Mexico weekly ledger., 1894-07-26

not embrace all the Democracy and
all the tariff reform of this country.
He has no right to disregard the
spirit of the constitution. He had
no right to trample on the sensibili-I
ties of other members of his party |
for any purpose whatever.
Where did the President of the
United States find the right, by a.
private letter, 10 influence legisla- |
ton, when our fathers declared there
should be three coordinate depart
ments of this government absolutely
independent of each other? Did
they meal that a President of the
United States, by the use OF patron =
age, by the shadow of the great office
which the people gave him, should,
in the teeth of the constitution, put
into the hands of a c~onferee, IN
structed to have a full and free con
ference in matters in dispute be
tween the two houses, n personal
appeal To his party friends to stand
by his views on only public ques-
tons?
Mrs. Adams, the wife CT the sec
ond President of the United States,
has said IN her memoirs that the
capital had been placed at one end
of the avenue and the White House
at the other to prevent the President
from exercising an undue influence
On the Legislative branches of the
government. But in a conference
committee where conferees meet, the
| President of the United States has
deliberately injected his personal ap'
peal and personal opinion in order to
influence a measure on which he has
at last under the constitution power
to pass. He is part CT the law making
! power Of the government, but his
functions only begin after the two
Houses of Congress, unswerved and
unintluenced by the executive office,
have passed upon the question and
| placed the bill before him. But the
President, without waiting until the
constitution put the duty upon him,
in n private letter to the chairman of
the conferees on the part of the
House of Representatives, threw his
personal authority, the weight OF his
great office, his hold on the Ameri-
can people, into the scale, and tie.
mands of this Senate that it shall
accede to his views in reference to
tariff reform.
That portion Of the letter which
has struck me with more alarm
than any thing | have heard in the
whole course of my public life since
| the declaration Of war between the
sections, thirty years ago, is the
declaration by the President that il
is possible, without treason To the
party, without pertidy 10 the prin-
pies which we profess, for the tariff
bin TO become IA law by the votes Of
his political associates. If the Pres.
ident could send here To tell his
friends to stand firm he had the
right to send his Cabinet ministers
here to coerce members of Congress;
he had 4 right to do as he had done
during the fight over The repeal of
the Sherman law punish recalcitrant
members of his own party. 1t was
mockery to talk of a full and free
conference when one of the o
ferees came to the committee room
with the orders of the President in
his pocket.
az was q tariff reformer," con-
tinued Senator Vest. ''before the
President commenced his phenome-
nal career, and 10 now be told that we
are false TO the great principles OF
the party is beyond the limit of
human endurance. The traveller
who tolls up his course along the
mountain side knows that he cam
NOT reach the summit in a single hour