Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1889-08-15
THE OFFICE OF PRESIDENT.

Perhaps no other feature of the Gov
ernment has provoked such general
criticism, OF been so widely misrepre
sented and misunderstood, as has the
office ofPresident of the United States.
Its creation was the subject of singu-
lar comments among those who framed
the Constitution; it was violently de-
nounced when that instrument was
put before the people for their ap-
proval; it has been the target for saw
age and persistent assault from that
time to the present. And in regard to
no other feature of the Government,
it may be added, have the dismal fore
bodings of skeptics been so strangely
disappointed by the results of eXper-
ience and practice.
In theory, it may be true that, as the
the making and enforcement of laws
is the great function of government,
the power that executes the laws should
be in perfect harmony with the power
that makes them and be directly under
its control-the executive being thus
simply the arm of the Legislature, act
ing thus promptly and implicitly in
obedience to its supreme will. This
idea, though to-day observed in the
workings of other governments, was
not accepted by our forefathers. In
loding the executive power in the
hands of one person, the Constitution
aimed to secure energy and precision
in the execution of the laws; but in es-
tablishing the Presidency as an inde-
pendent branch of the Government,
removed as far as possible from the
meddlesome influence of Congress, and
endowing it with important special
powers, it suggested to many timid
folk a vision of royalty in its most
frightful shape. Nor were these
thoughts queted by events that fol-
lowed in the history of the Govern
ment. Indeed, our third President has
given it as his opinion that Washing
ton himself believed the Republic
would end in something like mon
archy, and that in adopting his stately
levees and other pompous ceremonies
he sought, in measure, to prepare
the people gradually for the change
that seemed possible, in order that it
might come with less shock to the
public mind. This remarkable state
ment we need not take without proof.
Whatever may have been Washing
toms secret fears, certain it is that his
devotion to the Republic shielded it
from such fate; and had some of his
successors in Office, or their advisers,
been nearly as wise and as true to the
spirit of the Constitution, they would
have avoided acts which served to
strengthen, rather than subdue, the
popular distrust.
That the actual power of the Presi-
dent exceeds that of some of the
crowned dignitaries of earth is uni
versally conceded. The Constitution
did not intend that he should be a
mere figurehead, or ornamental Gu
pola,n to the Government 1t not
only confded to him the execution of
the laws, but it armed him with a
power over the making of laws which
he might deem improper By this,
we mean the provision that every
measure passed by Congress shall be
presented to him for his approval and
signature, and that, if disapproved by
him, he may return it with his OBJ
jections. in which case it shall not be-
come law unless again passed by the
vote of two-thirds Gnstead of a ma
jority, as in the first instance) of each
House of Congress. Whether this
power was given to him solely as a
weapon to defend his own office or the
integrity of the Constitution itself
from attack by Congress, or whether
the Constitution designed that he
should in this way have a voice in the
making of all laws, of whatever ma
ture, is one of the questions still un-
settled. The weight of opinion and
the practice at the beginning of the
Government seem to sustain the former
view the strict language of the Con-
stitution is in favor of the latter.
The frequent exercise of the power in
recent years, in marked contrast with
its rare use by earlier Presidents, has
aroused harsh feeling on the part of
Congress and some very sober think
ing on the part of philosophers; it is
plain, however, that the present Exc
cutive has no doubt upon the subject.
The power is certainly monarchical in
its nature, and at first sight appears
out of place in Republic where the
will of the people, as expressed by
their representatives, should be the
law. But here comes in the deliberate
device of the Constitution. The execu-
tive branch of the Government was
purposely so shaped as to act as a
check against rash behavior by the
legislative branch. The President is
not the arm of Congress; he does not
owe his office to that body, nor is he
directly responsible to it for his ac-
tions. He is elected, as is Congress,
by the people; and, like Congress, he
is answerable to the people. Unlike a
member of Congress, he is chosen not
by the people OF a particular State or
district, but by the people of all the
States. He is, therefore, as an indivi-
dual, the only representative of all the
people, and if, in their Constitution,
they saw fit to give to him, as their
great national representative, this great
influence over national legislation,-
an influence equal to the votes of one
sixth of all the members of Congress,
there is nothing in it contrary to the
principles of republican government.
From "The Routine Of the Republic"
by Edmund Alton, IN 81. Nicholas.
"Them Dudes is Cute"
I l. Il