Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1878-02-23

20, for constitutional provisions,
however stringently written, are al
ways liable to be turned aside from
their original purpose by the tortu-
Ous special pleadings of lawyers,
while those great principles which
have become established in the con-
victiOns and the will of the people
are reversible by no pleadings in any
court.
Thus in England it is an unwrit-
ten but indefeasible constitutional
provision that the sovereign shall
have no party associations, that all
his political actions shall be deter
mined by Cabinet which is respon-
sible for them, and that this Cabinet
shall be changed whenever it is I'M
able to secure majority in the
House of Commons. Unwritten as
they are, these provisions have,
since the accession of William Ill,
never in single instance been set
aside, and wheneveran any purpose of
attempting to elude them has been
manifested, grave alarm and civil
CONFUSION have always resulted;
and yet there is no written law in
England for the existence of Cabi-
net.
Principles established by usage
have not obtained as firm a hold in
the United States, partly, perhaps,
because they have not had so long a
time to take root; nevertheless we
have some unwritten usages which
have been found quite as impregna-
BILE as the written constitution, if
not more so. Thus the general feel
ing against a President being elected
to serve third term has very nearly
become a part of our unwritten con-
stitution, and the functions of the
electors in a Presidential election
have been completely changed by
an unwritten prescription which has
gradually become law. The ElectO-
raj College has ceased to be a delibe-
rative body, as was evidently con-
templated by the founders of the
constitution, and has become simply
a body of men instructed to declare
that man President who may have
been nominated by the party which
elected that college.
We have promised thus much for
the purpose of throwing light on the
cause of the repeated collisions be-
tween President, Senate and House
which have so frequently impeded
public business during the last
twelve years, and of making some
suggestions for a remedy of the
growing evil. We believe that,
whereas the main provisions of our
Constitution were derived from the
practice of the English Government
of that day, it was their purpose also
to adopt with them some of the pre-
scriptiYe usages which had in Eng
land guided the working of those
provisions; that during the early
days of the Government they were
adhered to, and that some of the in
cOnveniences experienced in the
present day would be best corrected
by a return to them. One of these
was that the President should in
no sense be considered the repre-
sentative of a party. 1t is certain
that Washington did not so consider
himself and was not so considered.
There is no doubt that he had his
political opinions, which were in a
moderate degree those of Hamilton,
Adams and Chief Justice Marshall
of the Federal party, in short.
That the Cabinet did exercise great
influence on the National Legisla-
ture there is no doubt, nor is it doubt
full but that in the first Congress the
opinions of the Federal school were
predominant. 1t is equally certain
that Gen. Washington abstained
from any attempt to exercise direct
| personal influence on party politics,
and if the Republican party had be-
come predominant in Congress while
he was President we are decidedly of
opinion that he would not have ven
tured to retain a Federal Cabinet in
office. The truth is there was not
much party during Washington
first term; the Federalists and Re
publicanS were rather schools OF
political doctrine than organized
parties, nor was it until JEFF
fersOn's return from France and
Aaron Burr's organization of the
opposition party in New York that
the Republicans became an organ
lied party and the Federalists were
organized in opposition to them.
Adams was, beyond Il question, a
party President elected as a bulwark
against the growing power of the
Republican party, and Jefferson was
as certainly elected for the express
purpose of establishing the FREEDOM
nance of the Republicans. There
was less of party in the elections of
Madison and Monroe, and even
Jackson was elected to his first term
Of Office more as a successful soldier
than as party leader. 1t was dur
ing his second term, under the in
tiuence of Martin Van Buren, and
the New York system which he
introduced into the national politics,
that party gained its complete SUI
premacy over theEXecutive and both
the Legislative Houses, but the
work was not completed until the
last Presidential election was re-
ferred to the Supreme Court and
party completely captured the judic-
larry.
We can only indicate in this pa
per the heads of the method by
which some of these steps have to
be retraCed if the Constitution is to