The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1896-05-07
Congress and Mr.. Bayard.

No one doubts that, had an Ambassador
of Great Britain to a foreign court been
censured by the House of Commons. he
would have been i~nstantaneously recalled.
Had there been any delay about the matter,
the person who appointed the Ambassador
would himself have been elected from office.
Many weeks have passed since Mr.. BAYARD,
the American Ambassador at the Court Of
St. James's, was formally censured by the
House of Representatives for speeches made
by him at Edinburgh and Boston. Thus
far, however, not the slightest heed has been
paid to the voice of the peoples representa-
tives by the rcbuked Ambassador or by the
person who appointed him. Nor is this all.
Mr.. BAYARD has allowed himself to be made
a party to proceedings intended to evince
British contempt for the opinions uttered
by the popular branch of our Federal legis-
lature. He attended the other day the an
nual dinner of the London Institute Of
Mechanical Engineers, the Secretary Of
which has publicly asserted that the Ameri-
can Ambassador was invited for the express
purpose of showing the disdain felt in Eng
land for the reflections cast upon him.
Now, the House of Representatives was
supposed to have sunk pretty low when Mr..
CLEVELAND, who has to come to 1t for his
salary, had the impudence to talk about
having Congress on his hands. But we
doubt whether 1t ever entered the heads
even Of our Uitlanders and Copperheads
that the House could be made the butt Of
foreign derision with the completely Of its
own stipendiaries. 1t is true that the Con-
stitution of the United States does not make
the heads Of departments responsible to the
House of Representatives. At the time
when the Constitution was framed in 1887
1t was by no means q matter of general
knowledge or belief that British Ministers
were responsible to the House of Commons,
for, in 1888. a Prime Minister had been APP
pointed INC kept In Office in defiance of the
will Of a great majority of that body. Nor
is there to this day any British statute
which prescribes the accountability of the
sovereign's advisers to the popular branch
of the legislature. That the trainers of our
Constitution presumed that In the House Of
Representatives they had created . counter
part to the House of Commons, Is manifest
from the fact that they gave 1t the power to
initiate money bills, and thus made it the
driving wheel OF tho whole machinery of
government The distinction and ability
of the men who In the early Congresses
preferred to sit with JAMES MADISON in the
lower House bore witness to the current
conviction that ascendancy would In prao-
tice be exercised by that assembly. Nor
was it until the conflict between the oppo-
nents ana upholders OF slavery became
acute that the natural and expected course
of things was reversed. and the Senate be-
came preponderant In spite. however. of
an effacement unanticipated by the authors
OF the Constitution. and which it Is Of vital
moment to the larger States to redress,
there was not a day In the early Congresses,
nor in any Congress before the war. when
an Executive would have ventured to disre-
gard a rebuke administered by the House
of Representatives for the conduct of an
American envoy to . foreign power. 1t was,
in fact, reserved for the administration Of
GROVER CLEVELAND to treat the popular
branch Of u Federal legislature as II the
proclamation OF its convictions were of no
more account In the ears OF the Executive
than the whistling OF the wind OF the bark
ing OF a dog,
Net there is one thing which the men who
Esds GRE Constitution Raga IN FNtRdA but