johnson found himself. But the Executive must necessarily always be dependent upon party, and much at the mercy of the Legislature. The single circumstance that the occupant of the office is liable to impeachment and trial by the body upon which it is a part of his duty to exercise a check must suffice to keep him in subjection. He must be the creature of those who nominated him. He will be judged by the fidelity with which he has adhered to his friends and supporters. Just before Mr. Lincoln's death he gave indications of being animated by more merciful feelings towards the insurrectionary States than his

political friends approved. Instantly they turned round angrily upon him, and denounced his conduct with a readiness and violence which showed how little past services avail when a public officer ceases to do the bidding of his party. Any man who entered upon the Presidency with his mind imbued with the precepts of the Constitution, and the teaching of the "Fathers," would ruin his cause and himself in a twelvemonth.

The

The condition to which the Presidential office has fallen is a memorable instance of the fallacy of theories of government. Upon this part of their system the founders of the Constitution lavished endless study and care. They had the experience of the world to guide them, and they believed that they were about to advance the science of government a thousand years. But their favourite piece of work has disappointed the people. The Executive is a prize contended for chiefly by hungry place-hunters, or by the obscure and illiterate puppets of a faction. educated class has been driven from the ranks of competitors. The office has almost ceased to be an object of ambition, and the holder of it must, by the inevitable circumstances of his position, be the slave of those who set him in the place of authority, only to use him for their own purposes. He is kept upon a stinted allowance, and for four years is the butt and jeer of the party opposed to his own. After his term of office is fulfilled he sinks into sudden obscurity and contempt. An ex-President is a ruined man.

CHAP. III.

DECLINE OF THE OFFICE.

55

He is less thought of, less regarded, than the most commonplace of politicians. He is seldom seen in society; scarcely is he ever spoken of by the public press without a sneering adjective prefixed to his name. All sections of all parties carefully avoid him, because he is sure to have done something to offend some class in the country whose influence is needed at elections. All this is a strange contrast to that imaginary Executive which Madison and his contemporaries had before their eyes. They meant the post to be one full of dignity and honour, but, among many other miscalculations, they failed to make allowance for the deteriorating effect of an almost unrestricted suffrage. They trusted too much to the continual existence of a Conservative tendency in a community which was told that it might recast the fabric of its government whenever it was in the humour.

The re-eligibility of the President may be one cause of the gradual decadence of the office. It is now to the interest of the minority to blacken and defame him so that he at least may be removed from their path. It is also to the interest of the President to scheme and manoeuvre for a second term. President Jackson, in his first annual message, suggested that the period of service of the chief magistrate should be limited to a single term of either four or six years, and from the time of the Federal Convention until now the same idea has constantly been a subject of discussion. The chief objections to it are